Last Thursday morning Tebow managed to flip from his back to his belly. He had only been trying to do it since Wednesday, so I was surprised he did it so quickly. He hasn’t actually accomplished it on his own since, but I thought it was pretty cool. And then I started doing something I think all parents do when the children in their home equal more than 1… I started to wonder when Fuller flipped over for the first time.

Apparently it was around the same age as Tebow. I started digging around in our archives and was surprised to learn (or is it remember?) Tebow is a much bigger kid than Fuller was.

By wondering when/ where/ how Tebow compares to Fuller could lead to such a slippery slope. Tebow is still so young, there isn’t much to compare yet. Plus, there are some stark differences in how we have been parenting Tebow (exclusive nursing, more babywearing, swaddling, back to sleep, I’m not working), so it could make it easy to dismiss any milestone differences because of the parenting variable. Then when you look at the personality differences, there is a second variable. It makes me think how silly it would be to compare my boys, and yet, I struggle not to do it.

Then there is the flip side. Since I already have one kid who has done this, that, and the other, I can tell myself it isn’t a big deal if Tebow isn’t acting in the same way. If Fuller hadn’t done it by this point, then I can tell myself to chill the heck out.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but it is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. But at the same time, I’m delighting in them both these days. Their age difference allows me the joy of rediscovering what the infant milestones are. And seeing Fuller expand his world by all he is learning, it makes my heart glow with excitement.

It’s an exciting thing, this parenting. I think, regardless of when and how they get to be grown ups, I’m definitely enjoying myself right now.

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