Parenting in the danger zone

It seems like Edith has picked up a whole range of new skills in the past few days. And while it's thrilling to see her do new things, it's quickly becoming clear that we've entered the dicey and exhausting period in which babies' attempts to perfect their physical coordination means hazards--or at the least, disorder--at every turn. So much for carrying her around in a bucket seat and dangling some toys in front of her hands:

In the past day or two, Edith has gone from crawling to pulling up on things. So far, with one exception, she hasn't picked anything tall enough that she can get to her full height--not the side of the crib or the bookshelves, for example. So she gets about halfway up and then stands there bent over, trying to decide what to do. We'd been told that babies find this a very frustrating period, because they've figured out how to get up but know they don't know how to get down. Edith doesn't seem to suffer from this problem: She has no idea she doesn't know how to get down and is liable to let go any second, tumbling over. Given our hardwood floors, this is a challenging development.

She's getting much quicker. The one time she did pull up to full height, it was on the rack in the open dishwasher I was loading. Having gotten up, she promptly leaned over to grab the nearest object--a knife in the utensil holder. (I got to her first.)

She's also getting much stronger. She was examining the base of her floor lamp today and succeeded in rocking the whole lamp back and forth. She also has started twisting and pulling up the squares in her floor mat, wrenching them loose.

Having learned to grab at the spoon or bottle, she also is grabbing at the mom. Her pinch and clench are both getting good. Ouch.

In the exhausting-if-not-dangerous category: This past weekend Edith at last figured out that when she lets go of an object, it falls to the ground and continues to exist there. At this point she's peering over the side of her high chair expectantly to see how the object will get back to her. But I imagine it's only a few days before she starts making her feelings known if it's not returned to her promptly.















Presented with a toy, Edith focuses on the beer.