Haigen Can Crawl Now!

Haigen can crawl! For the longest time, she would flail around and get frustrated, spinning in circles or actually moving backwards. She finally figured out how to coordinate going forward! She's all over the place now.

Time to baby-proof the house.Boy, can a baby find crud on the floor. The first thing I did when I realized she would no longer stay on her play mat was very thoroughly sweep the floor. I thought I did a great job until five minutes later, I turned around and she had a gross wad of dust and dirt and God knows what else in her hand and it was en route to her mouth. So I swept AGAIN.

Now she sometimes crawls around crying, presumably because she'd much rather be walking!

Haigen's First Road Trip

Haigen's first road trip was to the beach. We stayed in Aunt Becky's condo with some friends for the weekend. She rode around in her stroller and got to enjoy a lot of attention from the gang. She got really good this weekend at hanging onto the coffee table and standing up on her own. Still can't crawl, but has the idea. She mostly flips over onto her stomach, then flails around like a stranded beetle.

She knows it's possible, just hasn't figured out the details of how to go forward yet. Soon, I think.We took her to the ocean and set up a large beach umbrella to sit under so she would not get sunburned. She put her feet in the water, rode around in her sling a good bit, then fell deeply asleep for a long time. I think the sound of the ocean and the motion of riding in the sling completely knocked her out.

I think Haigen is dancing now

Last night, in her high chair, she started rocking in time to some music that was playing. At the time, I didn't know if she was doing in response to the music or what, but it looked very deliberate to me.

This morning, Jim calls out to me and says, "Hey, take a look at this." Haigen was watching the Wiggles, and a song she seems to like was playing. She was rocking in time to it, sitting on her little bottom.

The song stopped, and so did she. I squeezed the "learning puppy" her Poppa gave her last weekend when we went to visit, and it started playing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." Haigen started rocking again, in time to the music. No way that's a coincidence. She's dancing!

Haigen at Music Practice

Haigen loves to come to music practice with her Mom.

In fact, she seemed to enjoy being at music practice even before she was born. The sounds of a drum circle once woke her up and got her moving some months before her birth. I started taking her when she was around 3 months old, and if we were messing around talking and not playing, she would cry and fuss.

The moment we started playing, though, she would quiet.Before she would participate by yanking the mouthpiece either off my melodica or out of my mouth while I was playing. Now she shakes her rattle, laughes, watches me or Aunt Kaci strum guitars, or bangs on Uncle John's djembe. Last week, she played the melodica keys while I supplied the air, and played with a little electronic keyboard John gave her to play with. Sometimes she "sings." But she's always super good and seems to have a great time.

I'm thinking we could use a good fiddle player someday..