Today I was playing with the little guy and it became clear to me that he is less interested in grabbing at objects now.  As I sat there I started to question myself, to ask if I have been doing something wrong – and now he will never grab anything with the dexterity he needs.   Surely by now, 4,5 months, he should be able to pick up things like an adult, right?  My mind was spinning.

I remembered something I have been reading in virtually every resource: every child develops differently, and sometimes it is ahead of the curve (like the little guy sitting up and grabbing things at 3,5 months, his current verbal recognition, and his overall awareness), sometimes it is behind, and sometimes it goes on a “plateau” before advancing (like his current grabbing and sitting up without help).  And as every parent hopes for, sometimes it is right on track – like his current progress towards crawling and love of some books.

So after this little self-reminder, I was able to stop, put things into perspective and allow myself to breath.  After all, these things are a roller coaster of constant change.  Of course there is always the potential that this afternoon he just didn’t feel like grabbing anything I put in front of him, so maybe I freaked out for no reason.  After all, he certainly has no problem grabbing my wife and my clothes and hair, and the book when I read to him, and so on.  So maybe I just need to relax and quit worrying (is that possible?) 😉