Speed Crawling Army Style

Noah has been crawling for a few months now, though it is not your “normal crawl.”  He moves across the floor like an Army Ranger crawling under barbed wire and at the speed as if there was live fire over his head.  I am amazed at how fast he can get from one room to the other and how dirty our floors can get after just a couple of days.  The normal morning routine is to place him on the living room rug sitting up while I go and get some coffee. He will sit there for a moment and then flop on to his belly and head for his basket of toys.  Here he will sit for several minutes pulling each toy out one by one until he finds the one he wants or until he finds the random sock that  he will imdediatly start to chew on. Once most of the toys are out of the basket he looks around for the dog. Locking onto his furry target  he assumes the position and beings to hastily crawl in that direction, grunting what I can only guess are taunts as he goes.  The dog having become wise to this little game will, as soon as he sees Noah start to advance, get up and move to another part of the room.  Noah will look a little dejected and then go back to chewing on his sock or whatever toy he happens to be carrying.  This  is just a ruse because as soon as Leunig has found another spot in the room and laid down Noah is moving in his direction again.  This will go on for several rounds until Leunig retreats to our bedroom where he knows, at least for now, he is safe.

Having become bored with the toys strewn about the living room and seeing the dog is gone we now begin the game of chase, this is where Noah makes a be-line to the kitchen, looking back at me once or twice to smile as I try and fail to tell him to come back into the living room.  He crawls to the kitchen doorway and sits there waiting to see what I will do next and begins to play with the plant. I get up and bring him back to the far side of the living room, I return to my coffee and morning paper, read a paragraph, put the paper down, get up and go get him from the kitchen doorway.  This can go on for as long as forty five minutes at which point I am ready for a nap.  As I am nodding off in the chair, Erin wakes up and upon seeing her Noah, seated on the floor,  flaps his arms, bounces and grunts with excitement; Erin says good morning and then goes off to get ready for work. Noah quickly follows and tries to sit by the bathroom door until she comes out. Unfortunately he has the attention span of, well, an eight month old and is soon making his way towards the animals food dishes in the kitchen to see if there is anything he can gum.  I quickly clamor out of  the chair with a flurry of newspaper and pick him up once again  placing him at the far end of the living room where if I am lucky he will stay for a moment and play with his toys so I can go back to my nap.