Baby's Big Adventure

Baby's Big Adventure

Peanut has a play area in our central room. It’s a convenient location that has space for her toys and quick access for me to check up on her. However her mother, for some reason, doesn’t like the idea of her rolling around on the dirty carpet. I vacuum it twice a day so I’m not sure what the problem is.

My older son Henry sits on the filthy carpet playing X-Box and he hasn’t contracted any awful contagion. Cliff, my younger son plays robots vs. ninjas and he’s fine. Recently, since I became unemployed, I sit on it reading want ads and doing homework. I assure you that I have lots of problems but none of them are carpet related.

All of these cases aside my wife, arbitrarily, decided that Peanut would not be rolling around on the carpet. So about three months ago I went to the closet and got out a pretty blanket, made by my wife’s great-grandmother, and promptly started using it as a buffer between my girl and the floor. This particular blanket, there are many, had been sitting in the closet in a bag for five years. I had repeatedly hassled her about getting rid of it. It was taking up valuable towel real estate after all. Her eyes practically lit up in a triumphant “I told you” so gleam when she saw me using it. There was nothing subtle about it. The look said, “See we need this blanket to keep baby off of that awful carpet and you wanted to throw it out.” I learned a valuable lesson from this incident. Throw the stuff out and your wife won’t have a chance to look at you like that.

Anyway it’s actually kind of pretty. The thing is on the floor in front of the couch, convenient since that’s where I feed her. At one end is her sea-land fish adventure set (Baby Einstein) which we bought at a consignment store for thirty bucks (take that overpriced retailers). With it is her Boppy, it props her up and makes the sea critters easier to whap. At the other end of the blanket is a Sesame Street play set. Now this thing is really beat up. It is missing pieces and has toys attached to it that didn’t even come with it. But, it belonged to my oldest son and my younger son played with it when he was little. I like to imagine that my grandchildren will play with it some day.

This space is the center of her playtime world. Outside of sleeping (and napping) and eating this is where she spends her time. She can’t stand her car seat and hates going into stores. She doesn’t like her swing or vibrating chair. My boys loved the swing and the chair. Both liked riding in the car even when very little. Not Peanut, she likes it at home, and while she doesn’t like car rides she seems to like her stroller. Which, oddly enough, is her car seat attached to a two-stage stroller.

So in the morning when we get up I change her and get her dressed for the day. Hah, that’s funny. Peanut like most babies can go through three or four outfits easy. Then I feed her and burp her. Some days this is as easy as it sounds. Other days she won’t burp or one of a hundred things that turns a fifteen minute feeding into a half an hour. Then I put her in her Boppy to play with her fishes.

This is where Baby’s Big Adventure begins. For Peanut going three feet is literally the journey of her life (she is only four months after all). It’s not far. Yet it is a challenging set of maneuvers, wiggles, twists, turns, rolls and grunts. It requires all her effort and focus. It takes about fifteen minutes (a long fifteen minutes for us both, her adventuring and me couch potatoing).

It starts with her getting propped up on her Boppy

after she finishes eating. She plays with the sea critters for a few minutes but rapidly becomes bored (babies tend to have short attention spans). She then slides down so that she is effectively laying down on her back surrounded by the Boppy. Next she wiggles away from it so that she has room to maneuver. At this point she’ll turn on her side a few times rolling on her back in between as she determines which position and angle she wants. When satisfied with her trajectory she then rolls onto her belly. Sometimes she needs a quick rest at this point for a minute or so. The effort to reach this point required great exertion on her part after all.

Peanut’s quest has reached its most challenging point now. She wants to crawl desperately. This endeavor occupies at least an hour of her time every day. What she does so far is more of a scoot than a crawl. It involves a combination of pushing with her feet and pulling on the blanket with her hands (remember that terrible triumphant look). She only has about a foot or a foot and a half to go but it seems to take forever. Every move is accompanied by a grunt, moan, whine, or occasionally mighty roar. Believe it or not she actually roars. The effect is uncannily like an adult who uses a holler to aid in a challenging and strenuous physical act.

Finally she reaches the edge of the blanket. Peanut sits there on her belly head held high with the happiest grin on her face. She seems to realize that she has accomplished something here. Though I doubt she has any idea what it is. She would like to go farther than the edge of the blanket but is not quite able yet. After about a minute or so, exhausted, she lies down and sucks her thumb. So ends Baby’s Big Adventure.

I shudder at the thought of her speed-crawling throughout the house. Soon her journey of a few feet will become a marathon voyage across the room and then other parts of the house I'd prefer she not go. It won't be long until she's walking and then running. Then in a flash she'll be dating young men I can't stand. Each of these steps leading to a renewal of the cycle so that she can experience these moments that bring me so much joy.