It's a whole different ballgame, folks.

When people used to ask me if Camden was crawling and I'd say that he was not quite there yet, I'd often get a response along these lines: "Well, enjoy your last few weeks of peace" or "Pretty soon, he'll be into everything!" And I'd do the polite smile thing while inside I'd be thinking How different can it really be? Surely I can walk faster than he'll be able to crawl.

Well, let me tell you: it is different. Very different. Over the last few weeks, it's like I swapped out my cuddly infant for a busy toddler. And that slow and cautious crawl I mentioned a while back when he was first learning? Ha! This kid threw caution to the wind. There is nothing slow about his crawl anymore. It's a bit robotic and mechanical looking but it is F-A-S-T.

I figured now that he's crawling, I'd sit out a bunch of different toys for him and he could crawl from one means of entertainment to the next, playing independently. I know all of you veteran moms are probably smirking right now. Not exactly how it works, huh? I learned that quickly enough. Crawling means freedom. And freedom means getting into things that were previously off-limits. Why would he be interested in toys? I gave those to him when he was just a wee immobile baby. What I didn't used to give to him are now the objects of his intense fascination. The laptop. Cords. Maggie's food and water bowl. Maggie's tail. The DVD player. My legs! No matter where I am or what I'm doing, this child will find me and attempt to climb me.

This mommy to a crawler thing? It's exhausting. This kid is lucky he's so darn adorable. It's hard to get frustrated with someone so cute, even while pulling their hands out of the dog food bowl for the 800th time in a day.