This past weekend was the much anticipated Diaper Derby!! The Diaper Derby is a baby crawling race held at Prairiefest. We were super excited to enter Ben into it. We had it on our calendar for almost 2 months. Meo and Omi marked it down. Omi planned to shut down Omi & Associates early so everyone at the office could come cheer Ben on. I made little signs of encouragement. We told the family all about the race. There was just one small issue. Ben wasn’t crawling yet. Now I did everything I could to encourage him to crawl. I used toys to try to lure him. He had plenty of tummy time. And he can move around a bit. He can move in circles and go backwards. He just can’t seem to move in a forward, linear direction.
This minor detail didn’t stop us though. I thought maybe Ben was just waiting for a big moment to show what he could do. Yeah, that wasn’t the case.
The event was very cute. There were several heats leading up to the finals. One person had the baby at the starting point, while another person was at the other end to encourage the baby to crawl. You could use any sort of lure you wanted, treats, toys, forbiden objects. The only rule was that babies couldn’t walk, and that you couldn’t reach over the finish line and pull them in.
Ben was in the second heat. The first went well, the babies crawled at a decent pace, but there was a clear winner. Then came Ben’s heat. I lined him up at the starting line. Meo was at the other end to call him to her. Pat was on video duty. Omi was cheering from the sidelines. And… nothing. Ben stayed at the starting line. We honestly expected this, but thought he would have fun just being there. He seemed to enjoy looking around, although he was slightly confused as to what all the fuss was about. The funny part was that he was not the only baby to not crawl. In fact in his heat, only one baby actually made it to the finish line. The others just stayed at the starting line like Ben. It is good to know we aren’t the only parents to enter an unreliable crawler into a baby race. 🙂
It was so fun to watch though. The babies were all adorable. There were many who just sat at the start. There were a few who made it almost all the way to the finish, just to veer to the side or stop. And there were a few who were on a mission to get whatever treat was at the end of that race. While Ben didn’t win his heat, he did tie for second, as no other baby finished. He had fun, and we all had a good time cheering him on. You can see his pre-race here, and his actual race here. He had the same shirt on as the baby that won. You can tell who is who because Ben is the one who didn’t crawl.
I am so appreciative of Meo and Omi for coming and cheering Ben on. We had a lot of fun with them and with all the other babies. It was a great event.