With both Lisa and Mathias battling a virus this week, I stayed home yesterday morning to provide support, and as a result had the privilege of watching Mathias sit himself up for the first time.

Lisa was out for a few hours, and I was hanging around in the living room with the little one, him resting in the dip in my lap. He was in a bit of a grabbing mode, so I put out my two pointer fingers for him to grab. That he did, and after a couple of moments leaned his head forward a bit and then, as if he’d already done it countless times before, just pulled himself up and forward.

I was astonished. “Holy crap, little man, did you just pull yourself up?” He smiled and giggled a bit. I let him sit up for 30 seconds or so, and then gently rested him back down on my legs. Putting my fingers out, he grabbed them like little handle bars, and after another pause lifted himself up a second time. In all, we repeated him sitting up five or six times.

At first I figured this was something Lisa had already seen, another small item I’d missed as a working parent. When Lisa got home, I asked her how long he’d been doing that, and she gave me a look that made it clear that she hadn’t. “How long he’s been doing what?” she asked.

“Sitting up.”

“He hasn’t done that before.” Pause. “Why do you always get to see these things first?” As it happens, I’d been the first to watch him turn over as well.

I picked up Mathias, walked over to the couch and set the two of us down as we’d been sitting earlier. I put out my fingers, and with Lisa watching, he did his baby equivalent of a pull-up. That was an improvement over rolling over, which Lisa still hasn’t seen him do without assistance.

And now the paranoid mom theories have begun. Lisa seems to have convinced herself that Mathias only wants to try this stuff when dad’s around. I think it’s just coincidental, or maybe just the result of me playing with him in different ways than his mom, rather than any preference on his part. Standing and first words are the big ticket items in baby development, and with the time those two spend around each other during the week, I bet she’ll get to see those first.