Futbol!

As a parent of a first child, there is a certain amount of anxiety about a baby hitting his milestones. In Austin's case, we are a little nervous about the fact that he doesn't have teeth yet. The doctor says it isn't a concern until 18 months. But visions of gold baby teeth persist nonetheless.

Being in a nanny share with Kyle has calmed us down a bit. He has been crawling since six months and seems to beat Austin to all milestones. It's been humbling and the "all babies are different" adage really hasn't quelled the concern. Knowing that Austin isn't winning the baby race, though, does help us to reel in expectations.

Besides, Austin is happy and mostly healthy and that more than anything else should settle our anxiety.

All of this to say, we were surprised a couple of weeks ago to see him take a very keen interest in walking. He didn't crawl until just before Christmas and that is still just an army crawl. Crawling is not a milestone I kept telling myself, because that's what the books and doctors say. But I didn't believe it. Now I get it. Austin had his eyes on the bigger prize. All he wants to do now is have us walk him around. Clearly, he thinks crawling is for chumps! He is totally all about becoming bipedal!

The other day as we were walking together we came up against a road block. One of Jeter's stuffed toys (a blue stuffed animal of no particular distinction who we call "baby bunny") was in our way. Austin kicked it. Just like that, very naturally. Since then we've noticed he likes to kick things in his path. When it's an actual ball he likes to keep kicking it - like he's dribbling a soccer ball. Who knew this was an instinct? As an American, futbol (aka soccer) is so foreign, that one presumed that to kick a ball is a learned behavior. Not so, it would seem.

In trying to mute my milestone expectations, I think I may have I dampened them a little bit too much. So much so that this developmental leap took me by surprise. But it shouldn't have.

Austin is a wonder and a miracle and he jumps ahead leaps and bounds every day. We must not look ahead, but savor these moments of discovery before they vanish to make way for the next big thing, which happens quickly these days.