My children have rolls, but they can't roll over.

Addison rolled over from her back to her front for the first time when she was three years old. That's right. It happened a couple of months ago when I suggested she show her baby sister how to do it. As I watched her awkwardly contort her body during what should have been a relatively smooth process, I finally figured out why she is the worst somersault-er out of every kid her age: she never learned how to roll over!

Memories of Addison sleeping on her belly at night flooded into my mind as I desperately tried to convince myself that my three year old had rolled over before. She always lies on her back at bedtime, and did so for the remainder of the night until she was well over one. Even then, I only ever saw her roll onto her side. If she was on her belly, her head was almost always at the opposite end of the bed, as though she had sat up in the middle of the night and just fallen forward. Now that she is in a toddler bed, she just climbs in on all fours and then plops to her belly. No rolling over necessary.

She even learned to crawl from a sitting position. She started out just scooting around the room on her butt. At first, it seemed like she was just wiggling and kicking her feet while remaining in place, but after several minutes I would realize that she was suddenly playing with a toy previously out of her reach. Eventually, she leaned forward and started moving on all fours.

Montgomerie (she's over seven months old now) also cannot roll over. She rolled over from her front to her back a couple of times a while back, but was frightened by the experience and refused to even be put on her stomach for several weeks after that. Now she is fine on her belly for awhile, usually as long as she has a toy. But move that toy just out of her reach and she goes into ab workout mode, stretching her arms out to the sides like a bird and kicking her feet like she's swimming...

you're not going anywhere, buddy!

Occasionally, she will stop struggling for a moment and look over at the toy to see if she's progressed at all (she hasn't). Or if she realizes you are taking her picture, she might stop to flash you a smile...

Then when she finally realizes that she isn't moving, she just buries her face in the floor and cries.

And if you lie her on her back, the sweet girl is perfectly content to just suck on her toes. It appears there is not much hope for Montgomerie's future somersault abilities either. I guess I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that my children have rolls, but they can't roll over.

So just in case either child ever wishes to have a career in gymnastics, I have come up with a list of things (other than my poor parenting) for her to blame when she fails miserably:

1. The boppy pillow. My girls loved snuggling in their boppy pillow and I appreciated that it did not aid in the flattening of their sensitive heads, which would occur if they were lying on the hard floor instead. However, the sweet boppy always wrapped its loving arms around my girls and held them tightly in place, preventing them from ever learning how to roll over.

2. The jumper. Jumpers are good babysitters. Want to take a nap? Stick the baby in the jumper. Want to take a shower? Stick the baby in the jumper. Want your baby to learn how to roll over? Well, she's not going to learn if she's in a jumper all day!

3. Sleeping through the night. Most babies sleep longer/better on their bellies, which is not considered safe until said baby is able to roll over into that position on her own. But when you're spending unusual amounts of time talking to your doctor (or searching the internet) to see if your child is sleeping too much, the motivation to teach your child to roll over is found lacking.

But hopefully they will both be more interested in something that's cooler than gymnastics. Like swimming marching band!