She Gets By With A Little Help From Her Friends
Last Friday, my daughter took her first steps. It was as if we were watching the super bowl and our fave team scored the winning touchdown. There was screaming, clapping, tackling of the poor girl and many, many kisses.
We have noticed that whenever our little bee hangs out with older babies, she picks up something. I am not talking about a cold, a stray toy or a stale goldfish cracker either. I am talking about skills to pay the bills, like eating with her hands, crawling and now, walking.
Back in December, my daughter was hanging out with her good friend Sawyer and he was eating part of his mom's carrot cake muffin (so YUM!) and my daughter was sort of eyeing him the whole time (I was eyeing him, too- I had finished mine). When we got home, she started picking up her cheerios like a champ! I know she was eagle-eyeing him to figure it out. And figure it out, she did.
And then in January, we were hanging out with Tess and her family and she was watching the boy crawl all over the darn place, pulling himself up, holding onto furniture and shaking what his mommy gave him. Well, we got home from our weekend visit and bam! Cruising! And a few weeks later, crawling. Now I am not sure that I can attribute the crawling to Tess' boy completely, but I will give him partial credit. The other portion of the credit goes to my husband because when he saw that our girl was cruising before walking, he was determined to have her crawling before walking, so every evening, he would get on his hands and knees and show her exactly what to do.
And then on Friday, we were hanging out with Sawyer again and that same evening, she took her first steps. Coincidence? I don't think so!
Now, I am not saying that you need to get your kids hitting the milestones A.S.A.P. or anything. I think kids will do what they need to do at their own pace and they are gonna be just fine, but I can't discount the influence of other babies (specifically, ahem, these young men ) in her age group. For some reason, she learns from them and I like that. Its good for her to see them do stuff and I think it builds her confidence in trying to attempt some of these very big-girl things.
Anyway, I know they say that kids don't really interact or enjoy playing with other kids until the 18-month mark (tell that to my daughter who has been trying to tackle these two boys for the past 4 months), but I think it's a good thing. It's influenced her and honestly, we moms need to get together and commune over snacks and drinks from time to time anyway.
So what's next for this girl? Boys, you tell me!