Waiting with bated breath
Saturday 12/17
David toils all day to get our big television monitor up on the wall. Then he sets up the new entertainment cabinet. Then he puts everything in it and gets it working again. Liam is on the move and loving it. He’s been doing a lot of push ups and plank position. Setting his sights on something in front of him, he goes for it but surprises and annoys himself by going backwards.
Sunday 12/18
David captures Liam’s movements on video. He’s more or less doing the Pilates-esque move that I’ve been hoping for. Thank you, Liam! He’s getting his knees underneath himself.
Monday 12/19
More of the same, and yet every little movement that Liam does on the floor is fun to watch. Sometime recently (I didn’t note the date), Liam swung his torso off the side of his bouncy seat (yikes), so now he’s fully strapped in every time. This kid’s a firecracker!
Tuesday 12/20
I just walked past Liam on the floor. He’s thrashing around while squealing joyously. He was up on his hands and feet and he picked up one of his knees and pulled it forward underneath himself. I watched for a moment to see if he’d follow with the next move in the crawling sequence, but he collapsed to the floor and then continued with the usual for these days: pushing himself backward in alternation with “walking” his feet along the floor. Any day now this kid is going to take off. I sure hope that I’ll be there to see the look on his face because I imagine that he’ll be pretty pleased with himself.
Wednesday 12/21
Last evening David witnessed the hands and knees balance with the forward thrust. The problem that our young son is currently encountering is that when he thrusts forward, he doesn’t move his arms so he collapses on himself. But he keeps on trying, and this morning he’s just doing it over and over again. Sometime yesterday, Liam decided to bring back the squeal. I guess he figured it’s been too quiet around here. Oh, I’ve forgotten to mention, but he’s sucking and drooling with a real sense of purpose. So basically floor time is spent either making out with Sophie the giraffe, squealing, going up and backwards, and then getting really frustrated or tired and needing a break. Hard work, this being an infant!
Thursday and Friday
Same old same old in the midst of yuletide preparations.
Saturday 12/24
Off topic but worth mention: David says that re-dressing Liam after a diaper change is like trying to put the skin back on a chicken. Even though I’ve never tried the latter, I’d be willing to say that I agree.
Sunday 12/25
So many people leave precious little time and space for floor romping.
Monday 12/26
David reports that Liam has all the parts of the crawl. I was doing laundry, so I missed the first forward thrusts. According to David it goes something like this: a quick rise to knees followed by a forward toss of the hands. Now it just about fine tuning. Oh boy!
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
More of the same has been going on around here. Perhaps Liam is working on a behind the scenes project, we wouldn’t be surprised if a couple teeth show up soon. In the meantime, Liam seems to be taking a break from the forward thrust of the hands. The same thing happened with rolling over. He’d do it and then take a few days off. This is not to say that there’s no ground being covered, Liam has honed in on Siegfried’s food area as a point of great interest. He works his way over there quite quickly and I’ve had to snatch a food dish out of his hands once (yikes!). What with all this moving around, Liam is frequently finding himself in a tight spot with some body part stuck up against a wall or piece of furniture. Either he bumps himself, or he just gets really frustrated and then he needs a cuddle break. Once we’re holding him and he’s returned to his happy self, he figures all the better to move about and he gives a great toss of his body toward his desired destination and if we don’t go there, he’s likely to be frustrated yet again. This makes his impending discovery of independent locomotion so much more exciting for us because we’re getting a front row seat to the dramatics that play a role in our son’s desire to move. Soon, all his frustration will be transferred to us as he’ll be on the go and we’ll be hustling to maintain a safe and orderly home.
Saturday 12/31
The forward hand motion is back and a bit more refined. He’s doing the crawl in fits and starts. He’ll move one or both hands forward, then sort of rotate his body to one side, then pivot prone down and pull himself forward. So the coordination has improved during his break. And yet, he still doesn’t seem “aware” of what he’s done because there’s still a good amount of struggle to it. Liam took a great interest in our new years cards which were all together tucked in a box as I was attaching labels (infant = no hand writing). I kept moving the box forward and he kept following it. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Sunday 1/1
While our little babe’s form is still a bit sloppy, he’s getting where he wants to go, even when it means going forward. At the end of our day, we delayed bath time a bit because it was so much fun to watch him achieve his goal. We had friends over for dinner and when they were leaving Liam was showering each of them with so much affection that it seemed he wanted to give goodbye hugs. We all entertained his apparent wish and I have to say that his cuteness in dispensing hugs to our guests reached a new high in my estimation.
Monday 1/2
Today is the day, he’s off and away (thank you, Dr. Seuss)! I realized this first thing, that indeed Liam is now a crawler. Yesterday really was “the day” but it was late and I tend to write in the morning, which is a sly way of admitting that I’m logging two days worth now and since we’ve finally reached announcement time, soon this log will be published to boot. Liam’s only frustration so far came from being restricted from sucking on my iphone, so that’s a nice reprieve. So far today he’s had a few bumps (nothing cry-worthy), eaten some box (hopefully that just resurfaced in his spit up), sucked on his dad’s office chair, box of drill bits, and our foam roller, not to mention his toys – but those are soooo yesterday. Oh and every time I change his diaper I discover a bruise. New year, new adventures, here we come!
Happy New Year! Hugs all around!
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