First step to independence

For people who worry that their child is a slow walker, do not panic. Every child grows differently. Richie started sitting down on his own at 8.5 months old. He started cruising holding onto furniture when he was 10.5 months old somewhere in November 2009.

Now we were waiting for his next major milestone. When will he walk on his own? Most babies start walking by their first birthday (and some start walking as late as 18 months). Will he, or will he not start walking by his first birthday? We were anxiously waiting... Whatever anxiousness we had, was not going to effect Richie. He was happy crawling and cruising holding onto furniture. Came January, and Richie celebrated his first birthday. But he was happy finding his way out by crawling.

He joined nursery in February and took time to adjust to his new environment. He fell sick for a month or so with fever making frequent visits and a bout of rota-virus took a toll on him. He kind of lost his strength.

But he bounced back by eating ravenously as the medicines were making him hungry.He joined another nursery in April which had more children. Seeing the older children, he started imitating them and learning from them. He started showing signs of walking. He would want to hold our hands and show him around. He would stand and balance himself and try to take 1 step but fall down. But he would keep trying.

His practice bore fruits soon and today he took his first step. His first step towards independence. He did not stop there. He went ichi,ni,san,shi,go,roku,nana (in japanese which means one,two,three,four,five,six,seven). Yes, I was waiting for this day and it happened right in front of my eyes.