Look what I can do!

I took some pictures and videos two months ago when Caleb was beginning to do some pretty decent pre-crawling. We were so excited to see him moving around even if it was backwards!

The hardwood floors didn't allow him to get the traction needed to move forward very well. They also presented a hazard when Caleb was learning to sit up because he would tumble over at times. As a result, we decided to buy an area rug for the family room, hoping it would provide some padding and allow him to grip the floor better to move forward. It did help some as our boy practiced this new skill. Caleb started to straighten out his hind legs like he was making a bridge and often tried to use his head to scoot forward. Dave and I got down on our hands and knees, modeling how it's done. We moved his arms and legs the way they should go but nothing worked.

Oh, don't you worry! Caleb still got where he was going, but he had to be a bit more creative. I love this short video Grandpa McKinstry took, showing off Caleb's moves:

You can imagine my surprise then when I'm upstairs one day and hear my mom yelling for me to come downstairs because Caleb has just pulled himself to standing. I'm thinking...I thought they had to crawl first, right? I mean, I have heard of babies walking before they crawl but I guess I was just expecting everything to happen in sequence.

Caleb continued to master pulling himself up over the next week or two. When I visited the pediatrician for his nine month check-up, she asked if Caleb could pull himself to standing but never mentioned crawling, so I asked. She told me that crawling is not a milestone that babies need and there isn't even a set time frame when babies tend to set crawling; there is a huge window of time when infants acquire this skill and some choose to walk first or just skip crawling all together. That eased this mama's mind who was starting to wonder if Caleb's baby chunkiness was keeping him from being as mobile as he should be.

At this point, I was just resolved that I would have to skip filling out the crawling section of Caleb's baby book and move on to walking. However, about two weeks ago our boy surprised us! I'm not sure if he just finally learned how to coordinate his arms and legs or if his motivation to move across the room to his daddy pushed him to get it right, but our boy is now a crawler!

Ok, now it's time to baby proof!!!!!!!!!!!