Movin' on up

Spring is just around the corner, and I am welcoming the days without coats, breezy nights and lots of outdoor time. Now that two (!!) of Akira’s teeth have finally surfaced, I’m hoping we can all have a little break from the irritability and sleeplessness and move on to something new and exciting that has just happened—crawling! Well, sort of.
At 6-and-a-half months, our little boy is completely comfortable rolling around in his crib or on a blanket on the floor. He’s also starting to get the hang of sitting up (assisted and supported, of course), and it’s adorable to watch him hold himself up so proudly. Now, he’s taking it to the next level. The kid can get on all fours and rock back and forth! It’s hilarious.
He also manages to get around the bedroom by either rolling around or scooting backwards. That’s right—this kid moves backwards. He hasn’t quite figured out how to properly crawl moving forward, but he has absolutely no problem moving in the opposite direction. It’s sometimes hilarious to find that he’s managed to crawl up to his crib with half of his body under it and when he’s caught, he’s both happy and frustrated at what he’s done. As awesome as this milestone is, I have to admit that his sudden mobility is both exciting and terrifying to me.
It’s exciting because it means that I can put him on the floor and go about my day doing what I need to do at home. I can cook dinner or put away laundry knowing that he can pretty much entertain himself because everywhere he goes is like a new frontier for him. Yet, it scares me just as much because it is confirmation that this kid is just continuing to grow up. And growing up is bittersweet. Sure, he’s still tiny, but I can already feel that in a flash, he will be jumping and running circles around all of us at home.
Watching both my kids grow up before my very eyes is a surreal experience. On one hand, it’s kind of unnoticeable—all their physical changes and growth spurts—because I’m with them all the time. But then on the other hand, I look back on the photos Jesse and I have taken or the blog posts I’ve written and their changes are monumental.
In the photos we took of Akira right when he was born, he looked so fresh and new, small and a little weak, even though at the time he felt huge for a newborn and solid in his weight. Now? Of course he’s still a baby, but he looks like a boy. A real, live boy. One look at him, and it’s as though we can tell what his personality is already. It shines through in his smile and laugh. His relentless determination in what he does, whether it’s his demand for food or his nap-time fight, is telling of what is to come later on down the road.