Step by Step

My youngest son is about a month short of a year old these days. And as it is with most yearlings he is learning how to walk. It's pretty exciting to watch his progress.

It's been about a month now since he's decided to take that step. Decided that crawling, while effective for getting around, is not at all what the other humans around him are doing to get around.

So he tried it instead of defaulting to crawl to get somewhere. And he hit his bum on the ground and crawled on. The next time he made it that step. And again the next time but still used crawling as a main mode.

Step by step by individual step he has grown to not always defaulting to crawl anymore. I can see him contemplate it every time he wants to leave the place he's in now. It's becomeing more and more natural for him to want to step away instead of crawl away. Most times he'll make it one or two (or four yesterday!!!) And then hit the knees and crawl.

And he's also experimenting with it, even if he's got nowhere to go. Just to practice. Like just now, he was holding onto the toy basket and saw one of his stuffies between where he was and the top of the gated stairs.... So he went for it:

One step
Two steps
Three and bend down in a squat.. Grab the sleeping beauty stuffy and up again..
Four steps, five and stumble....
Into squat, not down.
Six steps
Seven, a wobble and grabs the gate

WOOOO!!

He was as excited for himself as I was for him. I wish my phone's camera worked so I could have taken a vid.

We have a toddler on our hands now. One who's figuring out the world on his own terms now. Have legs will travel...

....Step by step.