Balancing

Cooper recently has taken a big interest into how things balance. He especially seems to enjoy balancing his stacking rings on their edges, which is quite challenging for him. Matt and I are pretty amazed that he learned to do this himself (we did ask the babysitter, and she denied teaching him how to do it) and it is funny to watch him balance one or two, and then act really proud of his work. He get soooo frustrated with the purple and tan rings (the two biggest ones) because they are the toughest ones to balance- he sometimes stomps off in a huff when they finally drive him nuts. We let him fail to balance these all the time, and try not to giggle at his little tantrums, because Matt and I agree it is very good for him to try and fail at this sort of baby-learning task.

He also likes balancing big things on little things. Like empty milk jugs on top of coffee mugs, or a book on top of a toy. And he like to stack his cars on top of each other, which makes me giggle because they often look like they are mating. Yes, I know that is all in my head, but it is still funny.

Last but not least, he's learned that he can climb stuff by throwing his outstretched foot onto the edge of it. As opposed to the technique he employs for the stairs, which is all about his knees, this is more versatile and allows for conquering taller objects. The two things he most often climbs onto using his new foot-stretching technique is the back and front deck. Which is cute, but of course then he has to get down. We are still working on safe methods for getting off the decks!