Crawling! Or: Spidermom Strikes!

As of this morning, Emdrew has finally figured out how to crawl forward (she's been crawling in reverse for a couple weeks).

Also, I had an "adventure in parenthood" yesterday. Anika was taking her morning nap as I was preparing to go student teach. I went downstairs to put a note for her babysitter on the intercom (requesting that she call rather than hit the button because it wakes Anika) and--that's right--forgot my keys.

Luckily, I'd just opened the window on our fire escape (for one of the first times all year) , so after flipping out for about 30 seconds I solicited the help of the kooky Korean woman who runs the flower shop below us. She let me climb her ladder, from the top of which I pulled myself up onto the iron bars around her air conditioning unit. From there I managed to climb up the outside of the fire escape and in through the window--just in time to welcome our babysitter, say goodbye to a freshly napped baby, and head for school. Phew! Anika never even knew I was gone. My student teaching mentor called me Spidermom. I like it: friendly neighborhood art teacher scales Gotham buildings to rescue babies (followed, naturally, by a lightening-fast costume change).

All in all, it wasn't particularly difficult, just nerve-wracking, hazardous, dirty and wet.

Someone's Standing!

She's been doing this for about a week now, more readily and often by the day.