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.