Along with crawling and pulling herself up on furniture (and walls and tubs and pantlegs), Babykins started to "cruise" yesterday. This is where she holds onto furniture to be able to walk by herself. It's fabulous, but it has re-confirmed her status as Babyzilla.
Whether she's crawling or cruising, when Babykins encounters an obstacle she doesn't go around it, she goes over. And if she can't get over, she pushes and shoves until it's out of her way. Occasionally, even when something isn't directly in her path, she'll move over a bit just so that she can step on it. This goes for books, toys, and mommy and daddy. She's even been known to crawl over other mommies and babies at her play group.
At times you can practially hear her thinking, "ROAR," as she smashes her way through piles of toys and stomps down on magazine pages (which inevitably stick to her foot and follow her on her quest). She may be a cute, tiny baby, but in her head, she's Babyzilla!
Showing posts with label crawling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crawling. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wood Floor Wasteland
We have arrived safely in the frozen tundra that is Pennsylvania and snuggled down in my parents' home with no intention of leaving the heated house. While Hubbykins and I have overindulged in Christmas cookies, Babykins has had to face down the Wood Floor Wasteland.
My parents have a beautiful, new wood floor in their living room, with an area rug in the middle. While it's gorgeous to look at (and fun for me to slide across in my socks), it posed a serious problem for Babykins when we arrived. Not only is Babykins new to crawling, she has only ever experienced crawling on carpets, or on tile with bare knees. So when her toy rolled off the area rug onto the wood floor, she didn't think twice about chasing after it. Seconds later, she had wiped out, her pants-covered knees skidding across the wood.
This didn't deter our intrepid crawler, who doubled her efforts...and promptly slid backwards. Unworried, she quickly decided she didn't really like that toy anyway, and turned her attention to other toys that were safely lying on the rug. This quickly led to the Wood Floor Wasteland, where once beloved toys slowly languished outside the reach of Babykins.
This contentment with playing on the rug quickly ended, however, when the Christmas tree lights went on that night. If ever there was something that would motivate Babykins to brave the Wood Floor Wasteland, it's the sparkle of a hundred lights and ornaments just waiting to be pulled off the tree.
We watched her square her shoulders, stare down the tree, and slowly move a knee onto the wood. It took a few tries, but by dinnertime, Babykins had learned how to anchor herself with her hands while sliding her knees forward. By bedtime, she was able to quickly and stealthily propel herself from the rug to the tree, little hand outstretched to wreak havoc on the lower branches.
Babykins still prefers the ease and safety of the area rug, but it's no longer surrounded by an effective wood moat, and breakables in the house are no longer safe. She may not have brought her Adventurer Vest with her to Pennsylvania, but Babykins is still conquering all in her path.
My parents have a beautiful, new wood floor in their living room, with an area rug in the middle. While it's gorgeous to look at (and fun for me to slide across in my socks), it posed a serious problem for Babykins when we arrived. Not only is Babykins new to crawling, she has only ever experienced crawling on carpets, or on tile with bare knees. So when her toy rolled off the area rug onto the wood floor, she didn't think twice about chasing after it. Seconds later, she had wiped out, her pants-covered knees skidding across the wood.
This didn't deter our intrepid crawler, who doubled her efforts...and promptly slid backwards. Unworried, she quickly decided she didn't really like that toy anyway, and turned her attention to other toys that were safely lying on the rug. This quickly led to the Wood Floor Wasteland, where once beloved toys slowly languished outside the reach of Babykins.
This contentment with playing on the rug quickly ended, however, when the Christmas tree lights went on that night. If ever there was something that would motivate Babykins to brave the Wood Floor Wasteland, it's the sparkle of a hundred lights and ornaments just waiting to be pulled off the tree.
We watched her square her shoulders, stare down the tree, and slowly move a knee onto the wood. It took a few tries, but by dinnertime, Babykins had learned how to anchor herself with her hands while sliding her knees forward. By bedtime, she was able to quickly and stealthily propel herself from the rug to the tree, little hand outstretched to wreak havoc on the lower branches.
Babykins still prefers the ease and safety of the area rug, but it's no longer surrounded by an effective wood moat, and breakables in the house are no longer safe. She may not have brought her Adventurer Vest with her to Pennsylvania, but Babykins is still conquering all in her path.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Pros and Cons
In the last 2 days, Babykins has gone from timid crawler to fearless explorer. Yesterday morning I sat her down in the hallway for a minute, and got back just in time to see her reaching her little finger toward the electrical outlet.
