Learning to crawl

Baby Wilder has decided it is time to crawl, approximately 1 week after learning how to turn over. So far I think he moves by rolling over and over, but someday soon he will be free




The last step, lifting the head, is the hardest


A plastic coat hanger is a favourite toy


Ilona watching him turn over

More fun from Zurich

Here are some other places we have been. Zurichorn park can be reached by water taxi, and has a Henry Moore sculpture which Bluet likes very much.

As does Ilona.

Meanwhile, Ilona now pulls herself up to stand anywhere and everywhere - here she is at a playground down by the river, which is known as the bird playground (by us) because there is a big bird cage of tropical birds there. Today she was standing in the living room and lifted her hands for half a second, standing free. She also takes steps if we hold her hands. Walking cannot be far off. She can also crawl very fast, and is interested in learning to go up (but not necessarily down) stairs. This is not my favourite game.

And then at the end of a long day of standing and crawling, eating and napping, nothing makes Ilona happier than the bath, because she knows shortly after that she will be able to go to bed, which is her favourite time of day.

We are back

Hello again. It's been a while. We just moved house (to somewhere we hope to stay for a while - there has been a lot of house moving recently). We have a garden and lots of rooms, and a lot of stuff still to unpack or put away. For a while there we had no internet, so no blogs, but I will try and catch up. First, in children news, since we've been 'away' Ilona has become very very good at crawling, very good at pulling herself up to stand, and very good at stopping crawling as soon as I start to film her. Here is today's crawling video

Meanwhile Bluet is still into Peppa Pig.

Finally, we are almost through packing, but whilst in the process of unwrapping boxes and other paper-wrapped items (like a really boring Christmas when you already know what everything is, and some of it you actually don't really want anymore...).

Then I started to unwrap this bookcase

Inside I discovered 2 fully inflated balloons.

This begs two questions 1) how did they stay inflated for 3 months? and 2) why did the movers pack the balloons in the first place? I can only assume that moving men know that balloons stay inflated in shipping crates, so pack them to give you a lovely surprise at your new home. Otherwise why pack something that is obviously rubbish

Still, Bluet enjoyed playing with them. Strangely the red one had deflated within 3 hours of unpacking, whilst the yellow one was still going strong.

Strangely the red one had deflated within 3 hours of unpacking, whilst the yellow one was still going strong.

Ilona outside

Ilona has begun to enjoy herself whenever she is put down on the ground. This is doubly so when outside as she then has a choice of 2 activities, viz: crawling or eating grass. Aparently she thinks she is a cow. Both of these things make her equally happy

Meanwhile here is Bluet riding "The Mrs Horse" (That should be read as a title). I hope this doesn't mean she will want a pony in the future.

As I walked down to the beach

whilst in the deep south, Bluet visited the seaside for the first time. What strange creature can have left these tracks in the sand?

Why, it was Bluet and her unorthodox crawling method. One leg crawls, the other drags along behind.

Still, she had a great time being given the freedom to crawl so far.

Then, her first experience of the ocean. She was curious, and it was a not unhappy experience. Her trousers, however, were a different story.

Later, back at the house, Bluet solved the mysteries of the plastic cup.

This weekend

Bluet mostly got much better at crawling (the video is from earlier in the week, so she is even better now). I worked on teaching her the concept of 'thank you' (it's early days), she danced to some music (by flinging her arms around), put her fingers out to touch the snow, and went swimming, but you'll have to ask Emily about that.

These pics are mainly from last weekend. First, looking at pigeons in the park.

Then this person was on the bus in front of us. Bluet assumed that the hair was some kind of animal and was almost uncontrollable with excitement. Fortunately we managed to distract her from her goal of petting said animal.

Snowbound Crawling

This weekend, it snowed. So instead of the park, we went to Barnes and Noble, a book shop and popular upper east side hang out for parents with small children. Also they have carpeted floors, upon which Bluet can crawl more easily than our wooden ones. Here is a video of some brief crawling episodes. As you can see, it is more forward-orientated than previous episodes.

Bluet can also recognise a few words - if you say 'pat-a-cake' (as in the children's rhyme) she starts to clap her hands. And I am pretty sure if you say 'Sophie' she knows to grab her giraffe.

Back Crawl

Well, you could say the preparations for Christmas are in full swing*. We have just 4 full days left before we leave for the Old Country, so our bags are well and truly packed**.

In the last week, Bluet has mainly been trying to crawl. Unfortunately she has not worked out how to go forwards, no matter how hard she tries, or how desirable the object in front of her. Instead, she can push herself backwards with her hands, often for several metres at a time. However, as this is in the wrong direction of travel, she ends up getting frustrated, especially when she winds up stuck under the sofa. This activity tends to wear her out, so she has been sleeping late into the morning***. It also doesn't make for the cutest video because of the frustration. Instead, here she is playing vigorously yesterday in a break from crawling backwards.

*But you'd be wrong. We've seen a tree being lit, that's it. For some reason Emily won't let me have my own tree this year.
**Or, more accurately, we know where our empty bags are
***i.e. 7AM. Unfortunately we still wake up at 6.15AM, in preparedness.

It ain't easy

I thought crawling was easy, but it turns out it isn't. At first Bluet could only go backwards, but now she can go round in circles, so I guess that is progress. But as you can see from this video, although she has mastered staying in one place, she'd really like to be able to go forwards (and attain her goal of being able to pull records and books from their shelves when no-one is looking).

Note to self: must remember to hold the camera the other way around in future.