Video of Slow Cruising

Click here for video of John slowly cruising (I apologize for the Oprah show which you can hear in the background--how embarrassing for me). I used the much-coveted portable phone to lure him along the coffee table. He started out holding on to the Exersaucer before I began taping. My camera's battery died seconds before John (over)confidently grabbed the phone with both hands. Then, of course, he crashed to the floor and shrieked. His most recent thing to do is to let go of whatever he's holding on to as if he can stand by himself, which he cannot do. For example, if he is standing at his Exersaucer and calls to me, I walk over to him and instead of waiting for me to pick him up, he just lets go and reaches his arms up to me . . . and plonks on his bottom.



So, experienced mamas, is there a general timeline in which babies remain in the cruising phase before walking? Or is it like crawling (no real pattern): some babies crawl for a long time before bothering to learn to walk, some babies don't bother with crawling at all but move straight from creeping to walking, etc.?

Tidbits: John did something I viewed as very smart a couple of days ago. I have been working on having John respond when I hold out my arms and ask, "Up?" He holds out his arms in response, meaning, "Yes, pick me up." He's also reaching out his hand to indicate he wants me to hand him an object. Sometimes he also initiates reaching out his arms to indicate that he wants one of us to pick him up. So, a couple of days ago John was in his playpen playing with his stuffed elephant rattle when I came to get him: "Up?" He deliberately put his elephant rattle in his mouth, then held out his two arms so that I would pick him up and he could bring his toy with him. I thought that was really cute and clever!