Walkscore & Score! He's walking

Well, sort of. Soren's walking all over the place if he has grown-up hands to steady him.

This short video was shot nearly a month ago, on April 27, and today he's cruising even faster, with surer little feet. But still needing balance assistance. He isn't quite crawling yet, either, although he can fling himself from a sitting position forward onto his belly if he needs to reach something a few feet away. And once prone, he can slide forward or back a foot or so, but we daren't call him mobile because we know that's still coming!

Anyway, this video reminded me of a cool website I wanted to share: www.walkscore.com.

You type in your address and an algorithm calculates the walkability of your home by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc., from Google Maps. It's not perfect--it thinks a nearby doctor's office is our nearest "drug store," when there's one actually right across the street from our neighborhood food market--but I appreciate that it includes a pub and a bookstore in its scoring criteria.

Happily for Soren's future on foot, The Roost scores 92 points of 100, making it "A Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car." Well, we own a car, but most days it doesn't leave our driveway. Today, as an example, Soren and I walked downtown to meet Jeff for lunch, then we walked to our library for baby story hour, then we walked around the neighborhoods with a friend (while both our babies napped).

Score your own home, and walk on!