When Elise was a baby, she absolutely detested laying on her stomach. Of course all the baby books insist that a minimum 10-minute-a-day "tummy time" is very important for development of neck strength and control, since babies must sleep on their backs these days and don't really get the chance to hang out on their tummies anymore. So we dutifully put Elise on her tummy when she was a baby and she screamed bloody murder until she turned purple and you flipped her back over because you thought she might actually choke herself to death with her screaming. Yes, she hated it that much. There 
was something about having her face on the ground that she just couldn't stand. So she quickly figured out how to flip herself over so she wouldn't have to wait for us to do it for her (a trend in her personality). Then she quickly learned to get on her hands and knees, and then to crawl so that she would not have to have her face anywhere near the ground. But the ground was still too close so she quickly learned to walk and has not looked back since. She is still a bit of a diva in a lot of respects.
was something about having her face on the ground that she just couldn't stand. So she quickly figured out how to flip herself over so she wouldn't have to wait for us to do it for her (a trend in her personality). Then she quickly learned to get on her hands and knees, and then to crawl so that she would not have to have her face anywhere near the ground. But the ground was still too close so she quickly learned to walk and has not looked back since. She is still a bit of a diva in a lot of respects.Lucas, in contrast, has had zero issues with tummy time. In fact, he loves being on his belly and has from the get-go. He has always just kind of laid there, sucking on his hand with no protests whatsoever. In fact, he enjoys it so much that as soon as he figured out how to roll over, it became his favorite way to both play and to sleep. We lay him down in his crib on his back, but he rolls over onto his tummy within seconds.
His mellow personality meshed with his love of tummy time leads us to believe that he will probably not crawl until he is two. Ok, maybe not that long, but Elise was definitely motivated to crawl on many levels and Lucas appears to have zero of those (or any other) motivations. He is just not at all interested in crawling. (What he is interested in is pulling up. He regularly grabs onto my pants leg, arm, hair, or whatever he can get a hold of and pulls himself to a stand or into my lap. I am not sure if he's trying to stand or just wants to cuddle - he's a snuggler! - but it's cute) Not that we are in any particular rush to have a crawler (because, selfishly, it will be a lot more work) but he is now around "crawling age" and we are excited (and a little terrified) for his newest adventures to begin. So we have been casually encouraging him to give this crawling thing a shot.
We started with having Elise demonstrate crawling for him. As I just mentioned, Elise didn't particularly like crawling as a baby and only did it briefly because she learned to walk so early, so she may not have been the best person to be the demonstrator for Lucas. She crawled around for about two seconds, then went over and grabbed Lucas by the underarms and started pulling him around demanding: "Crawl! Crawl, Lucas!" Needless to say, that did not motivate him.
Then we thought it would be a good motivator to put a toy just out of reach to motivate him to try to get to it. Trouble is, he is just not all that interested in toys, and when he is interested in something he doesn't have that all-out-passion to get it. Sure, he'd reach for them (half-heartedly), but when he realized that he couldn't reach it, he stopped trying and laid back down, enjoying his tummy time. Since toys weren't working at all as out-of-reach excitement, we tried some more enticing things he seems to be more interested in getting to, like my car keys and the remote control. This time, he tried a little harder to reach for it, but again when realizing that he couldn't 
reach it, he'd shrug it off and go back to laying there and sucking on his hand. Alas, it seemed that crawling is just not in the cards for him at this time. Fine by me.
This weekend, however, Lucas showed some real, frenzied interest in my breakfast, so I put the plate on the floor and plopped him on the floor on his tummy, with the plate just out of reach. Sure enough, that little bugger tucked his toes underneath himself and pushed himself forward, like a little inchworm! No, it's not crawling and it's not really all that close to crawling, but he got to my breakfast plate. Just in time for me to take it away. At least we know he has a motivator: food! Maybe Ellie and Lucas aren't so different after all.
His mellow personality meshed with his love of tummy time leads us to believe that he will probably not crawl until he is two. Ok, maybe not that long, but Elise was definitely motivated to crawl on many levels and Lucas appears to have zero of those (or any other) motivations. He is just not at all interested in crawling. (What he is interested in is pulling up. He regularly grabs onto my pants leg, arm, hair, or whatever he can get a hold of and pulls himself to a stand or into my lap. I am not sure if he's trying to stand or just wants to cuddle - he's a snuggler! - but it's cute) Not that we are in any particular rush to have a crawler (because, selfishly, it will be a lot more work) but he is now around "crawling age" and we are excited (and a little terrified) for his newest adventures to begin. So we have been casually encouraging him to give this crawling thing a shot.
We started with having Elise demonstrate crawling for him. As I just mentioned, Elise didn't particularly like crawling as a baby and only did it briefly because she learned to walk so early, so she may not have been the best person to be the demonstrator for Lucas. She crawled around for about two seconds, then went over and grabbed Lucas by the underarms and started pulling him around demanding: "Crawl! Crawl, Lucas!" Needless to say, that did not motivate him.
Then we thought it would be a good motivator to put a toy just out of reach to motivate him to try to get to it. Trouble is, he is just not all that interested in toys, and when he is interested in something he doesn't have that all-out-passion to get it. Sure, he'd reach for them (half-heartedly), but when he realized that he couldn't reach it, he stopped trying and laid back down, enjoying his tummy time. Since toys weren't working at all as out-of-reach excitement, we tried some more enticing things he seems to be more interested in getting to, like my car keys and the remote control. This time, he tried a little harder to reach for it, but again when realizing that he couldn't 
reach it, he'd shrug it off and go back to laying there and sucking on his hand. Alas, it seemed that crawling is just not in the cards for him at this time. Fine by me.This weekend, however, Lucas showed some real, frenzied interest in my breakfast, so I put the plate on the floor and plopped him on the floor on his tummy, with the plate just out of reach. Sure enough, that little bugger tucked his toes underneath himself and pushed himself forward, like a little inchworm! No, it's not crawling and it's not really all that close to crawling, but he got to my breakfast plate. Just in time for me to take it away. At least we know he has a motivator: food! Maybe Ellie and Lucas aren't so different after all.
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