all the people who tell me that girls are so mellow

Ours sure isn't. Sara's favorite thing when she's excited is to shriek with glee already, and she's only 13 months. She leans down, curls her little fists, and makes a sound that, come to think of it, is a little bit like "Mwah haha!" But higher-pitched.

And she's already running, for pete's sake. And the best game ever is throwing things off her high chair. Not dropping, throwing. Not. Mellow. At. All.

Beej, I'll keep you in mind if I ever do need an animal communicator. I have the mud issue resolved by the expedient of grabbing his feet one by one and brushing them with the boar's bristle brush until most of the mud came off. He then got the idea, settled down on my lap and got some more mud out from between his toes. Ah well, that's what jeans are for, no?

Early walkers run in my family

ha ha! Susan made a funny.

DH and his bro both walked at 9 months. My MiL kept threatening me with this knowledge. It turns out to not have had much influence on Frances.

It seems like the strongest influence on her development is her peers. Almost all of the babies in her daycare started walking about a week after their first birthday. And since the babies and the toddlers are kept in different classes, most of the children don't start speaking until they transition over to toddlers at 18 months. True to form, Frances doesn't usually speak very much, although she definitely understands much of what is being said. I'm guessing her language skills will "miraculously" explode once she moves to the room where the kids are talking all the time.

I'm guessing her language skills will "miraculously" explode once she moves to the room where the kids are talking all the time.

I tend to subscribe to this theory. Emmett's first daycare (3 months to one year) he was the only baby, surrounded by 2 y.o.s I think that really made him move around and walk earlier.

Peer pressure. It starts so early these days. Sigh.

Peer pressure. It starts so early these days. Sigh.

If it weren't for peer pressure nobody would be potty trained.

I don't think I walked until well after the 1 year mark (probably just as well considering how clumsy I am at it now). But apparently I started speaking at 6 months and was stringing crude sentences together at 12.

And I should probably go back to ignoring the books.

Not a parent, but this seems to make sense. There's not much point to it, as far as I can tell, other than making moms feel inadequate. I mean, doctors and stuff would let one know if there are developmental issues, right?

I don't know what I'm talking about though.

If it weren't for peer pressure nobody would be potty trained.

Or sibling rivalry. I supposedly was walking at 9 months and potty trained around my first birthday because I wanted to keep up with my brother who is 15 months older than me.

If it weren't for peer pressure nobody would be potty trained.

I dunno. I think eventually, sitting around with a load of your own poop in your pants has got to get old.