Who knew there could be so many stages to crawling? Sure, I knew that there were steps that led up to her being able to crawl but I never realized how similar to crawling they would be. Now that she's about that age we get tons of "Is she crawling yet?" questions and the answer is always along the lines of "Well, .... yes and no...kinda, but not really ... close but not quite."
1st ... stretching ... About a month ago when she REALLY wanted something she would reach, and reach, and stretch her little tiny body as far as humanly possible. Almost as if she were willing herself to grow right at that very moment. This would often work surprisingly well but was very frustrating and usually needed the assistance of the next step.
2nd ... rolling ... Around the same time that super stretch Lillie arrived she became a Roly Poly Lillie too. For the longest time she would roll from belly to back or back to belly to get a toy on the other corner of the blanket. In February she quickly mastered the art of rolling from one side of the room to the other. In combination with the newly developed stretching skills she was a force to be reckoned with when it came to grabbing stuff.
3rd ... spinning ... Soon she decided that simply rolling around wasn't getting her headed in the right direction quickly enough so she started to spin. While laying on her belly her arms would push one direction and the feet would go another until suddenly she was doing 360s and polishing circles on the floor.
4th ... combat crawl ... About 2 weeks ago she decided that all the stretching, rolling, and spinning just WASN'T cutting it anymore. She would try to get to toys or things on the other side of the room that she shouldn't touch (stereo system, computer cord, dirty shoes, etc) that she could reach fast enough so she started pulling with her arms and pushing off with her toes. The combat crawl was born! She looked just like a soldier trying to slide under a fence. She moved forward without a single part of her body coming off the floor.
5th ... the inchworm ... About a week ago the combat crawl was apparently still not fast enough so she started to raise her bum up in the air and push off with her feet. Pull with arms, push with feet, bum in air .... pull with arms, push with feet, bum in air ... pull with arms, push with feet, bum in air. And the inchworm keeps inching along ....
6th ... all 4s ... In just the past 3 days when we go to lay her down on the floor she lands on all 4s and stays there for a few moments just rocking back and forth with her belly up off the floor. Then she kinda collapses and lands on her belly with her limbs spalyed out to her sides but shes getting there. This morning she even tried to move her knee forward before her legs slipped out from beneath her.
So ... "Is she crawling yet?"
"Kinda, sorta, almost, ... but not quite yet." It should happen anyday now .... but I'm secretly hoping that she'll wait until after 4:30 so I'll be home from work.
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