Assisted Walking and Other Stuff

Stian is still a ways away from walking unassisted. But he has suddenly shown an interest in walking with us. He has liked walking with an overturned bucket or laundry basket for awhile, but didn't want to walk with us. I suspect it's because with the bucket he could lean over it and put more weight on the bucket, making it easier. Perhaps now his legs and core are stronger so he can walk more upright. He will walk holding on to our hands, but he prefers if we hold his wrists, or like this morning if he insists on carrying things with him, under his armpits. He has never really liked it if you hold his hands.





Incidentally, Stian has become pretty enamored of these blocks over the last few days. If I recall correctly they came from Wayne, Nathaniel and Kelly for Christmas last year. He loves to have one in each hand. In fact he really likes having two matching things to hold on to. I think it started with the twin mice (I mentioned them a few posts ago). He likes to have one mouse in each hand, one block in each hand, one cup in each hand, one little teddy bear in each hand, etc. He doesn't want to have a cup in one hand and a block in the other - they have to match.

And a few other random things:

Stian's new favorite word is "cracker." I don't really know how he learned this word. We have said it around him, but it wasn't one we were really working on with him. But he says it all the time. He'll wake up after a nap and we'll hear him over the monitor saying "Cracker. Cracker. Uh-oh. Cracker. Hi-eee!" Of course he loves crackers, so that could be part of it. But he loves fruit, and bread, and yogurt, and well, just about any food. So I'm not sure what is so special about crackers, or if it's just that he can say it.

Stian is also starting to pretend. I didn't think they really pretended much at this age. Of course his pretending has to do with food. One of his little plastic containers was on the floor and he picked it up the other day and put his hand in it and then brought to his mouth over and over. It was as though he was pretending to eat Cheerios out of it. And the last couple of nights while we've been reading Goodnight Moon before bed he has also pretended to eat from the bowl of mush. On the page where there is just a picture of the bowl of mush he reaches for the spoon in the bowl, acts like he grasps it, and then brings his hand to his mouth a couple of times.

And finally, Stian loves balloons. He got a balloon for his birthday from my mom and dad and he loved it. We have finally thrown it away because it lost so much of the helium. But now Stian points out balloons in books. He has two books with balloons: Goodnight Moon and Clifford Barks. Everytime we come to a page that has a balloon on it he has to point to the balloon.