Walking the warm weather

After months of pulling up on kitchen chairs and cruising along the coffee table’s edge, Desi took her first steps at 11 months.
She practiced walking back and forth across the living room or in stores. She worked on her up-and-down stairs techniques. But because it’s been winter here, socks or shoes have been a requirement, and she hasn’t done much dirt.
At PB & J Child Care Center, where she started March 1, her caregivers were surprised that our 14-month-old walked OK on the carpet but didn’t want to try the uneven surface outdoors.
It’s not that we want to raise her in a bubble. Walking on ice, snow, slush and slopes is tough for able-bodied adults. Desi’s outdoor time was spent largely in a stroller or backpack, on a sled or in arms. In her three-month walking career, mountain valley surfaces haven’t been optimal. So we plotted a camping trip to warmer climes for the last week of March. Our plan was influenced by a few factors: warmth, distance, cost and play surfaces.
I’ll be the first to admit we adults didn’t accomplish much during our eight-day trip. We slept, drove, ate, biked and walked. But Desi’s walking was pretty amazing. In Beatty, Nev., on the eastern edge of Death Valley National Park, she held Scott’s hand and walked up and down the gravel RV park. She’d trip and almost fall to her knees before he’d catch her and haul her back up.
In Lone Pine, Calif., she made laps, unassisted, on a circuit between the Airstream steps, picnic table, step stool and camp chairs along Diaz Lake.
She started saying “walkie” and sticking out a hand when she wanted to walk with one of us. Sometimes she wants to walk with both of us at the same time and kicks her knees up high in a not-so-subtle hint for us to swing her between us.
Other times, she squirms to get down and shakes her head vigorously when we try to hold her hand. More than once, she shook her head so hard, it threw her off balance and she landed on her derriere.
It was at the Panamint Springs Resort in Death Valley that her proprioceptors seemed to kick in. Something about the roughest gravel campground in the Lower 48 made her pick up her feet high enough and set them down precisely enough to get fluid at this new sport.
When she fell, she sat in the rocks and examined them. “I meant to do that. Hmm, these rocks are fascinating.” Scott tried to show her how to throw one, but her release point needs work. It kept falling behind her.
We sat under the Airstream’s awning for a couple of days as temperatures soared to 80 degrees and watched Desi’s skills develop. By the time we zipped over to Zion National Park, she was walking all over the place, even negotiating a loose-bark playground surface without many falls and giggling like a maniac over the slide. In the Zion visitor center, she acquired “Baby Coyote,” a puppet two-thirds her own size, who has become a walking pal. It’s a good thing he’s roughly dirt-colored, because he drags on the ground much of the time.
By the time day care resumes after spring break, Desi should be an old hand at recess. Or should I say old foot?
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Features editor Johanna Love is convin ced that outdoor walking will be easier on her wallet than grocery store strolling. She writes every other week on her experiences with parenting.