He'll soon be taking the SAT

I'll probably write a longer entry later, but if I don't start cataloging all of the milestones Tyler has hit recently, I'll start forgetting them.

First, and clearly most importantly, he's started saying Dada. (Yay!) He's been saying Mama for a while, and he has actually settled on Baba mostly (we're trying to show him he can use it to request bottles, but I don't think we're quite to the language-object association stage yet.) But it does melt the heart even to imagine he's asking for me. Very sweet.

Also, crawling. He hasn't quite hit marathon distances yet, but it's only a matter of time. The progress really is astounding, from barely a few steps a week ago to the point where he's actually quite deft on his hands and knees. I figure by this time next week we're going to need to start putting up more baby gates. And I'm quite glad I've done a lot of the larger baby-proofing tasks already.

He's sitting up quite well, but he's also figured out how to go from crawling to sitting. He used to do this sort of side-lounge thing (ladies..! :) but he's figured out how to get his balance and get to proper sitting, and then how to get back to crawling. It looks like a lot of work.

And he's also working on pulling himself to standing. He likes, especially, the stool that Alaska Nana made when she was here a while ago. He can get his hands up on it, and then get his legs straightened out. After that, it's all struggles and frustration, but what have you learned to do this past week that is half this impressive, eh?

-N