The next step (so to speak) on Norah's path to world domination!

Norah has decided to stand up. Yay, Norah! She has been trying for a while, and in the past week, she has become an expert. She is pulling herself up on the ottoman and the coffee table and in her crib (which of course makes her look like a prisoner), and has started to grab at everything within her reach. How fun. Of course, we take stuff out of her reach, which makes her quite grumpy, but we just tell her that she has to start walking around so she can cause mischief! We're very happy about this, naturally, but now Norah wants to stand all the time! Why this causes grief is because she can't walk yet, so she just stands holding onto things and gets very cranky. She looks at us as if we're to blame for her not being able to walk, and we tell her that she's going to have to figure it out for herself. She was whiny when she couldn't go anywhere, and then she learned to crawl and she was happy for a while. Now she's back to being whiny again because she can't go anywhere, even though if she got down on her hands and knees she could crawl everywhere and be happy.

Of course, she needs to learn on her own. It's fun watching her, because she hasn't grasped the concept of bending her knees to get down yet. She stands holding onto the coffee table and looks down at something she wants on the floor. Still holding on with one hand, she bends at the waist and strains to reach whatever it is she wants. But ... she ... can't ... quite ... get ... to ... it! Once or twice she has fallen forward, but she hasn't crashed off the coffee table (yet). When she does fall, she looks surprised and affronted and cries for a second, then realizes that she's not hurt and she either crawls away or stands back up. She has started to move while still holding on, but that's in the early stages. Soon she will be even more mobile than she is right now, and then we'll have more fun!

Of course, as with everything Norah achieves, it's a bit bittersweet because she is slowly passing Mia's level. Mia, we think, is reaching a point where she understands what Norah is doing and how she can't do it, but it hasn't affected her that much yet. She is still a very happy kid, but occasionally we catch her looking at Norah with a bit of frustration in her eyes. Of course, we always tell her she'll just have to work harder!

So Norah has taken another small step toward complete mobility. I know that parents out there have gone through this with their own children, but it's still groovy for us, so I'm going to crow about it!