Tug!

So, The Smiler has been hitting a lot of developmental milestones lately.  He started crawling a few weeks ago and it's super amazing to watch his crawling abilities evolve and improve.  He also started pulling himself up on things a lot more and with much more confidence.  He has figured out a lot of new sounds and babbles much more frequently and at a higher volume.  His signs of desire, pleasure and displeasure have all gotten much clearer, too, and the dreaded back-arching, body flailing, unhappy signal has shown itself several times.  He's cut two teeth in the past two weeks and just turned nine months yesterday.  He's developed his pincer style grip and is showing a lot more interest in foods, his favourites being whichever ones we're eating at the moment; specifically the piece in your hand is the best.

The Culprit

This morning he 'helped' me eat a delicious organic navel orange.  I put the word helped in quotations because his 'helping' consisted of squeezing the wedge as hard as possible (until his little arm was shaking) to release the juices.  Although he quite enjoys the orangey flavour, it appears it is far more enjoyable to squeeze orange juice all over his body and the floor than into his mouth.  This includes getting the little bits of pulp everywhere, too, of course.  Much fun was had at this task.  I didn't mind - I got to eat my muffin in relative peace.

Yesterday afternoon, The Carpenter was playing with the dog and The Smiler on the floor while I got some stuff done.  Daisy (the dog - a puggle) loves her some tuggin' coupled with some fetchin' and The Carpenter usually obliges gladly.  The Smiler delights in watching Daisy run around and play so it works out for everyone.  Once she's fetched the toy, Daisy will gleefully shake it to death in her mouth, snapping her head side to side, snuffling and grumbling.  It's really quite cute.  The Smiler was very much enjoying this part of the game and even picked up one of his own toys and shook it around with the same enthusiasm.  We, of course, were fawning over his adorable display.

The Accomplice

 After a while, The Smiler was showing interest in Daddy and the dog's game so Daddy started trying to show him how to tug.  It immediately struck me that this was probably not a good idea.  I had visions of The Smiler playing tug with other children (bad idea), cats (even worse idea) or, eventually, us (shudder).  I expressed my sentiment to The Carpenter, he agreed and stopped the show, both of us patting ourselves on the back for a possible future parenting issue averted.

 After demolishing his orange wedge this morning, however, he cheerfully crawled over to the dog laying in her bed.  I said, "Oh, are you going to say hi to Daisy?  Such a nice boy you are to say good morning to the dog!"  He he he....  He grabbed her toy and proceeded to shake it in front of her in precisely the same way his father does when they play.  She caught on immediately and a gentle (thank you, Daisy) tug session ensued.  Since he was still covered in orange juice, he had bits of toy fluff, lint and dog hair all over him but a good time was had by all, nonetheless.

Still, I can't help but worry how this will translate to playdates and the like.  O_oooo....