On Hands and Knees

I still get those BabyCenter emails every week, talking about where Baby should be at whatever point in time that I'm reading their chronological baby timelines. What those bits of advice usually do is remind me of how below average Baby is, at least in terms of where he is in his locomotion evolution. An average baby will begin crawling around 8 months. Baby is at about 9 1/2 months, and has the strength, the poise, and the form, but he still doesn't know how to move his legs to propel his tubby body forward. He can go in reverse, and turn left and right on a dime, but this model seems to lack any forward acceleration.

Until last Thursday, that is, when I get a phone call at the office from Mommy to report that Baby is finally crawling...

What, no touch screen or 3G support?

Yes, it took some time a little beyond the "average" for him to hit the rug on all fours, but as a parent, always keep in mind that everything about babies is about averages and percentiles, and no number can be concretely tied to development or growth. Where Baby was at the lower end of the spectrum for crawling, we met a baby girl who was walking at 6 months. (The average age for walking is one year.) Baby is 50th percentile in weight, but he's wearing clothes for a two year old. Don't let emails, books, charts, and averages worry you too much - they're just guidelines, and just like adults, every baby will be different.

I'm hoping the average age a baby can hold a game controller is coming up soon.