Crawling (for real!) and pulling up

In the four or so weeks after Bjorn started doing the "worm" crawl on his tummy, his motor development seemed to go into overdrive and he mastered a bunch of exciting new skills in the space of a few weeks: going from crawling position to sitting up on his own, then crawling on hands and knees, and finally, at just before 9 months old, the Holy Grail -- pulling up to stand! He is pretty darn excited about his newfound mobility, and if anything it has made him an even more cheerful little boy this past month.

Part of me had been dreading the day Bjorn learned to crawl, thinking that it would make keeping tabs on him and Leif much more challenging, but to my surprise, it (so far) actually seems to have made life a bit easier. Bjorn can entertain himself for much longer stretches now that he is able to move around the room to access toys or other things that interest him, plus he can enjoy simple pleasures such as hanging onto the edge of the coffee table or pulling himself up on one of the baby gates for surprisingly long periods of time.

Leif also seems to be enjoying Bjorn's new ability to get around, and he has been (mostly) nice about sharing his cars and other treasured possessions that Bjorn is starting to get into. However, we do need to frequently remind him that it is not OK to pry his baby brother's fingers off the piece of furniture he is holding onto or to pull on Bjorn's hands and feet while he is trying to crawl across the floor.