Amusing Gear

About a month after our baby first pulled herself up to a standing position, she started cruising. Our baby started by pulling herself up to standing using her crib, arm-chair, low table for support and keeping hold of her balance. Then, using sideways scraping her feet, she slowly, carefully walked along the edge of common pieces of furniture. Without letting go, our baby glided both hands in the direction she desired to go. Then she moved her lead foot over without lifting it off the floor. Finally, she overtook with the trail foot, gliding it over next to the lead foot. When our little walker found a piece of furniture that she could move without pulling it down on top of herself, a kitchen or dining room chair, for example, she could even mould her own alternate cruiser. By pushing the chair in front of her as she wobbled along, she could keep surely hold of her balance and march all the way across a room. This was a great event of our family's history. The next day our dear Granny gifted a nice pair of pretty shoes to our baby. Whether our baby was a cruiser or an early walker, she didn't yet have any use for shoes when she was inside. In fact, shoes became detrimental to our child's development. Our baby needed to be able to feel the shift of weight on her feet in order to keep hold her balance, and shoes made this more difficult. In addition, walking in bare feet helped re-enforce our baby's ankles and build her arches. If it's too cold for bare feet in our home, we tried slipper socks with skid-proof soles instead of regular socks (which can be too slippery) or shoes. For safety, our baby needed shoes outside. But even then, we chose shoes that were flexible rather than stiff. Again, skid-proof soles helped. Within a few weeks of first cruising, our baby lifted her trail foot instead of gliding it. Though this seemed like a small action, it represented an huge developmental step. At least for that moment, our baby had supported herself on just one foot. A knack she had to master before she could march maintaining her balance. Granny's gift decorated this event and Granddad took a number of photos of our baby worn those shoes.