Calvin's Ten Month Tricks

10 months old! Only two more laundry basket photos to come!

Baby Chicken turned 10 months old last Friday (the day we headed up to Lake Tahoe with our friends). I can't believe his first birthday is just around the corner! Eeek! To celebrate my little sweetie's 10 month birthday, I am very happy to give an update on some new tricks he's trying out.

Calvin is at risk for delayed motor development because of the chromosome anomaly which he was born with, so I was getting worried that he might turn one and still not be able to crawl. But I am thrilled to report that he seems to be working very hard on proving me wrong!

Since about 7 months, Calvin has been a very roll-y kiddo. He's been able get to any spot in the room by rolling, though usually via a circuitous route! He has been able to sit upright since 7 months-ish also, and starting about month 8 would lunge forward to grab toys from his seated position. He didn't seem motivated to work on learning to crawl since he could get where he wanted to go quickly enough by rolling. He wouldn't really try to scoot forward much, and it was a long time before he could really push up on his arms, though he could pull up from sitting to standing.

Here's a video of Calvin lunging to get a block.

And here he is pulling up and sitting down and pulling up and sitting down and pulling up and... you get it.

We work with him on standing and walking a little bit. He loves standing up while holding on to someone or something and he loves pulling up from sitting, as you can see in the video! He's just starting to be able to reach up from a hands and knees position to grab at people and furniture, so maybe he'll be able to pull up that way soon. He can take steps with one of us holding his hands for balance, though he doesn't have the strength to stand on his own yet, of course. 

He always seems to try out his new moves in bed first before using them during play time, and I've been noticing that during the night/early morning for the past month or so he's been working on pushing up and scooting forward and backward. Then just this week he finally tried out these new skills during play time! I am so proud of him! 

While we were up at Lake Tahoe James took a couple of videos of Calvin chasing around a little shaker egg and giving a glimpse of his new moves. Still rolling, but now some pushing up on the arms, tucking the knees, and scooting straight forward. Ignore the audio, LOL. In the first one you can hear me changing the clothes of my friend's baby, and in the other one a friend of ours is talking about his son mimicking the little babies. I feel like these videos don't do Calvin justice, but they're the best we've been able to capture so far!

Go Calvin, go! As his mama, I am both relieved and proud to see him learning and growing. People sometimes say things like "Do you really want him to learn to crawl?" Yes! Yes I do. I'll deal with babyproofing and keeping him safe, the inconvenience is nothing compared to how proud I am of him and how much I want him to be a happy and healthy kid.