On a roll

I could blame the dearth of recent posts on many things: end-of-semester crunch for A, respiratory season making work incredibly draining, the madness of Christmas (shopping, parties, family get-togethers, etc), or sleep-training a five-month-old. Mostly that last one, and there's plenty of fodder there for its own post. But it will have to wait until some other time.

Because today! Today she rolled over! Back to front! All on her own! You guys, I was so excited I think I scared her with how loudly I yelled, "You did it!" It was several minutes before the grin faded from my face. Although I wished I could have had a video to send to Daddy, I loved that I got to be entirely present for the momentous occasion, because I wasn't expecting it at all.

We have been working on back-to-front for several weeks now. She mastered front-to-back long ago, because who wants tummy time when you can eat your feet? But I was beginning to think I'd have to trudge into her six-month visit hanging my head because she wasn't meeting her milestones on time. I could easily blame her presumably heavy 99th percentile head, or take solace in the fact that she has already developed object permanence (as she flings her toy off the high chair tray and then leans over to look for it), but she wasn't rolling, and every pediatrics intern has memorized that rolling both ways should come by six months.

I'm sure there will be milestones she doesn't meet on time, and others she flies past because she is, after all, her mother's daughter. But it probably won't have much to do with me and how much I try to motivate her. Because, that whole mother's daughter thing? Means she's stubborn too. And will do things in her own time I'm sure. And it will be perfect, just the way it is. I can't imagine watching her spell her name, or tie her shoes, or ride a bike, or score a goal, or graduate high school. The amount of pride I felt just at watching her roll over made me about burst. #therewillbetears #andallthekleenexes

Makes up for all the times I want to give her back because she wants to play at 3:30 in the morning.