Climbing and Independence

Now that Adrianna has fully mastered crawling, it is on to her next achievement. Her new thing now is climbing and pulling herself up to a standing position.

One of her favorite things to climb on is me. If I lay down on the floor, she will speed over to where I am at and climb all over me. Climbing includes pulling my hair and grabbing my face. She also loves to grab my earrings, and has pulled at least one out so far. Thank goodness for those backings that are made to come off.

Another thing she likes to climb is our stairway. She made it up one stair on Friday. We didn’t let her go any further, but it is only a matter of time before we will have to put a baby gate across them. We watch her pretty closely now, but she sure can crawl quickly when she is heading towards something that she has been told is off limits.

She is starting to assert her independence now. While she still generally likes to be held and cuddled, she also now is getting to the point where she sometimes will push me away while I hold her, meaning that she wants to get down and play. But just as she is becoming more independent, so is she also more needy for her mommy. She always wants to be in the same room as me, so if I walk into the kitchen from the living room, she will crawl after me. But when she cannot follow me and I go out of her sight, she will start crying. Even if Greg is holding her, there are many times that she just wants me. I think it is a good thing that I am not the one who has to drop her off at Janette’s for her childcare, because she would probably cry when I leave. As it is, if she sees me through the door when I go to pick her up, she often bursts into tears until she is in my arms, even though she hadn’t cried the entire morning while she was in childcare until I got there.

Speaking of childcare, that has been such a blessing. I am glad that I can continue working and I now work about 15 hours a week. I think it is good for Adrianna to have this interaction with other children, even if they are older than her and she can only watch them for now. I am so thankful for Janette and her family. They are such good neighbors and I will miss them when we move.