Our Baby SITTER

Crew continues to make great improvements in his gross motor skills. In an exciting update: Four times in the last week he has sat himself up all by himself, going from a laying down position and shoving himself up to his bum. I never realized what a huge accomplishment that is for a child until my child didn't do it. We've been working really hard on it for several months and it looks like he is about ready to make this independent transition skill a permanent part of his life!

Pretty soon we are going to have to lower his crib mattress down from the "newborn level". Last week I had to raise the side for the first time ever, just in case he figured out how to sit himself up and lean over the rail. He hasn't sat himself up yet in his crib, but I have a feeling it's coming soon. I've never put that siderail up before. He's never needed more than a 4-inch barrier to keep him safe, contained, and trapped. It's kind of exciting to see him being all risky all of a sudden!

He has also started rolling himself over to light sockets and poking his little fingers where they don't belong! We busted out the socket covers this weekend.

We're baby proofing! For CREW!!! I'm so excited!!!

As far as crawling, he continues to take tiny but important strides toward that end. One thing we do is place a toy off to his side and just out of reach. We've been encouraging him to pivot up onto his knees to get his toy and he now seems to be more comfortable on those pesky knees than he has been in the past. His strength continues to improve and he will now pivot right up onto those knees without assistance, returning quickly to sitting position before we can do anything really crazy, like make him try to crawl or something.

His rolling skills have exploded in the last month or so. He tumbles around the room as fast as lightning, cracking us up in the process. It took him a long time to accept rolling as a viable mode of transportation, but he's now definitely hooked on the independence that rolling has brought into his life. He still only rolls one direction, but it seems to work for him. He spins and pivots all over the place, venturing off the carpet now and then.

We're super proud of our little guy. He works so hard for his accomplishments and has such a happy disposition (when he isn't teething). Along the way, his conquering spirit continues to manifest itself in so many ways.

Love you, Crew.