Junebugs: Tarzan is CRAWLING!!!

That's right folks, this past Friday Nathan made a huge shift from reverse to forward and is officially crawling all over the place! What was the thing that motivated him to get forward mobile? Baxter's big red bone! Don't you love this action shot!?!? He has a funny technique where he straightens out his left leg and practically stands as he crawls...

Oh yes, and his new nickname is Tarzan because he enjoys yelling at the top of his lungs and he truly does a spot-on imitation of Tarzan's call!

Well, what do we have below? A picture of Grandma Pratt's 2nd cake that she made for her cake decorating class. She made the clown bodies and everything! Thanks for dedicating it to Nathan!

We finally received Nathan's Christmas gift that was on backorder; it's Follow Me Fred! What a cool little toy - it barks, growls, pants and whines just like a little puppy. Plus, the best part is that it's feet are little wheels so it cruises around which was a definite motivator to Nathan (but apparently not as much as the big red bone). Fred can go straight or you can bend his accordian body and he can go in circles. As you can see, he initially just enjoyed chewing on Fred's crinkly ears.

But eventually got the hang of following him around...

Until Friday Nathan was still crawling backwards and finding new things to get stuck under (such as the ottoman in the living room) and he also started scooting! He would get up on all fours, sway back and forth and pop his knees forward. It was quite amusing to watch and you could tell he felt like big stuff, but was so frustrated that he wasn't all-out crawling. All week he was just sitting up on all fours and would whine or cry because he wanted to move forward. Who knew by the end of the week he would make it happen...

Watch out Baxter and Hobbes, Nathan has his eyes on you and will be coming for you before you know it...

This week Nathan has started grabbing onto things and tried pulling himself up (like the couch, the ottoman in his room, the basket of stuffed animals in his room, the bottom shelf of our picture table in the living room and of course, Mommy). Here he is getting into position and bracing himself; he did end up standing up (while bending over to keep his hands on the shelf). Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of him standing because it was so quick; as soon as he stood up he looked at me like "now what?!?!" and sat back down! He's also been trying to stand up in his crib, but no worries, Daddy moved his crib mattress to the lowest position, so he won't be able to stand up in his crib and topple out! Oh, another milestone this week is that he went from laying on his belly to sitting up all by himself. He flipped from his belly to his right side, tucked his right knee under him, pushed up with his right arm and formed a little tripod and then...POP...he was sitting!

Here's a shot of Nathan reading on his very own...

Nathan just loves these wood blocks that my friend Tracy passed on from her kids (thank you Lauren and Luke for sharing!). He just enjoys chewing on these so much...

For dinner on Wednesday night Nathan tried carrots for the first time! We heard they stain so we stripped him down to his diaper and put a bib on him. Here he is anticipating his first bite...

His face may not show it, but he really did enjoy them...

And welcomed another bite...

So sweet loving on Daddy. This past Thursday he actually said "Da." We've been working with him trying to get him to say MaMa and DaDa - he's making progress!

Helping Daddy brush his teeth...

Mommy went nutty taking pictures of Baxter and Nathan. I love this picture because Baxter is playing with Nathan's wood block and Nathan is playing with Baxter's red bone. How cute is the little bone on Nathan's butt!?!? I'm just glad Baxter didn't try to take a bite out of it...