It's All Over Now!

What's over now, you ask?? Oh, just my LIFE! Yes, my life. My life of sitting my little girl down surrounded by toys, while she played and stayed in one spot. Maybe she'd fall over and roll a little, but never getting into any sort of trouble... Well, that short little period lasted about a month and a half! That's IT! A little over a MONTH! She sat by herself around 5 months, and was up on all fours at 6 1/2 months, and she quickly figured out in about a week how to move forward. And, well, you can only imagine how fast she is now! We already lowered her crib mattress today because I came in to find that she pulled herself UP to a kneeling position!! If she would've gotten herself up to standing, she would've toppled out! Jeff was working late last night, so I lined the floor around her crib with beanbags from Brendan's room and some pillows in case she decided to dive out!! Great parenting! Add one more point to our "parents of the year" tally! Luckily, she didn't try and pull up the next morning, and Jeff was able to lower the mattress as soon as she got up! Should've lowered that mattress when she started crawling, I guess! I just didn't think she had the strength! Here she is in action:

If this could've just been reversed with Brendan, I would be so happy!! He didn't crawl until he was more than 9 months, which really isn't considered "late". And with your first baby, you want them to do everything, yesterday. You just can't WAIT until they meet that next big milestone, even if it means life as you know it is over. With your second, you are praying to GOD they don't crawl early. I thought I had a nice summer of her loving her exersaucer, and blankets on the grass sprinkled with some toys. A non-squirmy child to hold on my hip who isn't constantly trying to get down and away from me so she can resume her exploration of my "baby-proofing in progress" home!! I know I sound so mean, but of course I am excited for her to accomplish this big feat... I'm just not excited for MYSELF!! OK, seriously, who's the baby here?!

I did make a great purchase, though!! Here's my new dining room furniture... good thing we never actually purchased real furniture for in here!! It's perfect :-)

Here's the beautiful view of my gorgeous dining room when you walk in my front door!! Who needs a dining room table when you can have a giant kiddie cage!?

Here's my padded edge fireplace. She still manages climb up there though! I also used to have two orchid plants on either side, but as you can see, those are now gone. She pulled those down constantly! And that big vase on that back table... no need to worry I hot glue gunned it to that table!! It's there pretty permanently.

My old house was SUCH a perfect baby house. I put up 3 gates, and wa-lah. A safe place for crawling babies. Our new house, which I LOVE, is just not for babies. It's hard to block off. And the wood floors are so hard if she faceplants while crawling... she'll just have to get used to it I guess! And when Brendan was crawling at 9 months, and I said "No don't touch!!" he kind of new to back away. He was (and still is) so sensitive, that he didn't want us to use those stern voices, and he steered clear of all my decorations and things that weren't toys. He was SO good about not touching things. I could bring him anywhere! A 7 month old is just that much younger, and Brooke just smiles when I say use my disapproving voice... but her smile is pretty cute! I read somewhere that if you say "No" while using a firm hand squeeze they start to put two and two together. I tried it the other day and she definitely didn't like it! I just hope she starts to learn what's off limits soon! Maybe I'm dreaming, but oh well!!


"We love our new, um, cage, pen, jail.... "Gated Play Area!" Yes, that sounds much nicer!!

Tea party!! Brendan went in there for the first 3 days, and then he hasn't been in there since... there's no door on the play area, so I would lift him over and then back out when he called for me. I guess I took a little too long to respond to him a few times, and ruined it for myself!! It's hard to come get your 4 year old when he's caged in. It's like waking a sleeping baby. It just goes against all the rules!!

So, congratulations to my early crawler. I am proud of you, but I will get you back one day. When you're a teenager wanting to go to boy-girl parties, wear short skirts, and see R rated movies and I give you a big fat NO. THAT will be for depriving me out of 2 more peaceful months long, long ago!!! :-)