Mara is mobile

We can finally say that Mara is crawling!

A few weeks ago she started moving independently, but it was mostly a motion that pushed her backwards along the floor (usually into a corner, making things a little easier on me). I didn’t define this as crawling, but others who saw Mara moving told me I could call it that.

After that, she started getting from one place to the other but in a mysterious sort of way. There wasn’t real crawling action but she would find some way of wriggling from one spot to the other. It was hard for her to cover much ground, but she could make her way around the table (for example). I would be sitting with her and see her move but still be surprised that she could, somewhat slowly, make her way along.

Then this weekend she came up with a sideways motion that lets her move forward in a straight line. She can actually decide where she’s going, and get there! It’s amazing to see how this reduces her frustration level. So it seems she favours the crab-crawl style — two hands in front, one knee on the ground, and the other off to the side a bit. Means that she can easily move to sitting if she wants, which we think she likes. I’ve seen her get into the full crawling position a couple of times as well, but she hasn’t been able to really put that into action yet.

Short video of her crawling to come!

In other news:

  • Mara is napping in her crib, for the third day in a row! (Yes, this is actually note-worthy for me. Mara’s usual nap position is in someone’s arms.)
  • Mara now says a version of ‘mum’ on a regular basis (and not just when she’s crying).
  • Mara also seems to have a version of the word ‘dad’ that she’s working on. Sounds a little more like ‘papa,’ which she came up with on her own (I have been prompting for ‘dad’ or ‘daddy’ but she doesn’t go for D sounds so far…).