Baby Babble

On Aug. 20, I came home from work and in the nine or so hours I was gone, she had started to crawl.
Since she was born people have been cruelly stating things like, “I can’t wait until she’s crawling.”
Even before she could crawl I didn’t want that. I have friends with kids. I know what happens once the freedom of movement occurs. I was enjoying that period where Lyla could sit up and play on the floor or roll around a bit but I knew I could put her down without worrying about her getting into much trouble.
Now, nope, I have to watch her every movement.
Here is a video of her in the early phase of crawling, before she got really good at it, before she could move quickly and before she started pulling herself up with ease.

After two weeks, Lyla was crawling like a pro, but she hadn’t quite mastered pulling herself up yet. Jason and his dad, Art, did some baby proofing around the house, bumpers on corners, covered up electrical outlets, etc.
So, we took the week of Labor Day off, and on Saturday, Sept. 4, we drove down for a few days in Portland. We had just purchased a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo after nine months of cramming into my Ford Mustang. It was so nice to take a road trip in something comfortable. Plus, it was fun to go on our first little family trip.
We stayed at a Days Inn hotel and we got a great rate thanks to my sister-in-law, Melanie, who works for Wyndham. It wasn’t a very big room. In fact, I told Jason this is what it would be like to live in a tiny studio apartment somewhere.
Since it wasn’t a very big room we let Lyla crawl around on the floor. One of the side effects of this new found mobility is that she doesn’t want to be held anymore unless she’s sleepy. It’s weird. You get used to hold your kiddo all the time and she seems to like it then all of a sudden she wants nothing to do with it. I wasn’t particularly prepared for so much independence at nine months old.
By the time we left Portland on Tuesday, Sept. 7, Lyla had totally mastered pulling herself up. She could grab onto the bed, a chair, my knee, anything she could get a grip on.
Here’s a picture of her from last week after she had pulled herself up on a Rubbermaid storage bin.

And just in the past couple of days Lyla has started to “cruise” along the furniture in the family room. In other words, she is using whatever she has pulled herself up on to hold herself up while she takes steps.
I know we are now on our way to walking.
Yeah, another thing people have said to me in the past is, ‘I really can’t wait until she’s walking.’
Note that these are ALWAYS people who are related to me somehow but don’t actually live with me.
When she starts walking I can bet that the desire to get out with Jason and have grown up time away from her will increase. And then all the people who couldn’t wait for Lyla to crawl or walk are first on the list of people I’ll be calling in search of a baby sitter.
The time is moving by too quickly. Lyla will be 10 months old on Saturday. Before we know it she’ll be walking, she’ll be a year old, she’ll be getting her driver’s license, getting married, having her own kids…
EEK!

And here’s one more cute photo from our trip to Oregon … this is Lyla meeting Kate, who born May 23 to our friends Emmily and Mike. On a side note, Kate shares a birthday with my best friend Mike Wilson, someone I’ve known since I was 11 years old. I’ll never forget Kate’s birthday.