Climbing that Mountain

Did I mention that STELLA IS CRAWLING???!!!!

!!! Can you hear me? Shouting, clapping, smiling, praising? This here, this is one proud Mama.

Yup, it's true. It's commando crawling, and she is not really using her legs, but! damnit, it's close enough to crawling for me. She had learned to scoot on her butt, so getting her to crawl was very very hard. She has also learned to move to sitting from prone -- we had been working on this for about a year. She rolls onto her tummy and basically does a kind of downward-dog pose to sit up. (Did I mention that she is very very strong? We call her Chuckie -- short for Our Baby Chuck Roast). And ... (there's more) ... her aide says that she is crusing along the furniture and is using her spoon! Also, while I'm bragging, she can sign "hat", "more", "nursing", and "banana".

This is huge, and goes a long way to reassuring me that we are doing the right thing by advancing her into the toddler room in September. She (by the grace of god and the mercy of the daycare director) will be going to the same daycare as Francis. I, of course, am worried that she will be mowed down by the walking, talking, assertive other toddlers. But, mainstreaming means I need to step back and let her find her own way. If I was SAHMing with her, I know that I would be overprotective -- and who would that be benefiting.

Anyway. We are going to have a party to celebrate. This is huge!