Mixed emotions

I think this is the first of many moments of mixed feelings as a parent. B has been working on his crawling/scooting skills a lot recently and he has finally had a breakthrough. No, he is not officially crawling, thank god. He is still only able to move backwards but he has suddenly become quite proficient at moving backwards. This is supposed to frustrate babies and motivate them to learn how to move forwards and towards all of their toys. That is not what is happening to my little innovator though.

In addition to backwards movement, he is also quite adept at breakdancing. He can spin around on his belly a full 360 and just keep going. Neither of these skills is particularly useful on their own which is where his breakthrough enters. He has figured out that he can combine these sweet moves to get himself wherever he needs to go. Who needs to move forward? One 180 spin + backwards moving + another 180 spin = forward motion.

After spreading his mess far beyond his once well defined play space he returns for a moment with Marcus. I imagine they are thinking, "We are going to ruin this house! Mwahahaha."

Just as his realization can be represented by a simple equation, so too can my feelings about it. Pride in his ingenuity + dread and fear about how this new ability makes my life harder = what I believe to be the standard reaction to one's child achieving a new milestone.

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