Sitting, scooting and standing

So... Noah seems to have decided to skip conventional crawling.

His brother Evan wasn't a huge fan of crawling either, so I shouldn't be surprised. Sure, Noah tried it a few months ago - but he could only go backwards, which really ticked him off. He would reach out for a toy, and - whoops- slide backwards, even further away from it. Then he would pound the floor with his fist and shake his head, like NO! How can this be so hard? It was really very funny, although of course, you had to feel badly for him, poor little frustrated guy.

So - he discovered the art of the butt hop. Yup, he hops around on his little tush. He has gotten really fast, and let me tell you, he has thighs of steel. Every once in awhile I'm carrying him on my hip, and he squeezes his legs together and... yeow. (Next thing you know, the butt hop will be all the rage as the latest fitness class at Equinox...)

Here is some video of the butt hop, so you can see for yourself how funny it is:



We took that video at Josh's aunt Judy's house (just outside of D.C.) last week where we spent the 4th of July. We had such a great time, getting to see lots of family and even meeting new sweet cousin baby Ila who was visiting from Hawaii with her mom and dad. I have some great video of her and the rest of the family that I hope to upload soon, too.

In more Noah news: he made the next great leap last night! Noah pulled himself up to stand in his pack n' play. I actually saw him try to stand earlier in the afternoon, but he pulled up on a basket of toys, which promptly toppled over on top of him (so that first real attempt was pretty much a crash and burn). However, in the pack n' play, he had soft cushioning all around which seemed to make him much more confident. He pulled up once, and we all applauded - so he did it again and again until we ran and (finally) got the video camera. By that time he was pretty hysterical, and not in a good way. Oh well.

Things have been a bit hectic in our house lately, between the standing and butt hopping and visiting D.C. and all. We took lots and lots of great pictures on the trip, but this one beats all:

I'm going to have to figure out how to make this photo the header for this blog - since it sort of says it all, don't you think? (PS> If you say "hug" to Noah now, he will often respond by giving a hug. But only to certain people. And obviously his most-favorite-brother-in-the-whole-wide-world is one of those people.)

I promise to post more about Evan in the next entry, so these entries are not all about Noah... but Evan's been making the rounds at his grandparents', his dad's, and his friend's - so he hasn't been home very much. I miss him. He starts day camp on Monday, so on to a new adventure...

But lastly, here is a little video of the brothers playing together (well, more like Noah putting Evan in a headlock, but you get the idea...).