tough love for babies

Franz entertaining Eli at Starbucks
Originally uploaded by pure_h2o.

We've had to start some tough love with Eli. He's getting into the mindset that he doesn't need to try to crawl or walk because if he screams loud enough, someone will carry him where ever he wants to go. And this is pretty annoying, let me tell you.

We just know that he's capable of moving on his own. We've seen it. In fact, just this morning he was playing in his room and wanted to be moved closer to one of his toys. He let me know this by looking at me with those big blue eyes, then whimpering, and then leaning towards the toy. Instead of picking him up, I left the room. This really pissed him off for a few minutes, but after a bit, he started to move on his own towards the toy. He rolled around until he was where he wanted to be. It was kind of like parallel parking in San Francisco; he'd roll one way, then roll back at a different angle, and then roll towards the toy again, until he was at a position that he was satisified with.

After this episode, Franz and I walked into his room, and he started crying again. He rolled on his stomach, with one hand supporting him and the other reaching towards us for help. I made the mistake of trying to put him in the proper crawling position by propping him up on his hands and knees, which Eli did not like at all. When I backed away, the tears, they flowed like a river.

We are determined to have this kid gain mobility. We do not want to have to carry him around forever. We've been told countless times to charish the fact that Eli can't move on his own, and I will probably regret this post once he does start moving, but I don't care.