Walking is taking longer than I thought, but I'm pretty sure it will be any day now. He's standing a lot now which he wasn't doing much of until the past week. Last weekend he'd barely let go long enough to clap. By Wednesday, he was clapping twice, and now he'll stand and clap for minutes at a time. He just needs one hand to hold onto when I walk him around. This morning he grabbed my pajamas as I was putting them in the hamper and he walked around holding onto that while I just held it up for him. He was just barely holding on. He just doesn't have the confidence to keep walking if he doesn't have anything to hold onto. I'm sure it will be soon. Last night he took a couple steps un-aided. At one point, he wanted something while he stood hands-free. He took a step and dove onto the floor and started crawling on all fours instead. That was pretty funny. Before I put him to bed last night, I decided the crib needed to have the bumpers back on again because I was tired of hearing him knock around in the crib in the middle of the night. It always wakes me up and I wait, holding my breath, for him to cry or not. Usually he doesn't, but last night he wailed for a few minutes. He must've hit his head and he was already cranky. I gave up at 4am; after an hour of trying to put him back to sleep in the crib. This was after he had already woken up twice at 11 and 2. Teething sux… but back to the original story.
I put Dexter in the crib while I was putting on the bumpers. I'm not sure what got into him, but he was truly hyper. I haven't seen him in this mood very often and certainly not confined to a small area. He was literally bouncing off the walls of the crib. He discovered that while he was standing in the crib, if he dropped on his butt hard, he bounced. He just needed a cape to complete the mini-wrestler act of doing drop kicks and butt bombs. It was hilarious. I'm glad I put the bumpers back in for the third time. I've removed them twice for fear of suffocation. Once, the day I brought him home, and then I put them back in when he was a couple months old because I realized that he doesn't move around. I took them out again when he started rolling over in his sleep. Now he needs padding to save his noggin' from all his wigglin'. I don't think he'll suffocate, more likely he'll use the bumpers to climb out of the crib. I wonder how long before I turn the crib into a toddler bed. Another 6 months? I doubt I'll wait that long.
