Yesterday, you learned to crawl.
You'd been working on it for about a month, scooting around and rolling wherever you needed to go. It wasn't crawling exactly--we'd set you on the floor somewhere and look up a few minutes later, and you'd be inexplicably across the room. For a while you worked on a move where you dragged yourself around on your forearms, like a baby commando in the field in 'Nam.
But this is definitive crawling. You're up on all fours, with one of your little legs tucked foot-flat on the ground at all times.
You're fast. And you have this thing for electrical cords. And destruction. We had to break out the baby jail to keep you from doing harm to yourself and our knickknacks. You hate it and cry passionately the whole time you're incarcerated...until dad or I climb in with you. Yesterday, I checked myself in and you crawled over and bit my nose and laughed. Biting noses is like the world's best joke for you. It's all the lolcats and Hyperbole and a Half cartoons rolled up into one gigantic good time.
I miss the days of being able to sit on the couch and turn my attention to the internets for TEN FREAKING MINUTES without having to worry about you crawling away to your doom. But I have to admit that there's something very cool about the fact that you can go places, now. If we lived in caveman times, you could at least make a pretense of escaping from the lions before they devoured you! I keep thinking about all the places you'll go in your life. Right now, I'm reading a book about Bhutan. Maybe you'll go there, one day. I hope you do.
Many of these places you'll go, you'll go without me.
But I was there the first time you ever set your eyes on something and then decided to go and get it for yourself. I was there at the very beginning. And that makes me feel like I'll be with you every step of the way, even when I'm not.
The cats want me to give you a message from them. It is OMG WTF HALP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wherever you go, little girl, I've got your back.
Lots of love to my Lulu-pants,
MAMA
She is adorable!
ReplyDeleteThank you! :) It helps a lot, that face, after she has eaten a page of my passport, which I stupidly left on the coffee table.
DeleteI really wanted to name our last daughter LuLu! Partner vetoed so we went with LoLa. She's wonderful and not exactly helping my baby fever over here. :)
ReplyDeleteI actually couldn't get mine to go with Lulu either...Lu's real name is something else. But I get to use Lulu as her internet nom de guerre so...everybody's happy!
DeleteLove Lola! I am definitely pushing that for (if there's) the next one.
And thanks!
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww *sniffle* You're so cute. You made my eyes and nose water when you talk about the places she'll go without you and how you have her back.
ReplyDeleteHow old is she?
ReplyDelete10 months yesterday!
DeleteThis must have been such a special moment for you, and for Lulu. So glad that you got the chance to share it with her. I also love it that you spend time in baby jail with her so she doesn't get lonely. Cath, you sound like a wonderful mother, and it is clear to me from this post that you love your little girl very much. Thanks for sharing this momentous occasion with us.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm tearing up. Thanks for writing this. x
DeleteWhat a momentous occasion! I suppose the "baby jail" is that thing shaped like a hexagon people put in their living rooms? I don't have one of those - yet. James is still relatively immobile. But he can roll like a tumbleweed!
ReplyDeleteI just love these letters you write … and she will pore over them when she is older and find herself laughing and weeping. It is HUGE when they become mobile. It changes the whole game. My son never quite mastered a real crawl … it was a combo of the Nam thing and a dog. It was really weird. And your daughter is so so so cute! I just love photos of her!
ReplyDeleteOh this is such a sweet letter and what cute photos! I love her big eyes!
ReplyDelete:-) My oldest son did a 'commando crawl' but was never keen, preferred to be upright and have me walk him around holding on to my fingers ... backbreaking work. He would chase the cat up the stairs but she discovered that he couldn't go back down again so would dash past him and he was left stranded half way and yelling for me to get him. Such a fun stage. Enjoy.
ReplyDeletemuch love
martine
Oh Love.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was just wondering the other day how I could create a toy what babies would be interested in as much as electrical cords. Seriously! Or in our case trash cans.