Steps in learning to walk

Elise has been walking for about three weeks now.  She was walking along furniture for quite a while, starting maybe the day after she started crawling (6.5 months?) and I figured she was just waiting to be more sure of herself, but she kept wanting to spend all of her time on her tiptoes.  It's kind of hard to keep your balance all the time on your tiptoes.  Have you ever tried it?  Anyway, watching her learn to walk made me think about how  many steps there are in learning to walk.  (haha steps of learning)  They have to develop many different groups of muscles.  Maybe walking really is an amazing exercise.

First a person has to learn to hold their head up, then their chest and head, which also helps to gain arm strength 

A person has to develop core strength.  They must master rolling from their stomach to back or back to stomach and then the other.  Sometime after this they will learn to sit up without falling over and how to get into and out of a sitting position and also to get on their hands and knees and then later to move with their belly off the floor.  These activities all help a baby have the abdominal muscles later used in walking.

A person has to develop leg strength.  This is often accomplished by standing, walking along furniture, crawling, climbing and otherwise moving (sometimes we don't have words for the cray-cray things some babies might do).  Elise loves to climb.  She could climb up and down stairs before she could walk.  She isn't ever allowed to climb stairs without an adult, but she is able to.  She can even get in and out of the bathtub without an adult but we don't encourage that either.  (What are you doing?!  You were already dressed!  Don't get back in the bathtub your sister needs to get out already!  Leave your sister alone!)

A person has to develop foot muscles.  I didn't really realize this as much with my first child, but watching the second struggle because she loves being on her tiptoes really helped point this out.  Your feet help you a lot in keeping your balance.  Especially walking over bumpy surfaces you need to have feet muscles.  Walking in sand.   A person mostly needs to practice to get this final step (haha final step).  Some of it comes with age, but most of it comes with practice.  I look forward to watching foot muscles continue to develop as she learns to run and jump.

Elise has been taking steps without holding onto things for quite some time but I didn't feel it counted as walking until she thought she could do it.  Which she started doing at 11 months and 2 days.  (This is fairly early to walk, some babies walk as early as  eight months, most start around twelve and it's fairly common to not walk until sixteen months)

We still need some practice with the feet and Elise is still falling over quite a bit, but she is enjoying her new ability to carry things.  Trying to carry things in your mouth is just too hard some times, you know?  She has been seen carrying books, empty containers (applesauce and milk), and I liked seeing her carry the toy firetruck because it is not exactly a small toy.  Sadly, the camera didn't cooperate in getting a picture of her carrying it.

The other day Rissa helped set the table by daddy and mommy putting things to be brought to the table on what we call the "baby counter" (which also sometimes collects empty containers to go out to the trash) and she carried them to the table.  We were impressed by some of the things she managed to carry but the next day I laughed because Elise took the empty applesauce container from the "baby counter" and brought it to the table and put it on the table (how did she reach? must be all of her tiptoe practice)  But I was unsure of what she had done and wondered about the empty container.  I put it back where it had been and soon enough, Elise picked it up and brought it back to the table.  I grabbed the camera but I think, once again it was a little slow.  I believe she was unable to get the empty container back on the table a second time, but she tried several times, and I was impressed.  (I know many adults who have trouble putting things above their heads and would not try multiple times to get it right.)  I wouldn't be surprised if she was tired.  She had, after all, been practicing several new skills for several minutes.

So what does this mean for us?  (Why does it need to mean anything, it's a blog!)  It means that sometimes there is an order to things and we have to learn to go to church before we can be a leader.  It means we need to do things line upon line, precept on precept.  Sometimes you need to study before you can teach.  Sometimes you need to learn before you can share learning experiences.  Sometimes we need trials in our lives to help our spiritual muscles mature.  I invite you to look at some of the trials in your life and see if there is something that you are to learn from it.  If you do not learn from it, you may have to repeat a similar experience again in the future.  If you do not learn how to stand, you will not learn to walk.  You will have to keep having lessons in how to stand until you do learn to stand and then you can progress and learn to walk. When you can then progress again and learn to run and jump and otherwise embrace this physical experience.  We know that children will have to learn to walk and we let them work at it until they get it.  We know that it's for their good to fall a couple of times so that they will be able to enjoy the independence of walking.  We do not encourage them to wait to learn to their lessons because then they will just have to learn something else.  We encourage them to take the needed steps so they can learn and grow and become their own person.  Trials can be a great learning experience or a great annoyance, depending on us.  What have you learned lately through your trials?