Almost standing, Almost walking

Nora is standing nervously on the branch of Babyhood, contemplating taking the plunge into Toddlerdom. No longer content to sit and play with an object, she must be upright and moving at all times. Unfortunately, her sense of balance is more or less equivalent to that of a World Cup striker in the penalty area.

At the moment, she requires, and demands, a helping hand to hold her as she walks, but every day she is using that hand for balance less and less. Even worse than this stage when she can pull herself up, but doesn't yet know how to fall (she arches her back so her cranium hits the floor first) is the stage we are entering in which she needs to teeter along solo, but you have to have your arms there to catch her if she falls. We are not yet ready to let her start falling all over the place yet, since she does it so badly. When she will really be a danger is when she figures out how to stand up without pulling herself up on anything, which will be happening any day now, as you can see from the first part of the video. That's when the real noggin-battering will begin.

New Feature!!

Since Nora's grandfather's voice is so prominent in this video, I have taken the opportunity to figure out how to add subtitles to a video and upload those to YouTube. Click on the "CC" button on the video player menu (bottom right) to read what he is saying.

May this be the last video of her staggering drunkenly towards the camera carrying her underpants that ever reaches the internet.