He's crawling!

We are so excited!

Joaquin has been "moving" since a few days old on his belly. It started with him in the co-sleeper. We would put him to sleep on his belly at one end of the bed and by the time he would wake up to eat, he would be at the other end of the bed. We've known for awhile now that when he sleeps he is able to propel himself forward. But we've never seen him move forward when he is awake. He was famous for his "superman" flying pose with arms and legs outstretched as if he would be able to magically move to where he wanted to go. Then we started the "inclined floor" or "crawling track" and he was able to push off the sides down the ramp to move himself forward. For a couple weeks now, he has gained some speed and has started to use both sides of his body. Whenever we let him hang out at the bottom of the crawling track, he plays with his toys and moves in circles or backwards...just never forward.

On Monday after we hosted a music class at our house, a friend of mine Liz from the Sacramento Parent's Group was playing with Joaquin at the base of the track and she said she saw him move forward to get to his toys. Later that day, I put him on the track and sure enough when he reached the bottom I put a toy just out of his reach, he consciously and very deliberately placed both hands on the floor and thrust himself forward to grab the toy. It was the most adorable thing and the determination on his face was priceless. YAHOO!!!!

So, we are hoping it's just a matter of time before he is crawling all over the place. And by crawling we mean "army" crawling with his belly still on the floor but moving his arms and legs to get where he wants to go. Crawling and then eventually creeping on hands and knees as he gets stronger.

We celebrated all these milestones with Diego and Mateo and it was always such an exciting process. But it's different with Joaquin. Because we know that these "baby steps" are more difficult for Joaquin, we are just in awe and there is such pure, simple delight in his accomplishments.

We are so proud of him.