"Is He ___________ Yet?"

It’s become clear to me over the past months that the first year of parenthood (and, perhaps beyond) can be broken into at least three “Is he _________ yet?” question phases. Zero to 6 months, the question is: “Is he sleeping through the night yet?” Six to nine months, you get: “Is he crawling yet?” And, after nine months: “Is he walking yet?”

I answer this last question at least four times a day. And, when I explain to the person asking that he isn’t walking yet, then I get one of two responses. They either say: “Don’t worry, he will.” (Uh, thanks. Of course he will. And if he doesn’t it means something is seriously wrong and then won’t you feel sheepish). Or, they say: “My kid/my husband/my cousin’s best friend didn’t walk until they were 18 months.” Seriously? How is that helpful? Who tells a woman schlepping a 25 pound baby around that she could be doing that for another six months? Wow.

Oliver is not walking yet. He’s been pulling up since October, crawling like a madman since November, pushing things around the room since January, and cruising for months now. He will walk around holding on to one of my fingers. His favorite game is to walk between Brian and I holding on to our fingers and then to fall into our laps. He can stand on his own but he will only do it if he’s super distracted (like today when he was listening to music and decided to stand up and dance. He did the Twist in case you’re wondering). But he’s yet to gain the courage to take that first step. It’s as though he’s still too afraid to fall. So, we wait.

In the meantime, I’m a little ticked that no one asks me four times a day if he’s talking yet. Because, yeah, he is. He can recognize pictures of dogs and balls and will point to the book and say the word. He still can’t say “cat” but he makes the kkkkkkkkkk sound when he sees our cats or a picture of a cat. Today he started to sing along with the song “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys (the same song he did the Twist to). Yes, I understand that singing to Barbara Ann is just repeating his word for “ball” over and over again but the important thing is that he’s starting to hear and repeat sounds. He’s also started making “complete” babbling sentences so that we can hear him in the backseat or in his crib having an entire conversation with himself full of “ba’s, da’s, ma’s, etc.). And, today, on a whim, we decided to try and teach him the sign for “water.” He started signing it immediately (his version looks more like blowing kisses than the traditional sign language for water but it will pass) and spent the rest of the day making the sign when he was thirsty.  So, he’s not walking but he is starting to communicate with us and that has been really cool.