One part frustration, two parts admiration

I thought having a crawling child was exhausting, but a crawling child can only reach those "no-no's" that are within ankle-biting range. It's a crawling child who has learned how to pull himself to standing that really takes a toll on mom's energy level (and patience). I now have a child who is both horizontally and vertically mobile, and frankly, I'm pooped.

In the past week, Alex has become extremely adept at pulling himself up by whatever means possible. He pulls up on toys, chairs, tables, stools, shelves, his mom and dad - anything his hands touch is fair game. And the pulling up isn't bad in and of itself. It's the ability to reach a whole new set of "no-no's" that is a problem. Of course it doesn't help when your child is exceedingly curious and has the wingspan of an F-16.

Although "pulling up" is best demonstrated with live action footage, I am not going to post a thousand videos of Alex pulling up. Instead, I'll post one video so you can admire his technique and a bunch of snapshots to dazzle you with his range.



Not his most graceful execution ever, but you get the point.

Now that he's conquered crawling and mastered pulling up, the next step is - you got it! - stepping! He's been known to cruise the sofa from time to time, although it takes him about an hour to get from one end to the other. That said, you may want to fast forward through this video.



I think he could move faster if he wanted to, but really, what else the boy got to do? Nuttin' that's worth hurryin' for! However, he does need to step up his game a little and start conditioning for our next visit to Barnes & Noble, where he plans on rolling a tractor tire through the Self-Help section...