Baby steps

Mara sees the RIE table for the first time and immediately
knows what's up  (see note at the bottom for details
about this furniture)

A few weeks ago we got a little kidney shaped table with tiny legs that are perfect for Mara's height. In the evenings Mommy and Daddy sit at the table with their food and after about a minute Mara interrupts her playtime and crawls to us. She gets to the table and pulls herself up, declaring dinner time. She sometimes does it with one arm wiggling high in the air as if dinner itself has an internal music that Mara alone is hearing.

Then we sit down and chat and eat, each with their own food. We talk about our day, Mara mostly says "brooommmmh" and "dah". On Mara's side of the table there's usually a picturesque mashup of veggies that didn't make it in the mouth yet.

We love this table, it's not really just baby furniture but actually for the whole family, as my mother pointed out.

A few days ago Mara came to the table when there was no food. She just wanted the exercise. She pulled up, then took a long, serious look through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the pretty sky and trees just outside. Such a good idea to have the table right by the window.

Her eyes were sharp, her eyebrows slightly furrowed in concern. Today was going to be important.

She wiggled a few times to boost her confidence in that power stance: legs spread wide and slightly bent at the knees, arms firmly planted on the table. If she were the boss in a kidney-table meeting she would've been making life and death decisions right then.

Mara loves it when we all eat together.

With no further hint of what was going on, she lifted her left foot slightly off the ground. She tried the right one. Repeated a few times, each time a little bit higher. Sometimes she bent her ankle funny and landed her foot sideways but she corrected.

I narrated as I normally do, telling her she is lifting this leg and that, that this time it was higher, etc.

After the warm up, Mara started changing where each foot landed. I realized it late, once she was already about half a foot to the right along the table. I got intrigued and told her: Mara, you're walking sideways! Are you trying to go to the right?

She looked slightly surprised as if she hadn't noticed I was there, then lifted her right hand off the table towards me. She was now shakily standing with only one hand in support, facing the direction she wanted to go. I asked her if she wanted me to help and allowed her right wrist to rest on mine.

She took it in all grace, put all her weight on my wrist and lifted the other hand off the table.

It was a shaky moment till I grabbed her left hand from the air to help her stay upright.

She wasn't looking at me any more, she knew I had her back as usual. She stared straight in front toward the stairs at the end of the room. Not up, not down. Straight as far as she could think 'far' exists right now.

Then the right foot inched forward.

Left.

Right again.

Done.

She had walked forward, supported only lightly by her hands onto mine!

It ended with a shaky sit-down on her butt. Thank goodness those cloth diapers are bulky and padded.

Then we went back to crawling. Walking is hard.

*Note: This table is part of a series of things we got from Radomir's RIE baby furniture (Resources for Infant Educarers). We are slowly bringing out the pieces for Mara to enjoy, we're pretty excited. This type of furniture promotes individuality, self esteem and good physical skills in babies by allowing us to treat the babies as little versions of ourselves.