Ages and Stages

I feel like, with a second child, it's a whole new set of "milestones". I honestly couldn't tell you the first time Malachi rolled over. I didn't notice, despite the fact that I have Zeke's first time written down to the day.

And I dont have any exact date for crawling with Mal either. It's so gradual, what counts? Josh said any forward movement. But I always thought that was cheating. With Zeke we decided to count 3 "steps" in a row without falling or stopping as officially crawling. But again, with Mal? No one was watching him that closely.

When he started crawling over to the dvd player/computer/any blinking light and turning it off it felt like a whole new stage, though. I thought "I remember this"; It's the "I can crawl and also I love to push buttons" stage. He is pretty dang proud of himself every time he does it, and it wont stop for at least 6 months.


And this stage? I remember this. Quantity over quality, I call it. Zeke liked to have 200 spoons when he did this, but Mal prefers the house binky collection. Since both boys were pretty fond of binkies, and both boys were very particular about brand and style (and liked different brands and styles from each other) we have quite a few. Mal likes to find "his" and separate them from the bunch. They have to be Nuks, with the handle, 6 month size, and silicone nipples. He tastes each one and all the Mam brand, newborn size, handle-less, and rubber nippled binkies get thrown off the tray until he only has the "perfect" ones left.

Then we start over.

As a second-born he gets to do whole-new stages, though, that Zeke never did. Like "do everything I can to annoy my big brother" and "throw a fit every time I can't do something my brother can". Can anyone tell me when THAT stage ends? 18? 25?

Zeke is also onto new things. Giving me an insight into what to look forward to with Mal in a year in a half.

Like tantrums whenever we leave....anywhere.

And on a brighter note, telling me stories. They always begin "Whoah Look!" And then he proceeds to tell me all about the owl he saw in our tree. It was looking for its babies! It was saying "whoo whoo whoo". Or the dog. It was in the sky. It was digging in the dirt (in the sky?). It was green and it was sooo big. Then a hippo came. And IT played in the dirt. And they were friends.

His language has just exploded. Last night before bed he told Josh that he wanted to "party all night". I would blame Josh on that one but he asked ME where Zeke learned it.

Maybe he's just a natural rock star?