The longest mile

Allie is still not a fan of walking by herself. She is slowly starting to cruise from one piece of furniture or wall to the next taking a few steps by herself in between - but there is mad concentration in those few steps. She's fine walking when she knows there's someone on the other end to catch her - so we've been practicing with her, stretching out the distances further and further....

Another moment happened today that rocked me to the core as I watched Allie, embarrassed, work hard to hold back tears. We went to a restaurant that served peanuts. Allie motioned that she wanted one and I gave her one - unshelled - as I figured she would just play with it. She went to put it in her mouth and I immediately said, "NO! That's dirty!" She immediately looked down at the ground and then at Brad, and the tears welled up and the lip began to quiver.

What happened? She used to give us the dirty look - now she looks like this sad pitiful baby that we just scold all the time.

Ugh....