One smart cookie

Playing in the grass, while Mary hunts bugs in the background.

John is starting to figure things out and it's just getting plain scary.

He knows about doorknobs. He can't open a closed door yet, but he knows to twist the round metal thing to get out. It's just a matter of time until he's got a good enough grip. Considering our entire babyproofing strategy is based on closed doors, this could prove disasterous.

He knows about wall sockets. He knows the black things goes into the holes, though obviously he has no idea why. And luckily, he lacks the dexterity to actually do it. But until we covered all the low, exposed plugs with heavy objects, it was his favourite game to try to plug stuff in.

Less sinister, but no less impressive, is the drain plug. If he's not ready to leave the bath before I pull the plug out, he'll zoom over and put the plag back over the drain. He usually gets it off by a bit, or upside down, so the water still drains, but he knows exactly what it's for and how it works.

Speaking of bathtime, he's figured out how to become dead weight, so it's harder for me to lift him out when he's not ready. If he sees me reaching, he'll sit down really fast, and I swear he feels like 60 pounds. He thinks it's hillarious. He laughs and laughs and laughs.

Another fun new game is to hide at the bottom of the stairs, if we acidentally leave the door open. He makes little peeps until I go find him. When he sees me coming, he lets out a little squeal, and boots it up the stairs, howling with laughter the whole way. I think the game is to see how far up he can get before I catch him. I have to admit, I find that one kind of fun, too - I just wish it weren't so dangerous. He's a pro with stairs now, but it only takes one slip for a very long fall.

He's figured out how to get off the couch and bed as well. It took a fat lip or two until he perfected that one - now we don't need to worry about him at all. He slithers backwards towards the edge, slowly lowering his legs down to the floor, while clutching the surface he's lowering from. He can do it so fast it scares me sometimes, but he's really good at it.

He's getting good at waving! He loves to wave to himself in the mirror, and he'll wave bye to Mike. Still a little wierd around strangers sometimes. They'll wave to him, and he'll kind of sneer back. Though, for some strangers he'll smile and jiggle. He's very particular about who he'll associate with.

He's stood by himself a few more times! It makes him nervous, I think - he seems to realize it now and he looks a little freaked out whenever he does it.

I guess I'm going to miss his first steps. Carmen will probably see them. That's his babysitter - Carmen. We gave her the official OK yesterday. She's only $600 a month, compared with $1250 for the centre, so we're pretty happy about that. She sounded pretty excited that we plan to pay her weekly, so it's a win-win. She's a grandma, and he took to her right away, so I think it'll work out OK.

She starts July 11. Mike will be taking John until then. He says he's not looking forward to it, but I think some small part of him is excited. It makes me a little nervous when he says he plans to "demomify" John - as in break him of the habit of wanting a cuddle from mewhen he's sad or tired or...anything. He's just jealous I'm the cuddler of choice. I'm sure he won't do anything to be mean to John, like let him cry for long periods or anything horrible like that.

Sorry, no picture of the "beard" yet! I'm working on it. If you squint, it looks almost beard-like now. Kind of.