When her first mate spreads her wings to...BECOME FRIGGIN' MOBILE.
But let's back up a bit, shall we?
Last year when Hubs and I discovered we were in a family way, I immediately started to read. [This should come as a shock to no one who has ever had more than 3 conversations with me.] I'm a list-maker, a person who likes to prepare. Not that I map out the way things should turn out...more like I believe in planning for every contingency. So I read a TON of stuff online. It started with lots of healthy pregnancy websites and then some basic how-to sources for all things baby. Basically, I constructed my whole new outlook on life according to the Mayo Clinic and various online versions of parenting magazines. Of course, Hubs loved sharing a 625 square foot apartment with a walking library on all things prenatal.
Yet, I eventually starting craving stories rather than facts. It finally dawned on me that all kids are different. And much more importantly, that all the great plans for your parenting style could very well be thrown out the window depending on your child's preferences/desires/dirty little pirate deeds. I started dipping a toe into the world of Mommy Blogging. And I discovered some amazing, hilarious, passionate women, and I'm still an avid reader of their stuff. It's been a great way for me to hear all kinds of crazy (or normal) stuff that kids do and how their parents react. I'll also admit -- it's awfully nice to have a general idea of a baby's normal development without having to constantly compare my kid to someone that we actually know. Hubs and I don't exactly hang out with any other parents on a regular basis. So for now, I'll settle to comparing my daughter's accomplishments to those of the children who's parents I admire online in a totally non-creepy way. And I'm slowly venturing into the uncharted seas of actually writing about my own experiences as well.
Which brings me to My Daughter, the charming and devious HD. As of right now, she's 7 months old. Current "baby tricks" include nomming solids with her two teeth, "talking" and singing up a storm, constant attempts to feed herself, and rolling to any far-away toy that she desires. Kid isn't even a year old and she's already got a fierce independent streak. I've been pondering the past couple of days what my inaugural blog post should be. And today, in the middle of a stir fry veggie supper and an old episode of Weeds, my HD provided. The first mate made her first Actual Intentional Forward Movement. We're totally counting this as for-reals crawling:
HD has a play mat area in our living room. This evening, Hubs and I watch her roll off onto the hardwood floor in search of a couple of her stray toys. She then proceeds to claw her way along the floor, dead-leg style, and moves a good 1.5 feet to get to her loot. Some parenting websites generously refer to this as an "army crawl." I refer to it as "Baby, let me stop sobbing long enough to run get the camera." Yup, this pirate cried like a little wench. And then spent the next 15 minutes trying to get her kid to do it again on film. It took HD awhile to do it -- not because she couldn't, but because she always stops what she's doing the second she sees a camera is on her. She preens and poses for any camera, the little ham (no idea where she got that!). We tried oodles of times to capture it successfully, but the above video is the most action we got. The rest are more like this:
Regardless, I think it's time for us to go purchase a couple of baby gates. God help us.
