Watch out World...

Blake is on the move! He has finally figured out how to move forward. So far it is just a military crawl, actually more like a full-body drag, but still, we were very excited to see him do it for the first time this evening... (Who needs toys when you can play with Mom's measuring spoons? She never uses them, anyway!)

Also, for the record, Blake has been sleeping great recently. That means he is sleeping at least 7 hrs at a stretch. Since he sleeps roughly 6:45pm to 6:45am, that means he is still up once in the middle of the night (and he is typically very hungry), but really that is NOTHING compared to recent history. Also, we have a new "trick" to putting him down in the middle of the night. He used to go right to sleep after taking a bottle, but he would cry as soon as we laid him down, so we would pick him back up, pat him some more, and this would go on for sometimes 30-45 minutes until he finally stayed asleep in his crib. However, we found that if we changed his diaper he would wake up fully and get very playful and happy. And then when we laid him down he was typically still very happy, even giggling and babbling to himself. And to my surprise, he fell asleep very quickly on his own! So, now we are always changing him after we give the mid-night bottle. It wakes him all the way up, but then he goes down happy, and he puts himself to sleep after 5-10 minutes of playing in his crib.

Also, he is making all sorts of sounds. He talks to himself almost non-stop, and the most constant babble is "da da da da." Sometimes he throws in stuff that sounds like "mom ma" (I prefer to imagine that, anyway), the other day I could have sworn he said "diaper" and "banana." Of course he didn't, but that just shows the range of sounds he is making. Hopefully we'll capture that eventually, too.

He is growing up so fast. Oh, these are precious, sweet times. These days he is so content to just play on the floor exploring his toys (and when I am in sight he stops playing and just looks at me), so I leave him to play alone quite a bit. That allows me to really enjoy our time together, and it is so easy to get him to giggle when I play with him, tickling him or bouncing him around. We love to read books, especially some "peek-a-boo" books that Mom Mom got him. When I put him down for naps, as long as he is not hungry he is happy when I lay him down, and he babbles and plays for a short time and then goes to sleep without a fuss. He is such a joy, and I have the best job on the planet!