Mom films her baby crawling for the first time — and somehow captures another special moment

Parents are the lifelong cheerleaders for their babies. From encouraging them to take their first step to watching them graduate from college, it is a journey. A mom-of-two, Amanda Molinari, who goes by @amm5.20 on TikTok, however, was not counting on capturing a milestone for her 2-year-old son Julian when she started recording her youngest, Vianna. Documenting the tender early years of a baby has become a special phase of parenthood. Many Moms and dads hope to capture every minute detail of their baby growing up, for them to cherish those moments for years after. But Molinari here was not intending on capturing anything unique besides her 6-month-old baby beginning her crawling phase. 

In a viral video posted to her page, with over 616,000 views, the mother focuses the camera on Vianna, looking adorable in her yellow onesie. Lying on the floor, the baby tries to crawl while tossing her feet. Then, Vianna glances back at her mother with her big baby eyes until her elder brother steps into the frame and steals the spotlight. Suddenly, Julian jumps in front of the camera with a smile and mumbles, “Cheeesee!” The mother revealed that Julian is autistic, and his blurting out his first clear word was rather spectacular. Molinari ended the video with a jolly cackle and wrote in an overlay text on the post, “Pov: You’re trying to get a video of your 6-month-old getting ready to crawl & your 2.5 year old non-verbal autistic son said it was his time to shine.” 

While it may not seem like a big deal for any other 2-year-old, Julian’s neurodivergence had kept his grasp from speech. According to WebMD, most babies can typically say simple words like “mama” and “da-da” by the end of 12 months. More specifically, at 2 years of age, kids can string together a few words to form short, broken sentences. Apparently, Julian had struggled to talk, and his first clear word came across as a special milestone for the sweet family. In the caption, Molinari expressed, “CHEESE... cheese. Both of my babies have come so far!” 

The mom-of-two later talked to Newsweek about her lucky capture and elaborated on Julian’s milestone.  "We've noticed our daughter has been getting onto her hands and knees, trying to lunge back and forth. Since it's my second baby and I know they just do things so fast and out of nowhere, I was just lying on the ground trying to record her,” Molinari said. As soon as she held up the camera, she figured the flash must have caught Julian’s attention. "My son knows the camera because of the flash, and it attracts his attention, and we always say, 'Go, cheeeeeeeese,' and he must have caught that the flash was on from the corner of his eye and decided to say, 'CHEEEEESEEE.'"

On Julian’s second birthday, the family was informed that he was autistic and that talking would not come easily to him like other kids of his age. Nevertheless, Molinari was not discouraged and kept trying. As they say, "The most beautiful things come to you when you are not expecting them." Hearing her son’s voice for the first time, Molinari was over the moon and could not resist her tears.

"So it was just truly a beautiful thing I got to capture my first baby doing something I've dreamed of: finally hearing his voice,” she shared. People were touched by the beautiful instance and flooded the comments with supportive notes. “My boy out here aspiring and conquering all odds against him,” wrote @dabbindaddy95 while @marymarchetti0 said, “This makes me want to cry!!”

You can follow @amm5.20 on TikTok for more videos.