Meeting milestones?

Lately I’ve been kind of down about Skyler’s development. I know she has an acceptable excuse, but it’s still kind of frustrating when I see other babies younger than her that can do so much more physically than her. I’ve seen a few lately, and they seem so much older than Skyler in the way they act and move. Babies her age are rolling over, sitting up, putting weight on their legs to practice for standing up, and saying lots of alphabet sounds. Skyler can only roll from back to front, and she has a limited set of vowel sounds that she says and mostly just raspberries, so I guess those are “p’s” and “b’s.” And that’s about it!

I will say she is great with her hands. She loves to hold on to anything, pass things back and forth from left to right and vice versa, and is always grabbing for anything she can get her hands on. And I think she is acutely aware of everything going on around her. I can’t get her to focus on eating her bottle if Ronnie is in another room talking to us. She is twisting and turning looking for where is voice is coming from. When it’s just us playing and I hear Ronnie pull in the driveway, I say “Daddy’s home!” and her eyes light up and she kicks her legs really fast. She knows at least that something good is about to happen. Finally, I think she’s got an ear for music. When I sing to her she gets really excited, and sometimes I think she even tries to sing along!

As a result of her heart condition and surgery recovery, I have to accept that she is going to be a good month or two behind all the other kids for awhile. I know I should also try and be happy about it, because that is longer that my baby can be just that, a baby. I don’t want to wish her age away, but I’m also really looking forward to new ways that we can play together. Laying on her back has got to be getting really old – there’s just only so many toys she can play with like that!