Walking

Ha ha, fooled you.

If only.

She can nearly say "walk" though, which is definite progress.

Actually yesterday, I attended my regular meeting of the Mothers whose Toddlers won't Toddle support group (my mothers group friend Anna, who works in the next building and I have a coffee sometimes. We carry notepads and pens and pretend that we are holding meetings). Personally, I don't think Anna is a bona fide member, as Little Friend Clare will walk between her parents, even if nowhere else, but I humour her. So we exchanged complaints about how we can't take the littlies out, even when it stops raining, as their knees would get wet; compared bicep muscles and had chocolate cake. I felt much better afterwards.

I thought that in tracking her development, I would take a little film of her knee walking. She is really the fastest knee walker on the block; it is a sight to behold. However, the excerpt below in fact contains an illustrated history of the last week or so in the life of Alice at 17 months minus 5 days.

1. She is getting more confident in her standing - look! one hand! (although there is a slight collapse halfway)
2. She tries to repeat the word "walk" and you can see how it and other words ending in "k" might all sound the same/ like a rude word to a sceptical ear
3. She spies some starlings on the balcony - compared to the usual size of birds, they are "babies". So she is calling out "baby" or "bubby", as the Aussies say, for some time. What the daycare report would call "random and rhythmical babbling". I provide a more sympathetic ear
4. Amazingly, there are two birds there at the time she yells "two". I am sure she doesn't mean it, but you can see my hand shake as I debate whether to move the camera to prove this to you, the viewer. Then I realise that the rest of the lounge is even more untidy than the bit you can see, so I decide not to.
5. Ever affectionate, she is always delighted to come over for a cuddle, which leads us finally to
6. The knee walking. Faster than a speeding bullet.