On the move. On the table.

Bug and Gizmo are very different, but at times, so very alike. Bug was....is....very physically active. And hyperactive. Gizmo seems to be just as physically active as Bug, but he is so much more mellow about it. Or maybe just quieter about it? I can't really tell. It just seems that his physical milestones are less in-your-face than Bug's were....in a different way than the "Oh, he's just the second one, so you don't notice as much" kind of way.

Gizmo started walking withing the past two weeks or so. It started out with just two or three steps in between over enthusiastic family members. Then he started taking more steps, moving from the couch to a toy in the middle of the room.

Now he can walk quite a bit without grabbing onto anything. And he stands up on his own, too.

Of course, if you notice him and give him praise, he gets really excited....which apparently shuts off his balance completely. Then he will stand up, fall, stand up, fall, stand up, take two steps, fall...all while flapping his arms with joy and grinning like a maniac.

This morning, while I was making a pie, I head Bug sternly telling Gizmo, "No Gizmo! No climbing! My water!!!" I turned around and Gizmo was ON THE TABLE!!!! Our kitchen table. Apparently, he had used a stuffed animal as a stepping stool onto a chair that was pushed out, and then from the chair climbed onto the table. And he was about to dump Bug's cup of water everywhere, right before I intervened.

I have to admit, I was shocked to see Gizmo up there. He isn't even 11 months yet (just 5 more days for that), and he climbed onto our table! Without me noticing until he was up there! I actually shut him out of the bathroom this morning while I took my shower....I'm just beginning to realize that might have been an unwise decision. I guess I'll have to start making sure chairs are all pushed in before I leave Gizmo to play by himself for longer than 2 minutes! But then I'm sure he'll find something else dangerous to climb on!

Bug sings the ABCs

Bug has been learning his ABCs. And he loves to sing them. Except....he's really not that great at it. It usually goes something like this:

"A, B, S, 9, 10, 18, a wunney, A, B, S, O, P, orange, X, Y, Z....."

Over and over and over again. I haven't quite figured out how his alphabet seems to have WAY more letters in it than mine does (and it also has way more numbers, colors, and made up words that resemble real words). Sometimes he starts out singing "Twinkle, twinkle little star" and it turns into his alphabet. Which, you can't blame him for that, since it's the same melody. It's actually all unbearably cute, though. So cute that my little sister recorded it on her phone for her ring tone.

I just have to keep telling myself that someday, he will be a genius and all this hassle of learning numbers, letters, shapes, colors, animals, etc. will get sorted out!