One Small Step

Well, it finally happened. After months of anticipation, our 16-month-old daughter has finally graduated from four limbs to two. She is now functionally bi-pedal, with the ability to walk/lurch forward, stop on a dime and gradually rotate (always with an intense look of apprehension or glee on her face).

This milestone is especially momentous given the amount of collective angst my family has suffered over the past few months watching other tots (many of whom were months younger) waddle away in public, and garnering such “medical advice” as orders for CT scans and all-day “motor development training courses” (a handy source of revenue) at several of Beijing’s fine medical institutions.

For now I can’t help but indulge in a little self-vindication for consistently maintaining to my in-laws, tut-tutting grannies and panhandling medical professionals that infant/toddler development is not a race – every kid develops at her own pace and measuring them up against a set of outdated and arbitrary standards is futile at best.

So there.

And now, on to the next phase: conditioning my lower back muscles for a year of chasing Marianne around hunched over.