Crawling along 1
Apparently most babies first start their crawling career in a rather backwards direction. The problem with crawling backwards is obviously that it doesn't take you forwards towards the object you're staring at and wanting to reach.
So the straight forward answer is not to bother with going backwards, and just keep concentrating on the object you really, really want to reach just in front of you (never mind the fact that it's almost certainly something you're not allowed to have).
Edward hasn't started to crawl backwards. In fact I don't think I've ever seen him manage anything other than an occasional, accidental stumble in a backwards direction. Edward has, however, started to crawl forwards.
For some time he's been able to put himself up on all fours, rock for a while, then fall forwards and repeat. This was actually very effective at getting him towards those elusive forbidden objects. However it obviously left him moving so slowly that we pesky parents kept catching him in time and moving either him or the target!
The answer; crawl better. So that's just what he's been working on.
At the beginning of this week he was fairly consistently managing three distinct arm/leg/crawl motions before having to throw himself forwards. He still needs fairly frequent breaks, but he's definitely now managing more and getting himself further!
I think we'll be tidying up some cables this weekend!
Rocking and rolling 1
In the last week Edward has discovered a whole new purpose for his rolling - to enable him to rock! And he hasn't been holding back.
Pretty much the moment you leave him, he'll put in just a single roll to get himself onto his tummy and then he'll be straight up onto all fours.
He's yet to actually manage to move anywhere, but he's certainly very keen on rocking on the spot. He's now able to do this for several minutes at a time before he finally lets himself collapse back to the floor. However it's normally only a matter of seconds before he's back up and trying again.
Here he is rocking away last weekend...
So how do babies know to do this? We've certainly encouraged him to play on his tummy, but we've never shown him how to rock. Apparently all babies do it for a while before crawling as a method of strengthening their arms. But how do they all know they need to? Edward seems to know that he wants to go somewhere (understandable when that toy is just out of reach), but how does he know that rocking on the spot will eventually help him to accomplish movement?