Perfect Timing

Nate will be 11 months old next Wednesday, 2/11. Ben started crawling when he was 7 months old, as do many kids (more or less). But not Nate. He rolled over early on, sat up on his own sooner than lots of babies, took to a sippy cup and started eating solids earlier than most, and currently has 8 teeth while many of his friends his own age only have 2 or 4 of them. And did I mention that he has had 4 haircuts? In many ways he seemed to be reaching milestones rather quickly. But, crawling was different; he really showed no desire.

We knew he had nothing physically wrong since he loves to stand up and explore while leaning against something, so obviously his legs have strong muscles. He just preferred to sit and play, or better yet, to be carried around by his mama "joey-style," as I like to call it (think: kangaroo). How apropos that his middle name is Joseph :).

One month ago we moved into our new house, or rather our old farm house that still is in need of several home improvements, including new floors in 4 rooms. The kitchen was basically a concrete subfloor so needless to say, it was dusty. The other rooms are not as high traffic so we did not notice the mess so much from those but the kitchen is a different story; we spend so much time there. So, once we moved and were now living under construction, I started to really be thankful for the fact that Nate was sedentary. Immobility really seemed to be a blessing!

I spent a month keeping slippers on Ben, making sure he did not play on those floors that were not yet finished and cringing whenever he would run through the kitchen and drop something on the floor. All the while Nate sat still where I put him and played on the finished floors and area rugs with his toys. He sat still and watched Ben and Barney run through the kitchen (usually laughing hysterically at their "show", with frantic Mom close behind!) and never dropped a bottle or a piece of food on the dirty floor.

This weekend Andrew came very close to finishing the tile in the kitchen. He only has two more nights of work to do but the floor is more or less tiled at this point. Because the high traffic path from the kitchen is no longer dusty, I have started to do a very thorough cleaning of the floors in the entire house, knowing they will not instantly get dusty again. And what better weekend for Nate to start crawling! But he did. Does this show God's perfect timing or what?

So, after 11 months, Nate is on the move with full force. He's all over the place and Ben both loves and hates it. The possessive toddler is starting to get a little bent out of shape that "Baby Nate" can now get his toys and in fact, goes after them frantically. On the other hand, Ben thinks it's funny to watch Nate crawling and has fun with him on the ground. They really seem to play with each other now. Actually, today I was sitting in the family room while Ben played alone (Nate was napping) and all at once he turned to me and matter-of-factly said "Ben likes to play with Baby Nate now." Ha ha!

What we think is hilarious is that Nate's crawling technique is one of those exceptions all of the parenting books state: he does a fast commando-style crawl without lifting his belly too far off the ground. It's really humorous!

Here are some photos of the recent guy on the move, as he makes his way from his bedroom down the hallway to the playroom when I announced that it was bedtime tonight!

Ben heard the ruckus and decided to join in. He was half changed for bed, hence the PJ top with the jeans!