Working on walking

Even though it seemed like Aubrey was late crawling, she is doing pretty well with trying to move on from four-legged movement. She is trying to stand up most of the time now, whether that means pulling up on us, the couch, her toys, or anything that will let her be straight up. We are trying to encourage her to start walking (do you see the gray hairs already forming underneath my scalp?) by getting her to use the walking toy she got for Christmas. At first, she was not so sure about this thing that moved when she stepped forward, but now she seems to enjoy it. I think she likes riding on it even better, but that kills my back so that only happens every once in a while. The biggest problem we have with getting her to use this toy is she LOVES to push the lion's nose because it makes noise. And she has learned that when it moves it makes noise, so she stops walking, cruises around to the front of the toy, and starts pushing its nose like crazy. It's really funny, but slows the walking progress down a bit. I don't want to push her too much, but I also want her to be able to walk soon because she is moving to the toddler room at daycare and I don't want her to get run over by the walkers.