On the move

Hayden was a lazy, fat baby. Marlo is a bit more...motivated. So, it wasn't really a surprise when this morning, she crawled for the first time--2 months earlier than her big brother. This week, she has mastered sitting up on her own, pulling up to a stand, and now, crawling.

I haven't really encouraged the crawling. I haven't put tempting toys in front of her in an effort to inspire her movement, or demonstrated correct crawling technique. Frankly, the sit-still phase is far too short and I'm in no hurry for her to outgrow her babyhood. In the end, the only inspiration she needed was one of Hayden's trains. She spotted it on the floor and without any hesitation she was off to get it. And eat it.

At the moment she is more interested in pulling up than crawling. Two favorites spots are the trampoline and the train table. The coffee table is enticing too, but there aren't as many goodies there, and it's harder for her to get traction on the wood floor.

Marlo is a bit conflicted about all of this. On one hand, she is giddy about being able to get her hands on previously unreachable treasures. Yet, despite her newfound mobility, she's been squawking at me more than usual to pick her up. Several times today she simply wanted to be held. It's a cuddle she usually only does with me when she is tired--head against my shoulder, thumb in mouth--but today she needed a little extra reassurance that I'm still close by even if she motors off in the other direction.