The end of the world is nigh. Or, at least, we are about to lose that lovely feeling of being able to put our baby down in one spot safe in the knowledge that he will still be in the same place when we get back.

Toby has been able to spin and roll for a few weeks, but in the past day or two he has also started crawling. Well, commando crawling, anyway – that is to say, on his belly using his forearms rather than on all fours. At 8½ months, that is about three weeks later than Isaac and a little slower than average. (Apparently, around half of infants are crawling at seven months, 75% can do so at 10 months, and by 11 months it is closer to 90%.)

He’s a determined little solider as well. Give him a definite objective to aim for – any of Zac’s toys will do – and he will shuffle his way across a room to grasp it. I suspect it won’t be long before he is crawling on all fours, and not long after that he will be on his feet leaning on furniture and cruising around the room. Time to start using the stair-gates again, I think. Our lives are about to get much more complicated – and much more wonderful. Don’t babies just grow up so fast?