Learning to Crawl

Contrary to what my blog may suggest, there is a lot going on in our lives besides trying to get more sleep!  One very exciting thing in particular.... Elijah is really REALLY close to crawling!  (I've been saying that for 2-3 weeks, but still.  REALLY close!)  It is so thrilling to watch him work so hard at something.  Once he could sit up really well on his own (around his 6 month birthday) he started working on balancing on his hands and knees.  At first, he could only hold that position for a few seconds before collapsing onto his belly.  But over the last few weeks he has gotten stronger and now when he's on the floor, he's almost always up on his hands and knees/toes.  He goes back and forth pushing up onto his toes and back onto his knees.  Over and over again he does that until he gets tired and collapses onto his belly.  But only for a second, and then he's back on his knees again.  For a long time he only moved his feet.  Then he started to move his arms.  Now he moves both, but he's just not coordinated enough to move in the forward direction.  On a slick or smooth surface, he can move backwards quite well.  I'm pretty sure he is trying to move forwards, but he pushes so hard with his hands, and his feet can't get traction on the smooth floor, so he slides backwards.  Sometimes it makes him very frustrated, but other times he pushes himself so far that he ends up next to a new fun toy, and he likes that!  It was also really exciting to watch him get in and out of crawling position from sitting all on his own for the first time.  He kinda walks his hands backwards until his bottom hits the floor.  He's not great at it, but he can definitely do it.  I know it will only be a few more days before he's really crawling.  As it is, he can move around the room a lot.  He's just not very efficient at it.  It takes him a long time to get anywhere, and he can't exactly move in the direction he wants to.  He pivots, moves backwards, and occasionally inches forwards.  We took a video a few nights ago of his first real "steps" crawling.

We have spent the last two weekends babyproofing the house so I think we're pretty much ready.  All the cabinets in the kitchen are locked up, there's a gate at the top of the stairs, and the TV was mounted to the wall.  I'm sure we'll have to do more at some point, but this is a good start.  I think our lives will change drastically when he gets really mobile.  I'm probably going to look back at these first 7 months and think how lucky I was that I could just put him down and not worry about him.  But crawling opens up a whole new world of games and exploration for Elijah.  I'm so excited to see what life with a mobile baby has in store!