And people say he's cute

As all parents do, I have begun thinking my child is a genius. I first began to have this suspicion about the time he was supposed to be sitting up (I was doing several other things, and don't remember exactly at what point that is supposed to be). But I do remember the conversation. I was speaking to a co-worker, and upon being asked how old my son was, they began to talk about how they remembered the first time their child sat up. I agreed and began reminiscing as well. My co-worker was rather surprised, thinking it would take another month for my son to be at that point.

I was getting worried around the 7 month point, as I heard it was bad for a child's development to skip the whole "crawling" phase, and up until then, he was pulling himself into a standing position, but not crawling. And then he rode the train.

Strapped into his stroller, the little gremlin was wheeled onto the train and parked in the space reserved for handicapped people and parents with strollers. There we took a seat and proceeded to enjoy our train ride. I noticed a look for the first time that I didn't understand until several weeks later, but would come to dread. My son was sitting quietly in his stroller staring at the clasps that sat between him and the freedom of the rest of the train car. With the sort of inconvenient timing only a small child can manage, he unclasped himself from the stroller, slid his body down beneath the tray, and made a mad dash down the car.

It was as if in a bad movie where time slowed. Everyone in the car stared as this seven month old child crawled like a wounded frog down the center aisle of the train, alone. I was right. For the past week, the Mother of the Gremlin and I would walk in on him, and he would fall on his face. I thought it was interesting that he would be fine alone for quite a while, but as soon as he saw us, fall. And it was also interesting how he managed to catch himself at other times, but never seemed to be able to when we would walk in on him. The MOTG did not believe it to be anything, but I was suspicious that he was crawling and didn't want us to see.