Taking bets

Logan never crawled. Or at least he never crawled until after he was walking on his own and decided that sometimes it was easier to reach the things that had fallen underneath the table if he got down on his hands and knees. He passed over crawling for early cruising - something he did both holding our hands and the furniture at about 6 months old. His first solo steps coming in his 10th month.

We've wondered what Megan would do. She depises belly time even more so than Logan did. She's shown us she can roll from her belly to her back but has since given up doing so in favor of loudly protesting the great injustice that is tummy time. She'll scream. She'll bury her head and get red faced with anger. She'll kick and arch her back. Sometimes she'll go ahead and roll herself. Other times she keeps up the protest until someone takes pity on her and just sits her up. She much prefers to sit.

Even more than sitting, Megan likes to be on her feet. She thinks she's 7 months going on 17. If you sit her on your lap or near enough to your lap, she'll lean back and lock her legs then slowly eases her weight forward again until she very literally stands herself up balancing herself on the hands you hastily held out to support her young legs. She eagerly grasp your hands and begins to go for a walk - marching and prancing around as she giggles. And lately, given the chance, she'll stand tall on her own holding onto the door or a table. We've been wondering she too would skip crawling altogether, but perhaps not. Perhaps as soon as she figures out that crawling would allow her to wreak mobile havoc on her own, she'll be off and going.

Thus the bet we're placing. We're not saying who has which side, just that the lines are drawn. Will she or won't she and when.

We figured with the lack of tummy time it would be hard for her to figure out how to crawl. But. . .

But lately she's come to appreciate at least one new trick belly time provides her chance to perform - getting up on her knees. It started yesterday and of course it started as she was complaining about belly time. Megan put her hands down firmly on the floor, placed her forehead just ahead of them and then rocked back onto her knees elevating her middle off the rug. She's yet to get her head far off the ground - leaving her in a weird sort of tripod stance. She doesn't move yet when she's like this but she does giggle. And giggle. And giggle. She watches Logan intently as he crawls around the room yelling out "Like this Megan! Do it like this! See, Mom! I teach her!" And then she rocks back to her knees some more as she giggles.

It may be coming. The end of the 'safe' world with Meg as we know it. The end of the time the dog's tail is safe. The end of the time when toys Logan deems "non-sharable" are safe. Maybe.