Which leads me to the major con of a crawling baby - baby proofing (and really, who needs proof that there's a baby in the house, anyway? If you need proof, just look at the insane pile of toys littered across our living room). After the outlet scare, Babykins and I made a trip to the store and spent the afternoon turning our apartment into an invincible fortress. The problem is that Babykins isn't the only one who can no longer open our kitchen cabinets. All of the pots and pans I used to cook last night are still sitting on the counter because it's so darn hard to open the cabinet, I've decided to wait and see if I can just re-use them for cooking tonight.
The positive, though, is that I'm learning much more about Babykins' personality. Before, I would guess which toy Babykins wanted to play with and put it in front of her. She would occasionally fuss for something different, but for the most part, she played where we placed with the toys we gave her until we changed things up.
Now when Babykins gets tired of a toy or her current location, she looks around the room, zeroes in on something interesting, and crawls over to examine it. It's fascinating to watch her decision process and see what she chooses to play with. I never would have guessed that the thing that would most grab her attention this morning would be her car seat.
I'm not at all surprised, though, that 9 times out of 10, the thing she finds most interesting is the one thing I didn't want her to play with. Electronics, beware! Babykins is coming your way!
Which leads me to the major con of a crawling baby - baby proofing (and really, who needs proof that there's a baby in the house, anyway? If you need proof, just look at the insane pile of toys littered across our living room). After the outlet scare, Babykins and I made a trip to the store and spent the afternoon turning our apartment into an invincible fortress. The problem is that Babykins isn't the only one who can no longer open our kitchen cabinets. All of the pots and pans I used to cook last night are still sitting on the counter because it's so darn hard to open the cabinet, I've decided to wait and see if I can just re-use them for cooking tonight.
The positive, though, is that I'm learning much more about Babykins' personality. Before, I would guess which toy Babykins wanted to play with and put it in front of her. She would occasionally fuss for something different, but for the most part, she played where we placed with the toys we gave her until we changed things up.
Now when Babykins gets tired of a toy or her current location, she looks around the room, zeroes in on something interesting, and crawls over to examine it. It's fascinating to watch her decision process and see what she chooses to play with. I never would have guessed that the thing that would most grab her attention this morning would be her car seat.
I'm not at all surprised, though, that 9 times out of 10, the thing she finds most interesting is the one thing I didn't want her to play with. Electronics, beware! Babykins is coming your way!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Crawling!!!
For over a month now, Babykins has desperately wanted to crawl. She could get on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. She could even commando crawl for a few inches. Most exciting, she could crawl backwards a fair distance. Crawling forward, however, remained an elusive target.
All of that changed yesterday. My old tempting trick of building a block tower for Babykins to knock down had ceased to serve as motivation (instead of trying to reach it, Babykins would just lay her head on the ground and look at me with big, sad blue eyes). Instead, I pulled out a new toy sent by Auntie MO - the Move and Crawl Ball. This ball, when you push the buttons, plays music, flashes lights, and rolls away from you. If you lose interest and stop chasing it, after awhile it plays more music to re-capture your attention.
I placed in on the floor about a foot in front of Babykins, and after her initial shock that it could play music without her help, she decided to go after it. She got on her hands and knees, rocked back and forth, gave that ball a hard stare, and moved her knee forward! After which, she promptly collapsed on her belly.
Never fear. Babykins, our intrepid adventurer, continued to chase that ball, and by the evening she was crawling a foot at a time in an effort to capture it. It was an exciting development, and one that Hubbykins captured with copious pictures.
We're heading to Pennsylvania for Christmas this week, and all I can say is, "Look out Christmas Tree! Here comes Babykins!"
All of that changed yesterday. My old tempting trick of building a block tower for Babykins to knock down had ceased to serve as motivation (instead of trying to reach it, Babykins would just lay her head on the ground and look at me with big, sad blue eyes). Instead, I pulled out a new toy sent by Auntie MO - the Move and Crawl Ball. This ball, when you push the buttons, plays music, flashes lights, and rolls away from you. If you lose interest and stop chasing it, after awhile it plays more music to re-capture your attention.
I placed in on the floor about a foot in front of Babykins, and after her initial shock that it could play music without her help, she decided to go after it. She got on her hands and knees, rocked back and forth, gave that ball a hard stare, and moved her knee forward! After which, she promptly collapsed on her belly.
Never fear. Babykins, our intrepid adventurer, continued to chase that ball, and by the evening she was crawling a foot at a time in an effort to capture it. It was an exciting development, and one that Hubbykins captured with copious pictures.
We're heading to Pennsylvania for Christmas this week, and all I can say is, "Look out Christmas Tree! Here comes Babykins!"
