with a little incentive...

Alexis has been doing her very best to move to where it is that she wants to go. There's tipping, twisting, pulling, etc, but for some reason there was no crawling. She was doing some Downward Dog yoga poses - head on the floor, arms straight, legs straight. That's no way to get somewhere little girl.

At 9.5 months, there had to be a way to get her moving. We recently introduced the little cheese poofs and rice crackers to her. While they're a disgusting mess when she eats them (cookie water dripping down her shirt, smooshy cracker bits all over her hands), she loves them and is content munching away. I realized that I might be able to harness her insatiable appetite to get what I wanted.

Crouched on the floor, I held out her cheese poof, essentially bribing her to come to me. And wouldn't you know, she took a few "steps" on her hands and knees. Tah dah - a little poof goes a long way. Unfortunately, it seemed that the crawling was a blip and it ended there.

Monday, at Goddard, I shared this momentous occasion. Short of crumbling cookies all over the floor and hoping she moves, I asked that they work with her to see if we could have a repeat performance. End of day, I returned to day care and asked how she did. Apparently, her small move the night before must have inspired her. I was told that at one point in the morning, a little red ball rolled away from her, and, deciding that the red ball was the most important toy in the room, she proceeded to skitter across the floor on her hands and knees. Miss Bethany told me that after that, she was crawling everywhere.

I was so excited to get her home and watch her new skills. We put her down, took a few steps back, and begged her to come to us. Nothing. Did they lie to me?? Babies make liars out of you, that's for sure. The whole evening passed with no crawling. I imagine that she needs to be much more self-sufficient at day care. At home, she has us trained. There, she's on her own.

I'll have to call Jamie and ask for an update. While I'm excited for this new stage, with it come new responsibilities, especially because she easily pulls herself up if she's next to something sturdy. We'll need to walk the baby safety aisle and pick up all things safety. We'll need to move Jamie's collectibles to higher ground. We'll need to put up the baby gates we'd originally purchased for the dogs. Floors will need to be cleaned much more regularly. Dog food will need to be monitored. And so on and so forth.

I'll make sure to take some pictures to post. I'll especially need to capture Downward Dog. Stay tuned!