Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Was the walking milestone the most overwhelming?

A comment on one of my previous post actually made me write this post

My daughter is My First Born. Everything she did was amazing and nothing short of a miracle to our eyes. Of all she did, the ones I enjoyed the most are the tiny-winy gestures like, staring at me or giving me a faint smile or playing with her toes, pulling off her socks or holding her hands together. Many a thanks to babycentre.com and babyzone.com for their newsletters which initially I kept reading atleast 2 weeks ahead, which kept telling me what changes to watch out for this week. After the 6th-7th month I think I lost interest in them since I already had my intutions about what next.

Walking independently is the most advertised milestone. Though it is awesome to watch your kid walk, I think its over-hyped. Here are a few things that amused me more than the walking milestone.

1. The first time she laughed and refused to stop. She had just completed 3 months. I had absolutely no clue what I had done and anything I did she continued laughing.
2. Second major was when she turned over.
3. Third was when she wanted to roll over. It took her a lot of time to figure out how to roll and how to roll without hurting her head. Once done, she was always under the sofa, chair or bed.
4. Crawling & Sitting

The crawling & sitting milestone was very significant to me because it was very difficult to get there from a lying down position. Since she was 4 months it seemed like she might crawl anytime soon since she kept kicking her legs, propped up on her hands, but actual crawling started only in the 7th month.... and just as soon as she got crawling, she slowly started resting her tiny butt and kept her hands rooted on the ground. Once she got her crawling act right, then holding on to stuff, trying to get up on her knees, standing up with support all happened pretty soon probably within a month. The walking independently milestone did make me happy, did make me raise my eyebrows, did hold my breath, amused me ..everything but it doesn't compare to the time I saw her laughing which made me cry infact or when I saw her crawling & sitting finally. I kissed and hugged her to pieces almost.

The small-small developments keep me smiling and I think I will remember them for a long time too(else I have this blog to fall back upon), like recently when we had been to my in-laws place, she was walking all around, but there was this wooden division ( generally found across most doors in India ), hardly an inch high, that she needed to cross to get on to the balcony, she was unable to lift her leg enough to cross that. As soon she tried lifting her leg she would loose balance, she tried dragging her foot over it but unsuccessful. I saw her struggling there and finally she just sat down & she crawled over. After couple of times of crawling over and trying to lift her leg, she realized she could rest her hands on the wall, lift one leg, put it over the wooden division, then slowly get over it, and then the next leg. I had a smile, stretching from east to west, inviting queries from many in the room. It was really fun to watch her find her ways of doing things.

I would really like to read about other mothers and what really overwhelmed them in the growing-up process.

7 comments:

Usha said...

I love watching babies laugh - they put all of themselves into it and it spreads so much joy around. It can cheer you from the deepest depression.
And another thing I love is watching babies crawl - sadly it lasts onlya few months but it is delightful to watch them.

By Deepa and Supriya said...

you know what the best part is...you are chronicling everything.. you can always go back and read all this when she grows up :)

Artnavy said...

i will try and do an anush version

how about some pics as well?

Sunita said...

@usha: you bet, they laugh and their whole body would reverberate ..thinking about it even tickles me :)
@orchid:yes indeed, thatz the whole purpose
@art:Looking forward to it. about the pics let me check

Risha said...

i think each thing of kids are special and so momentous. i loved the way my nephew slept on my shoulders :-)

Sunita said...

I agree, everything is precious, only if you could capture all of it

Pushpa said...

Hey Sunita...awesomely written...n seeing joyce in person i can imagine how excited u must hv felt and still feel watching her...