The baby started crawling for real this past week. He practiced constantly for ten days before that. I’d hear thumping in the crib in the middle of the night: he was rocking in his crib, practicing how to gain momentum to crawl forward. He mastered crawling two days ago. I think these photos capture his learning:

Ever been stereotyped? Ever had your identity breezily labeled, cut out in cardboard -- likely pink if you're a woman -- and sidelined as silly and inconsequential by The Media, by analysts, perhaps even by other women?

Nominate a brilliant post for BlogHer of the Week now!

A few days ago, Susanna of A Modern Mother was lamenting the state of "mummyblogging," or parenting-blogging in the United Kingdom:

There's change in the air for the first wave of mommybloggers.  They don't complain about their kids much anymore. In fact, they don't write about their kids as much as they used to.  Have they lost interest?  Lost their edge?  Or are their kids just old enough to read?

The term "mommyblogger" has been deconstructed at length in the parenting blogosphere and beyond.  Some think the term fits, and others don't.  Either way, it seems to be a loaded word likely to generate more discussion.

My heart sank when this morning's segment on the Today Show started off with Hoda Kotb announcing "... the growing popularity of... 'mommy blogs.'" She used air quotes, and everything. You could've substituted anything bizarre and mystifying in the quotations, actually. "Alien bloodsuckers," or "giant pink sea monsters," for example. I turned to my husband. "This is not going to end well," I said. But first, let me back up.

I was at a little social gathering last night where the conversation turned to blogs, and so I joined the fray and mentioned that I'm a blogger. In no time at all a new acquaintance and I were comparing notes on who we read and love. And when another woman joined the conversation, the first woman responded to the "What sorts of blogs do you read?" question with "Well, I know it's awful to put it this way and people hate being called this, but what I really love are the mommyblogs."