When does a baby become a toddler? My local baby centre nurses are adamant that the transformation occurs at the age of one (at their 12-month checkups: ‘I knew these twins when they were babies.’ Me, somewhat defensively: ‘they’re still babies!’). If they’re not walking or talking and if small children in the street refer to them as babies, in my book, they are still babies. It’s with mixed feelings then that I’m facing the fact that Rhea and Lara are now very close to becoming toddlers. They have started to toddle. They have both taken their first steps.
It has been a gradual process of both of them spending more and more time standing up and more and more time walking around furniture while holding on to it. I didn’t witness Rhea’s first steps. She walked with our part-time nanny, Heidi, one day around the first week of August. A few steps apparently, but Heidi didn’t think to mention it until the following week when Rhea walked the two steps from Heidi to Steve. I could understand why: after all, isn’t it a barely discernable step forward – pardon the pun – from walking while holding on to something, which they have been doing for months?
I didn’t mind particularly that I wasn’t there the first time. I have enjoyed holding Rhea’s hand and walking around the house with her, and increasingly around the garden and street, sometimes sitting on the floor and encouraging her to step towards me, moving backwards a little each time she approaches. It’s fun sharing her exhilaration. She is so excited and pleased with herself.
I was expecting that Lara’s transition to toddling would be similar. In the end it was completely different.
It was last Monday 21 August, and Lara had been standing up in the kitchen and taking a step or two, barely holding on to the wall behind her. In recent weeks she had been watching Rhea’s baby steps and I had recently seen her practising a move whereby she stood up and sat down repeatedly. I was eating my breakfast at the table and she was standing beside me, and as she held up her arms for balance and took a step away from me and the chair, I picked up my i-phone to video her. Reminiscent of a beginner skier, she took one wide and careful step and slid her second leg towards her first one, then hesitantly repeated the move.
The steps became more assured: still holding her arms up for balance, she put one leg forward, the other leg forward, wobbled, almost overbalanced but continued on. She looked at me for encouragement and I encouraged her on. She was like a little foal finding its legs, enjoying the independence of it, laughing as she was building up a tenuous confidence. She nearly fell three times but managed nearly thirty steps before she toppled over and came to a stop. It was glorious. Lara’s first steps were a statement. This was not part of a continuum, like Rhea’s first steps had been. They stood alone. No shadow of a doubt that there was a milestone here.
So Rhea and Lara have taken different approaches to taking their first steps, but they are both moving towards toddlerhood. I wonder where their legs will take them. Skipping, dancing, climbing, running, riding. Walking. Long walks along beaches, through forests, camping trips by rivers and by the sea. Walking through art galleries and libraries. Exploring their neighbourhood and overseas. Growing in confidence and independence.
I am proud of both my girls. Different though they are, they are both developing in leaps and bounds.
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