I rescind my earlier comments on Lilli's crawling. I think now that crawling may be achieved! We were over at my grandma's today, and she has carpet, and that made all the world of difference. We have all hardwood floors and so it's hard for her to get any traction with her knees. We have area rugs, but they are a little slippery too. So anyway, we were over there and we were trying to get her to crawl at first, and she wasn't doing it but she would stretch all the way out for a toy but then manage to bring the toy back with her to a sitting position. So I was thinking, hey! if Lilli can manage to go from tummy to all fours to sitting, then she probably has the capability to crawl. She probably just hasn't managed it with our silly hardwood floors. So we persisted and she started to get it. She crawled backwards some and she managed to wiggle her way forward more than she ever has before. She still hasn't mastered the use of her knees. I think she will just need some more carpet time. I think it's a mental thing rather than a physical thing. It is the funniest thing though to see her all stretched out, straining with every ounce to reach some desired object, with her mouth WIDE open. I'll miss that when she starts to be able to crawl.

She's been giggling a lot more recently too. She really hasn't been much of a laugher up to this point. She's always smiled a lot and expressed joy in other ways, but not really a belly laugher. Well lately she's always giggling and Bob even got her to belly laugh the other day without resorting to tickling. It was the cutest thing! Bob was holding a toy in his mouth and shaking his head like a dog and Lilli just laughed and laughed and clapped her hands. We were in a restaurant and Bob looked a little silly, but hey, anything for a laugh from a baby. It's funny how silly adults can get around babies.

However, all these nice new developments have been offset by her waking up way more than usual lately. I'm not sure what's up. The other night she woke me up like every hour wanting to nurse. So I went on line to see if I could get any ideas (www.askdrsears.com is a great site) and people kept mentioning the "pantly pull off." I couldn't figure out what that was! No one explained it; they just said they were doing it as one of the steps towards getting your child to sleep better. All I could imagine was parents pulling off their children's pants right before they fell asleep, and somehow this was lulling them to sleep? Seems like it might bring in a draft on their warm little legs! I couldn't figure it out. Well, FINALLY, someone had the goodness to not assume I knew what they were talking about. It seems there is a book called the "No Cry Sleep Solution" cowritten by Dr. Sears and a woman named Elizabeth Pantly (wouldn't you hate to have that name as a kid??). She recommends unlatching your baby from the breast when they are done eating but not yet asleep. Hence, the "pantly pull off." I will have to buy this book and see what else Ms. Pantly has to say.