There was a time when you could put Evan down somewhere and be confident that he would stay there. This predictability was very useful. I’m not saying we used him for a door stop or anything; but sometimes you just need a door to stay open.
Not anymore. Evan is now finely balanced between the two poles of imobile and mobile; and like many finely balanced things he keeps falling over. You can almost smell his frustration. He knows that he wants something. He knows that it is out of his reach. He knows that there must be a way for him to move so it will be in his reach. But he just can’t work out what that is.
In practice this results in him falling forward onto his hands then (despite at that moment being in the ideal crawling position) slowly stretching out his legs so he ends up flat on his stomach. You then see a confused look of incredulity flash across his face, and it doesn’t take a baby whisperer to figure out he is thinking: “Now what?”. The answer to that question is of course obvious. Make screeching Godzilla noises until someone picks you up and sits you back down on your bum. Then you go through the whole process again. Marvelous.
We don’t really mind of course. Learning to move isn’t exactly the easiest task in the world. And anyway, sometimes in the mornings I have trouble switching from inertia to motion, and I’m 31.
Of course there is a small part of us that is sorry to say goodbye to the stationary Evan. I would like to say that this was because of bitter-sweet feelings about our baby growing up, but I’d be lying. No, it’s because when he starts crawling we are going to have find a place out of his reach for all the crap that’s on our floor that we don’t want him to get hold of.
Perhaps we could tie his legs together until his first birthday.
I feel you. I am in exactly the same place with my young’un. Just blogged about it yesterday. As a matter of fact, she is screeching at me right now because she is stranded on her belly, unable to move forward or backward. I am trying to ignore her because if I keep picking her up and setting her upright, she isn’t going to learn. It’s like you pulled the thoughts right out of my head…freaky!
You may as well keep him taped up till he’s about 3. Our 17 month old has his hands in everything, and the only place out of reach is in a different house.
Hey Dan. The worst thing is, is that I still have the rattles and play-mat that I bought for Evan a week after he was born. I haven’t been in the position to visit you because of work (rarely get back to Hudds these days). They have been festering in the back of my car, and are clearly inappropriate for the big lad now. Perhaps I should save them for his 21st now?
P.S - My mum always informs me that I was a well-behaved, quiet child when I was a toddler - this may have something to do with the fact that I was pissed out of my head on gripe water (which used to contain booze), and that I now have an affinity with brandy.
The rattles would probably sill be appropriate. But if I were you i’d save them for Barra’s next offspring.
Thanks for the thought though Sandip. Your a good egg.
Is sooo cute! Am making most annoying baby noises at the screen)…
Superglue can come in very handy if you want a child to stay in the same place for more than a minute or two ;-)