Every square inch of apartment explored - check!

Jared has been very busy since he's started to crawl. Every day there is something new to tell - a new part of the apartment that he's ventured into, a full laundry basket to upend, the kitchen cabinets and drawers to open, etc. I have already started "uh oh - I can't hear him, so what is he getting into?" He is very strong - he pushes around our 5 pound dumbells, pulls over cases of soda, and generally gets into everything that he's not supposed to!

He is already such a pro at crawling that he is now way more excited about using items as steps to pull himself up to higher items. Steve emptied out one of our shelving units, because our little man had figured out how to pull himself up to standing using the highest shelf. Those shelves now contain Jared's toys. He will also push himself to standing on just about anything. Last night he was using a case of soda - I called his name, and he let go of one arm, so he could turn his upper body to face me! He was still super steady on his feet with just one arm supporting him.

It cracks up me and Steve when Jared tries to use a single CD or DVD case to push himself to standing. He usually just pushes the case all around the apartment.

We had a lovely playdate with my coworker Karin and her daughter Ella. Ella is about 3 1/2 months old now. Jared loved playing with all of Ella's toys. It was really cute when he was playing with her feet while she was sitting in her chair. But then he crawled by her and shoved her in the shoulder, so I had to put a stop to that. Then we took a walk around Karin's neighborhood - it was such a beautiful day! :)

We had a terrific visit with the Deeney family and the Briczinski grandparents last weekend. Jared was a big fan of Liam's old toys. Liam had a way of tickling Jared's head to make him smile, which none of us adults could duplicate! Dianna and Vince's new house was so great that we offered to buy it from them! :) Stan and Beth were amazed to see Jared crawl - they had seen him just two weeks before, when he couldn't do anything. Now, he was crawling all over their house!

Jared has a little bit of a runny nose this week, but after two days, he already seems better. Hopefully, it is just a very minor cold.

He's tried spinach and pears since I last posted. He likes the pears, but doesn't go crazy for them - he just likes them like everything else. He still just has two teeth, but there are some hard spots under his gums, so I expect more to come through in the coming weeks. Teeth move pretty slowly, so it might be a while.

A few new pictures are up, but I'll have to stop chasing Jared around long enough to take some more of him crawling and pushing himself up!

More remembered skills and new pics

New pics are posted - enjoy!

Two things that I forgot to mention in the last post:

Jared has discovered that pulling the knob on his dresser causes the drawers to open. He thinks that this is fascinating. He loves to open the drawer and then try to look inside.

When Steve is laying on the floor and Jared is sitting on the floor next to him, Jared likes to push off from Steve's chest up to a supported standing position. This kid will be walking in no time...

Doooiiinnnggg! and crawling

Jared has discovered the spring doorstops, and they are his new favorite toys! He was playing with them so much that he actually broke one! It was a quick fix for Dad, since the spring part just came unscrewed from the metal part attached to the door. And we got it all on video, which is the best part. One of these days, we'll have to download our videos off our camera, so we can post some. I wonder when that day will ever come...

In other news, Jared learned how to crawl forwards! I was gone on Saturday, appraising a Destination Imagination tournament (very similar to Odyssey of the Mind, if that helps), and Steve showed me the video when I got home. At 2:15 pm, Steve shot the video of some shaky forwards moves, and by 4:15 pm Jared crawled in a straight line across the living room to me. He is so amazing, and is developing so quickly! That night he also said "Yeah!" and "hi" which was super cute.

He is still eating everything and anything that we give him. I was feeding him the other night, and he sneezed most of it out, which was funny. (It was actually super funny, since my mom had just sent me an old cartoon of a mom getting food sneezed on her, so it was very appropriate timing.) So I am cleaning up the oatmeal and spinach, and I look up to see that he has his mouth open as wide as it will go, waiting for me to shovel more food in. It was like he was saying "hey Mom! What's the hold-up?" So Steve and I burst out laughing, and Jared joined in.

Jared is now so quick and mobile (and has already tried pulling himself up on things). This means that Steve and I spend a lot of time running after him to secure what we need to. We are babyproofing by necessity now. We'll see how much longer we keep our coffee table, he is already hitting his head on the corners and lower scalloped border.

I'm sure there is so much more to tell, but I am drawing a blank. The days seem so exciting and full that I don't seem to be able to find the time to do much else than watch and play with Jared. Jared is still waking up multiple times a night (usually 2-3) and waking up for the day around 5:15 am, so our days are long, and Steve and I collapse at the end of the day. We're hoping that the time change helps us out with this problem. And this is just one kid kicking our butts! We are hoping that once his eating/speech/mobility development slows down a little bit, that he might go back to sleeping better. I don't mean to complain - other than his sleeping, I couldn't ask for a better kid. I guess he couldn't be perfect, right? ;)