We had been saying for several weeks, "Any day now, he's going to put it all together and figure out he can MOVE!" That when we set him down, he'll be able to chase after us!
It finally happened during a crazy week where he had an awful stomach bug and I had to travel for work. We were so distraught over the stomach bug that the first time crawling was more or less missed. It may have actually happened at my mom's house. We certainly weren't terribly focused on it. I wanted to know more about how many poopy diapers he had and what was the consistency and whether or not he threw up his lunch!
Well, once he figured out that he could in fact move on his own accord, he kind of freaked out and became very very clingy. and fussy. very fussy. and my normally good sleeper, would wake up several times a night and cry. and cry. and then cry some more. Lots of crying. Any time you even moved to set him down or move away from him, he would start crying. He seemed torn between crawling into your lap and crawling towards his favorite toy of the day. Needless to say, listening to a crying unhappy baby is so hard. Especially because I am so used to my happy go lucky baby who is rarely phased by anything.
After several days of this, I decided to see if he'd crawl through the house after me. We started in his room and I headed down the hallway on all fours. I was facing him, but backing away from him. He seemed to accept the challenge of a new adventure and came crawling after me. When he passed the bathroom door, you could see the look of recognition "Hey! This is where Daddy and I play every morning! Who knew I could get here on my own!". Then we kept going around the corner. When he got to the big mirror on the wall (yes, our hallway has a huge mirror, floor to ceiling) he was fascinated. He loves this mirror and we have spent a lot of time gazing at the reflections. We headed on around the corner towards the living room. He kept stopping to turn around and see if the mirror was still there. Then, he discovered the return air grills and was enthralled by the metal louvers. At that point he had had enough exploring and we moved on to our evening routine.
Maybe showing him he could explore on his own gave him the confidence to head embrace his new skill? Who knows, but, he got really bold the next morning and decided to do some exploring on his own. I received the following series of pictures from Paul that clearly show the Mateo is ready to take on the world! We are in trouble now!
Paul said that at this point he turned around and gave him a devilish little grin and then TOOK OFF!
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