Stay this little

"Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up
  Just stay this little
  Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up
  It could stay this simple"

Every time I hear that song (Never Grow Up, Taylor Swift) I think of Abby. Babyhood falls away from little ones so quickly.  It seems as though before you can even blink, they are conquering a new task, hitting a new milestone or learning a new trick.

We have had a saying in our house for a long time now:  No early milestones!  This started when Abby was still in the hospital, and on day 2 of being in this big wide world decided to roll over in her incubator...while the door was open....and no one was right beside her.  Tyler made a save that Luongo would have applauded.  I think when it happened we both kind of made a frantic guttural noise, and after she was safely returned and closed in looked at each other with perfect understanding:  We are always going to have to be on our toes with this one.

Flash forward a few days later, and Sara was visiting at my house.  She was sitting on the couch with her knees up, holding Abby against her with one hand in that comfortable way that only mothers really do.  Suddenly, my little 1 week old baby pushed herself off of her Auntie and needed to be caught again.  Sara even said something along the lines of "hey Missy, you are suppose to be little enough that I can hold you like this!".  Lesson learned for all of us.

Abrielle has just never stopped exploring and moving.  I won't go through all of her milestones, but she has always been a very strong baby who likes to move.  Now we are at 8 months, the big ones are coming up:  Crawling and climbing.  She is so close to crawling.  She can get herself in the position from either a laying or sitting position.  She rocks back and forth.  She has even taken a few tentative movements forward.  As of right now though, she is still not officially crawling. 


You know that I am going to do this soon, right?

Now, don't get me wrong, this baby can get around.  She slides around on her belly in every direction but forward.  She is constantly getting stuck between the wall unit, under her piano, under the TV stand, you name it.  She is just choosing or is not able to really get herself anywhere in a forward direction.  At Babynastics, we are working on helping her crawl, and this week I looked at the instructor and said "why am I encouraging this?  This is going to make my life so much harder!".


Oh hi!  I was just hanging out under my piano
and about to pull this floor vent out!

The same day I stood her up next to some mini monkey bars, and wouldn't you know it, she grabbed on to the top bar and climbed on to the first rung.  Just like that, no big deal.  It turns out she was anxious to try out these new skills at home too. 

No big deal, just about to climb out of her exersaucer

Again, I found myself wondering why I was purposely trying to develop these skills?

Of course I want her to crawl though.  I want her to do everything.  I want to succeed at everything she tries, even though it means that my lifestyle is going to change and a lot more baby gates are going to be needed in our house. I want her to move, and explore, and get a few bumps that means she needs extra cuddles from Mama.  I want the world for her.  As much as I like that song by Taylor Swift and it makes me a little misty-eyed, I don't wish it to be true.  I do want Abby to grow up.