He's fine

   I know that Braxton is my kid, and that, to me, he poops glitter and his farts smell like cupcakes and all - so I'm biased, and think he's perfect. I know he's really not, trust me. But, it's come to my attention I have a friend who's made the comment  (behind my back) that she think he's developing "slow" and is "behind" what she thinks kids his age are. This irks me in so many ways, I can't explain.
   Brax  learned to roll over, crawl, walk, etc all at the average age he was supposed to. His first words came at the average time as well. But, according to this friend, he doesn't speak well enough for his age. She compared him to Brynn, Bethenny Frankle's daughter - who was born in May of 2010. Brax turns just 18 months on the 13th. That gap in their ages is HUGE in baby time. Think about it, are you going to compare what a 6 month old baby can do to an 18 month old? No. If you did, you're a douche, just sayin'.
   She actually said "See, this baby knows all types of words, and is even learning spanish! Braxton is so far behind, they don't know what they're doing." Seriously? Fuckin' really? I'm in agreement that I don't know what I'm doing as a parent - this is my first rodeo here, woman. I may not know what all to do when it pertains to parenting, but I do know that my kid is happy, healthy, well taken care of, and all around fine.
   Brax still only says about 4 words, all the time - and they don't have to be correctly, he just says them. He knows when I say "Go find Daddy!" who I'm talking about, and things like that. Do I freak out that he's not saying more? Sure. But I know that he will, I have no doubts in that. Einstein didn't speak til he was three- so if Brax wants to take his time, I'm for it.
   I know boys develop verbally slower than girls. He'd probably even speak more if we took him to playgroups, so he could interact with other kids. If I talk to him constantly, it helps (which I do, trust me, he's my only form of communication all day.), watching educational tv, blah, blah, blah.
   I texted with a friend who's got two boys, and she was the same way, worried that they weren't talking. She was worried moreso with her second one not talking more - especially since the first one is so verbal - and wash doing baby talk until he was two years old. But, one day she said he just started talking normal, just out of the blue, and hasn't stopped. She told me to not worry about what other parents say, or your doctor when they get on you about what your child isn't doing right. If you're worried, then do something, but until then, just let them be a kid. I've taken that advice,and I feel ok about it.
   He sits there on the floor figuring things out, how they fit inside each other, how to take it apart and put it back together, things like that. He's all boy! If he chooses to be amazing with his motor skills right now instead of talking to me, I'm ok with that. I know that when he stops what he's doing and gives me a hug for no reason, he's letting me know how he feels. I know his certain hand motions are for certain things, I know certain "baby talk words" are for certain things. I know this. I know he's ok, and screw you if you think something is wrong with him.

   It just irks me right now... now that I'm a parent, I do everything in my power not to judge someone else for their parenting techniques. I may not agree with you on how you may do something, but as long as your kid is happy/healthy/etc, then I have no right to judge you. It's tough to go with that, trust me, but I know I hate it when someone is sitting there judging me.
   Honestly, mother's are serious haters on each other. It's nasty! Get a bunch of mothers in a group, bring up a parenting technique they don't like, and watching then devour that poor parent's carcass. They'll bad mouth then, their kid, they don't care. It's sad.
   Honestly it's one reason I haven't gotten invovled with a mommy group yet (that and how they spread cooties like crazy. Ours here is having a bad hand-foot-mouth disease issue, yuck.) - I don't want to feel inferior in my parenting abilities. I do the best I can with what I know, the rest I'm just winging.