A baby on a mission.

Look at that wild child up there. See that? That is a baby who is about to take off. That is a baby who is almost mobile. That's a baby on a mission! Ohhhhhhh dear.

See, Caroline has hated tummy time since the beginning. HATED it. She still hates tummy time, unless she's the one that puts herself on her tummy. If we put her on her tummy, she just flops around and pouts. If she decides it's tummy time, you get the goofy smiles pictured above and she has a blast.

This new "trick" has developed since we got home from Spain. We were sitting in the bed one morning and she was in my lap as usual. She suddenly decided she wanted to be on her tummy instead and lunged herself forward, catching herself with her arms and then staying there, with her arms fully supporting her. Then, she used her legs to push off me to get herself further forward (closer to her beloved Wrangler).

Later that day, I was sitting next to her on the bed and she suddenly put her arms down, tucked her little feet under her body, and lunged herself toward me for a hug (she seriously gives hugs now; it's the cutest thing ever). 

This morning, when those pictures were taken, we left her on the bed as usual, just sitting there playing with her toys. We came back less than a minute later and she was on her belly, making her way to the edge of the bed. And, as you can see, she looked so proud of herself.

She is also pulling herself up, using me as her jungle gym. Seriously, she climbs all over me and chews on my collar bone. I guess I make a fantastic teething toy? Her goal is to go from sitting to standing so she can gnaw on my collar bone. I never said she wasn't strange ;) 

I have a feeling she's pulling herself up on toys at daycare; the other day I went in to put her diapers in her crib and noticed they had moved her from a crib to a pack n' play, with the mattress at the very bottom. She hasn't done this at home, mostly because we don't have any toys that are really good for practicing pulling herself up. But, seeing how good she is at pulling herself up using my body, I'm sure she's more than capable of it using toys.

According to the ladies at daycare, she also likes to hitch rides with the other babies. She sits on the floor playing, sees one of her older friends (all of whom she's bigger than) crawl by, and she grabs them and tries to go along for the ride. I'm sure she's very popular among the other babies, geez.

So, Josh and I see crawling in the very near future, which means it's time to start baby proofing. At the rate she's pulling herself up and becoming better at standing, I think she may start walking (at least walking around furniture) within the next couple months.

When did my baby get to be such a big girl?