Speeding Up to a Crawl

Our next major milestone that we are anticipating is one of independent mobility: crawling. When Dan and I think of crawling, we, like many, envision a child on their hands and knees scurrying after a cat or a favorite toy. I was very surprised to read about the numerous ways children develop their initial movement skills. These methods vary from the army type crawl on the belly, using only the arms and allowing the legs to drag; to hitching, where a child remains seated and pulls herself with one or both arms. Any kind of mobility at this age is the real goal. Some children puposefully roll from point to point. Others wriggle and scoot on their bellies like snakes until they reach their destination. Aveline does a little bit of the snake coupled with something I call the Hurricane. She spins circles on her belly until she gets where she wants to be. This method is terribly inefficient but very creative. She has been getting up on her hands and knees lately, sometimes even lunging forward several inches. She really surprises herself when this happens!