Play Time...Jack Style!

In the midst of teaching Jack how to fall asleep more independently he has developed two new "tricks." On Saturday (7/16/11) Jack learned how to climb the stairs by himself and wave! Every day for the past month Jonathan and I have been waving at Jack when we say hello to him. Jack and I also wave to Other Jack aka OJ in the mirror every morning when Jack wakes up. On Saturday morning I went to go get him out of bed, and when I waved to OJ, he waved to him as well. He did it twice that morning and then not for the rest of the day. After his morning waves, he was hovering around the stairs as usual. I showed him how to lift his knee up onto the stair to climb, and then he did it by himself! He was only able to scale the first stair that day, but he was happy with himself.
On Sunday, he waved and waved when we would say hi to him and OJ, and now he's been doing it ever since. He only waves at OJ in the mirror, me, and Jonathan right now. When I try to have him wave at people when they come up to say hi to him when we're out and about, he gets shy and won't do it :). Also on Sunday, Jack ascended 6 steps! Definitely Trouble with a capital T.

This morning we had some playtime before going to a trial workout class, and Jack was all over the place. Here he is scaling all of the stairs this morning! I lured him to the landing with Spongebob on my phone :). (Sorry for bad lighting and Disclaimer: I ran to the bottom of the staircase just long enough to snap a picture then ran back up...no baby would have been hurt during this stunt).

I've also been trying to put together a designated play area for Jack in what should be our dining area. I got a rug for him (thanks Angela for the Target recommendation) and a toy bin. I'll add to it a little more here and there. After his stair workout, he played with some toys.

What a little cutie...so, so busy!

As for sleeping, things are getting A LOT better. Thank you to everyone for your encouragement and words of advice. He still cries, but not nearly for as long or as intensely. The past two nights he's fallen asleep after about 5-7 minutes of crying compared to a little over 30 the first night. Now when he wakes up when he should be sleeping, he cries for about a minute and falls back to sleep on his own. Still a little bit of a work in progress, especially with naps, but big strides in the right direction!