Our Little Explorer

So, Ethan has become a little more mobile over the past little while, which means he's been getting into all kinds of things. He quickly went from the rolling army crawl, to a real crawl with perfect form, to pulling himself up on things within just the last two weeks. Of course, his preferred mode of transportation is walking while I hold his hands and he leads me all over the place reveling in his new found freedom; however, I don't know how long my back will handle it. If I sit him down, he cries and tries to climb up my legs until I pick him up. Then he pushes himself out of my arms until I help him walk around. If I leave him on the floor and walk away, he'll follow me, and though it may sound comical, sometimes I find myself running from my baby as he chases me around the apartment. It's a little hard to get anything done this way. It's especially hard to make a trip to the bathroom. I've found myself using strategies such as setting him down in the furthest reaches of the apartment, (which isn't that far considering there's only two rooms) and running to the bathroom. I can usually finish before he gets there, but if not I find myself throwing things such as brushes or vitamin bottles to distract him from coming and trying to climb up my leg. Ugh, is there no such thing as privacy in motherhood? I guess in a way it's a good thing he's so determined to come after me, or he'd probably just get himself into trouble. In fact, he's already had his first major boo boo from pulling himself up on the cupboard door while getting into the pots and pans cabinet. Let's just say pajamas with slippery feet and hard floors are a bad combination. He fell and conked his head on the edge of the bottom of the cabinet, and gave himself quite the goose-egg and a gash. You can kind of see it in the close-up picture to the right, but it's been four days and I've learned that babies heal quickly. He also threw himself off the changing table, trying to roll over and get to Richard's clothes that are hanging below him, (we don't really have a changing table, we just extended one of the shelves in our closet and put one of those curvy foam pads on it). Luckily he fell between the clothes and the wall, and that slowed his descent, plus he went feet first and I caught him before he landed. I think he was more scared than hurt.
Anyway, it's been fun watching him make new discoveries, and it's also been a challenge keeping up with him and baby-proofing things. It's definitely a learning experience for both of us.