Around the time that Babby turned 4 months old, I hauled the exersaucer that a friend gave us out of the storage space. I was desperate for new Babby entertainment. I took some of the gewgaws off, so Babby wouldn’t get bored of the toys all at once, and plunked him in. He loved it. He would spin and spin and spin the spinny toy while squealing with glee.
Then he would stand up in his excitement, and… topple backwards.
Once he had leaned back, he had no idea how to reach the toy, and he would make a few futile arm-stretches before bursting into frustrated tears.
For the first little while, I would have to repeatedly come back to the seat and prop him back up against the front of the saucer, so he could reach his toys.
Then, one day a couple of weeks ago, a lightbulb went on inside his head.
There are some milestones so trivial that no baby book logs them, and no internet resource advises you about it. They are so trivial that you don’t even think of them as milestones, unless you are a first-time mother watching her baby figure it out for the first time.
These milestones are so trivial that you can’t very well call your friends and start bragging about it, because they’ll think you’re totally batty and spend too much time alone (both are probably true).
There are only two people in the world who will share my excitement about something this ridiculous, I thought. So I picked up my cell and sent Perfect Husband a text message. Then I picked up the land line and called my mother.
“Guess what? BABBY JUST FIGURED OUT HOW TO LEAN FORWARD!”
If By Yes 