Scared Stiff

Crawling, check. Eating like a champ, check. Babbling up a storm, check. Pulling up to her feet, check. Getting down... Not so much. Ava can pull up on any and everything in the house, but getting down is a whole other issue. For some reason, Ava is so terrified to get down by herself that she is literally left, scared stiff.

About a week ago, Ava wouldn't even attempt to pull up... on anything! She knew that if she got up, she would have to face getting down, and that was not going to happen. Matt and I tried propping her up on furniture, reassuring her that we were right behind her in case she fell. No luck. Instead of feeling comforted and secure, she would stiffen up her body, start trembling and then let out shrieks of pure panic until one of us helped her down.

Fortunately, after a couple weeks of work, Ava is making progress. Her fear of getting down is not conquered, but it is getting better. Now, instead of forcefully being propped up on furniture, she is pulling up by herself. Also, instead of clinging to the chair for dear life, Ava feels comfortable enough to turn around and hold the chair with only one hand. Is she getting down independently yet? Well, that depends. If she realizes that she has padding to fall on, she will get down without even thinking about it. Case and point, the picture below. Ava pulled every piece of laundry off of the chair and threw it to the ground. As soon as she had a nice, soft landing zone, she got down and moved on to another adventure. She will also bounce around from couch cushion to couch cushion as if she were a ball in a pinball machine. Go figure.

I have a feeling someday in the not so distant future, Ava will discover there is nothing scary about getting down from the standing position. When it happens, if you are listening carefully, you may be able to hear Matt and I sing a line or two from 'The Hallelujah Chorus!'