Okay, there’s no doubt about it any more: Alex is walking. Not very steadily, and not for very far, but he is definitely walking.

We were up at his Granda & Grandma Sutherland’s place today, and we had a wonderful time. And above all, he was willing to take steps on his own. We would lead him by the hand for a wee bit, then he would stand for a while on his own, or take a few steps. At one point he even stood up from a sitting position, and took three steps to the bookcase–with no help at all!

He doesn’t do that much walking at home. I think he is probably just too familiar with the home environment. He knows exactly where the handy grips are for hanging on to. So he can make his way almost everywhere he wants to go without having to cross open space.

Or maybe he was just showing off for his grandparents 🙂

Whatever the case, I think that his progress will be like learning to juggle: at first you can cycle the balls once. Then twice, or three times. Then you can go five or six times without stopping. And very soon after that you find that you can just keep going and going. Right now Alex is only taking a couple of steps on his own. But the leap from “walking a little” to “walking a lot” will probably be easier than that from crawling or cruising to walking.

It’s great fun to see!

Here we are in Rome. Our hotel room has en-suite facilities, but only a shower, not a bath. This means that Alex has been enjoying his very first showers! They’re very funny.

Our routine is that I go into the bathroom in the morning while Abi strips Alex of his pyjamas and nappy. I run the shower to get it at the right temperature. Abi then brings Alex through and hands him to me. He knows what’s coming, so he’s quite apprehensive, and he clings to my chest like a little monkey.

We then both get into the shower, me with my back to the stream of water from on high. (The shower head is fixed.) Alex clings even tighter to my shoulders and upper arms with his hands, and wraps his legs even tighter around my waist. I turn us both, very slowly, until Alex’s back is to the shower stream. He then lays his head down on my chest, closes his eyes and makes soft little contented noises.

Until I wash his hair and have to rinse the soap from his head. Some of it inevitable gets into his face, which he hates. But the wails usually subside pretty quickly, and I let him have some more restful time with the warm water running down his back, and his soft little baby face gently resting on my shoulder.

It’s very sweet.