Rolley Polley Ella

Today Ella rolled over for the first time! From front to back…this is a milestone that many Mums and Dads wait for for weeks on end! It was so exciting to see the look on her face, she didn’t quite know what to think! A little frightened of the sensation and a sense of falling that she had never experienced before! When we were taking our ‘parenting’ class, we learned a fascinating fact about the development of skills in children – children learn skills in a sequential order from the head down to their feet. I had never thought about development in this way before. First they learn to control their eyes – to fix their gaze and adjust their focus on familiar and unfamiliar objects. Then their development flows onto controlling their mouths, neck, arms and hands, sitting up and finally their feet where they crawl and eventually walk! I am so excited to see how Ella develops over the coming months and how her expressions show her delight as she masters new skills. I’ve been told that this can also bring on some frustration in the form of major hissy fits as she tries, but often fails, to repeat this newly found skill. I’m sure that she will give us an insight into how she will crack it in the future (flash forward to supermarket aisles and shopping centre tantrums).

I must admit though that as I write this, I am looking around our house at all of the ‘child proofing’ that needs to be done. I wonder how far we should go with this and whether or not we will consider everything! There are obvious hazards like power points, cleaning products etc, but what do we do about furniture items such as low coffee tables and floor lamps? I guess this is something that we will take in our stride and just ensure that we stay on our toes….at least until she is on hers!