baby rumble

call it my guilty conscience for being a full-time, working mom, but one of the "truths" that I tell myself to rationalize my reality and to comfort myself for having to be away from my baby is that daycare is actually good for my lil one...it'll help her with socialization skills. maybe it is true. and maybe it remains to be seen. but at the moment, I'm afraid my little cutie pie might be a little bully baby thug.

I know! horror of horrors! my little yum-yum instigated a rumble with another little baby who was only 1 month younger but at least 5 pounds lighter. I was mortified, to say the least!

so this is how it went down:

we were having a delightful, breezy sunday lunch with my hubby and some of his good buddies and their families at one of the fella's homes. one of the guys who was a groomsman in our wedding, has an adorable, cute-cute, petite baby girl (the one that my baby later rumbled with).

there they were, the two little girly girl babies. cute. sweet. both crawling around, exploring and enjoying their newfound independence that comes with mobility when it happened: the confrontation.

under the dining table, the two baby girls found themselves face to face. at first, they cautiously studied each other's face. then they slowly transitioned from crawling position to sitting up, neither one averting their eyes away from the other. and all I thought was, "how sweet! they're gonna be BFFs!" but then what I thought were cooing sounds quickly turned into a cacophony of squawks and squeels when it happened: my baby shoved the petite baby in the shoulder! and then, the petite baby extended her daintly legs in front of her and kicked my baby with her feet. I know, she was only defending herself. none the less, the shoving and kicking match left me immobilized in my horror and disbelief.

my hubby and his buddy quickly intervened (I was useless, obviously), separating the two babies like separating two little puppies that had gotten into a tussle over the last milk bone, while locked in a pen.

in hindsight, what I think went down is that the babies found themselves stuck under the table, crammed between what must've looked like a forest of chair legs to them, and they didn't know how to back up. I know for certain, that my baby at the moment only crawls in one direction, forward. and she'll push her way through whatever's in her way to get from point A to point B, even apparently, if it means shoving a baby who's in her path.

look, I'm just a new mom, still learning the ropes of parenthood. but my hope is that I'll never become complacent in my role as a parent and that it'll be a continuous learning experience. the way I see it - with every mortifying situation (like the baby rumble) and every horrifying experience (like when the baby fell off the bed under my watch...another post, another time...maybe), there's a lesson to be learned, you just have to find it.

in this case, the lesson for me is that even when I'm "watching" the baby, I'm not always actively watching, not anticipating or foreseeing potential hazzards....and I need to be. sure, the baby needs to learn some things on her own. but as a parent, I need to look out for her safety. period. and I realize this baby rumble wasn't a serious safety hazzard to either of the babies (well, maybe slightly for the petite baby...mine is kind of a moose next to her, size-wise). but it's a good lesson to learn without anyone having to get hurt to figure it out.