Baby's getting off the fuss bus

kgranju — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:57:00 GMT

C. is 15 months old now, and she is emerging from my least favorite stage of early childhood - late infancy - into one of my favorites - toddlerhood. With all four of my children, I have found the stage between about 6-13 months to be the most frustrating period for me as a mother, and for them as wee humans. At that stage, they remained sort of crabby much of the time because they couldn't really DO much of anything, despite an increasing awareness that the world offers many interesting things to do. They could pull up, or crawl, but what they really wanted to do was run around and play with their older siblings and cousins. And between about 6-15 months, my babies have all obviously had a lot to say, but have had trouble getting anyone to understand them clearly. It must be irritating beyond belief for them, which must be why all of mine have whined quite a bit during the stage from which Miss C. is now happily emerging.

Charlotte (with her cousin Nancy Catherine) shedding angry tears at about seven months at the thought of being forced to endure the dreaded tummy time. She wanted so much to crawl, but could only flail her arms and kick her legs in hysterics at this point. She would scream if we put her on her tummy, and scream if we took her off her tummy. She just didn't know what she wanted.

I guess all parents have their favorite and least favorite ages and stages, and while many friends tell me they found the newborn period mindnumbingly difficult and dull, I really love that period. In fact, I have found each of my newborn babies to be so delicious that they are lucky that my postpartum euphoria didn't lead me to simply smother each of them in butter and honey and eat them for breakfast.

Charlotte, age 10 days or so.

There is just something about little newborn noises, and those jerky stretches they do that sends me into love spasms. And don't even get me started on those tiny, adorable knitted caps that newborns wear. Swoon.I also find newborns to be really easy to car efor compared to other children. They sleep a good bit, and they aren't very demanding when they are awake (I know. I know - I've definitely been blessed with four easy babies). They are extremely portable. Plus, during the first few months, no one expects very much from ME. I am still in the babymoon period, and as such, I get waited on by others, which is always a bonus.

But again, after about six months, each of my babies became more aware that there was a lot going on around them in which they could not participate, and accordingly, they became rather crankier for a period of time. The situation improved greatly once each of them could walk on their own, and they became even more fun once real words started to make an appearance.

And that's where C. is right now. The rate at which she's picking up language is astonishing. She says about two or three new words each day, and she's starting to string them together in sentences. Her increasing ability to explain to her parents and siblings what's on her mind gives her obvious pleasure, and as a result, she much jollier overall than she was even 6 weeks ago.

Yay! I can finally get up and run! And talk! Life is good!

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Baby's getting off the fuss bus