.

The very next morning after we lowered her mattress a couple notches (for safety’s sake since she’d started pulling to a kneel) Siena started pulling to stand!

“Just reach… and pull myself up…”

“Ta-DAH!”

The first time she pulled to stand, I expected her to last a few wobbly seconds on tiptoes, but she was pretty solidly flat-footed for a good twenty minutes!  Enough time for me to call her father, take pictures, take video, play peek-a-boo by popping up from below her crib, and finish folding and putting away her laundry.

During that time she cruised from the front…

to the  corner…

to the side!

So instead of fixing her upside down bumper, I just took it off. According to the parenting books and websites (and the tag on the bumper itself) it’s Very Important  to remove it as soon as baby pulls to stand in case they start to use it as a step to climb up and out.  I’m starting to think that was premature though because so many times now she has fallen down from standing and bumped her head on the crib rails. Much crying ensues. Poor kiddo needs to learn how to safely get down from standing. She’s had quite a few head bumps when crawling around and trying to kneel, too.

Gravity has NOT been Siena’s friend this week and there has been plenty of crying – seemingly more from frustration and possibly fear than from pain. Even a minor tumble she would’ve brushed off last week is now met with a pitiful meltdown that seems to say, “Again? I can’t believe I fell down again! Life is SOOOO hard I just can’t stand it!”

Poor sleeping probably hasn’t helped the crying situation much. I suspect she’s falling asleep while standing up, gripping the crib rails and crying, so of course once her body relaxes she falls and crashes. Which leads to more frustration and tears. But even if I go in when she’s still standing and gently lay her down, she cries even harder and pulls right back up to standing again.

And so, gravity, we have this to say sing to you: She gets knocked down. But she gets up again. No you’re never gonna keep her down! (Sung with a British accent, a la Chumbawumba, of course)