This past year has been jam-packed with milestones, and most of them have involved mobility - getting somewhere, especially places where I'd rather Natalie not go ... like between the wall and the toilet, behind the couch, to the doormats, to the cat's food dish, ...
Rolling: Natalie rolled from back to tummy first, and she did this for a good long while before figuring out the other direction. Once she unlocked this little mystery, she spent a lot of time practicing in her crib ... when she was suppose to be sleeping! All that rolling led to our first "doctor's office" injury. Natalie dislocated her elbow, which sounds worse that it actually is - click here to read the story: Elbow Injury. Anyway, rolling didn't "change my life" but it did prompt a note to self: Don’t leave NHV unattended on raised surface.
Crawling: This was the next big "leap" in mobility, and I must admit, it rocked my world. It happened about a week after she turned 9 months. I couldn’t believe how tired we both were when Natalie first started locomotting on all fours. As evidence, her naps suddenly extended to a solid two, sometimes three, hours. And often times, I joined her for at least one of those naps! Clearly, the naps were a major benefit. But it also came with more than a few drawbacks. Gone were the days of plopping her down with a basket of toys and expecting to find her there three seconds later. Gone were the days of going to the bathroom by myself - although it does crack me up when she crawls around the corner and seems surprised to see me sitting there on the toilet! And I have never vacuumed, swept, and mopped more in my life. Now that we were spending so much time moving around on the floors, I couldn't help but notice how dirty they seemed - all the time. No wonder I was so tired, when I wasn't chasing Natalie everywhere, or resetting her to a safer, cleaner place, I was doing my best impersonation of Cinder-freakin'-ella!
Rolling: Natalie rolled from back to tummy first, and she did this for a good long while before figuring out the other direction. Once she unlocked this little mystery, she spent a lot of time practicing in her crib ... when she was suppose to be sleeping! All that rolling led to our first "doctor's office" injury. Natalie dislocated her elbow, which sounds worse that it actually is - click here to read the story: Elbow Injury. Anyway, rolling didn't "change my life" but it did prompt a note to self: Don’t leave NHV unattended on raised surface.
Crawling: This was the next big "leap" in mobility, and I must admit, it rocked my world. It happened about a week after she turned 9 months. I couldn’t believe how tired we both were when Natalie first started locomotting on all fours. As evidence, her naps suddenly extended to a solid two, sometimes three, hours. And often times, I joined her for at least one of those naps! Clearly, the naps were a major benefit. But it also came with more than a few drawbacks. Gone were the days of plopping her down with a basket of toys and expecting to find her there three seconds later. Gone were the days of going to the bathroom by myself - although it does crack me up when she crawls around the corner and seems surprised to see me sitting there on the toilet! And I have never vacuumed, swept, and mopped more in my life. Now that we were spending so much time moving around on the floors, I couldn't help but notice how dirty they seemed - all the time. No wonder I was so tired, when I wasn't chasing Natalie everywhere, or resetting her to a safer, cleaner place, I was doing my best impersonation of Cinder-freakin'-ella!
Pulling Up: Pulling up brought a whole new set of surprises as well as a strong desire to climb the stairs to our second floor. Suddenly a quick diaper change took 10 minutes because we had to scale the mountain of 16 steps to get to the nursery and her changing table! Why didn't I change her diaper downstairs you ask? Well, that's because changing the diaper of my proficiently mobile baby girl while she lies on the floor is like wrestling, and sometimes chasing, a slippery pig.
Taking Steps: Natalie's most recent "claim to fame," her stumble from ottoman to couch.
Ballet of Movement: Today I sat and watched as Natalie entertained me with a baby ballet of her very own blend of mobility. She started in the middle of her room. Full-on crawled to the window, pulled herself up, shifted weight from one foot to the other while holding on to the sill, side stepped to the toy basket where she dropped to her knees to investigate. When she found one of her favorite bunnies, she grabbed it in her right hand and cuddled it near her cheek, while "gimping" on her left hand and left knee to the bookcase. With bunny still clutched in one hand, she pulled up on the book display but quickly decided using only one hand was not effective in her attempts to empty the bookcase. So she squatted - both knees bend but rear end suspended a few inches from the floor - to ponder the situation. It was a tough decision, but she decided to ditch the bunny. She stood back up without holding on to anything and proceeded to throw books to the floor - what fun :) The empty bookcase prompted her to look over her shoulder to find me sitting on the floor with a silly grin on my face, which was all the motivation she needed to take off "walking" toward me. After about 8 steps and lots of giggling, she gave up on her own two feet, crawled over, and pulled up on me to receive the big hug I had waiting for her.
Walking: I can't say that she is officially walking because more often than not, she resorts to one of the many other forms of mobility in her repertoire. But I also know it is only a matter of time - a very short amount of time - before she's off and RUNNING!
1 comment:
"ditched the bunny."
Classic.. I love it.
I can't wait till she's toddling all over the place. Then you'll be saying..
"holy shit."
:O
lmao
what a sweetie
d
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