Things that wouldn't strike you as examples of learned behaviour

The musician tunes his instrument...

Back when I was pregnant and trying to imagine what life with my new baby would be like, I always conceived of it in terms of all the different milestones (or Milostones, heh) he or she would experience during the process of developing from a newborn to child.

I wondered what it would be like to play with Sitting Up Baby, to chase after Crawling Baby and wipe sweet potato off the chin of Learning to Eat Baby. I imagined how magical it would be to stretch out on the day bed and cuddle with Breastfeeding Baby. I anticipated how happy I'd be to meet Sleeping Through The Night Baby, how excited I'd be to be able to chat with Saying First Words Baby, and how throat-chokingly awestruck I'd be to watch the accomplishments of Taking First Steps Baby.

What I never appreciated was how many different stages of development there'd be, or how surprising most of them would be. I mean, who would have thought that shivering when cold or being capable of being tickled were acquired skills?

Milo has gone through countless incarnations while learning all these new abilities over the past four months. Just this week, for example, he has become:

• Biting Lower Lip Milo
  
  
• Exploring One Foot With The Other Milo
  
  
• Puckering Up To Whistle Like Gramma and Poppa Milo
  

...and, last but most certainly not least,

• Staying at Home With Grammy and Grampy Without Freaking While Mom and Dad Go Out To Trip The Light Fantastic Milo.
  

I'm sure you can imagine how happy Rob and I were to meet that last incarnation... Much as we adore our son and love getting to know all him in all his different guises, still, sometimes it's still fun to be able to go out and play with the big kids.