Milestones for Chloe

Chloe is knocking our socks off with her new abilities! She's crawling up on her hands and knees all the time now and, when placed on the floor, immediately crawls toward something/anything to pull herself up and stand. She's even starting to cruise along the couch with confidence. It took her SO LONG roll over and then sit up! But for some reason we speculated that she would really take off once she started crawling. Boy were we right! Her newest tricks include reaching for objects outside of her little prisons (ie. crib and play pen) and chewing holes in her crib.

You can't see it in this picture but her pack n play stands right next to our kitchen table. Yesterday I caught her grabbing one of the chairs and pulling it down until it fell backwards! Who is this destructive child? Solana never did stuff like this! (I secretly love it :-)

This picture was taken last month as she was just getting the hang of standing in her crib. Day before yesterday I left her in the crib as I brushed my teeth. She was happily standing with one hand on the crib and the other reaching for the mobile. All of the sudden, "CRACK." My head snaps toward her and I'm immediately flying Marvel-character-style across the room because all I see is Chloe flying backwards with two outstretched little arms clinging to the mobile that she just snapped in half and off the stand! I also saw, out of the corner of my eye, Solana doing a Dukes of Hazard impression and pretending our (King size) bed was the hood of a car. How did she fly/slide over the bed so fast? That little girl is going to make a great mother some day! I digress. We got there at the same time and, of course, Chloe was fine - already getting back up for another go. She's amazing. Then that evening I caught her grabbing the tapestry just above her crib. Even later that evening Dave said, "Yeah. Don't they say to take mobiles down once they can stand in their crib?" Hmm. Yeah. That makes sense to me now.

A blogger friend of mine, Melissa, once said that "prematurity doesn't end when they leave the hospital." She is right! I gave my dad a brief run down of all Chloe's specialists, therapies, exercises, etc. He was shocked and knew a bit of it but I guess you don't think of that stuff unless you're actually the one doing it. We work really hard for all these little milestones that healthy babies reach so easily. I'll tell you what, though, all our hard work and therapy sessions pay off! And the payoff of a milestone reached (and even every day activities) is all the more sweeter for the extra hard work we've put into it.