Sunday, June 13, 2010

And Now for a Post That Will Appeal Only to My Family

One of the (many) reasons I blog is that it captures some of the little things about motherhood and my children that I wouldn't otherwise write down. This post is about that- if you're looking for anything deeper, click away now.

I've been struck recently by how grown up Pumpkin is seeming. For one thing, she finally had her first haircut yesterday. Can you tell which is the before and which is the after picture?




But the first haircut milestone- the last one in her baby book- is just an outward symbol. The growing up that is really amazing me these days is in what she knows and understands. For instance, one day last week, I took a slightly different route to our house after turning off the main street. I was avoiding some traffic on our usual route, as I explained to Pumpkin when she asked "why are you going this way Mommy?" I went straight instead of turning left, and turned left one block later. I drove up that street and turned right onto our street. She announced the name of our street as I turned onto it, and then, as I passed the next cross street (the one we walk down to get to the park), told me "we could have come up this street, the park street, too, Mommy. That would have worked, too." She was right, of course, and I was surprised by the sudden realization that she has a little map of her neighborhood in her head, marked with the important things, like our street and the park.

Petunia is growing fast, too. She already weighs more than Pumpkin did at a year- she is more than 20 lbs. My back and arms feel that weight, let me tell you. But it makes her so cuddly that I forgive her for the extra workout. Well, it makes her cuddly on the rare occasion that she wants to be cuddled. These days, she wants to be down on the ground, trying to crawl. She is so close, and so frustrated by her inability to get the last few pieces to fall into place, it almost breaks my heart.

Pumpkin spent at least a month almost crawling. She took the route that I assume is more usual- from tummy time, she pushed up on all fours, and then rocked and rocked until finally, one day, the lure of my computer was too much and she set off crawling across the floor to get to it.

Petunia is going about it her own way. She isn't too fond of tummy time, and hasn't been since she learned how to sit. She has now learned how to sit up on her own from tummy time, so once she remembers that she knows how to roll over, getting her to stay down in her crib is going to be a challenge. We have lowered the mattress in expectation of this event. Now, if I put her in her crib sitting, she grabs onto the bars and rattles them, or grabs the top bar and tries to pull up and/or teeth on it, all with a grin on her face and a bit of mischief in her eyes.

Anyway, her almost crawling looks different than her sister's did. She starts from sitting, and lunges forward for a toy. She has amazing range- she will flatten herself out into a pose that would make my yoga teacher proud, and then pull herself back up, with the toy clutched in her hand and a triumphant smile on her face. For several weeks, she was getting her right leg stuck underneath her, in half of a cross-legged pose, and then whining because she can't crawl. Next, she figured out how to free the leg, but the weight of her chubby little bottom was too much for her arms, and she sprawled onto her tummy. From here, she is likely to start scooting backwards across the floor- and boy, did that delight her for awhile- until she runs into a cupboard or refrigerator or some other barrier, at which point she will pull her legs into an almost split and then sit up.

Just this weekend, she has gotten strong enough to keep her bottom in the air and reach forward with her arms at the same time. She hasn't actually crawled yet, but she is so close that we're constantly hovering with the camera, sure that this time will be it, and wanting to capture that moment for her baby book. Anyone want to bet how much longer we'll be in this almost crawling stage? And whether we will have given up and forgotten about the camera by the time she actually manages to crawl?

5 comments:

  1. Aubergine Kenobi5:24 AM

    It's lovely to get these kind of updates! I'm quite impressed with Pumkin's navigational habilities, and her hair looks lovely (even before the haircut). C had his first official haircut back in December, after giving up on trying to do it myself.
    Hope Petunia nails the crawling soon, they tend to get quite frustrated when they're at the stage of almost-mastering-a-skill-but-not-quite-yet, don't they? I have to say Petunia has completely out speeded my little H, who at the grand old age of 12 months (!) started crawling this weekend. She also had developed a cunning stretching routine to grab stuff that was a little bit out of her reach, and could shuffle herself on her bottom a little bit, but this is gives her a level of mobility she has never had before, I'm both relieved and proud that she's finaly nailed it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love these!

    Pumpkin has gorgeous curls! Mine does as well, and everyone seems to love them as much as I do. I'm also extremely impressed with your girl's navigational skills.

    Love the stretching and backing up routines of Petunia. Warning though: My mom says that she should have known she was in for trouble with my brother when he started crawling backwards before he went forwards. hehe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7:08 AM

    This is great! I've had so many friends/family with babies and enjoyed seeing the different methods for getting around before walking. I just love how creative babies can get with their mobility skills! And Pumpkin's navigational abilities are a huge feat, IMHO. I think I was 5 years old before I knew where in the world we were in our own neighborhood.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love the curls! The first haircut really is the last rite of passage for keeping track of & journaling in the baby book (I so need to transfer my kid notes into one of those). I wish Podunkville had a hair salon that catered to kids, then maybe DS wouldn't look like a "surf bum." I like the look of longer hair for boys as opposed to the G.I. crew cut look. Girls' hair always seems to look cute long or short, as long as it is not a mullet like this poor little 5 year old girl was sporting at the store the other day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My kids were also very into directions and routes. AM especially--even before he could talk (still in speech therapy), he would fuss from the back if I took a different way then usual. Now he is a complete backseat driver and likes to direct me on the way home from preschool...and gets worried about traffic and backups. Sheesh.

    Her hair is so blonde! Wow! All she needs is a baby surfboard ;)

    ReplyDelete

Sorry for the CAPTCHA, folks. The spammers were stealing too much of my time.