Hellobee

We have an L shaped couch, and Chloe had been cruising along the couch for a few weeks. She let go of the couch on the day she turned 7 months and took exactly two steps from one side of the couch to the other (from the couch side to the chaise). I nearly had a heart attack.

She was hooked. She kept doing this for weeks, and would let go of whatever she was cruising along to see how many steps she could take. She was much closer to 9-10 months before she was walking unassisted and closer to 11 months before she was running.

We had one walker, but she didn’t use it as one. She is a daredevil and was happier cruising and seeing what she could let go of and how far she could walk on her own.

Charlie was cruising at 8 months and started walking with the Little Tikes shopping cart at a local playspace when he was around 9 months old. He loved all walkers — the Melissa and Doug Alligator and Radio Flyer Walker Wagon we had at home, the Chicco Activity Walker at a friend’s house, and pretty much anything that helped him walk. He took his first four steps just before his first birthday during a playdate at our apartment. I just happened to be taking pictures of him at that exact moment, and captured his first steps! He didn’t try to walk at all for a couple more weeks after that. Then about a week before he was 13 months old, he took a couple of steps, and each passing day he started walking farther and farther across the room until he was walking the entire length of the room. By 13 months he was walking and he never looked back.

Olive took her first steps towards the end of her 17th month. Part of the delay had to do with the fact that she is an extremely cautious little girl. When we tried to help her walk by holding her hands, she would just curl her legs up! She has also been delayed in all her gross motor skills due to low muscle tone (she didn’t start real crawling or cruising until 1 year). Olive practiced taking steps throughout her 18th month but still preferred to crawl most of the time. Towards the end her 18th month, she was officially walking. I think she fell less than Charlie did once she was walking, maybe because she was so much older and had a lot more practice balancing herself.

I knew Olive was going to be a late walker due to her gross motor delays, so I always expected her to walk around 18-19 months. Since she’s my second child, I wasn’t worried about this milestone at all, though I suspect I would have been if she were my first child. She seemed perfectly content to push around our Melissa and Doug shopping cart for months on her knees. Life got so much easier once she was walking because 1) her clothes would get filthy and worn at the knees because she crawled for so long, 2) I didn’t have to carry her everywhere, and 3) I didn’t have to worry about her crawling on the dirty ground. Second children often walk faster than first children, and if I had a choice, I would definitely prefer an early walker over a late one for a second child! It’s easier when you have two walkers and they play together much better too.

Ria was decisive. She cruised at 12 months, took her first unassisted steps at 14.5 months and later than day walked across the room. She never looked back.

Ria never used a walker; she was too cautious.

Sunny has been more gradual about it. She started cruising at 9 months, pushing chairs around and walking around 10 months, holding hands and walking at 12 months and at 13 months started taking steps on her own. At 14 months she can take up to 10 steps at a time, but she still prefers to crawl.

Sunny uses little chairs as walkers, and has occasionally used one at other people’s houses, but doesn’t seem excited enough about them to warrant the space it would take up in my house.

We never used any walkers (we actually don’t own any).

Aliya learned to pull herself to standing around 8 months, and just a couple of weeks after that she started cruising. I thought walking would soon follow cruising, but boy was I wrong!

She was cruising for almost a full 5 months before she began taking independent steps on her own! At 13 months she started walking, and she never really looked back to crawling (with the exception of crawling up the stairs) once she was able to take independent steps.

Noelle started cruising around 8 months and like Mrs. Checkers, I thought for sure she would start walking soon after. We had the Radio Flyer Walker Wagon to help her, but she didn’t take her first independent steps until she was 13.5 months, and just regularly started walking after that as if she had been doing it all along!

Norah (10 months) has been holding weight on her legs so long that we assumed that she will be an early walker. However no walking yet!

I think she would love using a walker but they are actually not sold in Canada. I know people who have actually smuggled them across the American border ha! I also know someone who has been caught bringing one over and it was taken away and they were fined!

I will have to start looking into push toys instead?! I love the idea of the shopping cart.

James started cruising when he was about 8 months old. I absolutely attribute that to the fact that my sister came to help me with him at the end of my pregnancy with my twins. She brought her daughter who was 16 months and walking, so I think James took the cues from her. He cruised on furniture and chairs for a while and would let go and fall pretty quickly. He took his first steps at 10 months, but it wasn’t until 12 months that he was walking most of the time. We didn’t have a walker or push toy at the time.

Joe and Nick started cruising at 7 months. They took their first steps at 8 months and were walking full time in just a week or two. Everyone told me twins hit milestones later, but apparently these two did not get the memo on that. We had a Fisher price shopping cart that they liked to push around.

Lilly was cruising around 7 months as well. I thought she would be walking at 8 months like the boys, but she was a little more careful. She walked quite a bit between 8-10 months but she would never let go even if it was just holding on to my pinky. By 10 months she started letting go and walking by herself. It only took about a week for her to give up crawling completely. She also had a little shopping cart push toy.

Mavrick was a pretty cautious baby – or you can say insecure. He hated using anything to hold to move forward, so unless we were holding him, there was no way he was going to do it on his own.

