Milestones?

I'm not what you would call a hugely competitive person; I don't like being the last person chosen for the team, but I don't have to be the first person, either. Somewhere in the upper 25% is usually OK with me.

So it's been a bit of a surprise to me how crochety I can get when I feel like the Hatchling isn't hitting her milestones when she's "supposed" to. It's sooooooooo dumb, right? I mean, a) the range of when you're "supposed" to hit milestones is so wide as to be near meaningless, and b) you only have to be in the Hatchling's presence for about a nanosecond to know that she's completely fine, developmentally speaking. But it doesn't matter. I just take one look at a BabyCenter.com chart on 12-month old skills and I'm off into paranoid-mommyland. 12-month-olds are supposed to have two or three words?!?! Crap! The Hatchling talks all the time, but is any of that words? Sometimes she says mama or dada, but it rarely seems to be directed at me or Mr. Squab ... She's started saying "hi" in a way that occasionally makes sense - does that count? WHO CARES? God knows I shouldn't, but I occasionally have to get someone else to talk me down and remind me that in ten years I'll have a happy 11-year-old daughter with a full head of hair, a full vocabulary, and actual underpants. Oy.

Having said all that, I must report that we hit a definite, for-real milestone this weekend: the Hatchline took her first official unassisted steps. Like six of them, from her aunt to her daddy. Of course, she's resolutely declined to repeat the episode since then, but we all witnessed it: she can do it if she wants to. Suck on THAT, BabyCenter.com.