8 months

As of yesterday, Lucy is two thirds of a year old.  She is a feisty sweet baby girl who is speeding through  her first year with gusto.  

I heard her on the monitor this morning talking to herself in her crib (don't get the wrong idea here - she only spent about half the night in there).  I went in a few minutes later and she was curled up with her "lovey" - a soft and furry mini-blanket - sucking her thumb and just hanging out.  When she wakes up in our bed (as she does most mornings), she spends a few minutes snuggling with us and her thumb, and then she's ready to go, climbing all over us and heading straight for the edge of the bed and whatever adventure she'll find there.
Lucy is one part sweet tempered and one part determined.  She loves to be held and will usually be calm and easy in our arms.  When she's on her own though, she's on the move.  She is a curious girl and adamant about satisfying her curiosity.  Immediately.  Sometimes she'll entertain herself with her toys, but more likely she heads straight for trouble...the dog's water dish, a stack of magazines, the bits of breakfast under the boys' chairs.  Everything goes in the mouth.  Everything.  If it's on the floor it's in her mouth.  We've been so careful about introducing new foods, but when I found a piece of dogfood in her mouth the other day I realized that my careful attention to her diet is no match for her curiosity.

She climbs the entire staircase unassisted.  She gets up to a wide-legged stance on her own and will stand there grinning for longer than you think she should.  She loves the animals and she loves her brothers.  She has an easy smile and glimmers of what will someday be a sense of humor shine through more and more each day (an important asset in this family of ours)!

We're still not sleeping much around here, and sometimes juggling three kids, homework and piano lessons, two full time jobs, various home improvement projects, and all the friends and family we love and don't see enough gets a little ridiculous, but we wouldn't trade it.  At least we're never, EVER bored.

stalking the cat

Lucy loves the cat.  Every time the cat tiptoes by, Lucy gets a huge grin on her face and waves her arms around.  Lucy loves to grab the cat's tail, and all Freya does is get sort of a pained expression on her face and do her best to squirm out of the baby's grasp....

...and run for the door.  But Lucy has some speed now, and she stalks the cat wherever she goes.  Loves the tail.  LOVES the tail.  

Fridays with Lucy

 I don't work much on Fridays.  Well, that's not exactly true.  I do get some work done, but it's the day I do it with Lucy.  No child care on Fridays.  (Unless I panic because I haven't gotten enough done during the week, in which case I call Joel and he talks me down and takes Lucy to work with him for a while.)
Today I put Lucy to sleep for her nap in the ergo and transferred her to her crib, all while on a conference call.  I worked on a report during her naps and made some phone calls while she was playing with her new push toy (see picture above) and spread the recycling around the kitchen (no picture of that, sorry).  I'll pay for it this weekend when I have to find a few hours to finish my report, but I wouldn't trade this day of walking in the sunshine and building blocks with my girl for anything.

Sweet potatoes....mmmm

When she's done eating she tells us by putting her thumb in her mouth.  Early baby sign language?