He's been trying for a while now, but I've been a bit lazy about tummy time (really, he screams his head off often enough for no good reason, I don't need extra screaming by forcing tummy time!) and today when I laid him down and left the room to rescue a green truck from under the radiator, I returned to a baby on his back. While I know he was alone and no one else could have flipped him over, I wanted to actually see it for my own eyes. Thus began the half hour of amusement, putting Marek on his belly and watching him slowly wiggle his arm under him and kick up and over on to his back. He was quite pleased with himself.
The last few days he's been rolling from his back to his side as well, and I know it won't be long before he kicks all the way over to his belly. I personally think his ability to roll to his side is a direct effect of my breastfeeding. I always place him on his side to eat, so when he's looking for food, he turns his head and stretches out to get a mouthful, rolling himself onto his side.
I feel like this is early, 12 weeks for rolling? Chester started rolling just before 5 months and I thought that was early! But the reality is that it doesn't matter when your child rolls. Or crawls. Or walks. Or talks. Because, for the most part, our children are normal and healthy and won't be leaving for college without the ability to roll over. My first two boys reached their milestones within or before the "normal" range (except for talking, but we caught up quickly!) and so this time around, I'm purposely not even looking at the experts. My kid will roll when he's ready. Clearly, he's rolling before I'm ready and I'm fairly certain he'll crawl and walk before I'm ready too.
It's exciting, and yet bittersweet. I love watching all my boys discover new things and master new skills. But this is likely the last time I'll watch my little baby learn to roll. We're probably done having children, so the next baby I have this much vested interest in will be my grandchild.
So this is the beginning of the end for so many reasons. The beginning of the end because once there are three mobile children, Ryan and I are outnumbered. The beginning of the end because my last baby is growing up. In our house, there will be no more baby snorts, no more soft baby-scented hair, no more little baby stretches. The little old man face of my newborn has morphed into a fat cheeked round face of an infant, and will soon quickly grown into the constantly smudged face of a toddler.
Slow down, little man. Slow down.
