Mobility

It was a big week at our house! (If you haven't figured it out already, I tend to be a little sentimental about Owen's "firsts." Who knew there would be so many things for him to experience in seven months?!)

Owen has been rolling all over the place for a few weeks now. It isn't uncommon to find him smashed into the corner of his crib fast asleep as if he'd rolled and rolled until he couldn't roll anymore and then just gave in to his exhaustion. He had actually gotten so good at getting around this way, that I thought that he might not ever need to crawl. After all, crawling isn't one of the developmental milestones, and now I can see why. But... last week while he was laying on his belly he started getting up on his toes with his knees locked, his puffy diapered butt in the air, and his face planted firmly in the carpet. It reminded me of one of those uncomfortable yoga poses. A few times he plowed his forehead across the carpet. When his belly hit the floor and he could lift his head up again, he looked at me with a huge grin on his face and a nice red mark across his forehead. And now, this week he started getting up on his hands and knees! I swear that he took one crawl before he collapsed back onto his little round belly, but I didn't have my camera rolling to prove it. In no time he is going to remind us how small our house is and how thankful we are we don't have stairs.

The next step is now to dust off the baby-proofing kit that has been sitting unopened on the top shelf in his closet and start putting it to good use. I don't think of Jason and I as people with a lot of clutter, but leave it to a little 17-lb ball of curiosity to find every knick-knack, DVD case, loose paper, hidden dog treat, and lint ball that exists two feet off of our floor. We've also made a monumental move in his nursery - we dropped the mattress in his crib down a level. With all of the strength he's found he will surely be pulling himself up soon, too, and one of the last things I want to hear in the middle of the night (even more so than my pager) is a "thud" followed by his terrified screams. Therefore, down the mattress went. Now when he stands up in his crib you can just see his hazel eyes peaking over the top, and I can sleep a little better at night.