Of all the milestones my children hit, walking is the one I remember best, possibly because the events were so different.

My daughter was 8 1/2 months old when she began to walk. She had been pulling herself up to a stand and edging her way around the coffee table for a couple of weeks, and we knew the moment of those first independent steps was near. On this particular day, she had a messy diaper that needed changing, so my husband took her into her bedroom and, as usual, changed her diaper on the floor near her crib. Apparently, she didn't like being messy because she stood up and walked away, yelling "Yuk! Yuk!" Once she figured out she could walk by herself, her crawling or being carried days were over.

My son was a week or two shy of his 1st birthday. My husband and I sat on the floor about six feet apart playing a game with him. For about a month, he seemed on the verge of taking his first steps but would then plop back down on his butt before moving a foot. Now, with his dad on one side and me on the other, my son decided to toddle a few steps between us. We clapped and cheered him on. He didn't bother to take another step until after his birthday. It was like he wanted to prove to us that he could do it, now leave him alone.

While my daughter was an extraordinarily early walker, my son fell into the normal range for a baby's first steps.

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