Treasure Tuesday

First steps.

As Kayla's 3rd birthday is quicky approaching I find myself thinking back over these 3 years and how quickly they pass.

I've rejoiced, celebrated, yelled, clapped and cheered her on every milestone and it's been so fun coming along for the ride.

It seems sometimes, we, as parents, can't wait for the next milestone. The next stage of development for them to do this or that. We don't take enough time to enjoy the stage they are in now. And then when they have outgrown one stage and moved on we miss the previous stage for one reason or another.

I remember when Kayla was an infant it seemed I couldn't wait until she was more alert, or more interactive. Then I couldn't wait until she could "play." But now sometimes I miss that infant stage...they are dependent on only you and you don't have a toddler asserting their independence by not listening to you when you say come here!

I think first steps are such a fun milestone; those first wobbly, unsure, drunken steps toward being more independent, seeing the world in a whole new way.

And it's so much more to it then one day they just stand up and take off walking. Well maybe some kids do it that way, but I think for most kids there are a series of little baby steps they take to reach that milestone. Little milestones in their own right that are a precursor to the bigger milestone of walking.

First there is pulling to stand. Quickly followed by cruising the furniture.



Then they stand up on their own, without holding on to anything and just maintain their balance.

Then they start walking holding on to a push toy, to holding on to two hands, giving way to only using one hand.

Then there comes the "lunging steps." They are a few steps away from an object such as a couch, or their parent and "lunge" to it...sometimes not moving their feet, but going forward anyway. From that they lunge and then get their feet moving 1 or 2 steps.

Then 2 steps become 5 and they are walking the living room. I remember with Kayla it seemed like she thought she could only walk in the living room. She started going from couch to love seat, then the length of the living room, but would crawl elsewhere. Then one day I noticed her stopping at the end of the carpet where the living room met the dining room and she took a tentative step off the carpet to the tile floor. She continued through to the computer room and before I could blink she was walking all over the house.

But the learning still doesn't stop there.

There is learning to walk on grass, with shoes and without shoes.

Walking on sidewalks, over rocks/gravel, different surfaces, uneven surfaces. Walking uphill and downhill. Walking up and down a curb, up and down steps.

See? There is so much more to walking they have to learn.

And then one day you notice those unsure steps have transformed into confident ones, and they are running away from you with carefree abandon.

And you wonder where did your baby go (and when do we stop calling them our 'baby')?