Walkin' Man

Kyle's walking everywhere now, but not because we were encouraging him.  In fact, every chance I had to put him back on his bum and discourage his desire to explore his world on his two feet instead of all-fours, I happily cashed in on.  Once Kyle discovered he could stand without holding on to anything for support, it was all over.  Within a couple of days he had taken his first few shaky steps and there was no discouraging anymore; only clapping and cheering that he had finally done it - through no help from us.

 

There has to be a moment in time when a baby decides that walking is easier than crawling.  But there's always a lot of difficulty in making that transition so I don't know why babies keep trying since crawling is decidedly easier in the beginning.  Food for thought.

 

When people would ask me if Kyle was walking yet at 14 months, they would usually react with surprise when I'd reply with, "no, thank goodness."  Developmentally, I knew he would walk eventually.  I was in no hurry to push him.  Partly because he's my last baby; partly because crawlers are a lot easier to keep up with; partly because a walking baby is no longer happy in the stroller/shopping cart/you name it; but mostly because something happens to children when they evolve from a 4-legged creature to a 2-legged:

 

They gain an attitude.

 

One day they're this delightful, smiley little creature in a chubby package who snuggles, keeps out of the cupboards and comes when you call.  The next day they're walking and all of a sudden they're screaming when breakfast doesn't come quickly enough, toilet paper is being dunked in toilets and they turn the other way and run (well, walk very quickly in Kyle's case) when you call.

 

In the last week, Kyle has dumped a dish of glue, spread a cup of applesauce into his hair, sucked on the toilet brush (twice!), tried to eat a penny, removed a massive clump of hair off of poor ol' Pokey's hind quarters, stuffed numerous dinky cars down the basement floor drain, ruined a CD-ROM for the Play Station, lost the letter D for the alphabet puzzle and broken a jar of pasta sauce by hitting it with a jar of pickles.

 

I'd like a Re-Do.