Just to make sure I don't forget

I had thought to just wait until a few weeks when I do his nine month report, but he keeps changing so much all the time that I figured it was better to get these fun new developments recorded now while I remember. The latest tricks of Dat Lo:

• Yesterday he got serious about sharing his snacks with me. Shoving slimy baby crackers in my mouth, holding his apple up for me to try, etc. mmmMMM.


• He holds toys and such in his mouth like a puppy...crawls around, climbs on stuff, uses both hands galore, all while gripping a piece of toy in his teeth. Did I mention yet that his top teeth came in.


• Often ignores his pile of toys in favor of practicing gross motor skills on the living room furniture. We had to move the kitchen table in front of the stairs because we are too cheap to buy a real baby gate at this point.


• Crawls UP stairs. Falls down them. A few days ago (with me right next to him!) he fell down a couple stairs. I'd looked away for a second to check a text message. Sad. But he was more scared than hurt and quit crying long before I did. No, I didn't actually cry. But I was trembling and shaking so bad, and my heart pounded and it kept replaying in my head all the rest of the day. Horrible.


• Holding just one of my fingers, he can walk a few steps before getting off balance. Prefers this "practice walking" to crawling. I cater to him and hold my hand down there for him to grab.


• Yesterday he showed animal awareness pretty firmly--this one is exciting for me, since I've been working toward this for awhile now. We were walking outside and when he saw the geese grazing, instead of just ignoring them like he usually does, he told me "aDa!" as he caught sight of them. Then he craned his neck around to keep staring at the flock as we passed.
  
• His head bobbing/dancing to music and rhymes has extended to involve dancing to any sound with a beat--including the sewing machine, dishwasher, electric fan, etc.
  
• While he still loves his farm animal books ("MooMOO says the cow" generally gets an excited reaction), his latest favorite seems to be a Sesame Street Elmo puppet book. Which is exhausting for me to read, since the Elmo puppet makes my fingers cramp up trying to scratch Elmo's nose, do a dance, rub his tummy, etc. I think I'll be glad when Lo starts to like other books instead.

Guess that's long enough. A few of these should have had cute pictures and videos to go with them but I'm feeling too lazy to upload at this point.