Trent is now over 15 months old and he is still not walking. I’ve been practising so hard with him but he thinks it’s just a game, and when I pull him to his feet he just throws his head back and laughs. I’m convinced he can, and does, walk when dad and I aren’t watching, but as soon as we look he drops to his knees. He can stand against things, climb the stairs (even though he is not meant to) and do lots of other things, but he just will not walk.
Last week Jayden, Trent’s best mate, came to play and I could see Trent jealously watching the way Jayden runs around. I was convinced he would attempt to get up onto his feet at some point and I was right. Trent crawled over to me, then climbed up against me, and eventually stood freely with no support for almost 30 seconds. After this I thought it would only be a matter of time before he started walking, but since then he has resorted back to his knees and hasn’t once attempted standing up again!
Most people are really encouraging and keep saying it’s nothing to worry about, that he will walk when he’s ready, but others make me feel like a failure when they say; “is he not walking yet?” Dad keeps telling me that you should never compare babies as they all develop at different rates, and he is right because although Trent can’t walk yet, he is very advanced at using his hands, and has no problems throwing and catching a ball and putting shapes into the correct holes in toys.

After a hard few weeks during which I had to complete a technical paper for university, whilst dealing with dad being back at work leaving me alone with the two kids, I had had just about enough! So we packed up the car, left Roisin with my mam and took Trent to Cheshire for a few days. First stop was Chester Zoo. We wanted to make a fuss of him and because he loves animals this was a brilliant way to do it.

We arrived and had dinner in one of the restaurants, it was really nice but Trent could only eat chicken nuggets as I don’t like giving him chips, and the sandwich packs were full of sweet stuff. Our dinner was lovely though. It was quite expensive but we were on holiday so there was no way I was going to mess about making packed lunches – I wanted a break!

The zoo was just brilliant and Trent thought it was great. His little face lit up at the sight of all the different animals. We would have liked to go on the monorail, and into the new red ape centre, but due to it being summer holidays the queues were enormous and it didn’t seem fair to make Trent sit still for all of that time.

Once we had seen everything about four times we made our way to Ellesmere Port where we had booked into the Holiday Inn. I wasn’t expecting much as it was inexpensive and had been a last minute thing, but we were all pleasantly surprised. There was a leisure centre and the hotel itself was situated at the side of a canal. We had a lovely tea in the hotel. The staff prepared fish fingers and mash especially for Trent, but by the time it had arrived he was fast asleep in his high chair. Despite this, when it came to bedtime, Trent did not want to go to sleep. He’s just not used to sleeping in the same room as me and dad anymore. He finally dropped off at about eleven and then wanted to get up again at half past five. At least it meant we were up, fed and checked out by nine and on our way to Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet where I got to indulge in some much deserved retail therapy after being pregnant for the past eighteen months.

It was a great break and we will definitely do it again next year with both kids. The only downside was that I really missed Roisin – it was the first time I had been away from her.

The animals

 

Trent and Dad spend some quality time together

At the end of an exhausting day