Whose time am I on?

Certainly not mine! I have learned a very valuable lesson from my superman. Here's how:

When I was pregnant with him he was measuring very large for his age. We were told I may have to have a c-section because he might get too big. Then he was born 10 weeks too early and surprised us all! Good thing he was big for his age. As he spent 8 weeks and one day in the hospital he progressed at his own pace learning to maintain his body temperature, eating from a bottle, recovering from heart surgery and slowly but surely getting through apnea and bradycardia episodes. He couldn't leave the hospital until he recovered from apnea (when he would stop breathing) and brady spells (his heart would stop beating) on his own. This took forever! At one point he was the biggest baby in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). We used to joke around that the school bus was just going to pick him up at the hospital to take him to kindergarten because he was there so long. I remember saying to my husband that I was sooo sick of going to the hospital, I just wanted him home already. Eventually he got the hang of it and he came home. Yay!

Fast forward to today. He is 17 months old and developmentally superman still takes his sweet old time. He is somewhere between his adjusted age, 14 1/2 months old (when he was supposed to be born) and his real age. He crawled just after his first birthday and took a few steps three weeks ago. But he decided that walking was just not his thing so he stopped that and went back to crawling. I occasionally get these weird looks when we are out in public from people because my son is so large and not walking yet. "C'mon hurry up baby! Walk it out will ya?" I secretly think this to myself all the time. But he also started to try and eat with a spoon and this typically doesn't happen until 18 months so he is ahead on that. Huh?

This week superman came down with some nasty cold, poopy viral infection. yuck! He can't sleep well and he can't drink anything because he can't breath. My husband calls him Cybil (from the lady with the multiple personalites) because sometimes he acts just fine and a second later he is crying...sometimes a combination of both. What is that about? Two days this week it rained the ENTIRE day so I was stuck in the house with a sick baby. None of us had any sleep either. Not. Fun. I kept asking myself "When will this end?" Two nights ago in the middle of him being Mr. Crankypants he got up in the middle of the floor and started walking! Fell, got up and walked again! Where did this come from? Aren't kids supposed to sleep and nap a lot when they are sick? Not my child, he hits major milestones when he is sick!

There is a book called "What to Expect...the Toddler Years." I never bought it because what they tell me to expect and when to expect it never happens with my son. He walks (I can now say WALKS!) to the beat of his own drum. He has shown me that I can try and rush him all I want but he goes at his own pace...sometimes slowly and sometimes quickly. He wakes up when he wants, gets sick, hungry, thirsty for juice and I just have to be patient and play by his rules.

Have you seen the moive Fast Times At Ridgemont High? It’s one of my favorites. Jeff Spicoli (the student) is always bothering Mr. Hann (his teacher) and their class. In one scene Spicoli orders a pizza for himself that arrives in class. Finally Mr. Hann says to Spicoli "I will not have you taking up my time like this!" And Spicoli replies "If you're here AND I'm here isn't it OUR time?" Kinda reminds me of my relationship with my superman.