It was not my intention to sound flippant regarding the known hazards of walkers and I sincerely apologize if anyone read my post that way. Child safety must always be the top priority and like all things that children can be exposed to, parents must weigh potential benefits against potential harm. FWIW, we also had a bouncy seat, which my children really enjoyed at around 4/5 months. I guess the novelty unfortunately wore off pretty quickly with them as later on, they tended to fuss so much when put in it, it wasn't worth it.
Either way, words will not adequately describe what both my children were like when they were 6 months of age... you really had to see it to believe it, but "full-on" probably comes closest. They could pull up, cruise beside furniture and/or climb well, all before crawling (which DS never actually did). None of the 'cute little kid sitting quietly' stuff that my friends have. Child-proofing of our house happened early out of obvious necessity, and to this day we have only the barest essential furniture. My beautiful DD (now 18mos) stood at the window this very morning, naming and counting all the species of birds in our garden (impressive but not all that unique on this board
). Then, as I turned to talk to DS3.25 she stealthily did a chin-up on a (very high) cupboard, swung her leg over, and stood up in order to get a DVD. Apparently, that was nothing to worry about as DD then said "Its alright, see I got it! I be careful". What do I do with that? I also had a friend recently tell me that we shouldn't encourage DD to ride DSs two-wheel bike (with training wheels) because she's not physically ready - DD is as tall as your average 3yo and can already ride the darn bike! Am I supposed to hide it from her? Anyone know a good book about children with advanced physical ability + above average intelligence but ND judgment skills? I'm so exhausted.
Sorry for rambling... As a SAHM, its been a tough week 'at the office'. DS is disappointed that they don't do any maths in his new preschool and DD is, well, testing my sanity with every amazing moment. Hope everyone else is having a better time with all this!
