Joseph has been not exactly staying in the same place I put him down in for a good while now, though you should check with my husband because he always says “just started” when I think it’s been a while and our friend pointed out that at for months, nothings really be “ages” as I’ve claimed . . .
. . . but I can no longer question whether Joseph is crawling or not. It’s not the normal cross-pattern crawl, but he can move forward and on purpose and in a matter of minutes, not hours. This morning after we woke up and snuggled a bit, I put him on the potty (success #1 and 2!) and stripped him bare for some naked diaper-free time. It’s a sunny and warmish day here, at least for fall, so I thought I’d take advantage of it before winter has us all shivering. I placed a few strategic toys at one end of the water-proof mat and Joseph at the other and when I came back from cleaning out his potty he was already at the other end of the mat! Currently he’s not moving much because he’s pushing all the buttons on the Japanese singing dog that Daddy got him. :)
I’ve been trying to give Joseph all the opportunity and encouragement I could manage so he could learn to crawl, but I found my first reaction was, “You can crawl!!! Now what do I do?!?!?!?” Suddenly this apartment feels very small. The yoga mat with water-proof sheet is too small for him now, but if I put him on the bed he’ll crawl off and hurt himself, and even if I start keeping the floors very clean he still has a jungle of furniture to contend with.
Well, here we go, on to the next stage of adventures!
I guessed what "es krabbelt" means even before reading further. Context helps.
Congratulations, Joseph! How exciting. As I understand it, the cross-pattern almost always comes with time, opportunity, and practice. Any forward motion on the tummy is fantastic at this stage.
Yes, a crawling baby does make any living space seem smaller. Now you get to go through your home at baby's eye view level and find what you don't want him to touch. But you have a great hall for him to crawl in—except for the stairs at the end—and negotiating a jungle of furniture is half the fun.
Ganbate, Joseph! (and Mom and Dad) We love you all.
But ... a little (German) learning is a dang'rous thing ... why isn't it "er krabbelt"?
Congrats, Joseph!
Ah, yes, I'd get some kind of gate for the end of that hallway now!
The adventures keep coming!
"Er krabbelt" would also be correct, but when talking about babies, they are usually referred to as "baby" which is neuter. We might say "Hush, the baby is sleeping right now." but in German you can shorten "the baby" to "es" whereas in English we need the pronoun "he" or "she." Thus a literal translation is "It crawls!" but a better translation would be "The baby crawls." which still sounds funny in English, but is natural in German. At least I think so. ;)
Regarding the differences between dads and moms, I've wondered if the questions doctors (e.g. How many words can your child say?) ask moms have a "mom-filter" on them, as Heather's answers are always higher than mine.
I'll bet if the doctors asked the speech question of siblings the number of words would be even higher. Young children in the family seem to understand more, sooner. (And perhaps the difference in number is also between defining "words said" as "words I understand" versus "words ordinary people can understand." It may be prejudice on my part, but I think dads are more likely to use the second definition, while moms and siblings use the first.
