Sitting Up

Well, little Juliette still is not crawling (this is a good thing in our lives – we don’t relish the thought of having to child-proof everything and chase her around the place). But she’s getting there. She’s been slowly (SLOWLY!) learning how to lean forward and almost get on her hands and knees… but she hasn’t learned that she needs to stop putting her feet soles together before attempting this.

She sits with her feet in front, soles against each other, then leans forward on her hands and walks her hands forward a bit. She tries really really really hard to get up on her feet and knees – rocking back and forth quite strongly – but because her ankles are turned sideways, it blocks her from getting into the right position. This causes her no end of frustration and anger which she lets us know about loudly!

However, the times I’ve been the bloody Becoming-A-Dad know-it-all and lifted her so she ends up on her hands and knees, she doesn’t appreciate it at all. More screaming and yelling, and she doesn’t have the strength in her abs to hold the position so her legs go shooting out and she ends up on her belly doing a half push-up. And complains loudly at my interference.

The thing she just learned today though is how to sit up after getting in the belly push-up position! She did this almost by accident early this morning when I took her out of bed and put her with me in the living room so Becoming-A-Mom could get a little more sleep (7:00-7:30 am every morning is a bit of a trial that we’re not getting used to).

She had been rolling back and forth travelling across her play area when she got herself on her belly lying parallel to the couch. I vowed not to interfer in her development by sitting her up or such any more so I left her there, vocalizing her displeasure. Then, as I was half-watching half-reading a book, she slowly pushed herself backwards until her legs butted up against a cushion and folded up under her butt. She kept pushing herself backwards with her hands and the next thing she knew, she was sitting up again with a bit of a surprised look on her face.

The next thing she did, she got on her belly and rolled around a bit, then out in the middle of her play area she started pushing herself backwards with her hands again. This time she knew how to fold her legs up under her bum, and in about a body length and 30 seconds later, she was proudly sitting up on her bum. She was smiling broadly and waving her hands in the air excitedly as she looked at me with the expression, “look what I just did!”

Over the course of the rest of the day she did this a few more times, getting faster and better each time.

I’m amazed how quickly she went from the first accidental sit-up to being able to do it on demand. Wow!