Harry knows his ABC's...or at least QRS!

Baby Einstein is beginning to lose it's affect! Harrison is not as glued to the tube as he used to be when we popped in a DVD. I swear we are not those people who pop in DVDs or turn on the TV to use it as a baby sitter. We do not think TV is evil, quite the contrary, but we do think TV time should be limited, and should be used as a tool.
So, Harry usually watches Baby Galileo upstairs every morning. It helps us to get some extra sleep, or to get ready for work. Some afternoons, especially if there is only one of us home, we might pop in a DVD if Harry needs help unwinding before dinner, or just to give ourselves some time to prepare his dinner. Now that he is more mobile though, he is losing interest. He is very good at playing by himself, but he is looking for a bigger playground. We have baby proofed reasoanbly well...or at least we had, before he started crawling up steps! Still, when he is moving around, we like to keep an eye on him. Knowing he is watching TV takes a load off...
Another theory of why he is not as interested in Baby Einstein is that now that he is getting older, he is just plain not interested in them. So, I turned on an episode of Sesame Street that Tivo so kindly recorded for us. I was hoping that might be the next step. A month ago, he was not the least bit interested. He seems to like the singing now, though, possibly because we have been listening to Toddler Tunes on the CD player, and singing a lot of them at other times (mostly because once they are in your head, they do not leave!) . So, to my surprise, while they were singing the ABC song, Harry joined in on "QRS!" I guess other than "mum!mum!mum!" QRS may have been his first word! Does that count as a word?
Back to Harry's mobility...the Exersaucer is headed to the garage and there is a new tunnel and playhouse in its place (see photo of tunnel). Harry scoots through the tunnel with ease. Today was his first day in the playhouse. It has two doors. He hung out at one door playing peek-a-boo (or our version, rather- "Where's Harry?") then crawled right out of the other door and up the step. Two seconds flat to get up! He's moving!
He is also developing quite a will of his own. He will definitely move things away if he doesn't like it, such as his sippy cup if he is not thirsty or your hand if it is on his dancing monkey toy keyboard. He is actually not very rude about it, he just knows what he wants.
He also seems to understand the word "No," but he does not seem to like it. He seems to know now that "no" means he is not supposedto do somthing. He seems determined to do what he wants anyway, and he is willingto wait it out. Tonight his father told him not to drop his dinner (a waffle) on the floor. He thought about it, hand held over the side of the highchair, then replaced the waffle on the tray. ABout 6 minutes later, Harry was sitting quietly in his chair when Kevin left the room. Without skipping a beat, our eight month old picked teh waffle up, dropped it on the floor, and immediately went back to what he was doing, as though nothing had happened! I explained to him (with a serious face) that this was bad, and that he is a child and needs to listen to what we tell him...but I couldn't help but be more than a little bit impressed!