i truly expected things to be much different with kid number two… this is before i actually gave birth to kid number two. now that i have said kid, i’m surprised by the number of things that are the same. not that there are no differences, mind you, there are, but let me explain. several things that i was hyper–or maybe i should say ‘concerned’–about with seb were as follows: sitting, crawling, walking, talking. when he was around 6 months old, i was in a little gym class with him, and most of the other babies his age in that class were crawling all over the place. that’s what started it. it was really hard not to compare and wonder all the time, ‘is my kid stupid, or what?’ and it goes on from there.

now, with poor oren, part of the reason he isn’t crawling yet is due to neglect. brian and i have sort of forgotten to pay attention to things like crawling until recently after looking back at what sebastien was doing at this age. so we’re trying to make up for lost time, and whenever we get the chance, we put oren through special baby callisthenics. no, not really. but we try to encourage him more to get toys he wants instead of just tossing them to him. in the past week or two, oren has begun to spin in circles as he sits on the floor. it is getting him to use his little arms to negotiate his weight, but he is still hesitant–or stubborn–to get onto his knees. and yesterday was the first day he cruised around a low table at my parents doing his ‘baby shuffle’–his feet taking tiny, spasmodic side-steps. oren seems to think that since he can do that, he can just let go and continue walking across the room. it only took one fall to make him realize that he needs to keep holding on. so maybe he’ll walk without really spending much time crawling. i’m not sure how i feel about that–crawling i’m ready for, walking not so much. because after walking comes running, climbing, getting into things he probably shouldn’t…

at 10 mos, oren is already going on 20 lbs… time for a new car seat, time for a new view of the world by his first birthday, less than two months away.

Posted on October 16th, 2006