Julie's Boggle

After 6½ months of crawling (during which time he reached proficiency level of “lightning fast”) and 3½ months of “cruising”, Jonathan finally took his first steps at 19½ months.  It wasn’t anything dramatic, just a stumbling dash from the security of the wall, to a chair three baby-steps away, but it did show that he could do it.

QED, as it were.

Having proved the point, Jon went on to keep his new skill under wraps.  Diligent observers might catch sight of a small body bobbing across a minor gap where crawling would be regarded as tiresome, but aside from these few occasions Jon wasn’t keen.  Sitting down unexpectedly didn’t suit him, and he got very cross with parents who tried to trick him into walking by sneaking away a supportive hand, or stepping out of the way when he lurched over.

Then came Australia and lots of contact with Jonathan’s walking, talking cousins.  That seemed to get Jon thinking that it was time to hone his latest skill.

From daring acts of standing up in the bath “Look Ma, no ha-” *Splash!* (over and over again) to long sessions of falling all over the floor trying to get up into standing position by himself, Jon put his mind to it and worked hard.

Soon he was covering longer and longer distances, actually letting go of an adult’s supporting finger to get ahead, and getting the hang of getting up unaided and standing for longer periods, skills that definitely came second to the actual walking.

In terms of baby-proofing our home, given that Jon could climb before he could walk, not much has changed.  However, what we have found is that the cross-pollination of toys has escalated severely!

In the old crawling days, Jon was rather limited in his ability to transport toys about the house.  We’d catch him doing a rather jerky crawl, dragging or pushing whatever he wanted to take with him; or shuffling awkwardly on his knees, a short-term solution which left hands free to carry things.

Neither of these two options come close to the elegant simplicity of walking and carrying, something that Jon can now appreciate fully.

So now we find toys Everywhere.  Puzzle pieces down the side of Tom’s computer, shaker-bells next to my side of the bed, books by the front door, blocks in the bathroom.  And in every room, a paper-bag/plastic container/toy piled high with a random collection of objects that have taken Jon’s fancy.

Our little author of chaos – now fully mobile…