Raising Eloise and Morgan

Topics: introduction prepregnancy pregnancy birth breastfeeding weaning teething routines bathing walking activities dad

Walking

When Ellie was born it was hard to imagine her moving let alone walking. So when she sat up and then started rolling, I knew that crawling would be next. She pulled herself up on to furniture and cruised around it before she crawled. We were convinced that she would just walk and never bother to crawl as it seemed to take ages.

toddling with toddle truck She was 10 months when she finally crawled. She saw another baby crawling at a parent-and-toddler group I go to, and then that evening Ellie started to crawl herself. Once she got confindent in doing it there was no stopping her and she was away.

She enjoyed crawling and got very fast, but you could see that she wanted to walk as she pulled her self up a lot and started to get her balance. We got her a wooden toddle truck when she was 1 and she loved to toddle behind, pushing it. I think that made her legs stronger. Again she was spurred on by another child walking, so a few days after seeing the other child she took her first few steps and then she was away and didn't crawl much after that. She was very proud that she could walk (as we were). Once she had been walking for a week it was like she had done it for ages.

first pair of shoes About a month after she had started walking I got her feet measured at Clarks shoe shop and was shocked at the £25.00 price tag! And she would need to go back every 8 weeks to be re-measured. She loved her first pair of shoes and her welly boots that I got when we were going to visit a farm: now she wears them when it's wet or when she's watering the garden.

She likes to walk when we are out and has had a few accidents including falling head first onto the pavement. We got her some reins from Mothercare, so she will be safer near water or in busy places. As she gains more confidence then I will let her walk more when we are out, but I will always have the pushchair!

Now at 17 months she has started to run and I guess the next stage will be jumping. She is no longer a baby but a fully-fledged toddler.

Jean

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This site is not official advice: just one mum's experience!
Copyright (c) Jean Ryder 2006-2008.
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