Much like the stereotypes of how pregnancy and childbirth would go, we learned that many moments in early childhood are not quite like you expect either. I saw all those calendars and baby books and assumed there would be a specific date, a time even, that I could note when Ian first rolled over, crawled, got his first tooth and took his first steps. But it's more complicated than that.

He did a lot of that rocking back and forth but not really crawling. Then he could barely drag himself across the floor for maybe a foot and only if there was something really important he needed to get to. And suddenly (but of course not on a day when we could note it) he went to full on crawling all over. He crawls like a champ now, legs and arms working in sync.

But the same is true for his first steps. Soon after crawling, he started pulling himself up on furniture. He could scoot along the sofa. Then he could transfer from one object to another. I know that happened the weekend we went to BlogHer (Aug 5th or so) but only because Helen and Megan mentioned that "transferring is an advanced skill". And then he started pushing his little cart around the house. Then he learned how to walk around his cart to get it unstuck from the furniture (advanced!). But none of that is walking.

So Sunday evening we were in the office thinking about bed time. But he saw the other baby in the mirror. So I set him on the ground and he stood there for a few seconds. And then with great effort he took a little side step. It was touch and go there for a bit. I tried to convince him to move forward but that wasn't happening. So he took two little scootches to the right two nights ago. And in the kitchen tonight he kinda shuffled for a second or two. But I wouldn't call that walking per se.

All this time he's not had a single tooth despite all the other babies getting them left and right. But just last week instead of smooth gums, we could feel the beginnings of two bottom teeth. So do you write it down then? Be cause you can't see anything. There's enough teeth there it hurts if he bites your finger. But his smile is still pretty gummy. So we'll say that first tooth is more like first teeth and they're solidly "in progress".

And then people keep asking if he's talking yet. He says "ma" and "da" but "da" could me anything from "that" or "Daddy" or "dog" or "hey" or "I just like making this noise". I don't call those words. Making noise, sure, but talking? Not really. Even when he shakes his head he doesn't understand that it means no; he just thinks it's fun and it makes us laugh.

So any second now Ian will be walking talking and chewing everything in sight. But for now, we're just taking it day by day.