Lightning Struck Twice

Before Tobin became a scooter, I had no idea that children got around that way. I knew, of course, that most children crawled and then walked (although some skipped the crawling stage and went directly to walking and that was supposed to be the source of some concern but I'm not exactly sure why), but I didn't know that some simply sat on their little bottoms and scooted around. Tobin enlightened me, and we all thought it was darling.

When Shav came along, I was sure he would be a crawler, then a walker. After all, with scooting being relatively rare, surely we wouldn't have two of those in the same family, right?

Wrong.

Shav scoots.

When he was 11 months old, I would put him on the floor in a sitting position to play with some toys; and when I looked over at him after a little while, he wouldn't be in the same place I left him. I started covertly watching him to see how he was doing it (because he would be distracted by me if I gave him my full attention); and sure enough, he was inching his way along, scoot by scoot by scoot. Little scoots. Slow scoots. But definitely scoots!

By the time he was a year, he was a pro; and now, his speed is increasing, and he can get all over the place in no time at all. He is so happy and content to just be on the floor, scooting around, checking out the things that interest him, having control over where he goes. During one dinnertime, he had already eaten so I put him on the floor and he scooted under the table and cheerfully went from person to person, pulling on shoelaces and patting legs. When I was putting laundry away upstairs today, he scooted from his room to my room to the hall to Tobin's room and back and forth, pulling books off shelves, playing with toy cars, piling blocks into the empty laundry basket. He was so happy!

One day, back when I didn't realize what a speedy little scooter he had become, I had him upstairs with me while I was putting away some things in the bathroom. All at once, the silence caught my attention--that dreadful silence that tells a mom that something must surely be wrong. Sure enough, he had scooted all the way to the top of the stairs and was peering down them with great interest. I ran and caught him before he decided to try to scoot down them! Whew! That was close.

Needless to say, we've pulled out the baby gates again. Wasn't it just a few days ago that we put them away after Tobin became proficient on the steps?? ;-) Time, it is a-flyin'.

The funny thing about Shav becoming a scooter is that, by the time he was really aware of what was going on around him, Tobin was walking, not scooting, so I don't think Shav learned it from him. Somehow, for some unknown reason, lightning struck twice and gave us two cute scooters in this family. ;-)

Now, some pictures. First, two pictures of Josiah when he was about the age that Shav is now. We lived in Israel then, in a very small apartment. We did make room for books, however; that's a given. Josiah loved to sit by this shelf, pull off the books, and look at them over and over. Now Shav does the same thing (in a different home and with a different shelf, however).

And here is Josiah wearing the outfit that Shav was wearing just the other day.
I love the flashbacks that come when I see my little boys wearing clothes that their older brothers wore before them. :)

And now, here's sweet Shav, the lover of books, the maker of messes, Scooter II! :)

I tried to get a good video of him scooting the other day, but he stopped when he saw the camera. Figures. I'll have to try again another day.

Mobility does have its disadvantages--for Mommy, at least. Shav was playing with blocks in the bathroom, and this is what I found:
He doesn't pull up to a standing position yet, so he wasn't able to see into the toilet. But he could scoot over to it, yellow block in hand, and reach up to make a deposit. :)

Scooter II is definitely keeping me on my toes! :)