Mom, I want to crawl

Now that William is a Busy Baby, he doesn't like being cooped up. The office? Don't even try to put him in there. The crib? Only if it's actually time to sleep. The play yard? Hmm. Well, sometimes it's okay. But only if he's in the right mood for it and you don't leave him in there too long. And the stroller is only acceptable for a finite amount of time; the days in which William would easily fall asleep while riding around seem to be over.

Here's an example of how William conveys that he's not pleased with me for putting him somewhere where he can't crawl around:




















Oh, the betrayal, right? You're just lucky that I haven't figured out how to make and link in a sound file. Your computer and your ears would never be the same again.

William's much MUCH happier if he's able to do this:



















Of course, he may be happy when he's crawling madly around the house, but it does create all new problems. My eardrums might not ring from the ear-splitting screeching, but I do constantly have to intervene to rescue certain things from the curious grasp of my son. I am walking around like a hunchback, leaning over to turn William around and send him in a different direction.

And every person who has spoken to me on the phone this week has heard me say the same thing at least twice during a conversation:

"William, that's the kitties' food. William, that's not for you. That's for the kitties. William, stay out of the kitties' food. William, do not eat the cat food!"

During my conversation with Nancy a few days ago, William actually managed to get a piece of cat food into his mouth. Nice. Well, I guess it didn't hurt him. Cat food is pretty high in fiber anyway, right?