Celeste made another move today. Since my folks were here the last week in June (and especially since seeing her cousins running about over 4th of July Weekend), Celeste has been working at walking. She can pull herself up if we offer her fingers/hands to grab on to, and she will gladly lead us around the house to the point of fearlessly stepping off stairs into space if we let her. On Sunday, she walked me over to a Matisse print we have propped up against the wall in the dining room (it had to be moved for a shelf and we don’t know where it will go next) and plopped herself down in front of it. I think she said "Gauguin?" and I had to explain that she had the wrong painter (and really, the print, "Femme à l'Amphore et Grenade," looks way too Modern to confuse with anything a Post-Impressionist like Gauguin would have done).
Anyway, this afternoon, stuck with a dirty diaper and the need to drop her someplace secure for a minute, I left Celeste standing in her crib while I ran across the hall to the Diaper Champ. When I got back, instead of picking her up, I stood at the end of the crib and encouraged her to walk over to me by herself. It took a little work shifting her hand and foot, but I got her to figure out the hold-on-to-the-rail-and-side-step move and she was soon in the corner of the crib next to me. So, meanie that I am, I walk to the other end of the crib and stayed just out of her reach, encouraging her to move about two-thirds the length of the crib toward me.
This was her first instance of cruising.
[ASIDE: Earlier today (and I witnessed it when Evelin got home this evening), Celeste started spinning on her butt — yet another breakdancing move — to keep her mum in her sights. She's done this a little bit in the tub, but today, Evelin walked around a sitting Celeste and she used her feet to push herself 360°.]
Later in the day, when I was drawing her bath, she cruised along the side of the tub to try and get a toy, and, after her bath while waiting for Evelin to get home, she made two or three sideways steps while holding on to the downstairs changing table to get at a toy.
Evelin sums it up as "She's experimenting with movement," and I think we are going to be in trouble soon ...
3 comments:
She's genius!!! Hope you are still putting her on her tummy and encouraging her to move toward a toy. She needs to crawl before she runs!!!
Awwww! How cute! And how smart to get her to cruise around the crib.
We, being late to little crawlers ourselves, were quite happy to hear our doctor say he didn't think crawling was important at all. Movement and exploration are, but "crawling" not so much. (Really....he said it's not a real milestone!)
Thanks Mom & Anita. Today, she did do some good tummy time, but she's all about the walking (although it might be more accurate to describe it as staggering).
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