Today was the first day that G walked of his own volition– not towards one of us cheering him on, but towards something that he wanted. He walked not just a few steps, but a few feet, stopped, looked at me and smiled, then continued walking towards his destination. All in all, he didn’t stop walking for a few minutes!
I was shocked, seeing as the most he’s ever taken are 4-5 steps at a time, usually hesitating, inching sideways,and always with him walking towards our open/awaiting arms. This was nothing like that– he just got up and walked away!
I’m glad that he’s doing so well and not scared. In these last couple weeks we’ve had a few falls and a bruised/bloody lip (so.tough…on.me!). In general, he just didn’t seem that interested in walking, even though whenever we set him up, he would do it. I was kind of afraid that it would take us weeks to convince him that walking is actually for a purpose, not just to get loud kudos from the “audience”.
But I guess I’m also not terribly surprised. We’ve been doing a lot of work with him on walking. Whenever we need to move him from one room to the next for whatever reason, we take one of his hands and walk along side him, slowly but surely. During the day, I try not to pick him up and carry him around, instead helping him walk to whatever we’re doing. Jesse even had him walking in the grocery aisles yesterday! It’s “supposed” to teach them that walking is how we get from one place to another on an everyday level. So, I guess it’s working!
In other news, G has two new teeth, top middle! He now has two on top, two on bottom. To tell you the truth, we all agree that we didn’t even notice these ones coming in, other than his excessive drooling for a few days. I haven’t had to use children’s tylenol since he was 6 months old (when we bought him his teething necklace). We’ve also used a bit of oral gel and a bit of chamomile from the health foods store.
In other words, teething can be done without potentially harmful drugs! Maybe teething hurts other kids a little bit more than others (also, I HAVE heard that molars are waaaayyy worse), but we’re also talking about the kid who bursts into tears if he falls down on his cloth-diapered-heavily-padded bum.
Also, he’s been making many more verbal sounds, experimenting with a whole new level of vowels and consonants, gesturing wildly with his hands as he’s speaking. It’s like we’re having a conversation…only I’m the one in the dark!