going at her own pace

Caia will be 15 months old tomorrow and she still isn't talking or walking. Remember, back in November when I wrote about how great she did at Thanksgiving dinner with her walker? I was so sure that walking was just around the corner. I was wrong. She stands on her own and walks from the tv to the ottoman but she prefers to crawl. I thought for sure that she would walk early, just to keep up with her brothers. But she is determined to go at her own pace.
She also isn't saying any words. She will babble once in a while. And she does blurt out "mama" but it is indiscriminate. She'll say it to me and she'll say it when she is pointing at a toy or a bowl of cheerios. When I ask her to say "mama" she just smiles at me and refuses to utter a peep.
It can be hard to not play the comparison game. There are babies younger than her who have moved on to the walker classroom at church while she is still with the crawlers. There are the other parents who claim their child can say twenty words already and started speaking at six months. And even though I know that she will talk and walk when she is ready, it can be hard to rest in that. I remember Jem's 15 month check-up when the doctor insisted that he should be saying 15 words already. He was speaking but he wasn't quite to 15 words and I left the check-up worried that something was wrong with my child. But really, he was just going at his own pace and while there might be an average age for walking and talking, it varies across the board.
Besides, there is one thing that Caia is way ahead on. The girl has growing teeth down to a science. It's like she has a mouth full of tic-tacs. As for everything else, she'll do it when she's ready I guess. Obviously her timeline doesn't match up with mine so I'll just wait patiently and smile and nod when someone else talks about their advanced baby. And then I will show them all of her teeth and brag about her advanced gums.