I Didn’t Know…

I didn’t know how much joy watching Elijah crawl would bring me. I could speculate, but I just couldn’t imagine it. He cruises around exploring his world as if he’d been doing it his entire life. He’s learning to touch the walls and feel and learn about the world around him. It’s amazing.

It makes me recall something I saw on TV when Elijah was still quite small. I was flipping through the channels and I stopped momentarily on a reality show. I’m not even sure what the show was and I honestly only watched it for a few moments. The show featured a baby and I watched with amazement at how easily she moved, gracefully shifting herself from the floor to a sitting position with ease and then taking a few crawling steps.

“Oh,” the mom said. “She’s never done that before.” I sat there in front of my TV in shock. Is that how parents react to their child’s first crawling steps? I wondered. No accolades? No excitement?

I couldn’t watch it any longer and so I turned the channel. At that point, I didn’t know if my son would ever crawl and I was disgusted by the nonchalant attitude. Isn’t it a miracle when any child learns a new skill –especially when it’s something as profound as crawling?

As I watch Elijah, I’m filled with amazement over the things he can do and I try to ignore the things he cannot. I’ve already become accustomed to some of the things he can do – sitting, transitioning…and I see myself having the same reaction as the mom on that TV show I saw long ago. “Oh, yep…he has gotten himself to sitting again.” I’m still amazed at his crawling skills, but at some point I suppose I’ll look at him and think, “Oh, there he goes again” with a nonchalant attitude. But, I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to forget all he has accomplished and the things he has overcome. I don’t want to forget that my son might have never gagged, cried, sat, or crawled. I don’t want to forget the parents who are still waiting for those things. I don’t want to forget and I hope I never do.

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