My mother-in-law (who graciously takes care of our daughter 3 days a week so that I can work: thank you!) has made a prediction that our now 8 month old daughter will be walking before she’s 10 months old. Our daughter’s intent on motion – at 6 1/2 months she was scooting/crawling backwards and content nearly only when standing. At 7 1/2 months, she figured out how forward works, and has been taking full advantage of it ever since.

The problem is that I’m just getting used to having a baby who moves from where you put her. It used to be, you could put her down and be fairly certain that she’d stay within a few feet of where you put her. Within the past couple of days, though, she’s figured out that she can crawl to where you are. I’m having trouble adapting. I used to put her down somwhere in sight of whatever it was I wanted to accomplish, give her a toy, and then happily do whatever it was that needed to get done but couldn’t have a baby in the mix (lots of things involving cleaning products fit into this category). The idea of her walking and all the various things that that’ll impact are just frightening! I have some basic idea of what it’ll mean, but I’m certain it hasn’t hit home yet.

We want our child to grow up, to experience and learn new things. It’s all happening very quickly, though, and I’m just not keeping up! I just get used to how things work at one stage, and she’s off and running (figuratively, for now) to the next thing. I have this fear that I’m going to wish my baby was still at some particular stage (I can actually see this wish coming), and that that’s going to convince me that we ought to have another child. Never mind that the logical side of my brain says that babies/kids are a whole lot of work, that my patience level isn’t what I’d hoped it’d be, that two kids are probably more than twice as hard as one kid. Some part of me will want to have a snuggly baby who can’t move more than a few inches away from where I put her.

So, the prediction is that she’ll walk before 10 months. Today’s her 8 month birthday. I’m scared.