Human Development: suprising baby stages list

Everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Everyone, from somewhere in their consciousness, can pick out the stages of a baby’s development. Right?

Milestones such as:
Birth
Sleeping through the night
Crawling
Solid foods
Walking
Talking
Etc.

Any book, article, parent Facebook post easily covers these important stages. It’s everywhere. Even someone who doesn’t have kids knows that sleeping through the night is a key milestone, (more so for the parents than the wee babe)!

You know what? There are so many more stages. Our first child is over a year old now, and I marvel at the past year. I wasn’t ready for the whining stage, or the crumbs everywhere stage. We’ve already hit an, albeit minor, version of the terrible twos. Every once in a while, she prostrates herself on the ground. Luckily, we’ve not seen any head banging. Yet. Usually she’s prostrate because she hasn’t gotten what she wants, but sometimes we have no idea what’s upsetting her.

I can’t really blame her. These micro stages are natural and normal, and a lot less work for her than the major stages of development. It sure is an adjustment for us, though! When I first started feeding her solid foods, the main new workplace challenge was Bib Supply Chain Management. Just to manage the bib inventory, it got to the point where Erik and I would compete over who could feed Becks with the least mess. “No goop went lower than the chin!” was the first triumph. Then, we topped it with “no mess on the bib; we can re-use THIS one!” But the most accomplished among us (can you guess who this wonder of a person may be?) could feed our little angel without exterior evidence at all. “No goop on the face! Beat THAT!”  I’m not competitive. I just hate to loose. 😉

It’s a little daunting and a little rewarding and a lot of work. Yes, for the child, but also, for the parent. And if you’re bored with baby (because they finally are sitting on their own and it will be months of waiting before they crawl), never fear!  A new stage of development will soon be here.

(This post was originally drafted in 2014 for MissMaryClare.wordpress.com and published in August 2015.)