How Hard Can This Be?: Learning to Crawl

One of the things I absolutely love most about being a mom is watching baby girl discover new skills and figure out new things. It is incredible to see the light bulb go on, to see her concentrating on something, to watch her delight when she figures out she can do something new. Some of these discoveries happen in the blink of an eye--one minute she can't do something, and the next minute, and for the rest of her life, she can.

Learning to crawl is not one of these quick ones. And I like that. It gives me time to actually soak it all in, to revel in the gradual learning process. And it gives me hours and hours of entertainment.

She's never been a big fan of tummy time. When she was younger she would get tired of being on her stomach and drop her face straight down into the floor in a dramatic woe-is-me gesture. Once she learned how to sit upright independently, she had little interest in lying down to play; she wanted to see the world from her new, upright vantage point. The pediatrician said it wasn't necessary to even give her tummy time anymore, that we could just put toys out in front of and to the side of her as she sits up and that would develop all the core muscles she needs to crawl. Well, after watching her figure out how to bend herself completely in half--tummy, chest, face on the floor--while reaching out for a toy and then sit herself back up in a snap . . . I wasn't really too sure that was much of a challenge for her anymore. So we still do tummy time.

TH tries to show her how to get on all fours, how to support herself on her knees and her hands at the same time. But her legs are too strong--or her arms are too weak, one or the other. Because as soon as she vaults her butt up into the air and brings her knees up under her, her arms give out and she face plants. Then, still trying to push her butt higher and higher into the air, she will push herself over to one side or another. Then she'll push back up with her arms and her butt will fall back to the ground. While she can do this teeter-totter move and actually get places--usually backwards or in a circle--she has yet to figure out the whole "purposeful forward momentum" thing.

And I'm not really in all that much of a hurry to have her learn. Like I said, I like watching the learning process take place. And I like that she will still stay where I put her. The day she gets mobile is the day our lives get a whole lot more complicated!

Starting off good enough...