On your mark, get set, crawl!!!

It's official, the little guy is now a crawler!  As Ben had described in earlier posts, Jonah has been trying to crawl for some time and had managed to go backward and some side-to-side action, but nothing more than maybe one hand movement forward.

On Monday morning (Valentine's Day - what a great gift!), he crawled to me on the floor at day care and as he neared, I moved my hands back, and he just kept coming right for them.  Since then, he's continued to impress both us and the people at day care with his progress. It's not always elegant - sometimes he attempts it with one leg out to the side, sometimes he'll army crawl a bit in the middle, but most of the time, he's up on all fours in a standard crawl position.  There are a few things that seem to motivate him more than others:  a plastic water bottle, our hands, the weight for the helium balloon we bought a few weeks back, etc.  As soon as he thinks he's close enough to reach his object of desire with a dive versus the crawl, he will!

Earlier this evening, I sat him down on one side of the kitchen, thinking he could sit there for the few minutes it would take for me to throw a salad together (everything was already prepped).  In no time at all, he had crossed the entire kitchen and was at my feet (my shoes today seem to have been particularly interesting to him).  We are in trouble!!

And just when I thought I was in enough trouble with the crawling, tonight after his bath, he discovered that there are drawers in the bathroom that he can open.  I'd already been planning a trip to Babies 'R Us tomorrow; now it's a necessity!

Here are some videos taken this morning before Ben left for Istanbul, though they don't necessarily show Jonah at his crawling best.  It's rather difficult to successfully capture...