The kids were so excited to have a baby sister. Ed took them out to buy her one small infant toy each. “Mommy, can I teach her to walk?” Irene wanted to know. And speech lessons began immediately: “Colum. Cawllll-UM. Colum.” But she mostly just lay there asleep.
Finally, after what must have seemed a yawning eternity, she smiled. Eventually she was actually able to reach for those little baby toys. And somehow, through a series of slow and gradual development, she has now become one of them.
From, “Oh my gawd, woman, why do you keep laying me down on my tummy?! I can’t see shit from down here.”
To rolling over all on her own … if only to end up stuck on her tummy, “Why don’t I ever learn. I STILL can’t see shit from here.”
“Now you’re talking, Mom. It took you long enough to get me some sweet Bumbo action.”
“Do you think if I just keep kicking my legs like this I might eventually get somewhere? Because those crayons and army guys aren’t going to eat themselves, you know?”
“Oh hi. Me? Just sitting here, playing it cool. Yeah, that’s right, just sitting up all on my own. Why aren’t you freaking out yet? How awesome am I?!”
“Alright, off the carpet. Now I’m going places! Aw shit. I’m going backwards, aren’t I?”
“It’s cool. I totally meant to do this.”
“Okay, wise guy, I get it. Very funny. Want to put down the camera and help a sister out?”
“Listen, I could totally get down and backwards crawl all around this park if I wanted to. I just don’t want to is all. Don’t think it’s because I don’t know how.”
“See, I told you I could do it. And check it out, I’m not even going backwards. Not forwards exactly either, but definitely not backwards!”
And then suddenly, last week, she figured it out. After weeks and weeks of backward crawling and a few days of rocking back and forth on her knees, she finally got the hang of it. She crawls! (Better than either of her sibs ever did, in fact.)
There she goes again!
Man, is it ever hard to photograph a crawling baby. Let’s try a video instead.
Er … disregard the last ten seconds in which I can’t figure out how to stop recording.
And life shall never be the same. Again.
