Monday, May 11, 2009

Finally Walking!

As a devoted grandmother, it has been getting more and more difficult to brag about my grandson, because I had to avoid any talk of walking. At over the age of a year and a half, he hadn't even taken his first independent, unsupported step. My siblings and I were all walking at the age of a year. So were four out of my five kids; the "slower walker" began at fourteen months and is my best all around athlete. Apparently the grandchildren have all inherited different genes in that department.

As late as my granddaughters began walking, they didn't pass that crucial eighteen month benchmark.

It was really getting embarrassing for a dedicated and devoted grandmother like myself. His peers have been walking and running in their third pair of shoes already, and all he did is dirty the knees of his pants.

The young man has been building tall towers from a very young age, performing hand-gesture songs forever and has started with "primitive sentences" already. But when I went home after babysitting yesterday, although he led me around walking while holding my hand, he wouldn't walk by himself.

About five minutes after I got home the phone rang:
"Your grandson is walking," reported my daughter, his proud and relieved mother. "He started with six and eight steps."


I'm not going to describe what she did, but since he had been coughing a lot and she couldn't decided whether or not to take him to the doctor, she used a technique their osteopath had recommended when he was much younger. Within minutes he stood up to dance with his sisters, let go and began to walk.

"Coincidence?" I couldn't tell you. Only G-d knows.

4 comments:

Leora said...

My boys were "late" walkers. Since I had them first, I didn't know any different.

My father at one point read some article that babies are supposed to crawl a lot. So with my nieces he got down on his hands and knees and crawled with them. Supposedly, my brother hardly crawled at all and went straight to walking (the article seemed to imply this was a no-no). My brother is doing quite fine in life.

Many times it's just developmental. Sometimes there is some developmental issue (like related to one's muscles), but even then, the kid usually learns to live with it.

Enjoy.

Batya said...

Thanks Leora,
My daughter kept saying that the bones in his skull had to join first, and that took a long time.

My "later walking" son didn't crawl properly until after walking. Some say that that could be related to his dyslexia. I think that the oddest is what they all do the same, considering how little everyone looks alike.

Mrs. S. said...

I know someone whose daughter didn't walk until she was 18 months. Since the baby never crawled, the doctor warned the mother that her daughter might have trouble with reading later on.

The mother laughed, because at 18 months, her daughter could already identify the letters of the alphabet. And sure enough, that baby turned into a straight A student and a voracious reader...

Batya said...

Mrs. S, that's some kid. I never heard that one. My grandson does think he can read. He points to things in his books and tells me what they are or what sound they make.