Coordination

It's remarkable Andrew and I met on a dance team considering he struggles with left and right and neither of us is the most coordinated of people. Unfortunately for Rachel, she has two very uncoordinated parents which means that she'll probably have a little trouble mastering some of the same skills we did.

Left, Right...
Left, Right, Left!

Rachel has been on the verge of crawling for quite some time but always forgets to move an arm or a leg and ends up toppling over. Today, though, she showed off her blossoming skills for the camera. Her coordination is getting a whole lot better. You can see her moving hand, leg, hand, leg--almost a normal crawl, if only she could move that left arm a second time.

She'll master it yet, hopefully before she starts walking, which she already enjoys practicing a little too much for my taste. She loves to try and pull herself up on things. Most of the furniture in our house is still a little too high for her, which is why she enjoyed the sunbeam chairs so much on Tuesday. She loves when we let her stand up "by herself," though; it kept her occupied for a whole twenty minutes last night.

Watching Daddy do homework

Who's down there?

Rachel thought it was hilarious when I crawled under the table and looked up at her. We tapped each other's fingers from behind the glass, making it get all fingerprinty, and made faces at each other. It was a fun game.

In addition to working her gross motor skills, we keep practicing fine motor skills. Rachel likes to try to turn the light switches off and on--she uses her pointer finger only, though, so can't get enough force to get it to actually move without a little outside help. She also likes to try to grab at pictures in books, Cheerios, and anything small enough to choke on.