Gymnast x 10

Some of my friends have referred to Clara as the little gymnast because of how much she used to roll around on the floor and how active she is. Well, my friends, today Clara did a trick that would put even myself to shame... On Wednesday, when I went to get Clara out of bed in the morning, she was on her knees with her hands on the crib rail. This is a little startling when you are expecting a baby laying in the crib. What made it scary was that she is so strong even on her knees she still probably could have lunged out. Anyway, I left for town and obviously this isn't a risk in a pack-n-play. On Saturdy and Sunday, each time Clara woke up in her crib, she never was on her knees so I figured we had some time before we really needed to lower her crib.

Well, this morning I went to get Clara out and she was STANDING in her crib. She's never pulled herself up so I was totally caught off guard. I would have taken a picture, but I'm not an idiot and was a little more concerned about Clara. Luckily I caught her before she dove out. Who knows how much longer she would've waited. I told Jason we needed to lower the crib tonight and he told me to put clothes down so if she fell out during a nap, it'd be padded. Normally, babies will do something once and not again for a while. I put all of our blankets around the crib JUST IN CASE and during her naps, I left the door cracked so if she woke up early crying I could see if she was up or going to go back to sleep.

First nap: Clara went to sleep and when I heard her crying after a few hours, I went in and she was laying down.

Second nap: I watched Clara through the crack of the door get her pacifier and blanket and go to sleep. I was working and thought I heard her barely fussing, not crying, so I went in to peak at her through the crack of the door and I see my little goose not laying down, but on the side ledge of the crib and by the time I flung the door open, she was doing a front flip out of the crib. So I grabbed my camera and took this picture. JK, what kind of mom do you think I am? Geez. I obviously grabbed her as fast as I could. It scared me to death, obviously, but luckily the blankets were there and she landed perfectly on them and on her back. Really, it was a graceful little front flip out of her crib into the pile of blankets. It almost looked fake. I am in the process of organizing and packing away all of her old clothes, so there are huge plastic bins in there that she missed and her box of diapers. She was still fussing from waking up but that's it. Once I picked her up she just looked at me and didn't fuss or cry. I was shaking but laughing at what I had just seen, and that made her laugh at me. I don't even think it scared her so I doubt she learned not to dive out of her crib. In fact, she probably enjoyed it because there was no pain involved! :) (PS, this was pretty much how she landed and in about the same spot. I keep replaying the visual over in my mind and it happened so fast it seemed fake because it really didn't look real.)