{Playing Catch-Up}: Ree at Eight Months

Aaaand skipping right over the very wonderful age of seven months, because her delinquent mother utterly forgot to take seven month pictures -- it was December, the month of craziness -- here is Miss Marie at eight months old, back in January.

She really, really wanted to crawl.  She was so close!  All day, every day, it was the Reach-Forward-Until-You-Belly-Flop-And-Cry-About-It routine.



And, as it turns out, it's hard to take pictures of babies who have a habit of constantly lunging forward.

You get the idea.

No glossing over the stark truth here: at eight months old, Ree was kind of what you might call a horrible sleeper.  And had been for a while.  Master of the 45 minute catnap, queen of the night wakings, she ruled the house with an iron fist.

Her big sister could sometimes be heard sighing and then saying, "You silly baby, you just won't sleep!"

Wonder where she heard that from?  I was just glad she was imitating the more cheerful of the phrases that got uttered around here when piercing screams were heard all-too-soon over the monitor time and time again.

Aside from not sleeping, her abilities expanded to include being able to pull herself up to a stand on any pair of adult hands she could find, with only the slightest bit of assistance.  She loved being in a standing position, the better to display the soft sweet chunkiness of her thighs, I presume.

And her vocal repertoire made prominent feature of adorable sounds like "Haaaaaaah" and "ahbaaaah."

Adored by her big sister, sung to frequently and loudly by the same, and occasionally mauled {with the best of intentions} until a parent intervened.

 Marie Aurelia, we love you so.

PS: