Jack Officially Crawling...And Falling

We've entered a new era. As of Tuesday, June 15, 2004, Jack is officially crawling. For the past few weeks he's been threatening to do this but now he's following through on those threats. Actually, he's been pulling himself up to a standing position for several days too. We're going to have to make a few adjustments around the house to accommodate all this change. First, no more napping on our bed unattended. We didn't have to put this rule in place for Sydney because she never really took naps and if she did as soon as she awoke she was screaming. Jack, the happy lad that he is, wakes up and tries his best to smile you to death. And since there is no audible announcement of the end of his nap, he is free to just lay there and coo or, as he did yesterday, just roll off the bed onto the floor. As happy as he usually is, he doesn't seem to respond well to a three foot free-fall onto a hard surface.

Soon we'll be re-erecting those awful baby-gates too. We just took those things down about eighteen months ago. Those things made me feel like a lab rat in a maze. Occasionally I would just step over them. Boy, was that a mistake...at least one time it was. I was carrying two drinks and was in a hurry to get back into the living room. As I took a too-quick step over the baby gate my foot nicked the top of the gate which caused me to spill some of the drink. My leading foot came down onto the spilled liquid and scooted right out from under me. There was a moment in the following mili-seconds when my entire body was completely horizontal and four feet off the ground. The first thing to hit was my shoulder blades. Breath gone. Spine jelly. And drinks everywhere. Maybe we'll just opt for extra safety locks on the cabinets and fridge rather than baby gates.