Holy cow, Elliot's nine-months-old already!!

I can't believe that Elliot has been out in the world longer than he was hanging out sharing a body with me. It's all gone so fast and it seems like it's getting faster every day. He's learning new things all the time now and as excited as we are to share in his new accomplishments, sometimes I really wish he'd just take a chill pill and and just stay a little baby a little bit longer.

Here's some of the exciting new things he's added to his repertoire in the last two weeks:

• Speed crawling--This kid is like lightening; watch out Usain Bolt! In what seems like a blink of an eye, Elliot can be from one end of the house to the other trying to eat Nacho's dog food or the dirt in our potted year-round xmas tree or reaching for cords behind the desk or pulling each and every one of his books off his shelf. If Elliot is awake, Nacho is fleeing and I'm on the chase.
• High-fiving--Okay, so he's only batting around .500 with this one, but if he's feeling it, he'll give you a definitive and enthusiastic smack.
• Waving bye-bye--Again, Elliot's a bit hit and miss still with waving at the appropriate time, but he loves to copy us when we do it; too bad he turns his hand toward himself and waves himself good-bye. And sometimes he gets stuck and keeps waving for a quarter of an hour or more! Too cute.
• Growling like a lion or dinosaur or something equally terrifying--I'm not sure where he got this one, but it's so so funny! He usually pairs his growling with a full-on slobber assault which is hilarious especially when he attacks the unopened bag of dog food that we just bought Nacho and is currently Elliot's favourite toy.
• Pulling himself up to stand--This is a new one as of tonight. Paul and I were in the kitchen with Elliot safety-gated on the other side when all of a sudden, he managed to pull himself up on the gate and give us a proud little grin. Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he sat himself down and did it again. I can't believe the little guy. He couldn't roll over two months ago and now he's standing up. It's all too fast!