What a Week! [and a half]

What a week (and a half) we've just had!  Little Miss decided she wasn't growing up fast enough, so she took matters into her own hands.  Or, rather, her own feet.

She decided last Monday (September 9) that she could pull herself up from sitting to standing.  All of a sudden.  I showed up at the babysitter's to pick her up and she was sitting next to her walker playing while we were chatting and then she was just standing up.  It caught both of us off guard.  But hey, good for her!

The next day, she went one further.  I got to the babysitter's after work and she demonstrated how she could pull herself from crawling to standing.  Ok, not too big of a leap.  I can handle it.  Here's a video from that evening...

Wednesday, she tried to crawl up the TV stand.  She had both hands on the stand, one foot up on the top of her little piano, and the other foot stepping up onto a basket next to the stand when I caught her.  This kid is a monkey, I swear.  

Thursday, she crawled up and over the crate of books that we had set up to block the pole lamp (the doctor advised us that it is one thing parents frequently forget to baby-proof, even though they are very prone to falling over) and was just hanging out back behind there, playing with Daddy's computer bag.  Grampy thought it was cute.  Mama wasn't as thrilled.  Book crate moved out, giant Rubbermaid tub of storage items moved in to block the lamp.  She hasn't gotten over that one yet, but she's gotten awfully close.  She got up into the crate of books (which is next to the tub) and tried to stand up in there and crawl over to the tub.  I so wish I was exaggerating, but I'm really not.

By Friday, she was walking along the furniture.  Walking along the furniture.  This is too fast, darlin'.  When she pulled herself up on Monday, we immediately ordered a bumper for the edge of the coffee table.  I'm not ashamed to admit that we spend a good deal of time in our living room.  That's where most of her toys live, so she plays in there a lot.  And our coffee table is rectangular and has pointy corners.  I could just picture her falling and poking an eye out.  So we ordered the bumper.  It arrived on Friday, so we were able to put it on before she starting trotting along.

She basically just put all those skills to work over the weekend.  My sister came down and we went to the street fair in our little town and had a wonderful time.  Ellie was an angel riding in her stroller and even fell asleep toward the end of our trip.  But at home, she just wants to stand all the time.  And I mean all. the. time.  

She gets so tired out that she cries and fusses, but doesn't want to sit down.  She will scream if you try and take her away from wherever she is standing.  She literally stands at the TV the entire time that I am getting ready in the mornings.  

Tell me more, O Wise One!

I know it's probably not the best for her to watch TV like that, but it's The Cat in the Hat on PBS, so it's very educational and there's really nothing else I can do with her and still get myself ready for work.  So there.  We do other activities at other times in the day.  Morning is TV time.

This past Monday, (September 16) I picked her up from the babysitter's.  I walked in the door and she was in their living room, laying on her tummy in a crawling position.  I expected her to crawl over to me, like she usually does.  Instead, she flipped over and SAT UP.  She hasn't done it for Daddy yet, but I've seen her do it plenty of times, so I know it wasn't a fluke.  She can now sit herself up.  All within a WEEK.  Holy wow, kid.

Yesterday, I was a little nervous walking into the babysitter's house.  I kind of thought she would just stand up and run to me.  Luckily (for me), nothing major happened.  She just still gets a kick out of standing up.  *whew*  Maybe that's enough developmental milestones for now?  I hope??

This morning I was eating breakfast and she started fussing (as usual), letting me know she was awake and not happy to be stuck in her crib all by herself.  I walked back to get her and saw this...

Good Morning, Mama!
(sorry for the lousy cell phone picture - it's all I had on me at the time!)

Seriously.  Cut it out.  I'm happy for you.  I'm proud of you.  You're doing so well for a baby that doctors literally told me might have a fatal defect.  But my nerves can only take so much.  We need to slow things down or I'm going to have some serious anxiety problems.  Luckily, we had lowered the crib mattress weeks ago when she first started showing interest in maybe thinking about trying to sit up.  But now Andy thinks it needs to be lowered further.  Really?  Is that necessary??  I mean, her head barely pokes over the top.  I think she's perfectly safe, so my poor aching back and I vote that the mattress stays where it is.  But Daddy is the King of Safety in our house, and he's pretty insistent that we lower it to the lowest level.  What do you think?  Is it fine where it's at, or do we lower it and run the risk of my falling in when I lay her down at night?

Either way, I've got to do some rearranging of the living room and put a teething guard on the crib this weekend.  So much for spending the weekend unpacking!