Look Who's Standing!

Why does David look so proud of himself? About a week ago, he learned to pull-up! He's loving it. We're pretty amazed at how quickly everything has progressed. Just a few weeks ago I would sometimes try to put his hands on the couch to see if he would stand like that. (He has always loved standing while holding our hands, so I knew his legs were strong enough.) Well, he would just laugh and look at me like "what are you doing exactly?"

Once he got it, though, he really got it. He's already cruising around, and he can pull-up on just about anything!

This is particularly funny because, strictly speaking, he cannot yet crawl. He can get from point A to point B, but it's not pretty. I'd like to call it an Army crawl, but I think for it to really be an Army crawl you have to use your legs at least a little. David will pop up into perfect crawling formation, rock back and forth, and then if he wants to get somewhere immediately flatten himself and drag himself there with his hands. It's so funny, I think I still laugh every time he does it.

Now that he's standing, we have been taking him to a park around the corner. The weather is finally starting to turn around (slowly but surely), so there are a lot of other children there as well. Nothing makes David as happy as other children!

Except, perhaps, for the toys of other children...

This particular day at the park, it was just David and I. I met a very nice woman with two children, and we were sitting next to each other and talking a bit. David was standing in front of me holding onto my hands, and there was a man sitting to my right watching his two children play. David, having already sufficiently charmed my new friend, turned his attention to this man. He looked at him, and just beamed his biggest crinkly-nosed smile...and waited. And waited. Finally, the man noticed David and laughed out loud. He said "Oh hello! And I wasn't even paying attention, I'm sorry!" Well that did it for David, this was clearly going to be his new best friend. He hopped, giggled, smiled, did all his tricks. So the man asked if David would like to hold his hand for a minute. Sure enough, David took his hands and hopped up and down chatting with him for a few minutes. (I was right there, of course.) After a few minutes, the man said "Well, do you want to go back to mommy?" He put one of David's hands in mine...and David just about cried. He didn't cry, but he looked at his new friend as if to say "but why? what did I do? don't you like me anymore?"

So TEN MINUTES later, I finally got David's little hands back. It's a good think he likes me so much when we're around the house, because in public he sometimes acts like he doesn't even know me. Other people are FAR more interesting, and he is not above pushing my face out of the way so that he can see around me to the wonderful strangers. Sometimes, when we're at the park, I worry that people are going to think I just grabbed this boy off the street and took him to the park in a desperate attempt to pass myself of as a mother.

There is one other side-effect of David's newfound standing ability: naptime, and bedtime, are a million times more difficult.

Actually, he has a new naptime trick as well! He finally says Mama! He said it for the first time a few days ago, when I was letting him fuss a bit in his bed. I had gone in to tuck him in again so many times, I decided he had to fuss some and just go to sleep. Then I heard, clear as a bell, "MaMA!!!" I ran in (of course) and he was sitting up grinning. I said "You said Mama!" and he laughed. I said "You did! I heard it! Say it again, say Mama!"

And he said what he always says when I ask him to say Mama.

"DADA!!!"

He has said it a few times since then, but really only when he's in his crib and he wants out. When he knows he should be sleeping, but would rather be playing. When, that is, he looks something like this:

But at least he says it!