Here we go round the - cot

Our baby can now move quite a lot. In the daytime, we can only leave him safely for a few minutes on the floor on a mat - the bed, sofa and changing table are all too risky. He's also taken to leaning perilously out of his bouncy chair to try and retrieve fallen toys. Even on the mat, you can go and answer the door, take the parcel or wave off the salesman and come back to find he has mostly left the mat and is now lying with just his head on it, while the rest of his body is on the wooden floor. He doesn't seem to care that when he lifts up his legs and then whams his feet down it's a lot harder than the mat.

At night, though, his moving about is getting him into a tight spot. In his cot, he gradually wriggles until he is lying diagonally, feet lifted up and propped on the slats on one side, head against the other slats. Then he whams his feet down, which shoves his head back against the slats... and cries. I recall being at a friend's house and listening to the baby monitor as her one year old baby girl drifted off to sleep. There was a lot of snuffling and wriggly noises. This, apparently, was the baby creeping round the cot until she found a good corner to squash herself into and go to sleep, ignoring the vast expanse of soft comfortable mattress and blankets available to her in the rest of the cot. Perhaps it's something to do with finding a little cave or a safe spot and a big cot seems too exposed. It must take years before instinct gives way to the bliss of stretching yourself out fully in a kingsized bed.

I say he moves a lot, no doubt I will look back on this and laugh when he starts crawling/standing/walking. Probably this is a golden era of stillness.