Crawling along

Our daughter is crawling. She's five and a half months old. Really. It happened so quickly, too. On Monday, she was taking one "step" with her hands. By Friday, she was taking several "steps" before plopping onto her tummy and getting back to a sitting position. She spent Sunday morning crawling around the room swatting at a water bottle, trying to charge the CD tower and pulling up parts of the rug. Today, she spent the morning and afternoon trying to STAND up with her feet planted firmly on the floor, bent at the waist, hands on the floor. She's also figured out that rotating from a crawling to a sitting position will get her pretty far and that's been her preferred method of mobility today.

Not only that, she's pulling up on things. She's not picky about what she climbs and hasn't yet figured out that the Exersaucer isn't as stable as the sofa. In the past few days, she's pulled up on my legs while I'm sitting, the sofa, the Exersaucer, a stool her Uncle Tom built for her, the dishwasher, the steps (NO!!) , and the (padded) hearth. A few nights ago, Jim stood her by the side of the tub. She saw a toy and, while trying to reach it, nearly hurled herself over the edge into the tub. We fully expect her to attempt a crib break in a few months and tackle the stairs by the end of this week. Danny was climbing stairs at 7 months. She seems to be about a month ahead of him developmentally.

With this new mobility comes quite a few ruffled feathers, though. Danny is frantically trying to protect his stuff as is Jim. Fiona discovered the stereo receiver on Sunday. Apparently, the big knobs are a draw. It was one of Danny's first stops, too. Poor Danny is doing pretty well (for a two-year-old) at sharing his toys with his sister. A few strategies seem to be preventing World War III for now - asking him if she can play with one of "his" toys for a few minutes, telling him that she just wants to check it out (that's his new phrase these days), acknowledging that these toys were all his before she came along and that it must be hard to share them now, and lightly admonishing Fiona when she tries to grab toys from him. (As for property rights, the fairest rule I've come up with is that if it's in someone else's hand, it belongs to them at that moment and said object may not be forcibly removed. If it's not in someone's physical possession, it's fair game.) I've also been telling him that he needs to help us to keep her safe from small toys. Then I tell him that he can take that unsafe toy from her and find something safer for her. It's a good little introduction to the concept of trade. It's also neat to see his little brain working as he scans the playroom for a suitable toy. Of course, we have had a few episodes of poking and head pushing, but I expected that and know it won't be long before our heavyweight infant just clobbers him.

Fiona and Bob the dog are also getting to know each other better. They occupy the same sphere these days. She crawls into his neck or over his paws, he just stays stock still or licks her face as she passes. On Sunday, when he passed by and didn't acknowledge her, she actually cried after him. She had this wounded look on her face (yes, she's a little diva). Unfortunately, as she expands her territory, she's also getting dog hair in her mouth and all over her clothes.

I'll try to get some videos soon of her. Videos are hard to get these days, though, since she freezes when she sees the camera.