Creep! Crawl!

Look out world, Pierce is on the move! Though not yet officially crawling, Pierce has been making great strides (no pun intended) toward crawling. At times he does a series of 5-6 rolls to get from one end of the room to the other, at other times, he moves across the floor as if he is using an ice axe to climb a mountain. He looks for anything to grab onto, plants his little arm around it, then pulls himself that much closer to the desired object. He looks a little like a soldier creeping through the underbrush. A couple of times he has scooted his knees under him, but then usually ends up pushing himself backwards. Along with this movement comes great frustration at not getting anywhere fast enough. Here's a video clip of his attempt:

A couple of weeks ago, we got a quick visit from cousin Foster. There are limited pictures of the two boys together, though, because Foster was in a bit of a confused state having flown up here on his first plane flight. It probably didn't help Foster's mood that Pierce got right up in his face to say hi just as Foster was waking up from his nap. Luckily, we are going to see Foster, Chris and Liz at the end of the month for a celebration of Foster's 1st birthday and Chris' graduation from Princeton. Hooray!

Pierce loves using his new (and sharp!) little chompers for food now. He is enjoying string cheese, veggie burgers, pieces of banana and avocado, crackers, puffs and Cheerios. He is still developing his pincer grasp, though, so a lot of his food ends up on the floor. Sadie loves this stage, and is happy to do her part to help clean up. Last night we had a particularly messy meal. Pierce wanted to feed himself with the spoon, but ended up grabbing the meal off of the spoon and spreading it anywhere his hands could touch.

We've started a new class at Isis--Jelly Jam babies--which is a music and movement class. Pierce is the only boy (and has 6 new ladyfriends) and is quite the ham in the class. He chats and "sings" his way through each session. There are 12 classes in all and each week has a different theme. So far we've done: under the sea, trains, and colors. Next week's class: the jungle! It's been great for the whole family to go to--he is so fun to spend time with.

In our last bit of news, Pierce has his 9 month check up on Wednesday. It's about 10 days earlier than his actual 9 month birthday, but I can't wait to see how much he's grown!