Golden Pig Tales

Since Ezra has been crawling we have been corralling Ezra in a section of the house I call the main living area, so he can roam around on his own, so he won’t find something that will hurt him, and he won’t find something that he will put in his mouth that he should not put in his mouth, and we know the area he crawls upon is mostly clean until he is walking more than crawling, and we know where he is. On Saturday we opened up the corral area to include the kitchen for he long ago figured out how to open the swinging door to the kitchen from the corral, and he was refusing to remain in the corral when -v- leaves for the kitchen.

The new part of the corral, the kitchen, is still an area that we need to closely supervise Ezra while he tries to find things that could hurt him like the objects in the drawers we have yet to fix with fasteners. The kitchen is not yet fully Ezra proof. It is only part Ezra proof and fully clean of all the dust and small bits decaying food under the bookshelf, fridge and stove that Ezra would put in his mouth or rub into his eyes. It is also clear of any sharp objects that once rested on the lower shelves of the bookshelf, and those heavy cook books he was so eager to reach up and try to pull off the shelf on top of him.

He seems to enjoy the new area of the corral. He gets excited when we allow him to crawl beyond the swinging door. He enjoys throwing around the plastic lids and wooden bowls we have put on the shelves within reach. He enjoys being able to be by -v- when she is in the kitchen.

Ezra went to brunch with me and Auntie Darling on Saturday. I had biscuits and gravy (mmmmm…gravy), and Ezra had pancakes! His first pancakes! Ok, so it was actually just 2/3 of a smallish pancake, but he ate it in little bits that I fed to him. He seemed to very much enjoy it.

After brunch, we went to a park and sat on a blanket in the shade - it was a hot day! This was the first for Ezra as well! Ezra crawled around on the blanket, but only to the edge of the blanket. He would reach out and touch the grass, rubbing his hand on it a little, but wouldn’t put his hand down on the ground. Maybe he was afraid of getting dirty - the ground was sort of muddy.

It was a big, fun, exciting day with Ezra. Then this morning I woke up and thought it was Monday, and I was running around trying to get Ezra ready, wondering why Kalab was sitting around being all lazy.

Ezra crawling on floor at YOU! (It could be easier to view by leaning head to the left. Or you could just imagine Ezra is Spiderbaby.):

Yesterday, Ezra, -v-, and I had an hour long sign class to further assist -v- and I to teach Ezra sign language to help communication with Ezra before he can speak. The class was a fun class and was helpful in showing technique and expectations. One of the most important signs learned was the sign for stop, which is holding the left hand open palm up and then bringing the right hand down upon the left hand like the right is copping the left hand.

The stop  sign is an important sign and the one I have used often today.  Often because Ezra’s seems to want to play with power cords. He wants to grab and pull and bite them. This is bad. During the past, it was easy to keep power cords away from Ezra because he was unable to move sans rolling around, which never got him far. But now he can crawl. And though he can’t crawl very far most of the time, he seems to get a lot of motivation to crawl when the crawling is for a power cord. So if -v- and I keep up the sign language, I am sure the sign for stop will be one of the first learned.

Early this morning, Ezra was hanging-out on his blanket playing with some wooden blocks and a few books and some plastic chew toys. Then he seemed to be bored with the toys. So he laid on his side, lifted himself up on hands and knees. Then he began to crawl. He crawled across the blanket. He crawled to the floor. And he crawled to some power cords. It did take me awhile to calm my excitement caused by the crawling and realize he was playing with power cords. Once the excitement was under control, I told Ezra not to play the power cords and then set him on his blanket.

I realized now begins years of Ezra moving around and playing with things like power cords and me trying to not have Ezra play with things like power cords.

It’s obvious that Ezra wants to walk more than crawl. He smiles more when he walks than when he is in a crawling position. And while he is a very good walker if someone is helping him balance, he can’t walk on his own because all the muscles just aren’t there yet, but the ones that are show a coordination that is impressive.

However good the walking is becoming, we would like to see Ezra move beyond his occasional slide crawl and actually crawl, but he seems to have no interest. We suspect his lack of interest is because he sees everyone walking, so he wants to walk too.

In an effort to show Ezra how much fun crawling is and how to crawl (to hopefully create interest for crawling in Ezra), I have been crawling around Ezra. And while I think my crawling around Ezra is giving Ezra more of an interest in crawling because he will remain in the crawl position longer when I crawl around, crawling hurts when you are older, so I can’t show Ezra crawling very long before I realize I am not kid anymore and that crawling on hands and knees now hurts.

Ezra’s crawling is getting better. He can some times move over the floor using his hands, arms, feet, legs, chest and stomach, but when he is moving across the floor with this method he doesn’t move far, and he looks like a sea turtle crawling on the beach to lay its eggs. Some times the inability to move with this method to reach an object will cause enough stress that one may think Ezra was laying eggs. The only thing Ezra lays is his face to the ground after a session of flailing arms and legs, which isn’t bad as long as he didn’t spit-up prior to head hitting ground and rise with a face covered with spit-up and saliva, but with a face covered with spit-up he is usually smiling.