Firsts - Baby Steps: Discovering What Was Before I Came

Steve's first steps April 1, 1957

Today's "First Time" is the first time I ever walked. The date is April 1, 1957. Thankfully mom and dad had a camera ready. I suppose they were primed for this event since I was a little over one year old. According to Laurie LeComer, author of  A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays, the date of my first steps put me in the normal range.  "Babies most commonly walk between their 10th and 14th month," LeComer writes, "But walking anywhere from 9 to 15 months is considered within normal ranges."

According to family lore (repeated by my mom just yesterday), after months of demonstrating no interest in ever walking, on this day I didn't just stand a take a few faltering steps before falling down. According to "the story" which is actually written in my mom's handwriting on the back of the photo, I got up and walked completely across the room "as if he had always been doing it." Don't you love how family stories like that get embellished over the years?

A couple of things to point out about this photo. First, notice how pleased my sister (sitting in the background) appears to be at my first steps. At this stage in our lives when we weren't pulling each others' hair out fighting we were pretty close. I'm sure it was difficult for her when I showed up on the scene five years after she did. She'd had all the attention for all those years and suddenly she had to share the parental spotlight with an attention hog like me. A belated apology Patricia.

Second, notice my svelte body. In my real cloth diaper, tennis shoes and socks I look more like a Sumo wrestler in training than the scrawny kid I turned out to be. Finally, look at that mischievous grin. Yikes! The more photos I see of myself as a little boy, the happier I am that I didn't have a boy. I know from first-hand experience I was a handful!

In closing, here's a lovely poem about first steps by the Nigerian poet Chika Unigwe.

First Steps

How strange it is
to see him walk
waddling really
like a giant pigeon

crippled
crossing
the expanse of land
green like summer grass
between the living room
and the kitchen

He falls
a mass of yellow jammies
A picture of Dipsy (could it be Tinky Winky?)
staring ferociously
smeared into the ground

He gets up
Waddles
Livingstone on an exploration
discovering what was
before he came.