Up and Running

It's official....actually it's been official for about a week.....both boys are walking on their own.

In China they both could walk by supporting themselves on something or by holding on to mom & dad's fingers.

Zachary started going solo shortly after we got home, but Hunter seemed to have no interest. Z would be toddling around exploring and H would either crawl around after him or would stay put and let Z go do his thing.

We started trying to get H to walk more, doing the....let's go walk around the kitchen routine grabbing his fingers and trying to get him to exercise those legs. He would usually do one or two laps around the island and then he would sit down....no more please mom & dad.

Then one day when I put a pair of shoes on that we got in China, the infamous "squeaky" shoes, both boys finally decided to keep them on their feet. Prior to this we probably were able to keep shoes and/or socks on for only about 10 minutes. But this was our lucky day! The shoes stayed on. And when we started to practice walking around the island in the kitchen boy did the boys have fun!

SQUEAK SQUEAK , SQUEAK SQUEAK, SQUEAK SQUEAK!

round and round we went. Z walked behind me pushing me, and H holding on to my fingers just kept on going. Lap after lap! It was the most I had seen him walk, ever!

Well, a day or two later we put the squeaky shoes on him again.....after the boys brought them to us (hey mom....let's do this!) and H decided it was his time!

And unlike Z who started with a few solo steps at a time, H decided he could walk long distances. He just took off!

So now with or without the squeaky shoes both boys are going solo. Z is a bit steadier, understandably since he has about a month more solo walking under his belt...err shoes.

But H is doing fabulous. He "toddles" quite a bit early in the morning when his legs haven't quite woken up yet, but by later in the day he is looking almost as good as Z.

Today even his morning walking was looking pretty darn good. Daddy almost got fooled into thinking he was Z just because how smooth his gait was as he walked across the kitchen and over to daddy. It's funny when you are relying on those cues to tell them apart and suddenly they are not there!

note about squeaky shoes:

they are everywhere in China and boy are the prices great there! Leather ones are about $6-8(pleather and canvas are around $4-5)and when you are sick of the squeaking the squeakers are removable.
You can find them online as well but they are quite a bit more expensive....the leather ones up to about $40. I have also heard that you can find them in some of the China towns around the US. I think they don't sell them mainstream because the squeaker could be considered a choking hazard if it came out on it's own. Something to be aware of, but our boys really aren't interested in putting things in their mouth unless they are edible. (Or semi-edible like our dog's cookies....but that's another post.)

The great thing about them besides the fun motivation is that by having the squeaker in the heel of the shoe it promotes the kids to walk heel to toe instead of just on their toes as a lot of children do.

Our favorite spot in China for the shoes was "Sherry's Place" they seemed the nicest there. They had some real buttery soft leather ones that were good looking for boys. Most of the places had good ones for girls....if you are in Guangzhou shop around a bit before buying your first pair. Unless you want to be like us.....we bought a bunch in different sizes at a whole bunch of stores.

Our guys feet are small....size 3US right now so it was hard finding them that small. the first pairs we got were 4's and we thought they would work....but they ended up coming off w/out undoing the velcro and we realized we still needed smaller. We finally found the smaller size at Sherry's Place.

THE RUNNING IS STARTING TOO! Mommy is about to get in really good shape!