Rolling Baby!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a rolling baby.

My baby is awesome.

Ellie has been so close to rolling over the past few days. So. Close. So we knew it was coming. Another good indicator that she was close was the fact that she did it the other morning while swaddled. The only thing that had been in her way in regular, non-swaddled life was a pesky arm, so with the swaddle holding her arms at her sides, she was free to flip onto her belly at any time. And Tuesday morning was that time. I woke up to the sound of her fussing, looked over into her crib and saw her on her belly doing her very best swan dive pose to keep her head up off the mattress. Luckily, out of the clear blue sky her neck strength has vastly improved lately and instead of the "face plant and scream" tummy time strategy she's taken to this point, now she has been a mini-push-upping machine:

'Sup.

She's so good at it, she even shocked herself!

When I realized that she was belly-side-down in the swaddle I immediately rushed to her rescue, of course. Unfortunately this means the cold turkey end of the swaddle, because since then I have been too afraid she will end up in a face plant she can't get out of. I have been dreading this day because Ellie has been such a great night-sleeper, which I credited to the swaddle, and I was kind of hoping she would never roll over so I could swaddle her till she leaves for college. But alas. However, now we're two days into our Big Girls Don't Swaddle policy, and so far it's going pretty well - she has woken up once each night, but otherwise has slept pretty normally, praise be.

But anyway, I digress. Today, she rolled over FOR REAL! No swaddle needed! Of course she did it the one time that I did not have my video camera at the ready, because that is her style. I did manage to get a blurry "after" shot with my iPhone, though!

Ellie's first roll!

Wait, what just happened?

I had been very curious to see what her reaction would be if she ended up rolling back-to-front before she mastered front-to-back, as she is a known hater of tummy time. I figured she'd be livid to realize she had done all that work only to tummy time herself. She mostly just seemed stunned this time, although my complete FREAK OUT may have distracted her from her rage.

And then, she DID IT AGAIN! And I got it on video! Hooray!

VIDEO: Ellie rolling over for the second time ever!

(Please pardon my ridiculous excited voice)

I'm so proud, I'm bursting at the seams.

Not only that, but I have been watching her learn to reach for things before my very eyes. As she lays on her play mat, you can see the wheels in her little brain turning away as she wills her arms and hands to reach for the toys above her. Honestly (and this may be inappropriate, so my apologies), but it kind of reminds me of a drunk trying desperately to will his finger to touch his nose so he can pass his sobriety test. SO MUCH CONCENTRATION. But she does it! She's getting so much better at it and it is just so cool to be able to watch it happening.

Plus, yesterday she tried out her stroller without the car seat and adapter for the first time, like a real live grown-up:

Where did my little baby go? It's all just happening so fast!

Man, I love that little girl.