(Standing) Up, (Crawling) Up and Away!

Karina after standing up on her own to look out the window

Today, Karina and I were playing the Upside-Down Game...a very complex game in which Mommy dangles the baby upside-down, ahem...and while looking up Karina's nose and at the roof of her mouth...which is the view one has in this game...I thought I saw something. So I turned her upside-down again, moved into better light and looked more closely. Then I touched her top gum with my finger, and felt all sorts of swollen bumpiness...a complex dental description, I'm sure! Anyway, it was very clear that there were teeth coming...and it looked like all four top teeth would be in soon! No wonder she'd been cranky lately! I'd thought her appetite was finally improving, but has wondered why she still seemed easily upset...I guess this could explain it! So with multiple additional viewings, it seems that the top left tooth will be her third tooth and I'm guessing the top right tooth won't be far behind!

On the locomotion front, we knew it wouldn't be long before the crawling became climbing, but I'm still impressed with how quickly Karina learned to climb the stairs. She tried once a few days ago and then didn't try again until today when she made the complete ascent...albeit slowly...to the top of the stairs. Now we have to decide what to do about blocking off the stairway! Here she is climbing to the top of the stairs...

"I think I can, I think I can..."

"Just gotta get my knees up here..."

"Okay, I can see over the top now..."

"I'm almost there..."

"Whew! I made it! Yay!"

Meanwhile, her crawling continues to get faster and faster and she's get better and better at standing up. However she seems to make standing up an even bigger challenge than it is to begin with, by using an arduous technique. Instead of kneeling, getting onto one foot, pulling up with her arms, pushing up on that leg and then bringing the other foot up alongside, Karina crawls all the way up to the couch (for example) until her head has smooshed into it, puts her hands on the top of the seat, straightens her arms and legs so that she's practically in a piked position (downward facing dog for those of you familiar with yoga positions), a very difficult position requiring a lot of strength, and then manages to walk her legs forward until she's got them underneath her enough to stand. Whew! It makes me tired just to describe it! But we're so proud of how grown up our little girl is getting!