And she’s off!

Louisette is officially moving – so much so that the gate at the top of our stairs is now actually a necessity. And so the thrill ride begins.

Her mode of transport at the moment is highly experimental – a mixture of bum-shuffling, commando crawling, rolling, and directed face-planting. It was almost exactly a month ago that she began to lift herself onto hands and knees.

She soon realised that if she lifted herself up and then dived forward, she would end up slightly forward of her original position (usually; it often backfired and sent her backwards). Her attitude to toys just out of reach instantly changed: they weren’t out of reach any more. Not if she could help it.

Soon after that she began doing peculiar things with her legs and feet – pushing against the ground in an upward fashion when she wanted to go forward. This sometimes helped her, but mostly it just meant she was making a triangle, with straight legs forming one side.

This experiment had an unexpected result: she can now get herself into a sitting position (and often does so). Her sitting up, incidentally, is now very impressive. She generally chooses to move from a sitting position (after happily playing for several minutes) rather than falling over. Sometimes, she doesn’t even land on her face. If she slouches in her high chair, it’s because she’s bored or annoyed, not because she’s lost her balance.

The day I was in Melbourne – two weeks ago yesterday – she began shuffling her knees in a new attempt at moving forward. This was extremely exciting, of course. (Some babies skip crawling and go straight to walking, but apparently crawling is very good for coordination, so I’ve been very carefully NOT encouraging her to walk yet.) About a week ago she began demonstrating three-wheel drive: holding a toy in one hand while still on hands and knees. Then she began pawing the ground like an impatient horse – just about the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.

Then last Saturday, with CJ and I in delighted attendance, she took her first full (knees + hands) crawling step – and promptly (yet triumphantly, clutching the toy she was aiming for) collapsed on her face.

Since then she has repeated this move several times. Soon she’ll leave less efficient modes of movement behind, and we’ll REALLY be in trouble.