Baby on the move

Benjy is nearly 9 months old now. He is a tall baby, towering above most of the other babies his age, and active too. About a month ago he started crawling. There were a couple of weeks of 'commando crawling' but now he is crawling properly on his hands and knees, and pretty fast he is too. He's fascinated by the DVD player, the radiator knob, the toilet roll holder, and a nail on the wall which holds one of the electrical wires in place. He also likes putting things underneath the sofa or the TV unit, and then tries to look for it, and it is so funny watching him try to peer underneath something that's already at floor level. My favourite thing about the crawling is that I feel that I can now see what his real personality is. Rather than waiting for me to give him things to play with, he can go and find things for himself, and it's fascinating watching what he likes to do.


Some of my other favourite things at the moment: when he plays with something, he holds it with both hands above his head, as if he's announcing to the world what he's playing with right now. It's often accompanied by a very pronounced 'dadadadada' and kicking feet. Another thing, and I think this is pretty clever, is that he has started initating games. He will lie on his tummy and move his head to one side so he can't see you, then back the other way so that he can, indicating that he wants to play 'I see'. I love that - it's nice to know what he remembers and recognises what we have been doing so long. And I love how he anticipates things - he knows what's coming next in the rhymes I sing him, especially the ones where there are actions and tickles; and he certainly knows what's coming next when he sees the fromage frais pot come out of the fridge - then the arms and legs go wiggle crazy! He loves being tickled; he loves it when I play 'I'm coming to geeeeeet you!'; he loves being held upside down and thrown in the air - in fact, there's not much that doesn't make him happy and giggle and squeal with delight.