# My niece is walking! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 8, 2007, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276 "2007-12-08T10:09:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/1 "2007-12-08T10:09:47Z")
She’s all of 54 weeks old and, per this morning’s phone call, toddling about quite happily. I get to see her in 3 weeks. Yay! ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/2 "2007-12-08T10:40:30Z")
pfft…I’ve been walking for years, don’t see you getting all excited about that. Blatant favoritism is what this is! ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/3 "2007-12-08T11:00:13Z")
Isn’t it fun to watch them learn? My niece had us convinced that she’d be walking at any moment. That phase lasted for MONTHS. I think she didn’t actually walk (or let us see her walk) until she was about 18 months old. She’s 13 now. How’d _that_ happen? GT ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/4 "2007-12-08T11:23:49Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] She’s all of 54 weeks old and, per this morning’s phone call, toddling about quite happily. I get to see her in 3 weeks. Yay! [/QUOTE] Lucky you. It’s the best thing ever, and to echo **gardentraveller** I can’t believe my eldest niece is 16 next year. How the frigging hell did that happen? I was bouncing her on my knee and crooning Rock-a-bye-baby to get her to go to sleep only a few months ago in subjective time. Pah! ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/5 "2007-12-08T13:26:05Z")
How are the years so short when the days are so damn long? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/6 "2007-12-08T13:58:36Z")
Mine is 13 months… and he just recently started taking steps. He’ll go about 3 or 4 steps before he decides crawling is much more efficient. We keep thinking that he’s just going to take off running at any point, but so far nothing. We finally purchased him some good shoes that he can actually walk in (as opposed to the glorified socks that call themselves shoes) and that totally messed him up. Pretty funny, but we have hopes that it will help him in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/7 "2007-12-08T14:04:40Z")
[QUOTE=The Tof] We finally purchased him some good shoes that he can actually walk in (as opposed to the glorified socks that call themselves shoes) and that totally messed him up. Pretty funny, but we have hopes that it will help him in the long run. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “good shoes”, but I hope it’s not the stiff clunky ones, unless your doctor prescribed them for a medical reason. All our doctors and physical therapists agree that the soft leather things like Robeez, or better yet, being totally barefoot, are generally better for beginning walkers. It lets them feel the surface they’re walking on and develop and use all their core muscles to bring the whole leg forward, not just the big muscles on the side of the leg to swing the leg around. Stiff shoes are fine for dressy occasions, but imagine wearing ski boots all day while you’re learning how to walk! ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/8 "2007-12-08T15:34:39Z")
[stops the rocking chair] [cross] I wish to complain that there are no pickies in this thread. If you’ll check the FAQ, you’ll see that it says, quite clearly, that all threads entitled “My niece is walking!” must have accompanying pix. Humph. I trust the mods will be discussing your posting privileges soon… [goes back to rocking ferociously] ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/9 "2007-12-08T15:36:18Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose] I wish to complain that there are no pickies in this thread. If you’ll check the FAQ, you’ll see that it says, quite clearly, that all threads entitled “My niece is walking!” must have accompanying pix. [/QUOTE] Piccies will have to wait until after Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/10 "2007-12-09T06:52:16Z")
And I was expecting a story of a faith healer in a tent in Kansas… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/11 "2007-12-09T12:00:50Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “good shoes”, but I hope it’s not the stiff clunky ones, unless your doctor prescribed them for a medical reason. All our doctors and physical therapists agree that the soft leather things like Robeez, or better yet, being totally barefoot, are generally better for beginning walkers. It lets them feel the surface they’re walking on and develop and use all their core muscles to bring the whole leg forward, not just the big muscles on the side of the leg to swing the leg around. Stiff shoes are fine for dressy occasions, but imagine wearing ski boots all day while you’re learning how to walk! [/QUOTE] Hmm, well perhaps I’ll shoot my doc (yet another) email. By good shoes.. I jsut meant we got him a pair of regular shoes. The tops were more canvasy than regular tennies, with velcro and a solid sole. He had some robeez when he was smaller.. mainly he’d been going shoeless since about 6 months or so. But we’d been advised that getting him some shoes would help. Anyway, I don’t want to hijack the thread… infants learning to walk=adorable. This is what the thread should be about. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2007, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-niece-is-walking/429276/12 "2007-12-09T12:47:22Z")
My son was “cruising” at nine months, holding everything…but he was just so incredibly tall… (he was 24 inches long at birth… and ten pounds even… yes he was a C-section but thats a whole nother story) that he couldnt get his upper body in balance to walk without assistance. He started walking at yes… 54 weeks exactly,… Christmas day… He will be 4 on Tuesday. Yesterday I had a house full of 3 4 and 5 year olds, their mommies, cake, juice boxes (old-school mommy had orange pop and cream soda but they turned up their nose in favour of apple juice in a box!) Great fun. I went to bed at 9 pm.