Pushing the bounds

E-chan comes from a line of late walkers, apparently. His paternal grandfather walked at 18 months, which is the later end of the scale for normal children. This was reassuring to learn - about 6 weeks ago (when he was 11 m old), we were worrying about his apparent lack of motivation to move on his own. Anywhere. Apart from the occasional roll onto his tummy. Of course, his communication and hand-motor skills were superior, given the amount of time he spent sitting and playing, or directing us when we were carrying him.

Then, soon after starting childcare, he learned to get from a sitting to a lying position on his own, then he started the belly-shimmying crawl, then he started crawling in the style that most babies crawl. All within a month! Then he learned to crawl to a standing position, and now he does it all the time. And he has started to cruise (move in a standing position from one bit of furniture to another). So in 6 weeks, he has rapidly made up for lost time.

Now we love hearing the little padding of his hands on the carpets as he crawls around after us in the flat. And gradually all our cupboards are getting baby proof locks or the knobs are linked together with rubber bands to prevent opening. And things are getting put high out of reach.