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Training: 1, Sleep: 0
Awhile ago, we discovered that Babykins likes to sleep on her side. Roll her on her side when she wakes up at night, and you're guaranteed almost instant sleep. With her new found proficiency at rolling, however, she has started to flip from her back or side onto her tummy.
For most babies, this would be a dream come true. After months of being placed on the back to sleep (Back is Best!), having the ability to switch to tummy sleeping is a great change. And Babykins desperately wants to sleep on her tummy. The problem is that she's too well trained.
We spent months teaching her that tummy time means raising your head, pushing up on your arms, and trying to move. So when Babykins rolls onto her tummy at night, despite being exhausted, she raises her head, pushes up on her arms, crawls backwards until she's stuck in a corner of her crib, and begins to cry. It's one of the saddest things I've seen.
Especially since, unlike other babies, Babykins seems unable to figure out how to put her head down. Which meant that I spent much of last night trying to re-train Babykins in the art of lowering her head to the mattress and turning it to the side. She finally got the hang of head lowering, but the turning part remains elusive. Thus, Hubbykins and I spent the night sleeping in her room so that I could check every couple hours that she was still breathing despite having her face smashed directly down in the mattress.
Oh, baby raising book, why don't you cover the topic, "What to do when your child won't turn her head"?
For most babies, this would be a dream come true. After months of being placed on the back to sleep (Back is Best!), having the ability to switch to tummy sleeping is a great change. And Babykins desperately wants to sleep on her tummy. The problem is that she's too well trained.
We spent months teaching her that tummy time means raising your head, pushing up on your arms, and trying to move. So when Babykins rolls onto her tummy at night, despite being exhausted, she raises her head, pushes up on her arms, crawls backwards until she's stuck in a corner of her crib, and begins to cry. It's one of the saddest things I've seen.
Especially since, unlike other babies, Babykins seems unable to figure out how to put her head down. Which meant that I spent much of last night trying to re-train Babykins in the art of lowering her head to the mattress and turning it to the side. She finally got the hang of head lowering, but the turning part remains elusive. Thus, Hubbykins and I spent the night sleeping in her room so that I could check every couple hours that she was still breathing despite having her face smashed directly down in the mattress.
Oh, baby raising book, why don't you cover the topic, "What to do when your child won't turn her head"?
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Gray Hairs and Wrinkles
Motherhood, like the presidency, ages you. Before Babykins was born, I always made sure to take my ID with me when I went to a bar or the liquor store. While it was a (very big) stretch to think I wasn't 21, I at least looked like I could be in the range they should card. Between sleepless nights and constant worry, though, it would now be no surprise that I'm rounding on 30.
Over the last couple weeks, Babykins has become increasingly mobile, quickly adding to the aging process. She rolls, she bottom scoots, she crawls backwards. She can't yet get anywhere fast, but she's deteremined.
Case in point...Yesterday Babykins was exhausted, but desperately fighting nap time. I put her down on her bed (we're using a mattress on the floor next to our bed here in Australia) with her pacifier and told her I'd be back to check on her in a few minutes. Five minutes later I open the door, and her bed is empty.
Within moments, I've had a heart attack, called her name, yelled for Hubbykins, and figured out where she is. I bent down, pulled up the quilt on our bed, and there she is, on her tummy, pushed up on her arms with her head held high, pride in her eyes and a big smile on her face. She had managed to roll herself off her mattress and all the way under the bed.
Hubbykins extraced her while I finished hyperventilating and grew a few more gray hairs. A wonderful adventure for Babykins, and a warning to us that Babykins is on the move!
Over the last couple weeks, Babykins has become increasingly mobile, quickly adding to the aging process. She rolls, she bottom scoots, she crawls backwards. She can't yet get anywhere fast, but she's deteremined.
Case in point...Yesterday Babykins was exhausted, but desperately fighting nap time. I put her down on her bed (we're using a mattress on the floor next to our bed here in Australia) with her pacifier and told her I'd be back to check on her in a few minutes. Five minutes later I open the door, and her bed is empty.
Within moments, I've had a heart attack, called her name, yelled for Hubbykins, and figured out where she is. I bent down, pulled up the quilt on our bed, and there she is, on her tummy, pushed up on her arms with her head held high, pride in her eyes and a big smile on her face. She had managed to roll herself off her mattress and all the way under the bed.
Hubbykins extraced her while I finished hyperventilating and grew a few more gray hairs. A wonderful adventure for Babykins, and a warning to us that Babykins is on the move!
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