Scooty Scooterson

For someone who can't crawl or walk yet, Hadley gets around quite well. Alarmingly well. So well, in fact, that she often ends up four or five feet from where she started.

She has started scooting on her belly. Almost two weeks ago, I watched in amazement as she rolled onto her tummy, grabbed as far ahead of her on the playmat as her tiny arms would stretch, pulled her knees under her bum, and--heave-ho!--scooted about six inches. Then she acted all nonchalant, grabbed the toy that had motivated her to move in the first place, and shoved it in her mouth. She practically said, "Whatever, Mom. No big deal."

Since then, she's been twisting and rolling and inching her way around our house. Still, she gets frustrated when she can't go exactly where she wants to go when she wants to go there. I'm just waiting for the day when all of a sudden, Hadley picks her belly up off the floor and crawls. Then Jason and I will have to baby-proof the house. Quickly.

I've noticed that just when I start to think I know what to expect, Hadley does something new. Her head is on a swivel these days; when we carry her somewhere, she's busy turning her head back and forth to see what she's leaving and where she's headed. Back and forth, back and forth. And she is all about faces, has to touch every one of them, and--even better--put her hand in the face's mouth to check out those teeth. 

Oh, and the teeth. She's teething. Chewing desperately on whatever she can, drooling like a bulldog, and getting a wee bit fussy.

Then there's a whole slew of entertaining new activities: pulling off her socks and examining her toes; saying, "mum, mum, mum" incessantly; blowing raspberries (which is a lot like spitting, actually); shaking her rattles and then looking at the nearest parent as if to say, "Why are you making so much noise?"

Here is a video of her grinning, pulling at her socks and blowing raspberries. I especially like the end, where she tells us, in her own special way, that she's done:

I've heard plenty of moms talk about teething and scooting and such, and I realize it's not like Hadley has won the Nobel Peace Prize (though apparently, the standards are a bit lax these days, so perhaps she has a shot), but these little changes are amazing to me. We get to watch them up close, to know this little person who is revealing herself and changing and growing. Add to these changes the fact that we're crazy about her, and all of these little changes amount to one big, amazing experience.