The Evolution of Crawling

Baby just turned six months old. She's such a big girl! To celebrate her half-year birthday, she decided to crawl.

This was something she'd been working on for quite a long time. First, she conquered rolling over from her back to her stomach. In only one direction. She quickly became an expert at one-way rolling over and entertained and exasperated her parents when she would do it at night when she was supposed to be sleeping.

Next she figured out how to rotate herself around and grab all kinds of things. She combined this with her ability to roll over and was able to chase after toys just out of her reach. Her parents also found her facing the wrong way in her bed quite often.

Next, she learned how to push herself up on her hands, with the rest of her body hanging down. What is that, dolphin pose or something in yoga? Baby is a pro at that one.

The next skill she discovered was using her pushup pose, then tucking her knees under her body. She was so excited that her tummy wasn't touching the ground. She would rock back and forth, then plop back down onto the ground. Oomph.

Somewhere in here she taught herself how to roll in all direction. She became a multi-directional roller, if you will. Front, back, left side, right side, she conquered them all.

After that came her walrus hobble, with her knees tucked, arms in pushup pose. She figured out she could hurl herself forward, plop down on her tummy to move an inch or two, and repeat. She got pretty good at this one.

Then one day not so long ago, she discovered that her arms were controllable as well, especially when in the previous pose. They were most useful for grabbing the cat by the tail. Thus, Baby learned how to balance herself with one arm outstretched, reaching for all she was worth (while the cat inevitably ran away).

Baby's next attempt was to get her knees up under herself, alternate moving them, and move her left arm forward at the same time. However, when it came time to move her right, she was at a loss (does this mean she will be left-handed?), so she would plop forward and begin again.

The afternoon of her half year birthday, she put it all together and amazed us as she thoughtfully and purposefully crawled correctly (toward the cat, of course). She brought her knees up. She was poised with her arms in pushup pose. Then slowly the knees started. Then the left arm, and finally the missing step, the right arm. She crawled all the way across the living room floor, then plopped down, sprawling arms and legs out to her side, doing a belly flop onto the carpet (staring mournfully up at the cat who was just out of reach). But she had done it.

Happy half-year birthday, Baby.