Lately, Jason has become somewhat single-minded in pursuit of a particular goal: harassing the dog. Up until just a few weeks ago, he had paid almost no attention to the dog at all. Of course, for the first little while, he didn't pay much attention to anything. Then he was mostly interested in me or Juliette or his own hands and feet. Later, his toys. Now, it's the dog. As soon as he becomes aware of Cooper, Jason immediately lunges, trying to get two tiny fistsful of dog hair. As you might imagine, Cooper is not terribly fond of this, so he has been learning how to anticipate Jason's notice and run away.

Mind you, as soon as it's Jason's  feeding time, you can be sure that Cooper has taken up station under the high chair, hoping that something will fall. Last night I let him eat the remains of one of Jason's teething biscuits and he was over the moon.

Anyway, with Jason's newfound mobility, Cooper has a bit more to worry about. He seems to be taking it well, though.

I'd have thought that my next blog entry would have been about Jason's swimming lessons, which started the Saturday before last. And, to be sure, they were a whole lot of fun for all of us. But while I've been procrastinating about writing, Jason seems to have turned another big developmental corner and has become an almost entirely new baby. In the past two weeks, he's figured out how to scoot himself from one place to another, how to pick himself up on his hands and knees, and he's tantalizingly close to learning how to crawl for real. He's also figured out how to sit up on his own. He almost never does sit up, though, because he's constantly on the move.

It's amazing the personality changes that have come with his newfound mobility. I guess Jason's always been curious and into exploring, but now that he can actually get around a bit, he more or less constantly wants to be checking things out and pulling himself around. What's astonishing is how obvious that desire is--he really wants things all of a sudden. Unfortunately, he still hasn't quite figured out crawling, which means that he's nearly constantly frustrated. If we pick him up, he squirms to turn around and see out, or even to get out of our arms. But when we put him down, he rapidly gets upset at his inability to get his arms and legs coordinated. He gets this really intense look on his face when he's trying to crawl and you can tell that he's really focusing and trying to figure it out. What's more, you can see that he knows how close he is, which is all the more frustrating for him.

What's even harder is that Jason has no way of expressing what it is he wants, so things have gotten a little more challenging. Too, he's so interested in all the stuff around him that feedings and sleeping have gotten more difficult again. On the other hand, it seems like his language skills are also starting to develop. He's been responding to his name for a couple of months now, I think, but we noticed that lately he seems to be understanding more of the words and signs we've been using. The other day I asked him if he wanted some milk, along with the sign, and he immediately (even a little franticly) turned and looked at Juliette. His babbling is also including a lot more sounds than it used to.

When I think about how fast this is all happening, it just blows my mind. I mean, it's only been a few weeks since he wasn't even able to turn himself over. I feel like I can hardly keep up--no sooner do I get used to one thing than it's different again. But, man, it's so cool to see it happening.