Minutes ago there was a thud followed by an Ezra fuss.
We found Ezra in his room. His hand were holding his head from floor. His feet and ankles were on the fire engine bed. His body suspended between.
It appears he was trying to crawl around to find a better sleep spot, but found the floor instead. Fortunately, Ezra is okay. He was more freaked out than anything else.
Ezra now sleeps.
There are bruises and scrapes from Ezra chaotic play of the day. If child services came to the house it may seem like we are violent parents, and not the truth which is that Ezra plays hard and sometimes doesn’t see that tree while running crazy at playcare, which was the cause of the first bump on head. The second bump on head happened when Ezra started a game of run-around. Ezra was running around with -v- and me, and he fell. While Ezra usually falls with no pain for he has had enough practice, this fall was fast and flat and lead with head. Plop and bang he went. The sound against the floor was a thud. I felt the pain. And though understandably he shed some tears and had a cry for a bump did form, he did start playing run around again soon after the bump formed on forehead.
In the game of Ezra versus Gravity, I think gravity is winning more matches and games now, but Gravity will not always win the matches and games. Ezra will win and learn to win matches and games against Gravity in Gravity’s home field of Earth.
Ezra now has an ability and tolerance for sitting upright. After minutes of holding self steady and up, he will begin to fall left, right or forward. Forward is actually the position he will fall when sitting upright more often than not because of his big and heavy head being pulled down over the span of a few minutes. This leaves his head between his legs near the ground. When tipping left or right, his arms do balance Ezra and his big head. Or his arms soften the fall to the floor helping ease the defeat of the match with gravity.
When stand practicing with -v- and I or holding himself up to stand with the help of the coffee table, Ezra doesn’t seem to understand that when moving forward he needs to lead with the legs and body and not with hands and arms. He seems to believe that gravity will not play to win the match this one time while he reaches for something too far to be reached from his current standing position. Ezra is getting to know Gravity always wants to win any game with it. Ezra can shuffle feet to an objective if there is an objective to reach like a pacifier or a blanket to chew on, so Ezra is learning to play the game with gravity. But sometimes passions overwhelms perception and he tries to fly to the pacifier or the blanket (to chew on). His balance does lose, and he falls like a board to the floor, but never hits because while the match is a game between Ezra and Gravity it is not a death match, and I am on Ezra’s team and won’t let Gravity win all the matches while Ezra is still a very young child learning to play with gravity.
Ezra’s play with Gravity continues. Soon Ezra will begin to win more and more matches and games with Gravity while becoming more injured from losing an occasional match and falling. Soon I will not be there to catch him and there will be one less game Ezra plays with me.
Ezra is now beating on surfaces with his hands or objects in his hands. Today has been a good example of this. During stand practice, he was smiling and beating on top of the coffee table like it was his own personal drum set. Later, when sitting on the floor, Ezra was holding his stuffed animal giraffe by the neck and banging it on the ground and on his head. During the walk around with Ezra, his fists hit chest and arms. While breast feeding, his arm not pinned between his body and the Boppy was flailing like a loose fire hose slapping against -v-’s chest. He was also laying on the floor hitting the floor with hands and feet making sounds with the hardwood floor like a pro wrestler makes when simulating getting hit by another wrestler. We can only hope this hitting doesn’t continue and lead to a life as a pro wrestler because the length of a pro wrestler’s career is too short and wrecks the body. If he does become a pro wrestler, I will be the first help him with his pro wrestling costume and name.
Ezra had his first unassisted rollover today. No, Ezra was not driving home from daycare and took a turn too quickly causing the car he was driving to rollover. Rather, Ezra was laying his stomach and rolled to his back all by himself.
It was a big moment. Up until now he hasn’t been able to create the momentum need to begin the roll from stomach to back, or back to stomach, but today, with out any help from -v- or I, he rolled from his stomach to his back.
Now he only needs to perfect this roll over skill. And experience his first back to stomach rollover.
The back to stomach roll over gets stalled on his side when he tries to roll over his own arm wedged between his body and the floor.
Ezra has learned to lift his off the ground when he lays upon his stomach. He looks like he’s doing a push up that only lifts his head. He can easily clear about an inch of space between his chin and the ground. He can’t hold it up for very long, but he can hold it up long enough to look side to side. Some times mid turn he’ll lose control, and his face will fall right to the ground, but he is strong enough to twist and turn his head to lay his head on its side to rest and ready for the next head lifting.