James is (Secretly) Crawling

First of all, thank you so much to all of you who talked to your senators regarding the Convention for the Rights of Disabled Persons.  IT DID NOT PASS!!!  The margin was only 4 votes, scarily close, but we did it!

In the last week James has begun some exciting new things.  His hand dexterity has improved greatly.  He can now hold things in his mouth (a big help for teething)!  We are working our way back to oral feeding a little more, although he has figured out if he "coughs" he can get out of it.  Luckily, we are smart enough to tell a fake cough from a real one so he can't get out of it that easily.  :D  James is working on pushing himself into a sitting position from his stomach.  We have seen him do it a couple of times and it only lasts for a second or two, but it is a start.  He really has to want to do it himself otherwise he just won't try.

But the most exciting this is he is (secretly) crawling!  I have only seen him do this when he thinks we aren't looking.  He will try to grab a toy that is in front of him and if he can't quite reach it he does this funny commando crawl from side to side.  The "long-distance" crawling comes in when instead of grabbing his toy he accidentally pushes it a little farther away.  When this happens repeatedly he goes a good two feet across the room before he finally "catches" it.  It is pretty funny to watch.  Yesterday, again when we weren't "looking", James actually got into a crawling position on his own!  Remember the "Overall Crawling"?  He did that!  He pushed up onto his hands and tucked his knees in, gave a good rock forward and fell on his face.  Maybe not the most successful first attempt, but he did it!  We try to help him sometimes, but he seems to do better on his own.  He is a determined little kid and likes to fight our attempts to help.  But, when he is determined to get a toy he will find a way!  So, as you can imagine, our floor is constantly strewn with toys.

I haven't been successful in capturing James' attempts on video.  I will keep trying.  However, I will leave you with a picture.  James had a good time with his aunts when they were home for Thanksgiving.  Here are pictures of Aunt Allison and Uncle Thomas hanging out on the floor with James.  The first one is my favorite but despite all my rotating, Blogger just won't rotate it.  So the second one is for "easy viewing."  :D

With love.