The tale of a walker

When people ask me at what age Austin learned to walk, I'm not sure what to tell them. Yes, he's 18.5 months and still not walking. Does that mean he's unable? Nope, it just means he's totally and completely content to not walk.

Don't get me wrong -- he pushes around a baby walker and loves doing so. At church he "borrowed" a little old lady's walker in nursery (she was in there helping) and pushed it around until Paul retrieved him (much to his dismay!). He'd also walk holding my hand, but only until he was 18 months -- then he decided that wasn't for him. And walking without assistance -- not a chance!

When I took him in for his 18-month check-up, our pediatrician said I should probably have the early-intervention people give him a look. I wasn't too keen on the idea, because I know he's fully capable, just not willing. But WHAT IF? ... so I called them. She came and watched him and agreed -- he's fully capable, just not caring to walk quite yet. She even set up a couple of little "traps" thinking she'd get him to walk, but to no avail.

Well, a couple of nights later, I was rolling a ball back and forth with him. I got distracted with another of the kids (shocking, I know), and he crawled over to where the ball had ended by our train table. He pulled himself up, turned around and kicked the ball. He then proceeded to walk behind it and kick it across the room. I called Paul into the room excitedly. Austin loved the attention and kept loving kicking the ball. The kids were ecstatic. Austin was enthused -- so much so that he continued to walk around and kick the ball for the next 20 minutes! He pulled himself up in the middle of the floor if he fell down (which he'd never done) and just got back up and started kicking again.

Here are the pics of the fun evening. (Ignore the food on his pants -- I hadn't planned to take pictures!)

Then the next morning in my excitement I put him on his feet. He got annoyed then got back down to crawl all day -- little stinker! (This all happened last week, but now he's a full-fledged walker. FINALLY! Oh, and he doesn't qualify for early-intervention help after all ... just as I suspected.)