Ryan's taking a stand

Ryan has been crawling for a few weeks now, but it's more like he's swimming the butterfly stroke than crawling. While laying on his stomach he brings his arms up, drops them on the ground in front of him and drags his body forward. I figured that since most of the time he's crawling he is not actually on his hands and knees I had a little while longer before he started trying anything new. But two days ago I was sitting on the living room floor watching Ryan play, while talking to my mom on the phone. As I was talking to her I realized that Ryan had crawled over to a little toy and had pulled himself up onto his knees. Next thing I knew he pulled himself up to stand, then knelt back down, then stood up again. I couldn't believe it--he's just barely 7 months! A few minutes later he crawled over to the toy box and acted like he wanted to pull himself up there too. I wasn't sure he'd be able to, but I pulled the camera out just in case. Good thing I did because he pulled himself up there, but then quickly fell over. See for yourself:




It was fun watching him do that, but I kind of hoped he would forget all about it the next day because I still want him to sit happily in one place. But of course he didn't forget, and the whole next day I followed him around taking pictures of the places he decided to stand up next. Again, see for yourself (a few are taken with my cell phone):


I think he had help getting up to the couch, but he did the rest all by himself. You can't tell from this picture, but I think standing up in the bathtub made him a little nervous because it was kind of slippery.

I guess he's out to prove that those stumpy legs are good for more than just decoration. And really, this is quite the feat considering the weight he's hauling around!