On The Move

Last night, Brian finally began crawling. Unfortunately, he's now doing just what his three big sisters did, and it's quite frustrating for him.

He's crawling backwards.

After the girls went to bed, Dan and I spent some time playing with Brian in the living room. As he rocked back and forth on all fours, he spotted a beloved toy in front of him, just out of his reach. His eyes lit up. He wanted that toy. And so, for the first time, he tentatively lifted one hand off the floor. He pushed hard with his other hand, and after moving a few inches backwards, he switched hands. Slowly, painstakingly, he moved backwards, a few inches at a time. We cheered loudly, and Brian smiled proudly as he enjoyed his new achievement.

He quickly realized that something was not quite right. The toy was getting farther and farther away, and the harder he worked, the farther he moved from his goal. Finally, after he made it across the room and bumped into some furniture, he admitted defeat. He dropped to the floor and put his head down on his arms. He whimpered a bit, picked up his head to look at the toy a few times, and then finally he began to wail.

We picked him up, praised him for his efforts, and gave him the toy that he had worked so hard for.

It won't be long now before he'll be into everything. We'd better start putting away the "choking hazard" toys. Brian is officially on the move.