Movement and motivation

I haven't written here much about the Critter's motor skills, mostly because...well, they were non-existent.

OK, that's not fair, or true, but an athlete my girl is not. You may recall the rolling over strike she went on for 2+ months - at 4 months rolling over a few times, then not doing it again til well into her 6th month. Where she proceeded to then roll every which way, everywhere. In the span of a day.

She's very good at sitting up, has been from 6 months. That skill came very quickly, in the span of a week she went from nothing to tripod to full-on sitting up without support. I was sort of amazed. She was clearly motivated and interested in sitting up - much better vantage point on the world - and so she did it. At least that's how it seemed to me.

But other movement, say crawling? Eh, not so interested, that girl. I've been trying to find something, some toy, some game...something to motivate her to move. Nothing worked. She is classic Type B - mellow, rolls with the flow, and is generally able to entertain herself. If I take away a toy she likes and is playing with and move it across the playmat...eh, she sort of looks at it, thinks about the effort it would take to get over there, decides that's too much work, and then plays with something else closer to her. Or her hands or feet, if Mommy was smart enough to take away all the toys near her.

Until I discovered the motivator of all motivators for kids the world over - the iPhone! Specifically the BabyPlayFace app on the iPhone. OMG - it is baby crack. That Critter Girl - she WANTS her some BabyPlayFace. Bad.

And now she crawls. Seriously. Just like that. She will army crawl her way anywhere if the iPhone is at the end. She just hears the music and will look around like, "Is that BabyPlayFace? Where? I need some of that!" And off she goes.

On to all that babyproofing I thought I'd never need because my child had no interest in moving.