The Number Field

The past few days, Elena has been making developmental advances at an impressive rate. Or perhaps we've just been noticing them for the first time. In preparation for solid foods, we sometimes give her a plastic spoon to play with (always supervised), to acclimate herself to it. This seems to work well, because as with most things in her hands, she puts it in her mouth. But more impressively, she sometimes transfers the spoon from one hand to the other.

Elena has been holding her head up very well, so I decided to put her on the couch and see if she could sit up by herself. She can, but only for a little while. Once she starts to topple, she'll fall all the way unless I'm there to catch her. I usually am, but in the interests of documentary evidence I let her go all the way while I was taking pictures. The couch is soft enough that she landed safely on her side.

Finally, we continue to encourage her during rolling-over practice. She's making good progress with rolling from her back to her stomach. This includes a strong, seemingly purposeful push off with one leg, followed by an attempt to rotate through her hips. I think that once she learns to coordinate her arm and swing it to get some momentum, she'll be able to roll over. We're increasingly worried about her narrow changing area; with just a leg push she could roll off of it now. We always take care to block her way with our bodies, but I'm on the lookout for a more substantial changing pad that curves up on the sides to prevent rolling.