Day 293: We're on the move!

Crawling is not considered a milestone.

A lot of babies never crawl.

They all do things in their own time.

All of this is entirely true, I know. But still I've worried about Maddie's complete lack of interest in crawling. And so imagine my delight when last week she got herself up on all fours and started motoring around the living room. In my excitement I called my mom and think I said something along the lines of, "This is the best day of my life!" So now that the immediate post-crawl glow has worn off I can see that perhaps that statement was a bit of an exaggeration. But it is pretty cool.

I am realizing that being a mom to a crawling baby is a whole different job. It's like she's a wrecking crew and I just trail behind her cleaning up her mess and making sure she doesn't knock down anything important. And there's no more hiding from her. I admit I used to plop her down in the living room - yes, in front of the tv - and then escape to the kitchen for 15 minutes to get stuff done. Now she just hunts me down, slapping her little hands against the floor, grunting the whole time. Sometimes her arms give out and she face plants, which doesn't make her happy at all. I told her she needs to up the weights at the gym. The key is in the repetitions. Speaking of which...

I've been trying to drag myself out to the gym more often these days. I recently realized that Maddie has been out in the real world as long as she was inside of me. The theory goes that it takes 9 months to put the weight on so you get 9 months to lose it. Will someone please tell that to my jiggly thighs? (And how the hell did they get fat in the first place? I don't recall them performing any important function during the whole process.) In a way I don't feel as bad about myself as I did before I had Maddie, because at least now there is a good excuse for my belly. However, I can see that the excuse - "I had a baby!" - is starting to wear thin. I have visions of myself saying it when Mads is off at University; somehow I think it wouldn't carry the same weight (no pun intended). I'm going to jump up on my soapbox for one minute to say that as women we face unbelievable pressure to be thin and lovely our whole lives. The girdles, control top pantyhose, gym memberships, the dreaded bathing suit season... it's exhausting. And we judge ourselves as harshly as anyone else could do it. It makes me sad to think that one day Maddie will question her own beauty and worth. But I have to say, it is so nice to have this little person in your life who you know doesn't notice and doesn't care about your extra 5 (okay, 10... fine, 13!) pounds. I know the day will come when the mere sight of me makes her shudder with embarassment, but for now I am perfect because I am mommy. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!