As the little guy gets more comfortable walking around, he also falls more.  And along with those calls comes getting up so that he can walk and fall again.  He is venturing out further and further away from things he can use to help him get up, so he has had to learn to stand up on his own.

His first attempts came just a few days ago, and it was the most physically difficult way possible to stand up: “the weightlifter.”  He would get to both knees, then step up with one foot. Then, step up with the other one, all while keeping your balance.  Basically he looked like those huge guys in the Olympics who put massive amounts of weight above their heads.  When he was doing this we cheered him on and congratulated him for standing up, but you could see in his head that this standing method would be short-lived.

Next up was the “butt-in-the -air.”  He used to love to do the downward dog pose back when he was learning to crawl, so maybe there was some muscle memory.  Basically he would go all the way up on all fours while sticking his butt in the air, and the higher it got, the closer he got to standing – but most often it led to just crawling awkwardly, so he did not keep this one.

Finally after a few short stints on other methods, he has landed on the current one: “crouch-and-up.”  With this one he basically sits on his knees or on his feet (crouching), and he pushes up with his hands. So, this allows him to fall a lot, get up after it quickly and efficiently, and to be ready to walk off again – to fall some more. 😉