Baby Z: gymnast in training

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So last night Z does *not* want to go to bed. Hawk’s gone in to the hospital and so it’s just me & her (and Jakedog, who has retired for the evening). I figure I can get her into her room and let her play until she winds down. I realize that I forgot something I need from downstairs. So instead of leaving her loose in her room or her playroom, I decide that since she’s fussing, I’ll put her in her crib.

I go downstairs quickly, get what I need and return. A couple of days ago, we lost power and I never did reset the clock in her room. So since she’s in her crib and having a conniption about being there anyway, I figure I’ll set her clock, then get her out and let her play. I set the clock. I have my hands on the arms of the rocker/recliner and I’m about to hoist myself up when the following goes down:

She grabs the side of the crib and lifts herself up, like a gymnast onto a balance beam. Simultaneously, she leans forward. Then over she goes, landing on the back of her head and then rolling down to her shoulders, back, butt, legs. It happened in a second. I was up and over her before she could even cry. I said, “Zoe! Are you all right!” She had a “what the fuck was that?” look and then she took a breath and started to cry.

So I gathered her up and took her to the chair. She looked fine and moved her whole self. She was doing her “hysterical crying,” which she does when she’s scared. It’s different from her “it hurts” cry (ah, the subtleties of motherhood). After she was calmer and I was pretty sure she was fine, I paged Hawk to say “this happened” and he was on his way home already.

Funnily enough, he had just had a conversation with an ER nurse and said he thought she would try to crawl out of the crib any day now. He didn’t think she would attempt a full-out flip with a difficult dismount, earning a 9.7 from the French judge.

So what are we spending our next money into? A toddler bed: the Catalina from PBK most likely — she’s already field-tested it and loved it. And this weekend, Hawk’s putting up the gate to block off her playroom and her bedroom. In case you’re interested, I already anticipated this and purchased her quilt: Honey I Shrunk The Doll Dresses from Land of Nod.

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Tags: story, zoe