If Big Brother stands up, why can't I?

Jacob, in a big dern hurry to do whatever Big Brother is doing, pulled himself up to a standing position today. He'd been working on this new task for a few days now, usually on Big Brother's homemade train table (pictured here). While sitting, he'd plop his chunky little arms on the table's surface and then sloooooooowly drag himself to where he was "standing" on his knees. He couldn't quite figure out how to get those floppy little feet where they were supposed to be, and attempts to stand on them while they were tilted at various ugly angles only resulted in horrible little purple streak-bruises where he'd bonk his head on the table's edge.

This evening he figured it all out while we were, of all places, in the bathtub. Now, before you ring up CPS, I must describe to you our "new" bathtub routine. About 6 weeks ago, Sir Fatty Fatness outgrew the much-loved ducky tub and thusly graduated to baths in the Big Boy Tub. He could not yet sit up, and we are too lazy to buy any of these fancy bath-chairs or whathaveyou, so I climbed in there with him. He sat between my legs and got all scrubbed up with no concern about him sloshing this way and that. At first, he seriously disliked this new bathtub thing, so to make him more at ease, we reverted to our old tactics of bathing everyone at the same time. Though a little more crowded, this was less complicated than before, because with all three of us in the tub I really can bathe everyone at once. Jakey is constantly entertained by Isaac and his tub toy productions, and Isaac, well, he entertains himself, and usually doesn't make threatening advances towards Baby Brother. And so far there have been no dookies. Everybody wins!

Tonight, we lingered in the tub a bit playing with Isaac's new Toy Story bath toys, bought in a moment of weakness when we hit "The Mickey Store" during our mall-walk today. Jacob noticed the edge of the tub and started climbing it, hoisting his girth slowly up the wall, with my hands constantly at the ready in case he should slip. He didn't. His little wayward feet finally figured out what to do and found their way flat to the floor of the tub. Soon he was standing straight up, looking to and fro as if he'd been doing it all along.

Next stop? The coffee table!