Thirteenish months

So, um, at 13 months old my daughter has finally started crawling. Wait, no, I take that back. She's not crawling so much as deigning to balance on her hands and knees, even, on occasion, voluntarily doing so of her own accord. I saw her do this for the first time YESTERDAY MORNING.

For a while we thought Molly was going to bust her way through these Important Milestones without a glance back. From day one she was more communicative, more clued in, bigger, stronger and quicker than her brother. This is the baby who breastfed like a champ (How obnoxiously lactivist I might be if I'd had her first!) and slept through the night at two months old. Best of all, she went to sleep ON HER OWN. I swear, the first time I witnessed this miraculous phenomenon, wherein I laid my baby down in her crib and she closed her eyes and WENT TO SLEEP, I thought: this is it. This is Parenting Heaven.

Of course, Molly didn't remain The Easiest Baby On Earth for long, as anyone who was around during the Molly Is Keeping Frat Boy Hours And It Is Killing Us All period would know. And it was clear she'd figured us out. Why say words? Why crawl? Why sign? Why do ANYTHING when it was just as well to have the large lumpy person with the shaggy hair do everything FOR her?

I thought she might be an early talker, but even JACK had said two or three words by 13 months. Molly grunts and points. I have to say she's really GOOD at grunting and pointing, but still. Every OTHER one-year-old in the internet is saying WORDS and SOUNDS, but I've got Molly Moo, furiously gesturing at the refrigerator and violently shaking her head at everything I give her until I finally happen upon the exact item she demands. Like, "Come ON, Mom, not the yogurt, I want the milk! THE MILK! What are you, NOT CLAIRVOYANT?"

And I don't think she's going to walk until she's 15. In the last several weeks she's agreed to cautiously travel around the coffee table and down the length of her crib, but that's about it. She very much enjoys walking while holding tightly to a tall person's fingers, but there's only so long before the tall person's back goes out completely. And God forbid you try walking with ONE finger.

Now she wants to crawl. NOW she wants to crawl.

We talked about Molly's lack of interest in Milestones at her one year appointment. Every time the pediatrician asked me if she was doing this or that I'd say, "Weeeeelll, sort of, not really, maybe a little? I guess?" But I'm not worried. Maybe it's because I quietly freaked out about Jack's limited vocabulary, fretted over what to do until one day, and I swear it was overnight, he just started TALKING. And now he won't SHUT UP. (OMG, Internet. There are HOURS of "What's dat, Mama? What's dat, Mama? What's dat, Mama? What's dat, Mama?") So maybe it's the whole Second Kid thing where you're just not as paranoid about everything. But more than that, I think it's personality. Hers, not mine. She's been finicky and demanding and particular and insistent since birth - why wouldn't that factor into Milestones? I honestly think she just doesn't WANT to say "dog" or "book" or any of the other Typical First Words we've thrown at her. She'll offer up her first word when she's GOOD AND READY, thankyouverymuch. And in the meantime, she doesn't want YOU to hold her, she wants ME to hold her and I STILL secretly enjoy this personality quirk. Just so you're aware.

I was talking about Halloween costumes with a friend tonight and remembered that last year Molly was stuffed into a little ladybug bag, and spent most of Halloween sprawled on her back on the floor, sleeping through the candy eating. This year we might actually take her trick or treating. (Because, obvs, more candy for MAMA.)

 
 
I like her like this.

Comments

[J. Johnson]

My baby girl (now 12) followed her own mind as well as a baby. It took three weeks of sitting her in the middle of the floor covered with towels (and me with no shirt on to avoid food stains) before she would eat anything. And she was 15 months before she walked - she refused to even try to walk, and one day decided she would walk - and never fell down doing so. I figure this will serve her well in life, her stubbornness. Noone can convince her to do something if she thinks it is wrong!

[Redbecca]

My son also comes from the land of IRON WILL. He does things when he wants, if he wants, and how he wants, never mind the rest of the world. We had a sweet spot for about a month when he was very little of STTN, and then we didn't get it back until about 18 months, and that took a lot of patience, practice, and finally just flat out ignoring him.
We have food aversions, very little talking, and refusal do to do a laundry list of things. I have hopes he will be potty trained by kindergarten. Sigh.

[HereWeGoAJen]

This is why I hate the milestones. Babies are just all so different. Mine is all about the motion, but isn't even considering the verbal yet. She seems to think why ask for it when you can go get it yourself?

[Jess]

I didn't talk until very late. And I skipped the whole words here and there thing. I went straight into complete sentences. Apparently I was a perfectionist from a young age.

[Christiana]

OMG, I'm with you on the talking! Caroline was crawling/walking early, but the talking? I swear we had nothing but Dada until 17 months. And while she's added several words in the last week, at nearly 20 months, she's no where near the 150 word vocab they say is average for 18-month-olds.

[Lisa]

From that picture, it's obvious that she has personality. Everything else will come in time.

[Veronica]

What a sweet and sassy girl. I love it!!

[Lindsay]

That picture looks like it was taken at a frat party! It looks like she's all, "WASSUP?!"

[Kate P]

What a spunky little gal! I suspect she does an awful lot of that "milestone" stuff when you're not looking. Just to keep you guessing.

[Annie]

Love Love LOVE that picture. What a cutie! Molly and Jake are quite similar in the milestone dept. it seems. While Chris was pushing up with his big strong legs by the time we brought him home from the hospital (for reals) Jake just seems to have discovered that he HAS legs about a month or two ago. He's 17 months now, and just figuring out that his mouth was made for something other than shoving every possible morsel of edible delights into it, and NO he won't let anyone else carry him except for me. He's a total mama's boy who is in for a VERY RUDE AWAKENING just one short month from now when he is no longer the baby, but The Middle Child. And even though I'm exhausted and my back hurts and he's so blasted heavy...I love it too.

Oh...but there was just one question I wanted to ask you....

Wha you DOing, MAGGIE? Wha you doing NOW? Why? Why are you DOing dat? Wha you doing NOW? WHA YOU DOING MAGGIE? (Because, you know, Jack has probably been asleep for a little while now and maybe you missed the questions.)

xoxoxo