Crawling Nowhere

So far, Daryl has been doing everything fine. He's passed the hand-eye coordination test by the local maternal and child health centre (albeit at the second attempt, as he was unwilling to cooperate with the nurse in the first try because she wasn't pretty) in flying colours, and his vital statistics are right about where they should be. But there is something he still isn't able to do, yet.

He can't crawl, yet.

We've been encouraging him to do so since his neck became strong enough when he was just three to four months old, but whenever we put him onto our bed, he would flatly collapse and lay prone, as if he's been shot in the buttocks (which is partly true because I always tell him that all buttocks facing the sky are liable to be spanked (by me), hard), or as if he's ducking to protect himself from gunfire and an air raid.

We've tried every trick in our sleeves. We've tempted him with food and his favourable electronic gadgets, but he would only look up and support himself with his arms, and just refuse to crawl.

When we told my parents about it, I was extremely worried about their reaction as grandparents are usually much more nervous than the parents themselves. And when I heard what they say, I became even more worried.

They told me that Daryl probably won't crawl as a baby, forever, without showing any emotion at all.

Relax folks. Before you go berserk, cry foul or scream for help, just keep on reading for the reason, but whether it's a well-justified one is up to you to decide.

My parents told me that all the family members in my family, including my parents, uncles, aunts, second cousin once removed and myself, did not crawl when we were kids. No matter how hard we tried, we just wouldn't crawl. And fortunately, they said that our inability to crawl has never hampered our growth and development (which I totally disagree given my lack of height, strength and athletic talent, in no particular order).

Does it make any sense to you?

I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that Daryl will be much stronger and taller than I am, without being affected by his (thus far) inability to crawl.

And so there go our chances of winning any big prizes in the much-publicised and ultra-exciting baby crawling races.