A Tiny Teenager Climbing Tiny Mountains

It’s cliche to say, but my baby is growing up faster than the speed of light. He’s basically a tiny teenager. A lot of emotions come with that, of course. Happy ones and sad ones.

I’m sad that I can’t swaddle and hold him like a burrito. I’m happy and excited that he’s learning new things. Speaking of new things, Benji is walking! Seeing him walk those first steps will be something I hold close to my heart forever. It’s a huge milestone because once that happened, he started to look less like baby and more like a toddler.

Brian’s face says it all.

It also means he needs me a little less. If he wants to get something across the room, he can walk over to it. He doesn’t need me to get it for him. This feeling will come and go in huge waves. It’s safe to say that I’m not ready for that. :-(

I’m fortunate that I don’t need to encourage him to walk. Like at all. He started army crawling around 6 months and I had a feeling that he wouldn’t need extra encouragement to walk (Spoiler: I was right). He was almost 10 months for his first steps!

I hope I don’t discourage mamas who are struggling with this. The mountains in our life look forever high and impossible to climb. With raising kiddos, those mountains look even higher because we have a responsibility to raise little humans with high expectations. Whenever I feel discouraged about a so-call missed milestone, I try to remember how quickly things change and to keep our pediatrician in the loop with worrisome items. Before I know it, I’ll be raising an actual teenager who can get himself around with a car. If you are a mama with a teenager, do you remember stress-caused by baby milestones? I would guess not because you have a new “mountain” to climb, right?

Anyways, I hope you enjoy these happy walking pictures. They put a HUGE smile on my face. If you have a “mountain”, tell someone about it. Drop in the comments below, call your mom, talk about it over dinner with your spouse, etc. Let’s get through it together.

His newest bedtime lovey, Kuku. He’s small and has great wings for him to nuzzle.

Sleepy papa. I think I can do a whole series on Brian sleeping next to Benji.

Snacks.