Getting a Lift...

It was mid-December when I declared, "the party's over," on the blog with some videos of Everett just starting to crawl. He mostly used his arms and moved along on his belly in an "army crawl." Well, the only thing that changed over the following month and a half was that he got faster. But, he still didn't lift his belly. It was the beginning of February when I decided that he wasn't doing so many of the "other" things that babies his age do because he was never up on his knees. He wasn't crawling and then sitting back. He wasn't pulling up on things and kneeling. He wasn't pulling up on things to stand. He would crawl over to a toy, grab it, and either play with it while on his tummy or roll to his back and play. So, I just decided one day to lift his belly and put him on his knees. It was pretty foreign, he thought it was strange, but that first time I got him to crawl across the floor he stopped after a bit and sat back. Crazy! Just like that.

The first time I posted a picture of him trying out the new crawl was in Daddy's birthday post...

and, at the time, he would still revert to his belly after a bit but he was making progress. In the next two weeks he had mostly given up his belly...
and was pulling up on things to kneel.
Then, he started trying to pull to stand.

Before long, his belly was a thing of the past and he became a "traditional" crawler...
and a "cruiser"...
which gave him many new opportunities for fun.

And he quickly became the "go to guy" for a good luck kiss before a Yahtzee roll.
Now, he is such a big shot that he is getting his own toys from the shelf.
And it is beginning to feel like driving is just around the corner!
Just today, he showed me that he can bend over to pick up his own toy,
stand back up, and even throw it!
He has definitely had his share of bumps, but something tells me that he doesn't miss his belly crawl at all.