Your baby's first steps are one of the most precious milestones you'll ever get to witness. Watching my oldest daughter take her first steps as a baby was a moment of mixed emotions for me. While being overcome with sheer excitement,- and making a mad dash to the phone to call the family with the news- I was also in a ball of tears. (yeah, one of those 'woman things'.) She was babystepping towards independence. It seems as though, with every milestone achieved, our children are preparing us to let go. I, for one, am thankful that this 'letting go' process takes years to complete, though I am sure there are many stressed out parents who would beg to differ. For now, the only 'letting go' I have to deal with comes in the form of my 10 month old's two little hands being removed from whichever piece of furniture she chooses to use as stability while she practices her first steps.

But she hasn't let go yet!
So what's a mother to do when her little one is striving so hard to be independent and wants to 'walk' next to mommy around the house but isn't quite ready to let go of that furniture yet? Well, I do prefer to hold her little hands when I can but when my hands are full I turn the job over to our Fisher Price Activity Walker.

Product Overview
We bought our Fisher Price Activity Walker right around the time when my daughter began to start cruising the furniture. She wanted to be able to explore the house with mom, dad or her big sis but was running into areas where there just wasn't anything for her to hold onto. That always led to a screaming episode of frustration for her. So on the web I went, in search of a 'good deal' on a walker. I looked at a few and always came back to the Fisher Price model mainly because of price and reputation. I ended up purchasing mine through Toys'R Us/Amazon.com for $19.97 and with my online coupon was able to save a few bucks more off of that price.

This walker came fully assembled. The design is fairly basic yet completely effective for its use. This item is multi-purpose in that it can be used one of three ways- a.)as a traditional walker, b.)as a doll stroller, c.) as an activity center. The front of the walker has a panel of toys that can be removed. On that panel is a round mirror, a rotary phone-type wheel and a bar of colored flaps that baby can spin. Below the panel is a non-removeable bar of colorful balls that can be spun as well. The walker can be folded down flat and secured with side tabs to be used as the activity center for younger babies as well as for easy storage.

Our Experience with the Fisher Price Activity Walker
My daughter's face lit up as she tried this walker out for the first time. She thoroughly loved the fact that she was able to 'walk' right over to anything in the room, including things that she knew were big 'no, no's'. Needless to say, Mom had to do some rearranging. Now getting our dog to move out of the way of an oncoming, squealing, little reckless driver hasn't been so easy though! Thank goodness for lazy, mild mannered dogs!

The Fisher Price Activity Walker is very lightweight, though fairly sturdy. It did take my daughter a couple of tries before getting used to the fact that the walker moved when she pushed on it and that it seemed to move faster than her little legs would go at times. For her, I suppose it was a price worth paying because she stuck with it and now enjoys her new found freedom.

My Final Thoughts
If your baby is starting to 'cruise' the furniture and is striving for his/her next step towards freedom-before letting go and taking off on his/her own-, then I highly recommend looking into purchasing the Fisher Price Activity Walker. This walker is an inexpensive, effective way of letting baby safely practice for that 'big day' when yet another milestone in his/her life will have been achieved.

Recommended: Yes