Since Tim won't post here, but he will on the Tun ... I'll post for him :)

Email sent to Tun
Subject: Defense, Defense!

Hi gang -

Now, you're probably all wondering about the title of this little missive.
Well, it has nothing (really) to do with basketball (or any other sports),
military maneuvers, etc...

My daughter, who just turned 7 months last Friday, has been crawling for
about 2 weeks now. With this newly gained mobility, she has set off on a
determined path to demonstrate to Annette and I just how *un*-baby proof our
house is. Fortunately she has not pulled anything down on herself (yet), but I
foresee a considerable amount of time on my belly in the next week or so to
determine what her "effective range" of fire (so-to-speak) is :)

Anyway, shortly after putting all the crawling motions together in the right
order to actually conduct forward motion, she began trying more advanced
skills...such as pulling herself up in her crib or using other furniture to
support herself in an effort to, as our pilot-minded friends say, go vertical :)

Last night, I was downstairs watching the History channel with Joy (it was
a show about Spruance - one must start educating the young properly at an early
age, especially if Joy's going to become the first female CNO ). She had
been using my leg to pull herself up - more or less. Suddenly she's not on my
leg, so I look over to my right..

And there is my darling little daughter, standing up on her own two feet
(!) She was in an almost perfect basketball defensive stance (if the Navy
thing doesn't work out, mabye she can become the first female Michael Jordan,
only better looking ). Alas, I did not have a camera ready, though she
continued to get up (her vertical moments last a second or two, and then she's
back on terra firma trying to get up again). I succeeded in snapping a couple
of shots of her upright...she was able to maintain vertical stability for
almost 3 or 4 seconds one time :)

Annette was upstairs reading the elder child his bedtime story, so I
gleefully showed her one of the photos I had taken of her daughter standing up.
I'm not sure what I enjoyed more....seeing my daughter stand up by herself, or
the look of despair/frustration in my wife's eyes upon presentation of
photographic proof :) I spent a good five minutes convincing my wife that I
had absolutely *nothing* to do with her standing up....I still got "the look"
that threatened me with banishment to the couch for aiding and abetting the
deliquency of an infant....

So there you go...7 months and 2 days (almost to the hour!) after emerging
into the world, our daughter has begun to assert her independence. I think
I'll post a picture on my desktop of her standing captioned "Look what I
did"...and maybe a picture of me pointing to her captioned "Look what I
made" :) [With my wife's help, of coures ]

Ok..back to work for me....../me wonders what his wife's response to this
will be....

Tim

And my response some hours later when Joy was finally asleep and I actually got a chance to look at email :)


yes, my darling husband came to me and told me that our daughter had the perfect basketball defensive stance. Not that she moves sideways (yet! Thank God!). And "the look" accompanied not frustration, but intense weariness as the magnitude of the situation hit me. part of me is very proud (look what *my* baby can do) and part of me wants to break down in tears of fear and frustration (can't you stay a baby just a LITTLE while longer, pleeeeeeease!!!!! I'm not ready for this!)

Sheesh! Josh was 8 months old before he started and he had the benefit of a walker! and had been crawling for three months before that!

I knew I should have had his sperm tested......

Annette

Yup. My little one sure is determined. Josh went upstairs less than 5 minutes ago and left Joy in the living room. She's now here in the office with me looking at the lamp. She made it from the kitchen part of the hallway to the office in about a minute and a half. Yup. Definitely time for some gates. .... And time for me to vacuum the office a bit more thoroughly.

Yesterday was a day of firsts. Now that she has figured out crawling ... I put her in her crib after a shower so that I could dress. I put her against the back of her crib, sitting up. She immediately went to the crawling position, crawled to the other railing of her crib, and PULLED herself up to a standing position. And stayed there for over a minute! just looking at me. I finally closed my jaw and took her out. The floor really is the safest place for her now I think.

Peter Pan is a hard book for me to read, I didn't realize it till we started reading it aloud today. Man, something about that era and run-on sentences. Not that there were many of those, but some of the sentences didn't make sense no matter how many times and different ways I read them. And his metaphors ....... well, it doesn't make for easy reading these days. And here I thought I was an accomplished reader!


Joy is officially crawling! She put it all together just a little bit ago as I was reading Peter Pan. All of a sudden there was a baby at my feet when she had been about a body length and a half (of hers) away when I started). I had been watching her out of the corner of my eye and saw her move hands and knees, but it didn't click that she was crawling.

Josh just came to me with Joy in arms. I said, " I didn't hear her crying". Josh replied, "She wasn't."
"Then why did you bring her to me?" I asked.
"Because she's getting into my Pokemon cards". ....

I told him to get them off the floor (which is now nicely vacuumed) and sort his cards at the table. Now that Joy is crawling he's going to have to be more careful about what he puts on the floor.

Now the fun begins ... Oh hunny! It's time to buy those gates!

She did it! Ok, this isn't as big as rolling over, but it's still big for me since I finally got to see the whole process from start to finish.

For the past week or so I have suspected that Joy could sit herself up. I'm pretty sure I witnessed it this past Saturday, but she went back on her stomach so quickly and the bumper was in the way (she was in her crib). But today ... I sat her on the floor, and went to her tummy almost right away (so much for sitting for hours at a time *sigh* -- she's really determined to crawl) and then she was about a roll away to the right and sitting up again!

Usually I see her doing this half sit thing, but never fully going back into the sitting position.... and there she goes. She's sick, and that makes her cranky..... And Josh wants to go play at a friend's house.

More later if I get the chance. But my baby can sit herself up!

Joy sort of crawled the other night. Monday night to be exact, during 7th Heaven. She sometimes gets very determined.... But, she was on her hands and knees doing the butt-wiggle when all of a sudden, out went an arm, and then the opposing knee... and then flop on her belly. Up she went, and then the other hand, the other knee... flop on her belly. She did this a few more times till she had the item of her desire (I forget what it was, something she probably shouldn't have but wasn't too dangerous I guess :) )

She's getting pretty mobile with just rolling around too. I'll sit her down in the middle of the floor and ten minutes later she's halfway across the room! And it's not even proper rolling (at least, not when I actually watch her, she never seems to move much when I am actually *watching* her) ... I digressed.... oh yeah, she starts out sitting, leans forward in a controlled fall to her belly (she's great at that now) and then rocks and rolls wherever she wants to go.