Jillian is mobile! And life as Matt and I know it, for the second time, will never be the same. Over the past few weeks, she had figured out how to maneuver herself around in a small radius by spinning, reaching, and rolling over to get to things out of her reach. Then she made it to all fours, and just rocked back and forth. And-a-one-and-a-two-and-a-three… but no movement. A week ago Friday, I was sitting on the floor with her, and looking at paint samples while she played (we’re painting our first floor and I’ve been trying to decide on colors for weeks now). All of a sudden, there she was in front of me, and had crawled a couple steps to grab for the paint samples! I got all excited, and put a bright orange paint sample out of reach, and she crawled 4 steps to get it – YAY! Then she was done for the night. No more. But I like that she takes an interest in interior decorating :)
Then Saturday morning came along. We went downstairs and after breakfast, I sat her in the middle of the family room so she could play. She crawled a longer distance to get her phone, but was soon tired out. After playing (and capturing what I could on video), I got up and went to the kitchen to do some cleaning up. Assuming that she was just playing in one spot (as she always did), I was startled to hear two little hands banging on the hardwood kitchen floors, and a little face peering from the side of the cabinet. The little peanut just crawled to another room to find me! I was tickled.
Since then, she now follows Matt and I everywhere. She is particularly fond of the kitchen, and staring at her reflection in the face of the dishwasher. She likes the feel of the hard floor on her heels as she sits down and bangs her legs on the floor. And she likes to chase and catch us as we pretend to run away from her. The world is completely new for her, and she is exploring it to the full.
For Matt and I – we made a trip to Toys R Us over the weekend to buy baby gates and cabinet locks to protect our little explorer. I know they are the safe thing to have, but I already DO NOT like them. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but it drives me crazy to have to open and close a gate just to go up and down the stairs.
Jillian loves the downstairs gate though – last night we watched her grab the bars and pull herself up to standing for the first time on her own. Matt and I were both there when she did it, cheering her on the whole time as she figured out how to get her feet in just the right position to pull up. I didn’t know that I could be so proud. Based on that, I’m going to be a teary mess when she graduates from kindergarten…
Once I figure out how to upload the Flip video to this blog, I will share her crawling video with you. I can’t get enough of seeing that little tushy scootin’ all around :) Oh, and her 9-month photo is on the right - can she get any cuter?! The whole 'photo-shoot' was 2 pictures long, since she kept trying to crawl off the chair. Glad that I was able to catch a good shot :)
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