Supported Balance

We found that our baby was delighted to discover that she could pull herself up to a standing position whether we helped her or not when she was about 10 or 11 months. (But friend's baby did this a month earlier.) By holding onto the vertical hand-holds of her crib, the leg of a chair or table, or our gear or legs, she could step by step pull herself up by putting one hand above the other and then successively moving the lower hand to a higher position. In less than half a minute, she was on her feet. As long as she held fast that support, she was able to stand and maintain her balance for a while. When our baby pulled herself up on her feet for the first time, she was no doubt aglow and very amused with herself. She looked around as if she had been a great winner reached the highest mountain top without any special gear. A whole new world of sweeping horizons opened up before her. Well-away, after overlooking the diggings for a minute or so, our baby awoke suddenly that she had got waylaid. She didn't yet know how to use her feet for walking. She didn’t realize out how to move her hands and feet to edge along the common pieces of furniture. She couldn't even keep standing unless she continued to embrace something, and she needed both her hands to do it, so she couldn't catch neither gifts nor anything else. Then she had only warm socks on but any other foot gear. To make things worse, our baby didn't even know how to sit down yet. Our baby couldn't move anywhere until her legs and feet gave way, she fell, or she got us to help her. Obviously, of these three alternatives, our baby preferred the last. So once she realized out that she got waylaid, she started to cry.