Magrilless

Maggie is a master crawler now! Here’s a live shot of her crawling to the camera. I was silly and took it longwise, and I have no idea how to flip it around. So you get to tilt your head or imagine she’s crawling on the wall.

As anticipated, being independent has meant that there are periods of up to 20 minutes where she doesn’t need any direct interaction. She still likes to know someone is in the vicinity, but she’ll play on the floor while I fold clothes or something. For instance, while I type this she’s on the floor tossing a toy just out of her reach and then working to get to it. We’re in the process of baby-proofing rooms. The kitchen will be the hardest; dog dishes are sooooo interesting.

We’re working on the sleeping thing. She’s no longer actively teething (only that one left incisor nubby), but is now in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night anyway. Why is it that breaking habits is so much harder and less fun than forming them? Well, like I said, we’re working on it. Last night she only got up twice, so we’re on our way I think.

I think we’re starting on the next one. Last night was reminiscent of the beginnings of Mt. Incisor I. There are no visible signs yet of Mt Incisor II, but I feel like the inevitable is on the horizon.

Excitingly, she’s moving through her crawling lessons like a whiz! Top of her class, I’d say. When properly motivated (read, “when there’s a dog sitting a couple paces away”), she’ll jerk her legs and arms into motion and motor on over. Most of the time she takes a couple steps (or hands) and then sits back; rocks forward a bit; sits back; rocks forward; sits back. She’s very accomplished at sitting from the all-fours position now. And every day she looks less and less like one of those spazzed-out, legs-going-everywhere beetles when she’s doing the crawling thing. Already she’s entertaining herself more by being a little bit independent. This is exciting news for Mom! Until she learns to be independently getting into trouble, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Well, we’re earning our stripes as parents. There has been a kind of pattern of bad night, bad night, normal night; bad night, bad night, normal night. That tooth is creeping its way in bit by bit. I can’t get a picture of it yet; there’s still very little elevation to Mt. Incisor. And lore has it that teeth come in pairs, so I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet. We’re just trying to keep things as predictable and normal as possible so that there’s not much else for her to cope with.

Maggie is making major gains in the crawling department, though. She’s successfully gotten hand over hand over hand a couple times before she face plants and rolls over. Her biggest motivation is Eliza. When the pup is in her line of sight, she concentrates extra hard on coordinating all those moving parts. Soon she can roll her own ball and go after it too. How much fun for a little one!

Calling All Imaginations!

Momentous occasion: Maggie is cutting her first tooth! In fact, it just broke through the gums this morning. Yesterday in the car I noticed a little white spot with some redness around it, and already this morning you can feel that pearly white with your finger. She has been a bit cranky and has had major trouble getting to sleep for naps, but so far it’s been better than I expected. I know, now I’ve done it. The hardest part, actually, is that she’s super concentrated on learning to crawl too. She’s been practicing in her sleep, which wakes her up multiple times during the night. I think she doesn’t have her full capacity of patience to deal with this tooth because she’s also just really tired. Here we are on the precipice of a new stage; Maggie’s not just a little baby lump any more. She’s about to be a moving and eating machine!

She also went “swimming” for the first time this week. It’s been so hot that walking the dogs is not so nice. So they can be out in the backyard for a little outdoors time and we can be in the pool. You can see the progression of comprehension in these pictures.

“Hmm. Wet stuff is coming out of that tube.”