The First Steps

“The first step is when you start leaving a trail…at times to make a path for others to follow”

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Dear Riddhie,

From a time line perspective, the events as narrated in this letter happened about a couple of weeks prior to my keying this in. Considering that this was such an important event in the course of your development, I decided to still post it even if it was a little late.

Well, you started balancing yourself on your feet around last week of July and had started beginning to get up and stand on your own for few seconds or so at around that time but it was not until the second week of August 2011 that you started taking a couple of steps on your own.   

Your mom would encourage you to stand up and take a step or two towards her, often luring you with one of your favorite oat cookies at that point of time. We never really saw you crawling on your knees much and so kind of knew that it would not be too long before you would decipher how to use your legs and surge ahead.  

It was the afternoon of August 19 when your mom saw you standing on your own holding one of the coffee tables in the living room and called you up. She came near and you turned around and decided to reach out for her open arms. It was probably at that very moment that you took your very first step. I remember her calling me at work to give me the news. 

It was the same evening when she got you standing on the slab of our kitchen as I looked on and she coaxed you to walk towards her. I sat by waiting for you to respond to that call and though I wasn’t really sure of the entire exercise being done on the kitchen slab, you did, though nervously, move a step or two towards her. I guess it was a matter of chance that I was waiting with a camera and I could capture the moment that was.

The coming weeks saw you learn and control your motor functions better and we were soon running after you trying to catch up and prevent you from banging into glass doors and walls and every this else. These days you just love taking off and rush towards a toy or something you fancy and often fall on your bum with a good ‘thud’. The carpet on the floor and your cushioned diapers have so far proved their worth on all such occasions.

I guess in the overall scheme of life, this may eventually feel like a very normal function and such an integral part of life that you may not even realize anything special about it until perhaps you see your own children take their first step some day. Perhaps one of these days when I am old and frail and my knees finally lose their juice, I would wait for you to rush home from your world once in a while to fill me up with the stories of faraway lands and newer skies. Till then, I guess I shall look back and watch this video we shot the other night when you took your first few steps.

Love,

Dad.