The creationist explanations in this thread fail to explain the hominid fossil record for the following reasons:
1. It fails to explain the nested hierarchy. A designer who is improving on old designs is free to mix and match parts from other lineages. In fact, this is exactly what we see in human designs. Human designs do not fall into a nested hierarchy, nor is there any reason that they should. A human designer is capable of taking the tires from a Volvo, the engine from a Subaru, the chassis from a Ford, and the suspension from a BMW, put them altogether, and voila, a new and improved car. In biology we do not see that. Instead, new features stay within the lineages proposed by evolution. Clearly, the nested hierarchy can not be explained by creationism and it has not explained the nested hierarchy seen in the hominid fossil record.
2. Creationism can not explain why it took multiple steps to begin with. This is not an idea that comes from creationism itself. The "theory" of creationism does not predict that we should find hominid fossils with a mixture of modern human and basal ape features. Even more, creationism suggests that the hominid record is the result of descent with modification. Hmm, what does that sound like? I think it starts with an E.