Stuology

Jay’s Development Process

May 12th, 2010By: Mellystu Comments 1

Jay does development milestones in one big burst. It took forever for him to crawl. He didn’t even really try. Then one day, I went into the living room and Jay was gone. I started yelling his name and was at the slight panic stage when he popped his head out from between the sofa and the wall^*.

He did the same thing with walking. He would cruise for a small amount using the sofa to stabilize him, but he wouldn’t let go to take even one step. He never did that take a few steps, fall down, get back up, take a few more steps, fall down … ad infinitum. One day, a Friday, he was standing in front of the sofa, he turned, looked at me, let go and then walked through the kitchen, back around the back of the sofa and into his bedroom.

The same for climbing. I never really saw him try to climb anything. Then one day while I was working at the kitchen sink, I turned around and yelled to Mac, “Did you put Jay on the table?” His answer was of course, no.

I can tell a similar story to talking. He went from 1-2 words to 5-6 word sentences in about a week. He was later than usual to start, but once he did, he zoomed right ahead of his age.

I always joked that we need to be careful because one day we’ll look out the window and see nothing but his tiny hands on top of the steering wheel as our car drives down the street^**.

Well, he hit his next milestone this past week. After fighting it and screaming if you tried to put underwear on him and if I was lucky to get underwear on him having him pee his pants and not care and refusing to let me change it, he finally decided he would like to be housebroken. He’s decided that suddenly he can be dry all night long. We’ve had small accidents this week, but very small. He’s content to just let me know when he has to go to the bathroom. Except for nighttime and when I know I’m going to be somewhere without easy access to a bathroom, he’s in underwear. I am so incredibly happy about this, you have no idea. Unless you are a parent, and then you know exactly how I feel. This makes putting him back in daycare less stressful because everybody requires, or strongly desires, the kids to be housebroken by age three.

This will probably be his biggest milestone next to buckling his own self in his car seat, and he doesn’t do a bad job at assisting at that. Perhaps the car driving milestone so I don’t have to be his chauffeur anymore. At least when he can see over the steering wheel. I’d feel marginally better with him on the road once he can see over the steering wheel.

*Of course, I left him there so I could get a camera. Heh.

**I have, after missing him for too long, found him in the garage in the car trying to “drive.” He didn’t make it out of the garage due to lack of keys, but I don’t know how he got in the car. He hasn’t displayed any prior ability to open the door. But that’s Jay. He won’t show his hand at all until he has perfected his plan.