Ladies and gentlemen...

we have a CRAWLER! Yes, that right there dear guests is a certifiable, butt and elbows in-the-air scooter on hands and knees!

She did it last night on the bed, and I thought, naw, it's just because she can get extra purchase on the cushy 4-inch memory foam, but lo and behold, today ON THE FLOOR she crawled! Like, 12 times! AND she's starting to pull up on her crib, which resulted in a very quick plea to the hubby to MOVE DOWN THE MATTRESS, ALREADY.

She's such an amazing baby. Of course, all moms say that about their kids. BUT MY KID IS DIFFERENT. DUH.

Anyway, it's so much fun to watch her because she's so focused. I remember when Alex was this age. I could sit him on the floor with a handful of toys and watch him promptly throw everything every which way and end up with everything spread everywhere all over every spot in the room (how about I use the word "every" one more time because I don't think I've used it enough in this sentence). He had a gleeful chaos about the way he played. He still does, although, thank god, he's actually gotten pretty good - and less pissy - about cleaning up his hellhole when he's done with it. He also had (has) a tendency to only play with toys for an average of 1 minute apiece. Which is why his room ends up the mess it is - he'll play with something, lose interest, drop it wherever he happens to be, pick something else up, play, lose interest, lather rinse repeat.

Sidenote: I received a brochure on ADHD from our pediatrician awhile back. The picture on the cover was a child playing - in gleeful chaos, no less! - in a room that looked EXACTLY like the room my wonderful son had left behind that afternoon. Toys strewn everywhere, clothes hanging outside the hamper, bed unmade and blankets askew...you couldn't walk in that room. Anyway, he's gotten better.

So back to Emma. She has been MUCH slower than Alex to reach all of the milestones - which is to say, she's right on track. While he was insanely, ridiculously early. On everything, physical and verbal, up until he was about 3. Emma has taken her sweet time, and I've gone through my daily, "Chill out, Marce, she's doing fine, Alex was just early" mantra. I also noticed that with him, I loved how fast he hit every milestone, just because they all came so quickly and it was so much fun to see the next thing coming - next week. With Emma, it's been so much fun to see the next thing coming - next month. And I love it just as much - I'm cherishing the babyness of her, while I cherished the growing-up of him. And the playing. Oh, the playing - I'm so loving watching her play.

She will sit in one place and focus on one toy. Pick it up, mouth it, turn it around, stare at it, tap it on something, shake it, shriek a little if she really likes it. If it makes noise, she'll dance (OH, the DANCING! Another whole post in itself). She will play and play with that one toy until she has figured out everything that it does, and then she'll put it down. But she won't just put it down, she looks for somewhere to put it. I bought her a shapesorter barn the other day, and now she puts everything in there. It has a barn door that she opens and closes, and not only does she put the shapes and letters that belong with it in there, she tries to shove all of her toys in there too. When she plays with that barn, she will take something out, look at it, mouth it, then put it back in. Take something else out, look at it, tap it on something, put it back in. None of this, "I'm done, where can I randomly throw this thing?" stuff, no, she's very organized. If she takes it out of a container, she puts it back IN the container. (My anal-retentive heart just let out a little SQUEE!) She also will try really hard to make things go back the way I put them originally - stackers and such she will try over and over to make them stack the way I showed her they're supposed to go. She hasn't succeeded at that one yet, but she's close.

I sat on the floor with her (painfully, might I add, I don't sit well right now) for 20 minutes tonight. I talked to her, I named things as she picked them up, I said, "Open!" or, "Close!" every time she opened or closed the barn door. And she smiled at me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

In other news, Alex had the belt ceremony tonight, where he was promoted to orange belt. I'm so proud of my two amazing kids. I bought a new book tonight called, "You're My Wish Come True." I read it to Alex earlier and he said, "I'm your wish come true, right Mom?"

Definitely, Alex. You and Emma both.