"Oh my gosh! She just rolled over!"

That's a direct quote from me.

I had no idea I would be this excited!  How nice of her to roll over for the first time with me standing over her watching the whole thing.

She did it four times in a row.  The first was a spontaneous roll from tummy to back as I positioned her to snap the back of her outfit.  I didn't even know what was happening until the sudden flop of success.  Before me were four limbs sticking up in the air and two wide eyes staring back at me in amazement.

The second roll was to show daddy, the third for the video camera, and the fourth because I wanted to see if she'd do it again.  She seemed increasingly satisfied with herself after each consecutive roll.

Clara doesn't like to be on her tummy.  Nonetheless, we have daily tummy-time to encourage her muscle development.  This new rolling thing means she now holds the power to get herself promptly OUT of tummy time.  No wonder she seemed so proud (even though it was mixed in with shock).

Rolling over is no easy task and involves special strategy.  First, she has to lean to one side until her center of gravity is officially skewed.  It may take several "leans" to get far enough over, which seems to be a bit frustrating.  The goal is to position her head far enough to the side to encourage gravity to more fully engage it, and use it as a weight to pull her shoulders over.  This starts as an ever-so-slow tipping motion and then, BAM, the top half of her body is over.  She then has to wiggle her hips in such a way as to decrease their resistance against the mattress and her lower half follows suit!  See the video below for an expert tutorial... :)