This stage of Garret's life has definitely been the hardest for me so far. Restless nights were hard, sensitive stomachs were hard but nothing has been as hard as this. Garret is mobile! He isn't crawling but scoots along the floor so quickly that it makes me wonder if he will ever want to learn to crawl. Part of me thinks that if our house was more carpet he would be crawling because when he is on the carpet he crawls more, still awkwardly but he tries. But when he is on the hardwood floors, which makes up most of our home, he glides across the floor like a water skipper on water.
The scooting around was difficult just because Garret made more messes but I could handle that. It is the pulling himself up on EVERYTHING that is causing me great stress. I want him to learn and be independent, but it breaks my heart every time that little head smacks the hard floor. He cries and I want to cry. However, as soon as I put him back on the ground he is climbing on something else and the vicious cycle starts again.
Notice the wonderful hard tile under his chubby little feet. He hit his head this morning doing this same move and so I put a blanket at the foot of the stairs.
Now he is happy and safe again right? Wrong. Then he scoots over to the excersaucy. He is happy again but it doesn't last long.
This time he is reaching for the disco ball toy to the left and slams the floor hard. The noise made me sick to my stomach. Luckily he only has a little bump and out of all these bumps and crashes the past few weeks he has only had one bruise. It was small and wasn't noticeable unless you pulled back his hair but it made me sad just knowing it was there.
Even this little box caused him some pain last night. He would pull on one end and the other end would come flying up and smack him in the face. No serious damage but my happy little boy is finding lots of reasons to cry these days.
He thought the bar stool would be a fun thing to explore. He crawled in the center of it, pulled himself up, sat back down and tried to explore elsewhere but every time he tried to lay on his tummy he would bonk his head on that circular bar of the chair. No matter which way he turned that bar was there. Finally, he just sat there and cried until dad moved the chair for him and he was free!
Some days when I think his head and my heart just can't take anymore pain I put him in the pack-n-play and try to put plenty of toys in with him to explore. But the joy that comes from this type of exploring is short lived and not nearly as satisfying for him. So I'll take him out, he'll pull himself onto the stairs, smile and giggle like he is on top of the world, and I find myself gasping with every move he makes.
This is tough!
