I don't have children of my own, but I'm helping my parents to raise my sister's two young boys (it's a long story). The younger one, Blake, is just about 8 months old now, and is a precocious little turd. 5 months old? Crawling. Right now he can pull himself up to stand and keep himself balanced with just one hand. He's working on figuring out walking. And just a couple weeks ago we got his first word, 'Mama'. He was SO PROUD of himself, just grinning up a storm when we started fussing over him.

Granted, he seems to think I'm Mama, so we'll have to change his mind on that one (my sister lives across the city and can only visit every weekend or every other weekend, so he just doesn't see his mom often).

The older boy, Aiden, just turned 4, and is working on a set of slightly different firsts. Me, my parents, and Aiden all have season passes to Six Flags, since we live like 10 minutes away, and we've been taking him a lot. At first he would refuse to go on ANYTHING. He was terrified of the rides, and his grandpa (who he calls Doodah) had to go on a kiddie ride with him to show him that it was okay. Seeing him gradually learn about how fun the rides can be is a whole other experience, and a couple months ago, he finally got up the courage to go on his first roller coaster (a kiddie one, but it still counts!).

He went on it six more times that day.

Now he's mad that he's an inch too short for some bigger coasters. He also just got his first bike for his birthday, and is learning to ride it (training wheels included for now).