The Youngling is fast approaching 15 months of age and I'm surprised by this. No, not because of my shoddy parenting, lack of experience or my hands-off approach towards child care but instead I'm surprised by the milestones and how they just seem to blend in to the day to day happenings. It's not that I expected party horns to go off or confetti to drop from the ceiling each time she did something new and impressive but I thought that these milestones would stand out more to me.

I do remember a few things like when her birthday is because that day was rather long. I also remember her first unassisted steps (New Year's Eve). However, when asked by my wife when she said her first word and when it was, I could only answer half of the question with some degree of precision. I knew her first word - ar at least what I assume to be a word - was one mid-December morning while getting her dressed when she said "tired". Or at least something sounding like "tired" but my ears rarely fail me so "tired" goes down as her first word. Not exactly a common first word but mine was "tractor" so maybe common isn't her thing either.

Since that point, though, The Youngling has been lacking (in my opinion) in milestones. Oh sure, she can climb the stairs at a frighteningly fast pace which has evolved in to her not using her knees. Yes, she actually climbs as well as a sub-three-foot-tall person can climb anything. Getting back down those same stairs requires help and probably will for a while.

But back to her words. I'm impressed that her first word wasn't one of Geroge Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say on TV because even the best parents (which I don't claim to be) let things slip and little ears absorb everything. More impressive is the fact that she's now trying to say "cheese". The only problem is that it sounds more like "chias" which I assume are still available at Pamida and Osco Drug stores.

I'm confident that she'll be walking on her own in no time and then I'll wish she'd go back to crawling because it's easier to catch a kid on all fours.