A month or so before his first birthday Ivan is a real athlete. He is so strong, I sometimes feel he is stronger than Maia at the moment (who is 2 years older than him). This is nothing new, of course, we have got used to him being much more difficult to handle already for months. Putting his legs or arms into a body is a real struggle. His kicks and sudden twists never stop, and my mother and Emese delegate the changing to me whenever possible. Could be the man's nature. Could also be individual - someone has to inherit my mother's sports spirit after all.
As part of the picture, Ivan has been crawling for more than 2 months now. Originally he started just pulling himself ahead on his arms, almost without using his legs. Yesterday I saw him for the first time to raise on four legs and crawl in the usual way, and Emese confirmed that he has been doing this for some time already.
More impressively, for over a month now, he is keen to stand on his feet, and does it more and more confidently. As mentioned already his legs are strong as stones. These days he is able to stand up on his own, whenever there is anything to lean on, and then he can stand for 10, 20 minutes or more, happily observing the world from a vertical view point. Stepping is still unknown to him as a concept, perhaps because he tends to do it on his toes - that I admit must be my genes' fault.