Lift me up, please

It doesn't take long before a baby cottons on to how they can play you at your own game. We hold our arms out to our baby before we pick him up and he started to respond by lifting his own up towards us, a sort of acknowledgment that he was about to be picked up, which we thought was sweet. But now he has gone one step further. My husband was trying to tidy the room while the baby sat on the mat with toys. But he was getting bored and kept throwing away the toys and whinging. My husband, needing a few extra minutes to finish tidying, attempted to pacify him with offers of different toys. But the baby wasn't about to be fobbed off like that. Instead, he raised his arms up to my husband, clearly signaling wanting to be picked up. It's a small step, but a giant leap as it were, because once he's realised that, there are an awful lot more steps along that road. "I wonder what his voice will sound like?" said my husband one day. I think we're going to find out pretty soon, and after that it won't be silent signals, it'll be full on, loud requests that are a lot harder to ignore. Recently, walking along a busy road with my pram and fairly silent baby I came across two grandparents being held hostage by a toddler in a little red coat, who was crouched in a heap, screaming her head off about something while the two of them attempted to pacify her. I smiled sympathetically and the woman, seeing my small baby smiled back. "All still to come," she prophesied.
Can't wait.
Gulp.