About a Moving Baby

On Monday, Elliott still wasn't crawling.

I have been saying he's "on the verge of crawling" for a month and a half, and I was starting to doubt myself. Just before 5 months old, he was able to straighten his arms while on his belly and he was trying his hardest to get his knees underneath him. "As soon as he gets strong enough to get on all fours, then he'll take off", I thought.

Then, he could get his knees underneath him, and he started rocking back and forth all the time. It was fun! And, it was so close to crawling! Surely any day now! And, yet, he still didn't move. Except backwards. He got really good at 'backwards', and backing under pretty much every piece of furniture in the living room. He also got really good at trying to go forward on hands and knees, then faceplanting into our floor.

And, then, he stopped rocking on hands-and-knees as much, and rolling more. I wondered- was he giving up on hands-and-knees, since it wasn't getting him anywhere? Would he ever crawl? He was moving around better, though, on his belly, and every now and then I'd see him actually manage to wiggle forward toward a toy, just a couple inches. He'd go from belly to hands-and-knees to a reclined, kind of supported sit, to play with a toy, and he was happy with that. He'd figure it out eventually.

Monday, we were at a friends house, and Elliott was doing his thing, playing on his belly, and their one year old was crawling furiously around him. (This one year old does everything furiously.) Our friends watched Elliott, saw him scoot forward just a little, nodded and agreed, yes, he'd be crawling soon.

Tuesday, I was home in the evening; Josh had just left for the hardware store. And Elliott crawled. A full, hands-and-knees, forward crawl to a toy. I called Josh, who had been with him all day. "You didn't tell me he was crawling!" He said "He wasn't crawling today!" It was all of a sudden- it's like it just clicked in his mind, maybe after watching our friend's son. "Oh, that's how you do it. I can do that."

Yesterday, he's crawling all over the floor, I turn around, and when I look back he's sitting up straight, totally unsupported, playing with his hands. He wasn't doing that the day before- he still was doing the half-sit-reclined thing. I'm amazed how quickly babies learn.


(I know the video is unnecessarily long, the lighting is bad, Casey's in the way, and we're talking in silly baby voices. Such is our life.)

Also, his first two teeth popped through the gums in the last week. It's been super-exciting around our house.

Also, on YouTube, one of the suggested video after Elliott's is titled Tornado. I think it's prophetic. Do you see where Elliott started in the video? With his newfound mobility, he made a beeline for the cabinets under the sink, where all the cleaning chemicals are stored. Not even kidding. (We already had childproofed, so he can't get into them.) His other favorite destination? The laptop cord.