I wage a small internal battle each day: Should I encourage my 13 month old to walk on his own, or just leave him alone? It's not that I'm worried he's not walking...I realize there is a large age window when kids start walking, plus he walks all over the place with the aid of his lawn mower, high chair (a topic for another blog), and anything else he can push around. It's more that I fear my right arm is rapidly approaching a mutinous state from carrying an increasingly heavily child around. So, because I would like to keep my right arm, I'm keenly interested in my son beginning to walk on his own.Of course when I ask Jack, "Are you going to walk today?" I'm met with something like "Pshaw, ha-thee (Haley), dee dee, pshaw pshaw...da da da". I think that means no, with something about Haley thrown in there.
My husband came up with a pretty good idea to try and entice Jack to let go of the table by holding up two toys for him to grab, the idea being he takes one in each hand and lets go of the table. This worked pretty well the first few times, but now he's onto our ploy, so we need some new ideas. Anyone have anything?
As a side thought, I bet if someone did an experiment comparing the biceps of all young moms, the dominate arm would be significantly bigger than the other. Now if we could manage to use both arms equally, who would need a gym?
5 comments:
Usually once a child starts to walk the parent ends up gathering them up more often. This phenomenon is due to their ability to walk off while eyes are not watching, so enjoy a few more days/weeks/months before the chase really begins. The quicker they learn to walk the quicker the terrible two's start and it is all down hill from there. :)
We miss you guys!
Hey Kate! Everyone says that you'll regret that they ever started walking because you'll be chasing them around everywhere. Well for us, it made life so much easier. No more toting her around! And as long as I have any doors to rooms I don't want her in closed, I don't really have to worry too much about what she's getting into.
My sister is in the same boat that you are. Her son is 15 months old and I think at the last weigh in he weighed 32 pounds. She's really sick of carrying him! My other sister has a 14 month old not walking either, but she doesn't weigh near as much!
After my daughter started taking a couple of steps and then deciding it was easier to crawl, I started following her around the house and every time she fell, I picked her up and she had to walk again. But it sounds like Jack doesn't want to even take the first couple of steps... :/ Good luck!!
Yeah, many people have told me not to push the walking thing and just enjoy the fact I'm not running after him all the time. So in that respect I enjoy his immobility, I just need a bigger arm to carry him with!
Hey! Ryan didn't walk until late in his 14th month. And like Jack, he pushed everything around and was perfectly capable well before he actually would let go. I think it is ok to encourage him as long as it is in good fun and you aren't preasuring him, etc. The thing that we had been doing was letting him walk and hold our fingers and then try to let go (sort of a running start) and that didn't work. What did work was just sort of planting him standing and letting him take off on his own...of course, it helped that his Popa was standing a few feet away :) Don't worry though - it won't be long! Oh, and I loved it when he started walking - he is happier too!
Thanks Kami...by the way, I have gotten many compliments on Ryan's Christmas picture (it's up on the refrigerator).
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