Talked to a friend yesterday, who is very excited because her first baby is on the verge of crawling. Poor thing. I don't think she understood when I offered my deepest condolences. She just doesn't realize, as a practical matter, just how much the difficulty factor of parenting increases when the little beasts get mobile. She's still in that blissfully unknowing state where she thinks this is merely additional evidence of little Jane's healthy growth, skill advancement and overall perfection. She isn't aware (and parenting journals are silent on the issue) of the metamorphosis that occurs at this point in a baby's life.
For one, they become turbocharged. They can suddenly navigate across a room, house, yard or street far faster than an adult human can run. I've seen speeds from Mach 2 to light speed reported, and I believe them. She'll learn soon enough, I'm sure. One day she'll be sitting there, fondly watching Jane in the middle of the room playing with her toys, and the phone will ring. She'll turn around for a split second to answer it, and look back to an empty room. A frantic search will ensue. She will find Jane, and suddenly learn of other changes. You could always tell when my little brother had exhibited this startling trait because you would hear my mother scrambling around yelling, "Wesley? Wesley?? WESLEY????" with a rising note of urgency in her voice.
Her little darling's arms can now stretch to reach anything. Anywhere. And her little fingers, in true Inspector Gadget style, can change into any tool needed to defeat any babyproofing device or pick any lock known to man. And with her unerring inborn baby radar, she will invariably home in on the most dangerous or most nasty activity available at the moment. Jane's mommy may not yet be aware that the dog had an "accident" behind the couch, but Jane sure does! As you could always tell when my little brother had pulled his vanishing act, you could also tell, in every corner of the house, when my mother had caught up with him. The anguished wail of "OH WESLEY!!!!!!!" was unmistakable. We all knew, when we heard that wail, that it was time to fade quietly away, as there was a BIG mess somewhere that was going to need cleaning and mother was going to be busy cleaning that mess off the baby.
Mother wound up on tranqualizers. Oh yes. Jane's mommy will understand. Very soon. Poor thing.