Babies, Growing and Two Wheelers

You have a baby. That baby is small. The littlest things that baby does are noteworthy. Like, say, lying on the floor with her eyes open. You think she may even be looking at you. Exciting times!

It happens slowly, almost without your notice, but that baby grows. And grows and grows and grows. After a few months of growing, she develops enough hand-eye coordination to reach out and grab a toy. You are a first time parent, so you pull out your video camera and capture the moment.

And then, that baby grows even more. She starts doing things like rolling over and crawling and pulling herself up to standing. At some point, she’s even big enough that she can walk holding on to a push toy. Once again, you pull out the video camera. You take the job of documenting a childhood seriously, yo.

Does that baby stop growing? No, she does not. In fact, soon she’s grown so much that she’s now a toddler. She takes her first steps, and her second steps, and her third steps. But for a while, she mostly prefers to crawl. After all, she’s gotten pretty good at that. But that doesn’t last long, and one day she puts her mind to it and just starts walking. What do you do? That’s right, you pull out the video camera.

From here on in, the growing just picks up steam. Your child sails through toddlerhood and preschoolerdom. Along the way she learns important life skills like using the potty and sharing and (dare to dream!) sleeping for more than three hours at a stretch. Eventually she’s grown so much that she starts school, and the learning just explodes. She picks up letters and numbers. She learns to swim and pump on the swing. She starts to read simple books. And then, one day, she ups the ante. Walking isn’t good enough for her anymore – she’s ready to ride.

How did we get from that teeny-tiny baby to here? I had a front row seat for the whole thing, and I’m still not entirely sure. All I know is that I hope she doesn’t ride away too quickly.

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