A fear of walking

She's still not walking- I would think this is abnormal, except from what I've read, infants don't usually walk until month 13. So no worries.

What's remarkable, though, is that she can walk, she's just too afraid to do it. She doesn't like to stand alone, and will actually immediately drop to all fours and scream if we slip our finger out of her out-stretched hand. To be honest, she has taken a number of hard falls- I think something like three today alone- and we don't have much soft carpeting to buffer her tumbles. Right now, for instance, she has a V-shaped mark above her eyebrow from some form of knock.

Time and again, we'll catch her standing alone. Once, she was crying out in frustration at me letting go of her hand, and just stood there, unsupported, for probably 30 seconds while she screeched. Today, she stood up next to my lap and handed me her play phone.

We're wearing a path around the living room and dining room, walking with her while she holds onto one finger. She can just go in circles, laughing, squealing and talking the whole way. Her little hand will get sweaty and my finger will start to slip out, but as soon as it does, she predictably shrieks in fear and falls to all fours.

I think, though, the problem lies with the fact that when we see her standing by herself, we just let it happen without celebration. I remember seeing Tina Fey on some late-night talk show a few years back talking about how she and her husband were potty training their daughter. Fey was saying that they had to cheer everytime their little girl had a bowel movement, while choking back their disgust at the poop, as positive reinforcement. So today, Eric and I started cheering, "Yay, Katie!" whenever she did things on her own, or even when she would fall to try and distract her from the bump.

She's gotten braver over the course of the day. Eric and Katie usually go to the playground around this time, and so she's used to walking and playing right now. That is to say, we just went through a little spell where she was crying if we set her down, but crying if we held her because she wanted to be walking around. I guess we'll see- she's taken a few half-steps before realizing what she was doing. No hurries, though-I keep thinking, with her first birthday a few days away, now, it's walking. Soon- way, way too soon- it'll be college.