Crawling to a standstill

On the 31st of January we were watching Jake move around on the ground - he was getting up on hands and knees and dropping back onto his belly and pulling himself forward. Suddenly he got up on hands and knees, moved one hand forwards, followed by one knee and the other hand and knee. Our baby was crawling!! He crawled a metre or so and then dropped back down onto the ground in an exhausted slump. Since then, he's been going from strength to strength. He can crawl the entire length of our house in one go and at an impressive speed too. He can follow us around now, which is funny - you always know where he is though, from the slap-slap sound of his hands on the floor.

As if learning to crawl wasn't enough, a week ago R was home on his day off with Jake. He was crawling around (Jake, not R) and crawled into a corner where we have a footstool and an African drum. Jake pulled himself up using the footstool and then performed a standing drum solo! Standing!! He spent much of the rest of the day intermittently crawling and standing. R filmed Jake standing and e-mailed the video clip to me at work. I was stunned! He now regularly pulls himself up so he's standing and sometimes even does little sideways steps. He hasn't figured out that letting go makes him fall over backwards though, so we have to place cushions on the floor behind him when he's practising his standing. He has a few tumbles, but nothing that a kiss and cuddle can't cure.

A fortnight ago I took Jake swimming and he absolutely loved it. He was kicking his legs, splashing around, squealing happily. I really enjoyed sharing my favourite sport with him, so I took him to Baby & Toddler Swimming a few days ago. This was a proper lesson with an instructor and we started with singing a few songs and moving the kids around in the water. Then we tried letting them swim under water, which I hadn't tried with Jake yet. He didn't mind at all, so we did it a few more times and then I let him go briefly. He swam straight to the surface, his strong little legs pumping away in the water. He's a real water baby, just like his mum!

The teeth have been coming up at the rate of knots - Jake has 7 teeth now and his 8th has been troubling him for a week, so that one's not far off. He's been putting the teeth to good use too - we've expanded the foods he's tried to include sweet potato, porridge, apple, mango, pear, banana, chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, carrots and yoghurt. He loves everything. The freezer is full of fresh food frozen in ice cube trays and he gets a few cubes a couple of times a day. In between I give him baby biscuits and bread sticks as a snack, which he crunches on happily with his new little teeth. It's lovely making food for him because he eats so well. He still breastfeeds a lot in between, although this is becoming a little less as he eats more solid food. I cherish those moments though, as you never know how long they will last.

It's great seeing all the developments Jake is experiencing, but sometimes it's all going just a bit too fast for me. He's really not a baby any more and at times I miss the baby Jake. When he wakes up early, I take him to bed with me and he'll fall asleep while he's feeding. It's at moments like those, when he's fast asleep in my arms, snoring softly, that he's a real baby again and I love the closeness. I will watch him sleep and he's such a gorgeous little boy with his chubby cheeks, tiny button nose and little rosebud mouth. I never expected to feel so strongly about a little person I've only known for 7 months, but I love him with an intensity that is almost frightening.