Number One has learnt to crawl. We reached a major milestone the week before last when she worked out how to move from her tummy to a sitting position, which meant that we no longer had to spend hours a day picking her up when she toppled over. I was happy with that.
But very quickly she's worked out how to move hands and knees to get from one spot to another, and as everyone pointed out to me, that's when they get really high maintenance. We've had big tears every day since she got it properly sussed. On Friday she managed to wedge herself between the wall and the TV unit, which she found rather distressing. Yesterday she wandered off into the wooden-floored hall, and somehow face planted (I think her hands slipped out from under her). There were screams and wails, and worst of all, a little bit of blood from her nose. I think she's inherited her mother's delicate nasal passage - she had several nose bleeds with her first cold (very alarming to get up in the morning to find your baby's face covered in blood), and a slight bump on the nose has brought on a bleed too, so I expect she'll be like me as she gets older, and suffer regular nose bleeds.
Today she kept bumping her head on the underside of a chair she was trying to crawl underneath, probably to retrieve something she's not allowed. And of course, that meant more tears.
I guess we all have to learn pretty quickly how to cope with this new-found skill. Our new house needs some serious baby proofing, and Number One needs to learn that independence may not be all it's cracked up to be if that means getting hurt when you try to go it alone. A lesson that will go on teaching for many years to come.
