Better late than never.
Of February 3rd, Grace is 6 months old. Apparently, this is "the BEST age." Everyone says it. I can't help but think though that every age Grace has been was the BEST. Every day she does something new, and though there are more (recognizable) milestones at 6 months, it doesn't make any of the others any less notable. Like the first time she looked into my eyes and recognized that I am her mother. Or the first time she smiled, laughed, rolled over, tracked my movements with her eyes, picked up a toy... Six months is bringing much more advancement and progress--sitting, crawling, "talking;" and though these milestones are a bit more drama-laden ("GASP--Did you SEE what she just DID?!) than some barely perceptible eye-movements, I do not want to lose sight of how momentous those small milestones were. She's amazing now. But she was amazing then too.
So to celebrate the so-called birthdy of milestones, Grace and I took a trip to our local library. Foolishly, I didn't take any pictures. But I suppose this was more of a milestone for me than for Grace as I began to indoctrinate her with a love of borrowed books--the way the feel in their smooth dustcovers, the way they look all lined up on shelves upon shelves, even the way they smell. We toured the library under the librarian's watchful (yet smiling) gaze, looked up some books on the electronic catalog (a computer with a prominent sign reading: NO CHAT ROOMS--AND MYSPACE.COM IS A CHATROOM! Really?! I guess some forms of literacy are more valued than others. That's another blog for another day.) Then we sat on the floor in the children's corner and began reading. I can't remember exactly what we read. I believe one of the book's was Delores's Birthday, a Little Nutbrown Hare book about colors, and we began an Amelia Bedilia book but Grace bored of that quickly.
Grace spent some time crawling around on the floor and I wondered if a baby had ever crawled on the floor there before? It was probably dirty, but I didn't mind. Six-month-old Grace is an explorer. She seemed more intrigued by the pattern in the carpet than by all the books, I'm not going to lie. Maybe she was thinking, "Hey Mama, did you see this carpet!? The books are great, but Ma, There's a whole city down here!"
Six-month old Grace reminds us not to miss the trees for the forest (or the pattern in the carpet for the big stone building)--to pay attention to the little things. Big milestones are great, but we can't forget to pay attention to the barely perceptible ones--it's in these quiet moments of exploration that Grace is learning. And if we pay really close attention, we might just learn something too.
