Mobility Training For Maya at They Might Be Curly Giants!

A lot of people are surprised at how fast Maya’s developed her motor skills. She’s not quite crawled yet, but she is able to lift her chest off the mattress and stick her tush in the air when she has her face planted on it. Until she rolls off and flops on her back, face all read and sweaty and her hair all over the place. She can move from one side of the cot to the other with no problems.

She’s following in her brothers’ footsteps and I bet she’ll start to walk before she turns one.

Oh, she had her first ever haircut the other day. Her fringe was getting into her eyes so she had it chopped off. Looks a bit funny, though. Must remember to snap a picture tonight!

Back to the subject of her mobility, I’ve often done this with the boys and last night I did it with Maya. Just holding her chest so it’s off the floor and letting her ‘crawl’ or holding her upright and making her ‘walk’. She really enjoys it, laughing and squealing in delight as I ‘walked’ her towards Ayeed or Ajab and place her within hugging distance of them. Usually Ayeed will respond by pointing (and poking her tummy) and saying “ah, ah, ah!!” (short for ‘adik’), or even hugging her, like what he did last night. Ajab would usually be too distracted by the TV to take note of her, so I would place Maya on his head or back, just to get a response from him.

I can’t make Maya ‘crawl’ or ‘walk’ too long though. Not that it’s bad for her. It’s bad for my back! Have you ever spent 5 minutes bent over, holding a 6kg wriggly baby? It’s hard work! In any case, she’ll learn to crawl and walk on her own, but it certainly doesn’t do any harm in ‘pushing’ her a bit to aid the process.