Mark it in the calendar. October 19th is the day Leo found out he can crawl forwards. As if he knew it was meant to be today, he found out he could do it just hours before we started a class called "Play and Movement" (TIPI TAPA Spiel- und Bewegungsraum).
We had a lazy morning recovering from yesterdays exploits and eventually headed out for a walk. After more napping we ended up at the kinder cafe. I was laying with him in the play area and noticed a ball he wanted was just out of reach. Up to now he would have given up all hope of ever getting the ball again and have lost interest. Not today, today he seemed to focus all his energy on reaching it. He summoned all his focus and strength and using a sort of army crawl, dragged himself forward with his arms and then gave a kick with his feet for an extra millimeter. He was able to repeat this a few times afterwards.
It was strange being on my own for this, I felt like telling everyone in the cafe to gather round and watch this magical event. Instead I filmed it and sent it to his Mum and my Mum.
At 14:00 we headed to TIPI TAPA. Basically its just a soft play room set up for young kids to move around in. Fresh from his first attempt, and spurred on by the older kids, Leo continued to practice his crawling. On the grippy floor he even managed a few proper crawls. Instead of dragging himself with outstretched arms, he found he could go up in a kneeling push up position and shuffle forward. Very impressive progress. The new apartment will need to be baby safe from the start.
TIPI TAPA was fun and I think we'll make it a regular thing. Once again all this excursion meant an early night for Leo, allowing me to do a little packing. We collect the keys tomorrow and spend a long weekend moving. Its going to be exhausting but I can't wait to be in the new place.