the proto crawl

or as i like to call it- the catepillar!

on sunday, while still living with rob and phil, percy was on her tummy on our bed with rob and i. we were encouraging her to move by waving toys just out of reach and reacting with wild enthusiasm each time she made an attempt.
she managed to move an entire body length, and this is how she did it;
push up with arms so head and chest are high off the floor/bed, face plant using arms as fulcrums so a tiny amount of forward motion is made, levering up legs 'til standing on toes (who needs knees- we've skipped those) while still face planted so doing a reasonable impression of a down-ward dog yoga pose, push with feet and then collapse. repeat, repeat, repeat! she does look a lot like a catepillar. and she managed to move unaided the length of her body and grab that damn toy!

i really don't know when babies start independant locomotion as i've got no-one to compare her to. i think websites i've looked at or books i read while pregnant (wasn't that an aeon ago?) suggest around 6 months. so i think she's terrific! mind you, she really hasn't done it again. she is rolling with ease to both the left and right sides and occassionally all the way over to her stomach. again, no comparison but terrific in my eyes.
her neck control is complete too. has been for some time. the only time her head flops is when she is still mostly asleep and we pick her up or she is super tired and ready for her sleep or nap.

did i mention her vocal gymnastics!? oh my god- she could yell the building down if it wasn't built in soviet times and prepared for alternative use as a bomb shelter. it's not that she is upset or hurt or anything like that, it's just she can so she does. she has developed the ability to yell in varying pitches with mostly vowel sounds for extended periods of time. i worry she'll pop a vein, or a vocal chord. we are assuming this will pay off later when she is an extremely well recieved opera singer.

at present tho i'm not encouraging her too much. it would be a hell noise to live thru on a 13 hour flight!