The 11th Hour

On Monday, Gabriel will officially turn 11 months. He is at that stage where everything is a new wonder and the world has become unbelievably fascinating. I love watching him explore and discover each day. Of course, I also worry (as does every other parent) about whether we have done everything we can to advance his development.

Gabe is a tall, skinny kid, and was not a huge baby. In fact, we recently visited with friends whose child is a month younger than him but looked about two months older. Of course that child is crawling around, pulling up, and generally has achieved free mobility. Gabe, on the other hand, has no interest in crawling. He wants to walk everywhere but has not mastered the whole balance thing, so we spend much time each day hunched over, index fingers extended as support handles, and let him toddle around all over the house. Given his demands for “walkies,” I really expected that he would be toddling on his own by now. Far before now. I know that all kids develop differently, but I admit that I had hoped his dismissal of crawling would lead to early walking. And I guess I was wrong. I figured his desire to be “up, up, up” all the time would inspire him to pull up on the furniture, dog, or us. Nope, not so much. Gabe is often content to sit in one spot and play with the toys around him. And I know that his ability to self-entertain is a milestone all in itself, but as a mother, I still worry about his mobility.

Now verbally, the child is doing beautifully. At this point he has a vocabulary of six words. Dot (doggie), Ba (bottle), Dada, Mumma or Mama, Up, and the most recent Na or Nana (food- specifically stemming from his favorite...banana). Just last week he made a two word sentence- “Mama, nana” as he was reaching for the food on the table while sitting on my lap. It was pretty darn awesome. And he does a lot of other cool things like plays independently, initiates play (he plays peek-a-boo with the blanket when we lay him down to sleep), and uses non-verbal language to communicate what he wants. He also has the best temperament and sense of humor I could imagine. He goes bonkers when I pull out a book to read to him, and even if he’s in cranky mode, it calms him down completely. He will also sit and page through a book (the cardboard ones of course) by himself and knows when it is upside down.

I know, I worry too much, but it’s in my job description. And based on seeing what I wrote above, I know that he is fine and is most definitely a product of our genes. All nerd, all the time. Just like his parents.