Busy, Busy Babies!

Nothing is better than taking a break from the computer and paperwork to spend time working with babies. In our infant room, our busy babies are cruising, crawling and rolling around. Yes, our not-yet-crawling babies learn to roll from one place to another in order to get a ball or other desireable object. A snapshot of the environment at first glance would reveal a 4 month old sucking on a sheer orange scarf for oral stimulation. Another, a 7 month old, is sitting upright working with an infant sized bead maze. Across the room, our 9 month old is moving through a short tunnel in the sensorial box. When he exits the tunnel, he can see himself in a side mirror that is strategically placed. He giggles before reaching up and pulls himself to his feet. After steadying himself, cruising is the next activity. I sit in the middle of the floor and wait to be seen, but of course these babies are so keen to their environment that every subtle move, sound or visitor is noticed. The 9 month old slowly lowers himself to thecrawling position and crawls right over to me with a big smile and a string of drool coming off of his bottom lip (another big task he's involved with is teething and the constant drooling that comes with it!).  The other infants are being cared for by the guides.. one diaper being changed, a bottle being fed, one being patted to sleep. Oh, after spending some time in this delightfully busy environment, I suppose it's time to retreat back to my office to finish up some paperwork for the day...