I’m spinning again.
No not in the gym on a stationary bike. Inside my head. Now, it’s about Quinn
walking… er, not walking.
He’s been pulling himself up on everything for months now. He
cruises around holding onto the furniture. He’ll walk while pushing one of his
toys (or even the dining room chair) across the room. He’ll let go for a second
and stand there all by himself. Just for a second. Then he slowly sits down on
his bottom in a nice, controlled manner and crawls away. I try to hold his
hands and help him walk, but he just gets frustrated and sits down.
I know what you’re thinking. I’m thinking the same thing. I
need to relax because most kids do not start walking until they’re over a year
old, and Quinn just turned a year old less than two weeks ago. Chill, Melissa. Lots of kids don’t walk
until well over a year old. I know
this. So the fact that Quinn’s not walking yet isn’t really a big deal. He’s
perfectly fine.
But I worry anyway. (I’m sure you’re shocked by this
information.) Why does it bother me so much? Why is it keeping me awake at
night?
Maybe it’s because my brother and I both walked before a
year-old, so when Quinn started pulling himself up at nine months, I got my
hopes up.
Maybe I worry because you only hear stories about the
exceptional kids who started walking early. Maybe because everyone knows
someone who had a baby that started walking immediately after exiting the womb.
And it feels like everyone started walking by the time they were Quinn’s age,
even though that’s not true.
Maybe I worry because the first thing everyone says when
they see Quinn is “Does he walk yet?”
No. Okay? No, he doesn’t walk yet. Why does everyone keep
asking me that? He doesn’t poop on the potty or do long division yet either. *sigh* I know people don’t mean any harm
by asking. It’s a simple, innocent question and I’m being over-sensitive. But
it’s starting to get to me.
Last weekend, Hubs, Q and I went out for breakfast, and as
usual, Quinn attracted the attention of a Chatty Lady sitting at the table
next to us. The lady was enjoying breakfast with her daughter, and struck up a
conversation with us.
(Tangent: I know Quinn
is a handsome kid, but GEEZ!
Everywhere we go, he makes friends. It’s like he’s a damn celebrity! Just once
I’d like to eat a meal at a restaurant, check out at the grocery store, and get
my Starbucks without getting trapped in a conversation with a stranger. I’m
never rude, and usually I don’t mind that much, but sometimes I’m in a hurry or
just not in the mood. And sometimes the people are weird and creep me out. Back
away from the baby, freak shows. – End tangent.)
“How old is he?” Chatty Lady asked.
“He just turned a year old last week,” I said and braced
myself for the next question.
“Does he walk yet?” Yep, there it is. *sigh*
“No,” I said and immediately began my disclaimer about how
he’s pulling himself and almost walking, but not quite yet, but he’ll be
walking any day now… which just sounded lame.
Chatty Lady then launched into a story about how her son
started walking at eight months-old. Eight
months-old? Really? Okay, I know it
happens, but I hear this story so often I gotta believe most of these moms are
exaggerating and totally rewriting history.
What probably happened was her son kinda sorta almost took a
step at eight months-old and then he fell down and never took another step
until he was eleven months-old. But that was enough for it to count as his
first step for baby book and bragging purposes, so that’s the way she remembers
it. Her son started walking at eight months-old. Okay, fine. Whatever.
I know I shouldn’t be so hard on this nice lady. She was
very sweet, and she didn’t try to touch Quinn, so she gets bonus points there. I’ll
go take a chill pill now.
