Changes

For the first few months of Alistair's life, I was a little surprised.  I knew babies didn't do much, but I thought you were supposed to do more *educational* things, right from the start.  But he was this little lump of cuddly baby that just ate and slept and needed diaper changes.  Since then, he has very slowly changed, and every little milestone along the way has seemed earth shattering.  The first smile (sure made getting up for hours in the middle of the night easier, knowing this little being could do something other than scream), the first laugh, the first time he held something.  But the developments, while wonderful, have seemed rather slow.

That is, until now.  A few weeks ago, a very wonderful friend of the family gave us an exersaucer.  Alistair loved to stand, but unless Grandma accommodated him by killing her back and bending over as he baby stepped around the house, he didn't spend that much time on his feet.  So, a toy that helped him stand for as long as he wanted seemed amazing.  In fact, he liked it so much that he went from the needy baby who had gone 5 months always needing to be held and cuddled (seriously, he would stay in his swing for 30 minutes in the morning, and then that was *it,* he had to be held and bounced all day), to the baby that could spend an hour playing in his exersaucer.  And then as he figured out that all the things laid out in front of him were *toys,* he really wanted to play with them, or any toys at all, and within a couple of days he became a barely held, let-me-lay-on-the-floor-and-play baby.  Within two days, he started rolling around (he had never rolled from his back onto his stomach before) and sitting up to play.

The Exersaucer

Sitting up.

And just happy!