On the Move!

Nate turned 7 months old yesterday and he's developing rapidly in his mobility skills. He just started sitting up on his own four weeks ago but he's now getting ready to be on the move. Just last week, he began pushing himself up into a high push-up stance from his tummy. We noticed when he came back down onto the floor, he would scoot backwards a bit. Nate also seems to enjoy being on his tummy these days but he still needs to figure out how to get down on to the floor from the sitting position gently instead of just falling over to one side. We've been trying to teach him to slide down but not sure if he's getting it just yet. We're just glad that our floor is carpeted and that it isn't too far of a fall for him.

 

He's also starting to grab a hold of things he can use to pull himself up from his tummy or sitting position. We've seen him try this with his crib slats, metal poles on his jumperoo and even my shoulder. He was sitting down playing with his toys and I decided to lie down beside him and watch. He then lunged for my shoulder with his hands and then started extending his legs and pulling himself up onto his feet. I yelled for Brandon to come see and of course that startled Nate and he fell back down. Oh well!

He has also become quite good at pivoting on his tummy towards a certain direction he wants to be facing, typically towards a toy he wants to grab or roll to. This morning, I was in the bathroom getting ready and I placed him under his play mat to play. When I looked over at him at one point, he was starring at me, then he started to roll towards my direction. He rolled two full times and he was at the door, right on top of the stairs! We were going to wait to install gates until he was close to crawling but perhaps we should put them up sooner! He's also a very persistent and determined little guy. When we move him away from something so that we don't want him to get to (like mommy's purse), he will roll and work his way right back to it.

Turning Around from Annie Averill on Vimeo.

Nate's also just starting to figure out how to get his knees under him. When he's on his tummy, he will bring both knees up towards his chest and even rock in place a few times but then will straighten his legs and go down back onto the floor. All this was enough to get Brandon started on installing furniture straps on some of our furniture this weekend. Considering Nate's curiosity and how he never likes to stay still even while nursing, some of our friends are warning us that Nate might be a mover and a climber. Nate probably won't be doing either too much just yet but we want to be ready when he does! Watch out, here comes Nate!!!