Keeping up with Baby Jones


On line ahead of me at Wal-Mart this weekend was an adorable baby girl with her parents. She was a real Personality Kid, grinning and laughing at her daddy while her mother busily compared two products, trying to decide which one to buy. What struck me about her was that although quite small, she had two upper and two lower teeth. I asked the mom how old she was. "Seven months," she replied.


Seven months! My first thought was that my own grandchild is ten months and is just teething with her bottom teeth, which haven't broken through yet. This child was three months younger and had four teeth already? How does that make our baby look?


I told my husband about this when I got home, and he (having raised children while I have not) told me to chill, that all babies are on different schedules, and that getting one's first teeth at ten months is hardly considered abnormally slow development.


I put this into a writing perspective (which I understand better than babies). Would I compare myself to any of my fellow authors? No, because everyone is different. Some writers can produce four or even five books a year. Others can only do one or two. So whether it's getting teeth, walking, or saying their first word, some babies are going to come out ahead.


Speaking of walking, just last week we got to see our little bundle take a few steps all by herself before she collapsed in a heap to the carpet.