Out of the army

All that army training has finally paid off. After weeks of army crawling around the place, Kaylani finally realized that she can pop herself up on her forearms and knees and move just a little bit better. To be fair, she was pretty darn quick with the army crawl (and still is), but I'm thinking she's going to be a lot quicker now.

She actually still does the army crawl most of the time now. But every now and then she'll pop herself up and take a few awkward crawls from her knees. She hasn't quite figured out that she can just move one knee and the opposite arm, and then repeat that. Instead, she's decided that she'll still do the one leg push, just from her knees. So now her crawling looks more like a normal crawl with a straight leg limp. HI-larious!

The good thing about Kaylani mastering the art of crawling (whether it be army crawling or normal crawling with a straight leg limp) is that she is developing nicely and on pace (as far as I know). The problem with this is that she's getting herself into all types of trouble. Sure she's always been able to grab at an electrical socket (which has been covered up), and sure she could always make her way over to the humidifier and try and pull it over. She could even get herself to a drawer or a door and open it into herself. But now she does it so much faster, and that's not even the scary part yet.

Tonight while she was exploring the house, she made her way past the coffee table, into the hallway, to the doormat, even to the A/C vent on the floor, before she finally found what she was looking for...the stairs. Now, the top of our stairs has been gated off for over a year already (and not because we thought Kaylani would fall down the stairs while she was still in the womb, but more that we thought her cousins would). The bottom of our stairs is currently open access, not that Kaylani would have cared if it was or not anyways.

I finally realized why babies like playing on stairs. Stairs are the perfect height to use to stand up. She can reach the first stair and still be in crawling like position. Then she can even scoot a little closer and reach the second stair to stand up. Once she's standing up, and leaning over the first stair, that's when she gets stuck. Today, she plopped back down on her little butt, but soon enough she'll be putting one leg up on that first stair, and bam, we've got ourselves a climber.

So now we can add the bottom of the stairs to the list of things to babyproof in the house. I think we'll move it to the top of the list too, right in front of the entertainment stand with glass, the bar with exposed wine bottles, and the door stopper without the rubber padding. I'm sure there are a few other things, but those are the ones at the top right now. Ahh the joys of a mobile baby. Seriously though, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world! Well, maybe a mobile baby who stayed out of trouble.

Flip Flop

Flip. Flop. Back. Belly. Flip. Flop. Back. Belly. Repeat that sequence about 10 more times and you have Kaylani's nighttime performance. Luckily she doesn't wake up every time she flips or flops, but she has been trying to escape her crib around 4am each morning. Even luckier for us is that she'll usually go back to sleep for another 3 hours if Mommy nurses. Since she's getting 11 hours of sleep in total during the night, she can flip and flop as much as she wants in her crib. Kinda.

The great crib escape is something Mommy and I have been dreading for quite awhile. She can't exactly pull herself up yet, and she's barely getting from down to sit as it is, but the way she's developing we just never know when it'll happen. A few nights of waking up to Kaylani whining to get out of her crib, and seeing her tugging on her bumpers trying to either get up or get out was enough to cause us to take action. Tonight, we lowered her crib one more level. Now her mattress is a a good 1.5 feet from the top which means she'll have to work pretty hard to get out. There's only one more level to go. Hopefully our backs won't give out before we get to that next level. So far so good.

Taking care of the worry around flipping and flopping in bed was the easy thing to do. Figuring out what we're going to do with her on the changing table is a completely different story. There, it's not flip, flop, back, belly. Instead it's flip, crawl, bang head on wall, grab edge of table, pull, roll, and try and jump off the 3' ledge. Now repeat that 10 times and you have Kaylani's diaper change routine. No matter how many times we pick her up and put her on her back, she'll immediately flip over and try and make a break for it. In bed? Kinda cute. On a changing table? Not so cute. On a changing table without a diaper? Definitely not cute (okay, still kinda cute, but don't tell Kaylani that).

A few months ago we laughed at our friends Steve and Lisa when they showed us that it took 2 of them to change Aidan's diaper. One of them would hold him by the arms and belly while the other changed his diaper. At the time, it seemed ridiculous that they would need 2 people to overpower their baby. Now, I'm thinking that we need 3 of us, or perhaps a restraining strap attachment for the changing table to keep Kaylani still. Karma sucks.

Kaylani's new diaper change routine is still new enough to us that we're okay avoiding any type of restraining device for the moment, but if she keeps it up, that all might change. After all, safety comes first, and giving her the chance to pull herself off the 3' ledge and onto the ground (or into the garbage can/diaper genie that happens to be on that side of the table) doesn't sound like a good thing. We'll see what happens, but in the meantime, check out these pictures from the last couple of days. Unfortunately none of them are of Kaylani hanging off of the changing table because we can't spare a set of arms for a picture during diaper changing time!

And when you're done checking out those pictures, don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for the latest installment of Fatherhood Fridays! There's always a great bunch of reads over there to keep you busy for the weekend. You'll love it. Trust me, or your money back!

