My clever little boy

On the eve of Evan's 8-month "birthday", I am (again) reflecting on how quickly the past few months have gone. In particular, it seems like Evan's been close to crawling for the past two months!  For example, recall my post from February 13th which included a video of Evan pivoting around on his belly.  At that time, I thought he must be on the verge of getting on his hands and knees and darting all over the place!  Rather, what has happened since then is that Evan has gotten very skilled at the tummy pivot.  In fact, he does it very quickly now, such that if he wants to reach for something that's not directly in front of him he just uses his arms to help steer his body in a new direction.  He has also gotten very skilled at rolling all over the place.  He can cover so much ground in mere minutes just by rolling over and over and pivoting around on his tummy.

What has not happened is him being able to prop himself up onto his hands and knees at the same time or even move across the floor in an "army crawl".  However, just yesterday I did see Evan push himself up onto both hands and knees for a split second, so I think he's starting to get there.  He can also sit up much more balanced and straight, although I still stay nearby to help catch him when he does topple over.  I have read that once babies are able to sit well, unassisted, then they have developed the core muscles needed to crawl.  So, we'll see if the crawling and totally unassisted sitting do go hand-in-hand for Evan.

In the meantime, however, Evan has learned a nifty little trick when he wants to get something out of his reach during tummy time.  As you may recall, I have been using a large quilt on the floor for his tummy time lately, since his old floor gym and even his baby quilt from Aunt Linda just weren't big enough for how much ground he covers.  In fact, he often rolls off of this quilt now too (and when he does find himself on the edge of the quilt he really enjoys touching the carpet.  It must have such a different texture than the quilt!?).  Anyway, in the last week or so I've caught Evan reaching for something on his quilt and rather than attempting to push himself forward (or heaven forbid, crawl) when he discovers it's out of his reach, he has instead learned to grab the quilt and pull it toward him!  I had read that leaving toys just out of a baby's reach will help encourage them to crawl.  However, when I first saw this clever trick I realized it could be one reason why he isn't crawling yet!  After all, who needs to move when you can just pull whatever it is you want toward you!? :)  So, perhaps using the quilt has been a crutch in his gross motor skill development, but it certainly has shown me that he's a clever problem solver!