He's got skills

Everyday, Tanner is doing something new. The past 2-3 weeks seem to have been an explosion of new skills. Here's a few of his recent developments. 

• Sits up for long periods of time without any assistance. We even try to push him over and he stays up!
• Grabs feet and pulls them up to his chest. It started with just grabbing the toes of his right foot, then the whole foot, then both feet. Pretty soon they'll be in his mouth!
• Spots an object and reaches toward it slowly with pure intent, then grabs it and tries to bring to his mouth. Depending on how big it is, he can hold it long enough to on it. He can do this in our lap and sitting up on the ground
• Grabs our plates at the dinner table. 
• Reaches to type on the keyboard.
• Squeals, gurgles, and coughs for fun
• Watches his Daddy everytime that Daddy talks or makes a new sound (like coughing, grunting, hooting at the ball-game, etc)
• Looks around the house in the evening, almost like he wonders where his Daddy is
• Grabs the pages of books and tries to hold and turn the pages. He also strokes the pages on touch/feel books and any book, for that matter. When we make animal sounds while reading to him, he'll turn around and look up at our face/mouth. Last night, he make silly sounds while I read to him.
• Splashes tons in the bath. This is amazing to me because in just the last 3 times that he's taken a bath, he has gone from no splashing to practically kicking all the water out of the baby tub. He looks very seriously at the water and then lets lose with his hands or legs. Last night, he also tried grabbing the bubbles that formed in the water from all his splashing.
• Controls his pacifier. Yesterday, his pacifier fell out of his mouth onto the collar of his shirt. He reached up, grabbed the paci, and pushed it back into his mouth! This was probably just a fluke. Usually, he pulls it out, and then sucks on the hard plastic. He can also yawn and burp in such a way that the paci stays in his mouth.
• Smiles when I sing to him
• Giggles and beams when we rough house with him. He loves to be thrown in the air, bounced on one knee, dropped into piles of blankets, tickeled by Jeremy's foot, hung upside down, and dangeled by his limbs. What's really funny about all this is that both me and Jeremy fling him around, but we both try to boss the other person around. If I'm dangling or tossing Tanner, Jeremy says "be careful with his neck, watch out! You're being too rough!" And then when Jeremy throws him around, I turn into the protective one. It's weird how we switch roles back and forth.
• Arches his back to try and get out of his Bumbo seat. Not yet! I want him to stay in that thing for at least 4 m ore months.
• Did I mention that he grabs EVERYTHING?! Last week, at church he seized 3 water cups from the water tray that they pass during sacrament. We were not expecting that at all. Even a day earlier, he wouldn't have done that. It's amazing how quick these babies learn!