Mobility

It's not hard to remember back to a time when Jude was 100% totally reliant on me. Up until just over 6 months ago, every bit of nutrition he got came from me and without me, he would not survive.

Then of course the most wonderful day of my life, Jude was born! While he was still getting all of his nutrition from me, it was totally feasible for him to function without me. There's formula and ooddles of other people in the world. But breast feeding him, to some degree, made me feel like he truly needed me.

Then we start solids and that's another thing that means he'll be needing me (and my boobs) less and less between now and the time I totally ween him. But hey! He still needs us to get around! I mean without me (and Ryan - or some other person) he would be stuck in one position in the middle of a room.

Until now. This weekend, Jude *began* crawling. This is not to say he's moving around the living room and totally mobile, but he's understanding that if he wants something bad enough, he can get it. This all really started a little over a week ago - but everything came together for him yesterday.

The first step for Jude: Out of sight is no longer out of mind. Before, he was easily distracted. If you took something away that he couldn't have, he would refocus somewhere else. Now though, he is aware that what you took is what he wants. He wants to continue exploring it, tasting it, playing with it and whatever else it is that babies do. However, if it's something like mommy and daddy's keys that he shouldn't have, you take them from him. At Friendly's this past week, he had our keys and we took them from him and for what I recognized as the first time, Jude started to cry for them. He didn't want the giraffe or the rattles, he wanted the keys. We of course calmed him down and he was fine, but it was different than the Jude we had known to that point.

The second step for Jude: The rolling diaper change. With a rolling baby (as any mother may know) diaper changes are always eventful. We do a number of his changes on the living room floor. Since I wash his diapers, there's usually one of two downstairs, so why bother going up to the bedroom? Either way, when he's on the floor, he's moving and twisting in every direction possible. Usually I just give in and let him stay bum naked and use the potty, but for those times when I need to get clothes on him, I need something to distract him and keep him in place. Typically this is his wipes case. His wipes come in a thick plastic "bag" like thing (similar to the ones pictured below - that's not the brand we use, but you get the picture). He loves the 'crinkle' noise they make when you touch them. Usually his rolling starts because he wants them. He'll be bending and twisting trying to reach them until I put them on his belly to play with while I secure his diaper. I don't like the idea of him playing with any sort of plastic bag-type item, so usually after diaper changes, I take it away.



Putting it all together: The beginning of an army crawl. Yesterday, I had just finished changing Jude and then took his wipes away to let him play around on his tummy. He spotted them not to far away (almost within arms reach) and started to contort his body to reach them. He pushed a little with on leg and reached with another arm, did a half roll in the opposite direction to twist a little more and reach with the other arm while pushing a little with the other leg. This continued a few times until he reached the wipes. VICTORY!

Until his mean mommy got so excited that she moved them further away to see the show again! He did his twisting, his reaching, he pushed, he rolled, until again, he was there. This morning I've been encouraging it more and more by putting his toys JUST out of arms reach to get him to go after them. Of course, he doesn't want any of them... instead he's chasing after his wipes and my cell phone - but hey, I'll take that!

I really look forward to his beginning movements to blossom into out-right crawling. I'm pretty sure it will be within the next couple of weeks. Time to re-evaluate what's on our floors for baby-proofing.

He's come so far already...

Question: Which milestone (if any) was the hardest to come to terms with? Which were you most excited about? Which was the most challenging to adjust to (in terms of adjustments in the home, etc.)