Look out family room, here comes Naomi!

Baby seal or baby baby? Would she
be even cuter if covered in a fine layer
of silky fur?

I've known this day would come. I've known, in fact, for more than a year. It's been impossible to deny, as hard as I've tried, that one day we'd have a grabby baby on the loose in our home, wreaking adorable, drooly havoc on anything she manages to approach. That's right, the baby can roll.

Naomi has been able to kind of, or occasionally, roll for at least a month or two, and especially from back to front. At first, the motion surprised her, and not always in a good way as she lands her stomach or back on a hard, plastic toy (think of stepping on Legos--ouch!), or her head flops onto the floor. Once rolling started to happen more often, she learned to kind of duck her head in and smooth the transition so that it wouldn't be quite so uncomfortable to roll from front to back--at least if there are no toys in the way. And then she decided that rolling was okay, and could be a new mode of transportation. Now, Naomi is working on purposeful, goal-oriented rolling. The baby still has not learned to plan her rolls to avoid planting on toys, but I assume that comes next. I don't think she's ever gotten more than about five rolls away from her starting point (although that has gotten her under both her and Elise's beds), but it's enough to cause some big changes around our house.

Goofy girls. Naomi has the best big
sisters ever.

It is a much different situation from last time. For one, Kalina no longer freaks out (in a big way) when another child so much as glances at her stuffed lamb (Lisa, who is now a mother herself---sniff!). The girls love when I tell stories about how Baby Elise briefly look at Lamby, as she was called then, from across the room and Kalina would melt into tears, convinced of her little sister's involvement in a massive conspiracy to kidnap the stuffed animal and keep her for herself. I think only time changed her mind--I sure couldn't. But it's a relief that we don't do that anymore.

In fact, good-natured, generous Elise is so used to having a sister around that she really only seems concerned about her toys entering the baby's mouth, or drool leaking onto them. I know I will never be able to convince her, "it's just cute baby spit," so Naomi will have to learn the rule, "No putting your sister's stuffed animals into your mouth" before she even gains much of a concept about what constitutes a stuffed animal ("Is that the plastic block that fits into the hole? No? Shoot, I've got this all wrong."). But the baby doesn't suffer much at all at the hands of her doting big sisters, so this is a worthy compromise. Besides, she'll have to learn it sometime.

I love baby profiles. I may
have mentioned that before.

The bigger problem is that both of the big girls have firmly moved into the "millions of tiny toys" stage of girlhood, which they happily scatter over the house like raindrops. Aside from driving me slightly crazy, it means that every time Naomi rolls over, there's a new choking hazard.

On my side is the fact that while Naomi can certainly gnaw on a plastic ring for a while, she at least starts with her fingertips. Primed and ready at almost every calm and alert moment she has, her fingers love to touch and study. Our little scientist first tentatively touches an object, then scrapes it with her little fingernails, then pats it if it's big and drum-like, or grabs and manipulates it if it's small and hand-held. Her mouth is always at the ready, but not always in use.

And fortunately, the big girls are hyper-aware of what constitutes a choking hazard (especially if the choking hazard happens to be a prized possession). They're also hyper-aware of whenever the baby is playing with something that's not specifically a baby toy (again, especially if it's a prized possession), but we've had the "We share our toys unless they're put away in your room" discussion and I think they're okay with the arrangement as long as I occasionally let them borrow some of Naomi's shape sorters and rubbery animals and whatnot. Because apparently shape sorters are still fun if you're 3 1/2 or 5 1/2? Maybe it's fun to be an absolute pro at them.

The elusive finger-in-mouth
picture! Naomi loves chewing
on her finger. It's cute. It
comes out every time I pull
out the camera because it
wants to touch the camera.

We do have one new rule: for now, anything on the family room rug has to be fair game for Naomi. In return, I promise to keep her out of the actual playroom when the big sisters are playing in there. For now. Even if I have to fence it off. I think this will keep us all from going crazy except, potentially, Naomi when she realizes there's a treasure trove of really good toys within crawling distance.

Did somebody say "crawling?" That'll never happen...

Pbthbthpbhthbth. Something else
Naomi has learned lately.

This thing spins. And it spins
again. And again. And again.
I wonder if it'll do it again.
Naomi the scientist, and the
one who has most loved the
exersaucer. And most
studied it.

Whee! Spinning!