Of Being Held Back

I know every child is different and it's useless to compare them.  But I find myself contrasting how our behavior is affecting our children's development at different rates.

Clearly, Micaiah was our first child.  She was one of the last in a "round" of babies in our church - two months later than the next closest.  Therefore, as I watched the other babies grow and meet new milestones, I assumed Micaiah wouldn't be far behind - so when other kids were sitting up, I would prop Micaiah up with pillows so she could learn.  If they were pushing toys, I gave her toys to push.  Not that I had unrealistic expectations, it was more of a naivete - I didn't know when she was "supposed" to do things so I always figured, "Why not try and see?" and more often than not, she surprised us.  It's true, she was "late" with the crawling and the walking - but that didn't really bother me.

As she was gifted educational toys that were technically out of her age range we let her play with them early because we figured eventually she'd know what she was doing with them.  When I read you could start a baby with cereal at four months, Micaiah started at four months.  I suppose I was just eager to get her to each new stage.

And then came Emmett. 

Now I'm too busy keeping up with his big sister I fail to notice that he's already at certain stages.  I forgot to lay him on the floor to give him the chance to learn to roll over.  I forgot that just laying him down while I do other things won't allow much opportunity to learn to sit.  At five and a half months he's still playing with the basic rattle and teether his sister outgrew long before she was his age.  At this point she was playing with her LeapFrog animal (Letters with Lulu) and Petey the Penguin (who's a little like a Weeble Wobble - a really big Weeble Wobble).  She was holding books (and chewing them very well).  I don't even give him a chance with any of these.  I think almost every other day (or every two or three days at least) that it's probably time to start cereals . . . and then I figure we'll do that next week - until we're now two weeks away from crunch time (six months is when they actually need supplementation from other sources of nutrition - gulp).

So, it's not that I'm concerned about his development, necessarily, I'm concerned that our neglect is holding him back from greatness. 

So today, I pulled out Lulu and gave Emmett the chance to gnaw on her leg.  He seemed to enjoy the opportunity to play with big kid toys.  His sister, however, had different feelings about his new-found love for her play things. 

Darned if I do, darned if I don't ;)