David cannot wait to crawl. He tries constantly, sometimes with a cheerful “thems the breaks attitude” sometimes with a whine of frustration. I know I’ve said it before, but watching a baby develop skills is absolutely amazing.

First there was the whole sitting up thing where he could actually hold his position. Dayenu. He would sit next to my computer chair, the hard wheels just inches from his face, and tip at the waist, reaching reaching for the jingle jangle spider.

Then, one day, somehow, one leg got a little in front of the other, so when he reached forward his body lifted, he tipped forward, he got the spider and did a face plant.

We’re in the face plant stage right now. I’m not nearly good enough at making sure there’s a safe radius around him. For one thing, he can squirm around enough that the radius has to be really large. And then my imagination isn’t good enough. I can’t quite believe he’ll tip over at just the right angle to smash his head between the coffee table and the sofa base, as he did last night.

He forgives me so much.

I like watching this stage, the almost stage, the it’s about to happen stage. I think he actually made some progress backwards yesterday. Of course, we are totally not ready for full mobility—the tiny lego choking hazards are still on the floor, the garbage can is under the sink but not locked up, and we can’t quite believe our infant is crawling away.