Three-Quarters of a Year Old

Adelaida reached an important milestone today: she is three-quarters of a year old! She has been slowly reaching another milestone over the past few days: forward motion. When we put her down on her tummy, she has long been a pro at rotating: she can rotate in a full circle in just seconds. And she has also been pretty good at "crawling" backwards: she gets up on her hands and knees and pushes off with her hands, resulting in her moving backwards. This frustrates her, since her goal is generally in front of her, but forward motion has so far eluded her. Last week she really started being mobile, by rolling across the floor. And just in the past few days, she has started moving forward, intentionally, while on her tummy. She sometimes takes one crawl forward, and sometimes does a modified army crawl, but she can get to a goal in front of her. I have the feeling that this is the beginning of a whole new aspect of being a parent.

Here is one of the first pictures of Adelaida, when she was four days old. She was able to hold her head up and move her arms and legs, but that was it.


At one month old, Adelaida really couldn't move much more than she could at birth.


By three months old, Adelaida was able to flail her arms and legs about and straighten and twist her torso.


By the time she was five months old, Adelaida could sit up and roll over from her tummy to her back. She was gaining more and more control over her muscles and wanted to practice all she could -- she almost always preferred sitting to laying down.


At seven months, Adelaida wanted to move. She would reach for things that were held close to her and would stretch her body out to try to get something in front of her.


Now she is nine months old and the entire world has opened up to her! Adelaida is no longer content just sitting down playing with an old toy; instead, she wants to get to the trash can, check out the dog's water bowl, pick up a piece of dirt on the floor, and find out what is on the other side of any room she is in. And, she is finally, unquestionably, longer than Pink Panther!


Here is a bonus picture of Adelaida with Pink Panther, both standing up in front of her crib (which has wonderful slats that seem like they are designed to help little ones learn to stand).