Life as We Know it Has Ended

Life as we know it has ended. For our daughter is now able to pull herself up to a standing position.

Sometimes, I’ll put Jada on her tummy to crawl around in the living room while I read the paper or do the crossword puzzle. Lately, she’s become very mobile, worming her way to dangerous places like outlets and electronics. So I put a fence of pillows around her, to contain her crawling.

This morning, I was reading the paper as Jada was crawling around, trying in vain to get past the pillow blockade. Only the next time I glanced over at her, she had used the pillow blockade as a pillow stepping stone, and had crawled her way up the pillow and into a standing position, propped up against the entertainment center. I darted over to her before she even had the chance to think about falling backward.

I told Amy about Jada’s new abilities. This changes everything. We have to lower the crib to the lowest setting so she won’t scale her out way out of her bed and into a freefall. Things that used to be roadblocks to keep her hemmed in are now toy mountain peaks daring her to climb them. Our containment strategy from 24 hours ago can be thrown out the window.

Later that morning, I said to Amy, “Remember back when – meaning yesterday – when we could just put Jada on the floor and not have to worry about anything?” How I miss those days already. But I suppose even better days are here.