two shoes, new shoes

There was a time not so long ago

when we wondered whether we might be carrying our beautiful boy up to the school gates

for him to crawl around the classroom all day.

He loved crawling.

He was good at crawling.

And as a result showed absolutely zero interest in walking.

Why would he?

He already had crawling nailed

and it got him everywhere he wanted to be

and at warp speed too.

He liked to stand up,

to use his push along walkers,

to cruise around the furniture.

But he just wasn't interested in travelling at this height without holding on.

He could just drop down to his knees,

crawl to where he wanted

and then stand up again.

Why walk?

But then all of a sudden something changed.

I think I know the exact moment that it changed too,

we were at our local soft play

and he was playing with twin boys about his age.

They rolled balls to one another,

they giggled together,

they patted each other on the heads and grinned about it,

and then the twins got up and walked away.

Within seconds my little guy with no interest in walking had taken two independent steps.

Oh the wonders of peer pressure.

And once he'd worked out he could

its been a pretty fast process.

From me counting his steps as he mastered two, then three, then four, then more.

Within a week he was confidently walking between furniture instead of dropping down to crawl again.

Within ten days he was walking into open spaces to retrieve toys he wanted.

Within a fortnight he could change direction and move around quite happily standing up,

he is really properly walking.

We finally have a toddler.

And I'm left wondering what happened to my baby.

And wondering how long it will take for the novelty of seeing him walk to wear off,

because at the moment I feel like I could burst with pride every time I see him.

He wobbles and staggers like he's spent the day at the pub.

He stops regularly to find his balance again so that he doesn't fall,

looking like a surfer as he bends his knees to find his centre of gravity again.

And if anything distracts his concentration while he's walking

it's a matter of seconds before he has plonked back down on his bottom.

But he walks

and even has a little dance too if he feels like it.

So the lady who has cooed at baby sized shoes since she was a teenager

finally got to buy a pair of those precious little first shoes.

Our beautiful boy has had a large and varied collection of very trendy baby trainers and shoes

including a very cute pair of Converse trainers

which were so well loved and well worn that they are filthy and very tatty now.

But now he owns his very first pair of proper trainers.

Which means that now when he walks around,

I get to hear the satisfying "thump, thump, thump" of his proper grown up shoes on the ground.

And he loves his trendy big boy shoes nearly as much as I do.