“Look mom! Now I can roll off this thing straight onto my head!”
Mobility is a funny thing. Every movement a baby makes toward that pinnacle of baby milestones–walking–makes parents have this sequence of reactions:
- “OHMYGOSH! He’s [insert milestone here: rolling over, sitting, crawling, pulling up, etc.]! OHMYGOSHHEDIDITAGAIN!”
- Grab camera
- Take 55 pictures and videos of the moment exactly preceding and following the milestone, but somehow manage to not get a good picture or video of the event again
- Get excited to see the milestone for the next week
- Realize that this newfound mobility actually means a new level of chasing a baby and watching as he manages to inch himself toward certain death
- Immediately put out every possible toy “guaranteed” to amuse and/or educate your child in some way.
- Watch child look incredulously at the toy, then at you, then toss the toy aside and again move toward certain death
Wait, what?
“Your toys? I laugh at your toys! This cabinet is much more enjoyable to explore! Ha HA!”
Yup. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a million-and-one times. It’s simply the darnedest thing.
Before I quit my job almost a year ago to become a stay-at-home mom, one of my most favorite work tasks in the world was making flow charts. I would make them unprompted. I think I once made a flow chart about flow charting. I made a verb out of flow charts. There’s something about a flow chart that just makes sense with how my mind works. I find them calming. A year later as I was pulling my son out of the dog’s water dish for the fifth time that hour it hit me, just like it hits every mom in my situation:
I could flowchart this.
Oh, that’s not the natural reaction? Most people don’t find joy in flow charts? Is that why “Zen and the art of flowcharting” isn’t a thing, let alone a bestseller? Well then. Ahem.
What’s done is done and now here I sit with a flow chart on how my 10-month-old seems to decide what to do in any given moment I set him on the floor.
So now, I bestow onto you this: my 10-month-old’s guide to how to play. (Feel free to click for the full version.)
