Rolling Around

Mommy says that peaches need to roll around. It’s one of the activities that mommy and I have always made time for. We roll around on the couch. We roll around on mommy and daddy’s bed. Sometimes we even roll around on the floor. It’s so much fun to roll around.

All you need for rolling around is a large enough flat surface. It’s better if the surface is soft and padded like a mattress or couch, but a fluffy carpet on the floor works well enough too. Then you simply lay down, and roll around. Mommy gives me toys to encourage me to move about by myself. Sometimes I roll around on my own steam. Other times mommy rolls me.

Mommy rolls me to one side, and then to the other side. Mommy spins me the other way so that everything appears upside down. Mommy looks upside down too. So silly! Mommy turns me to one side again and leaves me like that. I kick with my foot and roll onto my back again. Then we repeat on the other side. Whee!

I didn’t always like rolling around as much as I do now. Mommy always insisted that I need to have rolling around time if I don’t want tummy time. No tummy time! I might not have loved rolling around time, but tummy time was infinitely worse.

Sometimes mommy would use rolling around time to trick me into tummy time when I wasn’t looking. That made me mad! We were supposed to be rolling around to avoid tummy time. Promises were made! Mommy is still up to her trickery, but tummy time is easier for me now and I don’t get as mad about it anymore.

All that rolling around has helped me build up strength, and has given me a better awareness of how my body works. I can roll onto my sides all by myself now. Sometimes I overshoot, roll onto my tummy and get stuck like that. Somehow my arm gets pinned under me and I can’t flip myself back over again. Luckily, mommy is always there to fix that.

Now that I can sit upright without help, we have incorporated some sitting in our rolling around time. Mommy helps me up and puts toys and interesting objects around me. Then I try to reach for them. If I try too hard I usually fall over. Sometimes I can get back up again, and other times I need mommy to help.

I feel like I would like to be more mobile but my tush weighs me down. When I’m reaching for things, the top part of my body goes where I direct it, but the bottom part doesn’t follow. Sometimes, if I lean forward as hard as I can, I can get my tush off the floor. But then it pushes me further forward and kerplunk! I fall on my face and I end up on my tummy. Even my own tush wants to trick me into tummy time.