The Little Things...

Last night was a big night for the Coopers.  Will took some steps holding on to a push toy in the church nursery!!  Sounds normal for a 16 month old, right??  Nope, not mine.  My son is stubborn and intends to complete all childhood milestones in his own time.  Who cares what Gerber, Babycenter.com, and the pediatrician says.  Will does what he wants when he wants to do it.  I know no one like this.  Especially not me....

I don't know if you can post a video to a blog, but I will sure try.  It was incredibly amazing to watch Will do this.  I haven't been so proud in a long time.  It's been hard for me to watch Will and to hear comments from others "Oh, he's not walking yet?"  "Have you had him tested?"  "Have his hips been looked at?"  I've just been overwhelmed with emotions: worry, annoyance, protective instincts, defensiveness etc. 

When I was about 22 weeks pregnant, we had a special sonogram with some sort of specialist with a fancy name to look at some spots on Will's brain.  Our sonogram tech & doctor said they were pretty normal and not to worry about it.  The sonogram specialist guy was not of the same mind.  He did several tests on Will (EKG, etc) and gave us all sorts of paperwork on all of the different diseases and life-threatening conditions the spots could indicate.  He wanted to do further testing, but Daniel and I wouldn't let him.  On the way out of the hospital, we threw the paperwork in the trash.  We decided to trust God.  God promised us that He would never give us more than we could handle.  As it turns out; I'm glad we decided not to worry - Will is perfect in every way!!

I have decided to try to take the same approach with the crawling and walking thing.  He didn't crawl until a week after his first birthday (and it really can't even be called a crawl.  More like a scoot).  And now, he's 16 months and is just starting to cruise on furniture and use push toys to get around.  The thing I've noticed about this is it's much more noticeable than spots on the brain in utero.  We get more comments, well meaning people who feel the need to tell us what we should do and what we should be worried about.

It's tough being a parent.  I don't like worrying about my kid.  I don't like feeling the need to defend him.  I don't like who I become when he's left out of something or when people make unnecessary comments.  But, I guess that's part of becoming a mother.  Or, more appropriately, a mother bear.  Don't mess with my kid - or you get ME!

So, needless to say, I'm pretty pleased with those steps Will took last night.  Even if they weren't on his own and even if they're several months "late."  My baby took some steps last night and I'm thrilled.  I may even have some cake to celebrate!!  We'll be writing this down in the baby book!!