Working at Home with a Crawler

This is brand new territory for me. My little six-month-old is now so efficient and so fast at crawling, she now needs watching. She is also learning to climb. This need of watching is so very different from her first six months when I could put her down and expect her to stay put. I need to step up my game!

Part of this new period of floor exploration involves examining the pets. When she spots a fellow crawling creature, she grins and shrieks in excitement, then bounces toward them. She’s slow compared to them, so I wonder why they allow her to catch up to them. If they don’t see or hear her coming, then they’re pretty bad at being canine or feline hunters. Maybe they are just lazy and don’t want to move until absolutely necessary.

The dog is the most benign of her targets, simply walking away when bothered. It’s the cats that I worry about. All of our cats have their claws. The baby thinks it’s a fun game to grab at and pull the cats’ tails or pull out clumps of fur. She’s too young to really understand not to do this. Most of the time, the cats just walk away too.

But not all of the time. I saw her approaching our orange cat this morning, but thought nothing of it. I turned my back on her for two seconds and I heard crying. She had cornered the cat who understandably stood his ground and swatted at her. No scratch meant she wasn’t injured, just scared, so it could have been worse.

Inanimate objects also pose a worry. Yesterday I cleared an entire bottom of a bookshelf of decorative odds and ends that she was preparing to put in her mouth. This morning I saw her playing with books on the bottom of another bookshelf. Her climbing attempts lead to falls and bumps.

That photo was taken as I started typing this. The glass used to be farther from the edge. My baby has learned to pull at the tablecloth to bring the glass closer. Smart kid.

How can I possibly get work done as a WAHM with a proficient crawler? I’m more of a free-range parent than a helicopter, so I just let her be. I want her to explore her environment. She deserves the freedom to get to know her own home after months of only going where adults put her. It’s okay to fall on carpet during an attempted climb onto the couch. It’s okay to lightly bump her head at she learns to navigate this world and her body in it. Although I don’t want her scratched, if the cat swats at her sans claws enough times, maybe she’ll learn not to pull.

Thankfully, I work on laptops. I carry my work with me from room to room, near her with every step. Most of the time, I’m sitting on the floor next to her, seeing the world as she sees it, or at least a similar height. As she explores her space, I am nearby enough to spot trouble but also reading or typing away. My presence also makes her feel comfortable and confident, so I don’t have to pause to sooth cries. She has learned to crawl over to me if she wants me (or, more likely, my boob).

And there’s always naps, the blessed breaks I get to try to work uninterrupted. After I prevented my baby from pulling a glass of apple cider onto her head, she climbed right up into my lap, nursed, and went to sleep. Ah, peaceful sleep, perfect times to make phone calls or get anything done on my laptop, just as this blog entry.

Eventually I'll need to buy baby gates and fences, blocking off areas of the house not suited to her. But I'm not there yet.

As she grows in her body and her ability to get into even more trouble, so will my ability to work with her around. That’s my hope, anyway. In case you were wondering from my last blog entry, I got and accepted the full-time work-from-home job. Soon I’ll need to accomplish even more with a little one roaming around. Advice is welcome!