Hey y’all! I’m Tayler Morrell and I blog over at The Morrell Tale.
I met Danica in 2010 in our college’s study abroad in Great Britain. It wasn’t until near the end of the term that we realized we were both working on social studies education majors and were both obsessed with history and other geekery things. Afterwards, we became facebook friends and soon found each others’ blogs! I’m very excited for Danica to have her little baby, since I have one and they can be best friends!
Like Danica, I blog about random things that come to mind, as well as teaching adventures. But, I also blog about family, motherhood, and recipes. Since Danica is on blogging “maternity leave”, I decided I’d give her a heads up of what to expect in half a year!
My son, Rhys, was born on July 5, 2014. He was smart and active from the very beginning, always wiggling his limbs and babbling. However, he was always small. He’s never been above the 10th percentile for weight or the 20th percentile for length, except the day he was born. He is smaller than most babies his age–about the same size as babies two months younger than him. But, we believe that the reason he doesn’t gain a lot of weight is because he is spending all his calories exploring!
Rhys rolled over from stomach to back by two months, scooting by three months, rolling onto stomach from back at four months, and increased his speed and lifted up on his hands and knees by five months. Last week, he finally actually crawled!
Now he is crawling everywhere, climbing over toys and our limbs, scooting when he can’t get somewhere fast enough, climbing up us as we sit down, lifting up on his hands and feet, and much more.
As soon as he learned to scoot, everyone started warning me to “watch out” and “you’re in trouble”. I didn’t see why. He couldn’t get into places to hurt himself or something else. I was much faster than he was. And I loved seeing him explore the world.
The week before he crawled, my husband and I had put him on our bed while we assembled his new exersaucer in our room. We had never had any reason to worry if we turned our heads for second. But that day, my Mommy Instincts told me to look at Rhys. In slow-mo, I saw him scoot an inch too far and started falling over the side of the bed. I rushed to his side, yelling, “No!” But not fast enough. He fell and fell hard. Our bed is about three inches off a wood floor. He was scared and shook up the rest of the day–just as much as we were.
When we saw him crawling, we took a video and sent it to family and Instagram. Everyone told us, “you’re in trouble,” “he’s gonna give you a run for your money”, “you’re gonna get it now”. My SIL sent me a text saying that her oldest boy crawled at 6.5 months, skipped walking and went straight to running at 9.5 months. Hoo, boy!
If stood up by us, Rhys can hold onto a ledge and stand for a few minutes. We help him walk from his bedroom to the bathroom, him leading the way right to the tub. He is so excited about the possibility of walking. He tries to pull himself up on his play-area-car, the dishwasher when it’s pulled down, the bottom of the TV trays, and us.
He’s getting more agile, quicker, and his curiosity can’t be satisfied. So, hoo, boy. Rhys will definitely give us a run for our money, maybe skipping waling and going straight to running like his cousin. We’ll see.
So Danica, beware! Once your baby rolls over…you’re in for it!
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And now, I’d like to add that Rhys is pulling up on furniture by himself!