New Achievements

There have been a few development milestones in the past few days. Literally days. He didn't do any of these things four days ago and now he does them all the time. It's amazing to both me and Nathan how quickly these new skills can be acquired and there would probably be a lot more melancholy mixed with our pride at how quickly he's growing up if it wasn't for new baby on the way. Hurray for new baby!

Bradley's favorite new achievement for all involved is his newfound ability to clap, which is adorable and he'll do on command with a little encouragement. I guess all our games of patty cake have paid off! He also waves and is growing quite adept at turning pages in books. He also lives to pull himself up into a standing position ... which is cute in theory but is also the bane of my existence at the moment.

It started out cute enough, he'd crawl over to someone and want to hold onto their hands so he could pull himself up. He would then shake his hands free from said person so he could hold on to objects or do any of the other important things that one does with ones hands and it was up to the person to hold onto the swaying baby with very little sense of balance. He generally likes to clap while standing, which is pretty funny since it looks like he's applauding himself for his accomplishment. What a cutie.

However, since then he has started pulling himself up on inanimate objects and trying to do the same thing with less than stellar results. At least I'm around when he's in the living room so I can mostly save him from himself. But he discovered this morning that he could pull himself up in his crib and has spent approximately an hour pulling himself up, chattering excitedly, and soon falling over and whacking his face and head. Repeatedly. He's generally sad for about two minutes but then he gets up and repeats the process. At least the crib mattress is cushy. This is all too exciting and I fear there will be little napping today. Especially since he can reach the curtain and let in sunshine and also turn on his mobile now. Oh joy.

He started doing these new things at my parents' house this past weekend, much to their delight.

We were visiting because my brother Thomas was in town. We don't know if Bradley really remembers meeting Thomas from five months ago when he visited in the summer but he is certainly a fan now. Our child loves everyone though and while he still prefers mommy when he's very sad or very sleepy I can still hand him off to anyone and he's pretty content. And sometimes he flat out chooses someone more fun over me, like his Grandpa Redfern who spent over a half an hour with a delighted Bradley up on his shoulders singing songs and bouncing him up and down for a good portion of that time, all the while telling us how sore he was going to be the next day. And Grandma took him over to his favorite bear carving whenever he desired which is whenever Thomas wasn't airplaning him into a foam tower he had created specifically for destruction by baby. It's good for a number of reasons that we're having baby number two sooner rather than later, Bradley is going to have to adjust to sharing some of the limelight.

Poor Layla still can't believe that she has to share Nathan with this tiny interloper.