Moving on up!

We've got forward motion! Finally! After months of anticipation, Kaylani is finally on the move. She's not getting anywhere fast yet, but she's definitely mobile, and it's not backwards for a change. The very first time was actually yesterday, but she only scooted about 1 and a half Kaylani's (that's a valid type of measurement right?) during Gymboree class. Mommy credited that movement with the smooth, slippery cushion mats that they have at Gymboree, but it turns out she was just giving a preview for what was to come today.

Around 1:45pm, I got the call that Kaylani was crawling (actually, I got a text to tell me that since I was in a meeting and couldn't answer the phone). Mommy and Kaylani were in the playroom and Kaylani was reaching out for a book. Instead of what she normally does (which is reach and stretch for it as far as she can before spinning around in endless circles and ending up further from it and crying), she scooted over to it. And when she scooted 4 more times towards it (since Mommy kept moving it further away), Mommy broke into tears. We had ourselves a little crawler!

I'm sure you can guess what I did as soon as I got home from work then. I immediately took Kaylani out of the exersaucer where she was watching Mommy cook, and we headed to the playroom. I was really hoping that she would put on a show for me, and luckily she did (unlike when she rolled over for the first and second and third times just for Mommy). Her crawl is pretty damn cute to watch. It's not a full, up on all fours, type of crawl. Instead, it's more like a one leg push and crawl with the other leg in a bent, still position. A few of her movements look fully coordinated between both legs, but most of the time it's like a three legged race, except she only has two.

Anyways, I'm probably not doing it any justice, so check out this video which has a bunch of clips put together of her crawling! She's certainly not the most graceful crawler yet, but she's definitely the cutest in my book! Oh, and happy Fatherhood Friday! Don't forget to check out Dad-Blogs for some great posts!

Baby's Got Back...wards movement

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you I thought Kaylani was going to go mobile any day now? Well, I was wrong. It wasn't any day then, but it is going to be any day now. Over the past few days, she's been getting her move on more and more. It's definitely a step in the right direction, even if it's in the wrong direction.

We've had our run of Kaylani accomplishing milestones on her birthday, and today, being her 7 month birthday, we thought we might get a forward crawl out of her. And tonight I thought I might have seen a small inchworm crawl/lunge forward, but I don't think we'll count it as her first official crawl. However, Mommy did get to witness a good backward crawling exhibition put on by Kaylani this afternoon.

Today was Kaylani and Mommy's first Play & Learn class at Gymboree. It's a fun filled class that she's taking with 2 of her friends, Aadi and Aidan, where they "learn about cause and effect and build strength through play with ramps, slides and climbers." So while Kaylani's not exactly crawling herself, she is around a bunch of people who can crawl and is learning more and more each day. As proof of her development, she made an approximate 10 foot dash backwards in a flash. We're convinced that any day now she'll shift out of reverse (unlike Tommy's Saab which was stuck in reverse permanently) and hit the ground crawling.

We're ready for her to get crawling because it's the next milestone she can acheive, and a gateway to so many more. On the flip side, baby gone mobile brings on a whole new set of challenges, like the fact that she won't be where we left her, and that our house isn't mobile baby proof yet. Oh well, we'll worry about that when we get there. For now, we're just going to celebrate another month gone by and another month to come. Celebrate along by checking out these pictures from today! Happy 7 Month Birthday Kaylani!

Little Skydiver

I feel like Kaylani is on the verge of becoming mobile. I'm not 100% certain and I'm probably closer to 100% wrong, but I just have a feeling like she's about to move. Maybe she's not going to go into a 4 point crawl, but maybe, just maybe she'll do an army crawl, or a scoot (forward or backward...doesn't matter to us). Every day she just seems to get that much closer.

For example, this morning she pushed herself up in the air by extending her arms fully while she was laying on her belly. And the other day, she was kicking her legs out like a little frog after she fell over on one of our stuffed bears. But so far, she hasn't moved an inch (other than side to side). What's funny about watching her try and move is that more often than not, she does the opposite of move.

The opposite of move is obviously to stay still. And when you're laying on your belly, one way to stay still is to get all your limbs in the air so you balance right on your belly. And whenever she does that, she looks like she's skydiving. It's one of the funnier things she does because it really is the opposite of move. Not only is she not going towards (or away from) her toy, but she's in the same exact spot wobbling around on her belly.

If I could get her to do this with a backpack on, you'd see it even more. Sometimes her arm flails around like she's reaching around for the ripcord, but usually she's just in her freefall mode. We were pretty lucky to be able to grab a few pictures of her in this pose, so check them out in addition to the last couple of days. As for us, we're off to Baltimore for the weekend. Enjoy the long weekend, but don't forget to check back in! We'll be live from Baltimore from the next few days. Or as live as a blog can get at least. Oh, and if you're here for Fatherhood Friday, read the next post down. I cheated and posted yesterday. But Happy Fatherhood Friday!