Around the time that Babby turned 4 months old, I hauled the exersaucer that a friend gave us out of the storage space. I was desperate for new Babby entertainment. I took some of the gewgaws off, so Babby wouldn’t get bored of the toys all at once, and plunked him in. He loved it. He would spin and spin and spin the spinny toy while squealing with glee.
Then he would stand up in his excitement, and… topple backwards.
Once he had leaned back, he had no idea how to reach the toy, and he would make a few futile arm-stretches before bursting into frustrated tears.
For the first little while, I would have to repeatedly come back to the seat and prop him back up against the front of the saucer, so he could reach his toys.
Then, one day a couple of weeks ago, a lightbulb went on inside his head.
There are some milestones so trivial that no baby book logs them, and no internet resource advises you about it. They are so trivial that you don’t even think of them as milestones, unless you are a first-time mother watching her baby figure it out for the first time.
These milestones are so trivial that you can’t very well call your friends and start bragging about it, because they’ll think you’re totally batty and spend too much time alone (both are probably true).
There are only two people in the world who will share my excitement about something this ridiculous, I thought. So I picked up my cell and sent Perfect Husband a text message. Then I picked up the land line and called my mother.
“Guess what? BABBY JUST FIGURED OUT HOW TO LEAN FORWARD!”
not to mention SPINNING THE TOY! takes some hand eye coordination to spin again and again and not get his tiny fingers sucked underneath the spiny thing:)
he’s doing so well! he may be tiny, but he looks like he’s a thinker!
Definitely!
oh and by the way, enjoy all those controllers, and movies, and game systems and buttons within reach… in a month or so your living room will look much different:)
Bwahahahahahaha!!!
Ahem. This is a true statement. Don’t make the same mistake I did, Carol, thinking that if a DVD is in a case, it means that it’s safe. That’s how my uncut Muppet Family Christmas DVD (that you gave me) got snapped in half.
Yeah, I didn’t want to be all “Shelly is totally correct, holy shit girl, get those precious grown-up toys OFFA DA FLOOR” because I know you’re excited about the leaning forward but… um… yeah.
My kids are really, really good about not touching things they aren’t supposed to, and my home is (by some standards) minimally baby-proofed, but I only brought my DVDs, consoles, etc. down from very high shelves within the last few months.
And yes, I have had a disc snapped in half – my precious Indiana Jones Lego for PS2. I have since bought the Wii version but it’s buggy and not nearly as enjoyable. DAMN YOU CHILDREN, THIS IS WHY I CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS.
Oh yeah, the whole place is a death trap.
Some of our outlets don’t even have covers on them – just bare wires sticking out of the wall.
The baseboards are step one in baby proofing. The spaces between flooring and wall are fantastic for gathering tiny edible things like pins and cat poo.
As for the entertainment area, we’re just going to get an x-pen and cordon off the whole thing with a big old fence. There’s no other way. Between the dvd player, the vcr, the wii, the n64, the nintendo, and the ps2, not to mention all the games and dvds, the whole thing is a mess of wires and breakable things and attractive buttons.
Fencing it all off.
Ah. Well, that’s a sensible suggestion. Well done. 🙂
True confessions – I don’t have an outlet cover in the whole house. We had them in our last place, because we were first-time parents and trying to do everything “right”. Those goddamn things were so hard to remove once installed, there were at least three plugs that were STILL blocked when we sold it and moved.
“We need more plugs! BUY A NEW HOUSE!”
Oh no, you misunderstand me. We don’t have any of those baby-proof caps on the outlets yet either, but I mean the plastic bit that goes around the outlet to cover the hole in the wall where the wires are. They all got taken off when we painted the house years ago and some of them never got put back on. One of those is in Babby’s room…
Yeah, we had some of those too until I started the dayhome. I figured risking electrocuting my own kids was one thing, but someone else’s was probably frowned upon. 🙂
Most likely :-p
A child died in an unlicensed dayhome a couple of blocks from my house two weeks ago. The police are investigating. Scary!
Jesus, don’t tell me that. It just happened in Mississauga I think a couple of weeks ago…
Suffice it to say, I am actually very very careful with the kiddos in my care. *shudder*
And we don’t know what happened. Maybe the kid ate a peanut or something. *shrug*
that’s a good idea:) they’ll find a way to break things no matter what we do… it’s just a part of life.
Aww, that’s cute. 🙂 Congratulations!
We have the same exersaucer – and I remember how proud I was the day Isaac figured out how to lean forward. I get it. 🙂
😀
Welcome to the joys of the Circle of Neglect!
Yay Babby! 🙂 I wish you many more years of fruitful forward leaning.
Way to go, Babby!
Yay! And the pictures are so cute 🙂
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