Catch up

I feel like I don't have much to report, but when I think about it, Mr. Bear and I have been quite busy over the past couple of days. We've been to story time at the library, out to lunch with friends, to the grocery store, to the park, to the gym and back to the grocery store to pick up some forgotten things. That's a lot of stuff for only 2 days and Bear's been getting so much better at the running around deal. He used to get cranky after only one or two stops, and now he'll just fall asleep if he's tired. I think it helps that he can mostly sit up, which allows him to use highchairs at restaurants and seats in shopping carts. He definitely likes to be independent and those things help him to do just that.

Speaking of being independent, the boy is SERIOUSLY getting ready to crawl and I am so excited and proud! People keep telling me that I won't like it when he crawls because he'll get into everything. While I'm sure that's somewhat true, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be so happy for him just because he will be so happy. He has wanted to lunge out of my arms since just a few days after he was born and when he can finally rely on himself to get around, I think he will be very fun. He's never been what I would call a relaxed baby and I'm hoping his self reliance will help with that a little. More and more, he just wants to be set on the floor to play. He doesn't want his Exersaucer, he doesn't want his Jumperoo horse and he definitely doesn't want to be held by Momma! He wants to do it himself. He loves when I set his little rug on the floor and surround him with toys, but arrange it so that he can still see me. I've put that little rug in just about every room in our house at this point, including the bathroom!

The other little milestone that Bear just hit yesterday was making a squealing sound when he's happy or excited. He laughs at our dogs A LOT--when they jump onto the couch, when they play-fight, when they bark at someone at the door, or even when they just walk past him! For some reason, he finds them hilarious! Anyhow, late yesterday afternoon, he was in his Exersaucer and Stuart (the male dog) was really rowdy--the kind of rowdy where he runs from room to room really fast and gets himself out of breath. Bear was laughing pretty hard and all of the sudden just started squealing. I've heard my friends' babies do this, so I wasn't shocked or anything, but I was quite amused. When Max came home from work, he got the dogs all worked up by playing with them, and Bear started squealing again. It's so cute. I hope he keeps doing it for a while.