Crab Crawl and Drinking from a straw

Today was a fun day with Alex. He has always had a bit of a strange crawl. He pushes off with his right foot flat on the floor and drags his left leg. This weekend he has decided to change it up, instead of crawling the old way he is now sticking his butt in the air and crawling with both feet flat on the floor crab-style. It is really funny to watch and his almost as fast doing it his new way and it makes for less red knees. He is full or bruises right now because he is getting more brave by the minute. Sometimes he decides to go headfirst off the step instead of turning around. This is not good technique and we always remind him that he needs to go backwards. He gets lots of practice at this because we have one step down between our dining room and his play area. He also is pulling himself up on things and walking along them as much as possible. When he runs out of room, sometimes he a will take a wobbly step or two which often results in falling down. Sometimes he seems incredibly coordinated and that he is just holding off on walking. Other times I look at him and think that he needs more practice because he is so unsteady. Things seem to be coming together for him so it will probably be any day now for him to let go and explore the world on two feet.
We went out to breakfast today at Perkins and Alex had success drinking from a straw for the first time. We forgot to bring his sippy cup and he was getting a bit antsy so Justin tried the kiddie cup with a straw. At first Alex just chewed on the straw, but them Justin showed him how to suck from a straw and amazingly he copied him! Alex then became so excited that he could drink from the straw that he drank 2/3 of his cup of juice before his breakfast came. That was a bit much for his stomach and he overfilled himself which caused some to come back up. We decided that this was a good time to go home.
He went to bed early tonight because he did not take a morning nap. Hopefully he will not leak out of his diaper tonight like last night. I made sure to wash his bedding right away this morning just in case we need to change it again. It is amazing how much liquid that boy can take in.