BabyD is getting bigger and bigger day by day... when we first bought his activity center (walker cum rocker cum bouncer with an activity tray) last month, the smallest height was too high for his little feet. We thought it appropriate because we didn't want him to walk just then. We expected him to bounce and rock himself and be involved in his activity tray but we soon found that he thought that we were confining him. He was learning to crawl and getting under almost everything. I found him pulling out my crochet basket (filled with my incomplete shawls and doilies and colorfu balls of thread) one day. He tugged at his tidy bag another day and he got under my dresser, the dinning table and then one evening, rolled off the bed ( I had moved for less than ten seconds). He learned to get out of his rocker and out of his stroller and was getting restless in his crib. That is when we realized, we needed something else to keep him busy. After a little search around town we found the perfect walker. It was an activity center and it had lots of little things to keep him busy. But after the first day, BabyD understood that his mum and dad were confining him. He was literally stuck there... he had teethers and rings that he could pull at but he didn't want too. He had a rubber ducky and a little blue elephant but that only made him blue and anything he touched made a sound. It irritated him and made both his parents and him, anxious. We decided to place him in his walker for only a few minutes everyday so that he could get a hang of it. It worked to the extent that he sat in it for 15minutes. And then, two weeks after we bought it, I removed the pad from under his feet just so that he could feel that he had a little more control. I converted it to a rocker and let him rock... it didn't work and so, one day while working in the kitchen I converted it to walker again and pushed and pulled at him around me. He stopped wailing and looked around. From then on, everywhere that mummy went, BabyD took her there! I would put him in his walker and we would play choo choo train. I would push on his walker and he would coo and babble and enjoy the ride around.

Last week, I placed BabyD in his walker when I came online and after a little 'quiet' time, I hear D exclaim, "Umm... aye..". I looked around to see that he was excited because he was moving. He was pushing at the ground with his little toes and that was sending the walker moving in the opposite direction. He was moving... he was mobile and he had discovered that! For once I had my camera ready and on hand to capture my sons first steps. He could only move in reverse for the first two days but now he moves around the room in all directions. It is not actually walking but he moves and that is beautiful. To me BabyD being mobile means that he now pulls on drawers and tugs on table covers and bedsheets and picks stuff off tables... it means that I have more reasons to not come online because I need my eyes on my son then on a screen and a keyboard. It means loads of work and lots of careful planning around the house. It means moving furniture and babyproofing the house but... it's OK. I don't think I ever want to stop my son from discovering stuff. More on discovery later.