Pulling Up to Stand

Henry is fed up with the whole crawling thing. He is ready to walk. In the last week or so, he has figured out how to hold on to furniture and pull himself up to a stand.

Henry can even hold on with one hand. . . usually while he's trying to reach one of Nick's toys.

He's really pleased with himself, too. Henry knows he is showing off when he stands up, so he always grins at me as if to say, "Check out what I can do!" He is even starting to scoot sideways a bit, especially when he wants to reach something forbidden. I believe he was trying to climb the stairs in the picture below.

Here is some more video. I don't want to forget this stage in Henry's life, because I'm pretty sure he'll be walking (and running) very soon.

I looked up a video of Nick when he started to pull up, and I was amazed. Nick was several months older than Henry. But I see such a resemblance between them. I think Henry's starting to get chubby like Nick was during his late babyhood.

First Tooth!

It finally popped through today! Nick has his first tooth. It is on the bottom on his right. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but it's definitely there. My baby is growing up!

Greg was actually the one to find it first. Nick bit him. Then I verified by getting bitten myself. There is definitely a white little tooth in there. The other one is still bothering him quite a bit. Teething rings and teething cookies only help a little bit.

Nick spent his day trying to pull up on everything in sight. He can only do it when I'm standing by him and he grabs my hands. But, boy does he try.

Here, you can see him trying to pull up on the side of the stairs. I spent much of my day chasing Nick around and helping him to stand. He promptly starts dancing when I hold his little hands. Maybe I should sign him up for lessons when he gets a little older.

I went to the library today and got another whole bag of books to read. I really love the way I can read a book or two every day in the summer. It's something I miss during the school year. For me, it's not the same thing to read a book in little bits. I want to sit down and finish the whole darned thing, while sipping on a nice cup of tea. During the school year, I sometimes have to read a book over two or even three days. This reading thing has always been an addiction with me. there was point when I used to read at stoplights, but that was years ago. I miss having my own classroom, simply because I could have D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) time every day for 20 or 30 minutes. (I read, too, of course.) When I worked as an administrative assistant some years ago, I'm ashamed to say I read multiple books under my desk while looking busy. In my own defense, though, I type 90+ words per minute, so they didn't give me enough work to do.

Today I read "The Bean Trees," By Barbara Kingsolver. I really enjoyed it. It's about a young woman who decides she doesn't like her life in Kentucky, so she takes off for parts unknown in an old beat-up car with no starter. In a parking lot in Oklahoma, someone hands her a toddler and begs her to take her. I won't ruin the story, but all I will say is that she meets some great people. Actually, it's my favorite novel by her so far, thanks to the likeable characters. I have always enjoyed novels about women who make their own destinies. I find something irresistable about people who actually DO something to effect change in their lives.

Below you can see some video I took today of Nick with his tool bench and hammer. My stepfather was over today working on Nick's bathroom, and he could hear the banging. So Nick decided to do some banging of his own. I thought it was pretty cute. At 8 months, I'm not sure if he was trying to copy his grandpa or not, but it sure seemed like it.