Locomotion Commotion

Well, after a busy couple days, I got back from Georgia on Saturday night.  I was SO glad to see the pipsqueak; I couldn’t wait to get off that dang plane!  She and Luke met me outside security.  She didn’t see me walk up, so when she saw me finally, she kept looking at me, looking at Luke, and looking back at me.  After a couple seconds, she got a huge smile and reached up for me to pick her up.  Talk about melting a mommy’s heart.  We walked to baggage claim (because I had to take my dang pump, I had to check a bag despite only being gone for two nights), and I let her sit on some big box thingies by the carousels.  She was sitting at eye level with me and kept reaching up giving hugs and kisses.  Over and over and over.  Ohhhh, how I missed those!

So, now that I’m back, it’s catch up time.  Piper’s skill explosion is continuing, and she’s surprising us with new skills in surprisingly fast succession.

So, today’s fancy new ability is ROLLING.  EVERYWHERE.  She rolled over for the first time the night she came home from the hospital, the first time we put her on her tummy.  She was 7 weeks old, but 39 gestational weeks.  So the skill has been there.  And she’ll roll over off her tummy, quickly, with no problem, because she knew darn good and well how to get out of having to work (she does have a little stubborn/lazy streak to her…)  But doing it as a mode of transportation?  You do realize that’d take effort, don’t you???

Until last week.  I think she’s finally come to the conclusion that rolling would require less work than crawling (her little arms just haven’t quite built up the muscles yet), and maybe it’d be worth a try. 

And roll she does!

I laid her on her mat this morning.  The next time I looked down, just a minute later, this is what I found.

So, she had to roll over a few times (over some clothes that have been removed from the picture), turn herself to get between the bars of the mat, and continue rolling across the room.  She only gains ground when she rolls from back to front; when she rolls from front to back, she really only pivots in place.  No wonder I got an earful of grunting while I was on the phone with work.  All this in a blanket sleeper.

Then, this afternoon, I had her on the ground while I was talking to my mom on the phone.  I could hear her talking, so I knew exactly where she was.  All the sudden, I got a loud, very upset and very real scream.  I threw down the phone, and went to see what was up with the kid.

I couldn’t find her.

She somehow made her way under the coffee table and rolled up against the side of a cast iron foot stool.  With her head.  All this right under my feet.  She was definitely trying to get to me; she’s never  gone under the table before.  I grabbed her and checked her over (she has a sense for the dramatic; her pain threshold is fairly L-O-W) and I started giggling at her for her antics.  Then, with big crocodile tears streaming down her cheeks and to her chin, she started laughing at me.  Nice. 

I’ve been keeping my eye out for a baby gate to put over the stairs.  We have one that’s pressure set between the wall and the hand rail, but I want one that’s more permanent since we’ll probably be using it for a while. 

I think it’s finally time to invest.