Major Milestone Accomplished: Pulling Up

In terms of development, Allie has had her biggest week yet.  First the sudden appearance of three new teeth, then crawling, and then one day later: pulling up!  Please Allie!  Slow down!

Allie loves for me to hold out my index fingers for her to grab.  From a sitting or crawling position, she'll grab one finger, then carefully grasp the other.  Then she'll put one foot underneath her and simultaneously pull with her hands and push with her foot until she's standing up.  Upon successful completion, she always giggles and flashes an extremely proud smile.  She's clearly delighted with her new ability.  It's so funny.

Her ability to both crawl and pull up has created an interesting new 'challenge' for me.  Allie now crawls to my feet and tries to pull up on my pant legs whenever she's bored or wants my attention.  And now that she realizes she can get my attention more easily, she wants more and more of it.  I definitely have to watch where I step; and I often find myself saying things like, "Just a minute baby."  "Let mommy finish getting dressed, please."  "Mommy is making your dinner now.  Can you play with this for just one second?" "Mommy is trying to go potty!" 

I also find that I'm having to clean snot, drool, and other such substances off my pant legs now, instead of just my shirts.  But don't get me wrong, it's all good.  It's just so fun watching her delight in her new skills and immediately start working on her next skill.  It's also fun to see what she tries to get into now that she can.  So far, despite being surrounded by colorful and interesting toys, she's most drawn to paper (which she destroys), electrical cords (which she pulls), my iphone (which she mouths and drools on), and the cat bowls (from which she grabs handfuls of food and deposits onto the floor). 

Here is a picture of Allie pulling up in her crib (after which she became very interested in the bumper tie).