A MOTHERLY TOUCH BEATRICE BATAMULIZA Of recent, we have been having great moments as my baby tries out her new skill. I have been complaining and asking her why she had to take long to walk on her own yet had proved active in her other innovations. I don’t really know whether she understands when I speak to her but she listens and sometimes her responses appear show she takes note of my words. Whenever she could come to me crawling, I would ask her to stand up and walk so she had decided to often get me by hand in a gesture like she wants us to walk. She would sometimes come to me walking holding onto the wall up to when she reaches me but not crawling. My neighbours had always challenged her to walk whenever she would cry to go with them any whereas as long as she started walking. Meanwhile, for the last four days baby has discovered that she can also walk. Previously, she could stand and dance but would fail to take a step, now she walks and feels proud of the new discovery. She normally makes fun of her walking, she is still scared of walking, and she often gets something to hold in both her hands when she walks, it doesn’t necessarily have to be like a walking stick. She can pick a cup or a tin of detergent and it appears like she finds stronger stamina to walk when holding something. The funny part of her adventure is that when she tries to negotiate between chairs and table refusing to hold on to any of the objects, she holds her hands in the air and tries to twist her body between them. I find it interesting when she walks slowly and on reaching any adults’ shoe, she puts her foot in it and drags it away while waving. It’s like she had been missing walking as well as putting on shoes. She sometimes puts on other shoes while wearing her own especially when the other shoe is say a slipper. She also finds it exciting when some one walks behind her; I think she feels like she offers great companionship when you walk together. The only problem mummy has found with baby’s new discovery is the fact that she no longer wants to sit down especially while eating. She can no longer feed herself like before and the person feeding her has to walk along which wastes a lot of time bearing in mind that the helper has other things to do. For the feeding bottle, she wants to walk with it while feeding yet she cannot hold it firmly in her little hands, so it keeps falling down which is very unhygienic. It is always also a problem begging her to come back when she wants to walk out of the house, an adventure she had longed for, for along time. I am also worried about breakable plates and cups which the maid sometimes leaves carelessly unattended to.
