Ella’s journey to walking

People warned me that once babies become mobile — it’s a whole new world. Well, I see what they mean. The crawling, standing, stepping milestones have been a little scary with new dangers lurking everywhere, but it is also immensely fun to see my little person explore on her own.
One week Ella was this easy little baby that would be completely entertained with a basket of toys while I cooked or got myself ready. I would keep an eye on her and stand nearby, but she would just sit and happily dig through the basket.
After a while though, Ella started getting frustrated. Fun toys were sometimes just out of her reach, and she knew there had to be a way to get them.
Finally her arm muscles were just strong enough to drag the rest of her body across the floor, like some sort of snake or salamander. Soon, her legs got in on the action, and she was crawling!
Then in the blink of an eye later she was pulling herself to a stand. And with the frequent standing sessions, came frequent falls. Suddenly our beautiful ceramic tile floor and iron dining table chairs might as well have been a swampful of crocodiles. And of course, this was the most alluring place to her.
She would race on all fours over to the dining table and clumsily pull herself up the chair, then poof — let go and see what happens. Of course what would happen was very nervous Mommy with the sore back from hunching over would catch her. Until one day I thought to myself — “What if nervous Mommy isn’t here to catch her and she thinks she can do this trick?” And so I learned to let her fall on her own. On the carpet that is. And she was OK. She developed a genius strategic fall that involved leaning forward a bit and sticking her bottom out to cushion the blow. Of course her strategy didn’t work if she fell forward. Which is why I thought I’d have to sell my coffee table when she got her first head bruise on Thanksgiving Day.
The clumsy days didn’t seem to last too long though. Soon she even mastered the art of “cruising” — a parenting term I’ve come to learn that means pulling oneself along furniture to travel around the room. Ella most frequently uses this technique to get to my dinner plate, and remind me that it is rude not to share.
This new freedom also allowed her to communicate what she wants a little more. There is nothing better than when she crawls over to me and puts her arms up, telling me she wants to be picked up and held.
And just a few days ago (she’s early 11 months old) she took a few steps by herself. She looked a bit like a little Frankenstein, lifting one stiff leg after another, but she did it.

I’m sure soon I’ll look back at the crawling stage and again think “Boy, I had it easy then!”