Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts

Saturday, August 8, 2009

He's walking!!


OK, these are not the best action photos, but Soren is not only standing, he's pushing that chair around and then toddling across the vast expanses between furniture outposts. With no support except from that of his two little footsies on the floor.

This started right around his 11-mo. birthday. On that day, I recorded in his baby book that he took a record eight steps unassisted, and from then on, he's been steadily lengthening and quickening his strides. My parents have been visiting for five days and they commented that, in this short time, they've noticed his arms moving closer to his body as they are less needed for balance.

Soren continues to be a thoughtful child, and not as reckless as I've seen some nearly-one-year-olds. He loves to climb the stairs, but we don't have to be fanatical about keeping the gate locked at the bottom of the flight. Of course, he can't turn around and go down quite yet, so the gate at the top of the adjacent descending flight is more important.
I'll sign off with this grin from our little bugaboo (who cut teeth #7 & 8 two weekends ago, the two on either side of the two front bottom teeth visible here). And I'll apologize for the dry spell in posts.

I have been CRAZY BUSY finalizing the one freelance magazine article I committed to this year (a feature for WoodenBoat magazine--I just couldn't turn down the assignment when I was asked!). The deadline is Monday and it's looking like I'll make it. Of course, then I've got to get cracking on another consulting project, but come late August I'll be off the hook for outside jobs for a month or two. Whew. When I'm "working," it's like juggling two full-time jobs, because I'm running after Soren at least 40 hours/week.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

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!