Distractable baby is determined

Most of the time, Rip is very easily entranced by the things around him. He moves a little bit, he sees something shiny and exciting, and he stops to admire it and poke it and play with it. (Oooooh, BOX! Open! Close!! Open! Close! OPEN! Close! Oh! Oh! Oh! Will it open again? YAY! OPEN! -- I think my father had it pegged with his "being a baby is a little bit like being drunk" comment way back when Jolly was a baby.) I think his general contented nature and his delight in pretty much anything is a big part of why he hasn't pursued mobility more aggressively, and why he still isn't ricocheting off the walls like other babies who learn how to move under their own steam usually do.

However, the other day is one of my favorite Rip moments. He was scooting across the room while Jolly played, and then cackled and headed direction kitchen, where I was prepping food. I was sure he wanted to be underfoot and preventing my work, or possibly be carried. He reached the gate, installed above the ground for our cats to be able to get under, and wasn't able to go further. Queue whining "Uuuuuuuuhh! Uuuuhh!" stuck sounds. Reluctantly, I lifted him over the hurdle, and then went back to my cutting board. "Hnnn! Hnnn! Hnn!" went Rip, and scooted towards me. I expected he would clamp onto my legs, but no, he went past me. "Hnnn! Hnnn! Hnnnnn!" Ah, it's the peaches at the end of the kitchen! Peaches are his favorite fruit, and there was an entire pallet of them just sitting there on the ground. Rip did indeed briefly stick out one finger to gently touch a peach with his trademark single finger, made a pensive "Hmmm?" sound, but then he scooted onwards. Oh man, did he really want to get into the forbidden electronics in the reading room? "HNNNNNN! Hnnnnh! Hhhhnn!" and he scooted super fast across the room and then made it to the desk, where Ephiny was working from home. Rip turns to me and gives me this huge, ear-splitting smile, like, "look who I found?" and pulls himself up and looks super pleased with himself, as though it's his own mobility that has made Ephiny appear at home when usually she is not. She picked him up, and he made a very happy "Hnnnnnhuhuhuh!!" cackle. And for his efforts he got to "help" Ephiny with work for a little bit.

I think he's going to be a long, long time crawling and walking, since his ballet-dancer butt-scooting seems to have reached very effective locomotion status. I'm just thrilled we have such a super-happy, cheerful little guy in our youngest.