5 @ 9…the turning point

it’s a big deal…at least in my head.

9 months in the belly, now—9 months out of the belly.
a turning point.



she’s all blonde hair and blue eyes and pink cheeks and roly poly chub in between.



her crawl has metamorphosed from “worm-like” into “crab-like”…sometimes even bordering on “actual baby crawl-like”.

she says “dada” and “mama” and “maahhhh”, which is her imitation of me yelling for the dog (max), and she waves and she claps and she can spot food at 50 paces and won’t rest until she has it IN MA BELLEH.

she’s cruising the furniture like it’s saturday night on main street and i’m pretty sure she’s been cutting these rotten two top teeth for the past 1,427 consecutive nights and if they don’t come through soon SOMEONE WILL DIE (probably me from lack of uninterrupted sleep. don’t get your pantyhose in a twist and call DYFS on me, k?)

and she flat out REFUSES (still) to sleep in her crib. we can sneak her in there, already asleep. but as soon as she stirs and realizes where she is it’s OH VEE EE ARE. 

“sos”, by googiemomma.

but here’s the thing: i read an article a long time ago about birth and mammals and how other animals have their babies and they walk in like 10 minutes. but the human female walks upright, so our pelvis is shaped differently so we have to birth our babies with much smaller heads which = smaller brains which = much more dependant babies.

have you heard of the 18 month pregnancy? basically (along the same lines) that even though our babies are born after nine months gestation, they require an additional 9 months of highly intensive one on one care.
of course i’m summing up a lot of child development research and big articles, but that’s the gist of it. and it made a lot of sense to me—both then and now.

the first 8/9 months of a baby’s life require intense care—generally from the momma. you can see the turning point—around this age they begin crawling--literally away from you. they become much more independent creatures—able to communicate their needs more effectively, they’re mobile, they can feed themselves to a certain extent…

 
(you know..the important things…like ice cream cones)

it’s a turning point.

one i welcome—because i love this stage.
but one that makes me sad. my baby is growing up.