Then on the day of his birthday, 12 months on the dot, Mr. Sunglasses was sitting on the couch and Mavrick was standing next to him. I was sitting on a chair across the room and our birthday boy decided he wanted to come see me. He took a good 8 steps back and forth and never looked back.

Wagon Jr. was always a bit delayed in his gross motor milestones because he was such a chubby, heavy baby. He took a few steps around the time he turned 1, but then he stopped all together and even stopped standing for a while. He loved to cruise and push things around, his favorites being our little Ikea stools, his Radio Flyer Retro Rocket, and a few other walkers we had. When we were at one store he’d walk with a Melissa and Doug shopping cart all around the store. At 15 months he finally began walking more than a couple of steps at a time consistently.

Little C has been cruising for MONTHS now, but still no independent steps at 12 months. He loves pushing his V-tech farm push toy that my mom bought him (although the music it makes is AWFUL – I wouldn’t recommend it for mama’s sanity), and he will turn just about anything into a push toy – his activity table, cardboard boxes, his high chair, etc. Lately, he has been flipping into a downward-dog-ish pose, so I’m hoping we will have a walker on our hands soon, but time will tell.

No walkers for either girl.

Ellie: took first steps at 14 months. Never really cruised (honestly. Like AT ALL). Was walking full time around 16 months. She never really liked to do anything until she was positive that she could do it perfectly. That continues to this day. I was worried for quite a while because she didn’t seem to be doing anything that was a precursor of walking either. No cruising, no walking holding an adult’s hand… she just seemed totally uninterested. But once she took those first steps and I knew she was capable I relaxed.

Lorelei: Started walking holding onto an adult’s hands with both of her hands around ten months. She would also cruise along furniture, though not very much or very far. By eleven months she was walking just holding on to one adult hand for support (and she didn’t even really need it, it just made her feel more secure). She took her first steps by accident by letting go of my hand and continuing towards something she wanted when she was about 11.5 months, and by a week shy of her first birthday was walking everywhere. She enjoys being upright so much. It’s just a blast to see the purposeful grin she gets on her face when she sees something she’s curious about and just takes off.

We actually didn’t have a walker for J! He learned to walk of his own initiative – he definitely loved to cruise along furniture and stand when he was able to, and we did encourage him to take steps between Mr. Pen and me. He loved the “game” and it was exciting for us to have those precious moments with him as well! He was taking steps between 10.5-11 months and by 11.5 months he was full-on walking!

He actually started out trying to walk on his tiptoes when we’d hold his hands. He has fat little feet (the only fat part on him!) and I was surprised he picked up walking as early as he did.

Little M started crawling on his eight month birthday and pulling up a couple weeks later. He was cruising furniture within a month so we assembled his wagon walker for him. (He didn’t use it very much because it’s heavy and doesn’t turn well.) I thought for sure he was going to be walking soon.

By nine months he was climbing up the stairs and by 12 months he was a master of climbing up and sliding down the stairs on his belly, but no independent walking!

He started taking independent steps without holding on at 13 months and would walk from one piece of furniture to another. He pushed the babies at daycare in their walkers for months, but if he had somewhere to go, crawling was just faster (he was an incredibly fast crawler!).

When he would walk and fall, he needed something to pull-up on to standing; if there wasn’t anything there, he’d just crawl. One day out of the blue just after turning 16 months, he figured out how to push himself up to standing and has barely crawled since. So we officially count his “started walking” date as the Wednesday that he came home from daycare, walked to the living room, fell down and pushed himself back up to standing.

We gave Miss H the Radio Flyer Walker Wagon when she was 8 months old. She wasn’t very interested in it for awhile – at about 9 months she started crawling and was not interested in pulling up on anything. At around 10.5 months she was starting to pull up more on furniture and in her crib, and then at 11 months she was finally walking with the Radio Flyer walker – and she loved it!

Over the next month she got more and more comfortable cruising around furniture and “walking” while holding onto someone’s hands, until she was walking next to you holding onto your pant leg. And then right around 12.5 months she just started walking on her own in between Mr. H and me!

I don’t really remember. We lived in a condo at the time and the TV stand, ottoman, chairs and couches were all kind of clustered in one small area so Drake would be able to pull up on all of them. Depending on where he wanted to go, he could just move from one to another without having to really let go of anything. If he did have to make a longer stretch, he would sometimes attempt to walk or just get down and crawl over. He learned to walk right before he turned 15 months and we caught it on video — he walked from the TV stand over to me at another part of the condo. We don’t know what made him start to put this together; he just did it one day and over a span of a week he was walking.

Both R + M were late walkers. M walked at 15 months. He was always using the shopping cart and a Radio Flyer Walker Wagon to push around. One day Mr. C was playing with him and the cart and M just let go of the cart and took steps. R was 19 months old. She also loved the Melissa and Doug shopping cart but one day she just propped herself up on the couch and walked. She has always been way more verbal than physical and she even said “walk” that same day.

Liam took his first steps at 11 months, but didn’t do it again until almost 14 months. He knew how to walk and loved using push walkers (we have the Radio Flyer Walker Wagon and a wooden push toy from plan toys), chairs, and the walls for support, but just wasn’t ready to let go. Once he finally decided it was safe, though, he never looked back! He walks everywhere now!

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When and how did your little one learn to walk?