Learning How To Walk

"Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
Unknown, (often attributed to Albert Camus)

Cate learnt to "walk" whilst being supported by her wrists before she could crawl. After taking a few steps she would then start jumping. She clearly loved to jump. Cate's diary for Friday 19 May 2006 states "Cate joined in with lots of singing and 'Bouncing'!" Great fun, but it added nothing to her mobility.

Six days later 'bouncing' became 'dancing' so, in the words of Meat Loaf (well Jim Steinman), Cate had learned to dance before she'd learned to crawl; although crawling shortly followed: diary entry 30 June: "Cate crawled under it [the water sprinkler] and wasn't sure what to [do] next."

Dancing led to increased mobility: "We did some dancing today so she pulled herself up and down holding on to the side." (Thursday 6 July) Followed by "Cate has been walking along holding onto the wall, she walked quite a long way doing this and was doing it all day. Maybe she will soon show us her real steps at nursery?!!" (Friday 28 July) This was exciting news, although we both hoped that Cate's first steps would be at home in front of us, not at the nursery.

In August Cate started letting go of all support and then taking a few quick steps before collapsing. This 'controlled falling' was described in her diary entry of Friday 18 August "Cate took 4 steps on her own which took us all by surprise."

Douglas Adams once wrote that you can learn to fly by throwing yourself at the ground and missing. In late August Cate let go of the chinchilla cage took a few steps and then just stood there not falling over and looking at me trying to catch her. It was the start of the longest journey.