He's trying to grow up

This boy is doing too much. We had to lower his crib this week because he was hanging over the sides every time we walked in the room. I also had to convert his mobile into a music box because he would pull on the animals if he woke up angry in the middle of the night. I put up a plastic cover yesterday to shield him from being able to fall through the railings around the stairs. He still thinks it's great fun to bang on the plastic, but at least I don't have to worry about looking away for one second and having him fall through the bars. His eating has kicked up tremendously. Just last week I was dividing his meals into two, now he eats the whole plate. I cook 1/4 ground oatmeal and mash half a piece of fruit and dice the other half and mix it in for breakfast. Dinner is 1/4 cup brown rice and 1/4 cup veggies mixed in. This used to last 2 days, but this week he started crying when the food stopped so we added more and he finished it all. I'm going to have to increase his lunch/snack too.  I like his midday meal to be a self serve meal and it used to be cheerios and puffs but I started adding in a diced fruit or vegetable too this week. He has no teeth, but he will happily gum some diced apples, carrots, grapes, pears, mango, squash, and blueberries. We're going on a 6 hour road trip this weekend to visit my family. We rented a mini van and we're leaving at 11 pm. Can we say a prayer that he sleeps the whole trip? My parents are going with us and they act like it's the end of the world if King Judah cries, so I'm hoping for stellar behavior.

MrC and I have taken up betting as a hobby lately the prizes so far have all been an extra piece of bacon. We're placing bets on when Judah will start walking. Here are the stats: he started crawling at 7 months, would push a box standing up at 8 months, learned how to get down from a standing position voluntarily at 9 months and also started to pull up on everything and keep his balance  at 9.5 months. I think he'll start walking at 11 months just to give me something else to do. MrC thinks 13 months because he doesn't stand on his own yet and I won't buy him any real shoes. If we hold his hands and ask him to walk, he acts like he doesn't want to do it. If we hold his hands while he's standing on something like a doctors table, he'll walk right on over to the edge because he wants to scare everybody and be dangerous.  I hope we're both wrong because I'm not ready for a walking child yet. Once they walk, they run and I have a feeling this kid will be a runner. Anybody care to place a bet?