A new favorite picture of Emily. This was at a Red Robin restaurant in Calabasas, on our way back from San Diego. For some reason, Emily loved this place--she flirted with the customers and staff, in between expressing skepticism at something her mom was saying, as indicated by the photo.

Because she's moving around so much, there have been several mishaps the last two days, including her pulling a floor lamp over thanks to my negligence (why I thought she couldn't pull over this cheap, flimsy lamp is beyond me); luckily it scared her more than anything. Apparently I have to be more vigilant; she's very strong, and able to get into all sorts of trouble. I looked over a little while ago and she had somehow pulled my wallet off of the coffee table and was rifling through my credit cards. She's discovered that there are goodies on top of this table (watches, keys and so on) and usually makes a beeline for it whenever you put her on the floor.

See Emily Play

So Emily is getting bigger and bigger, and let's face it, a lot more interesting, obviously from an adultcentric point of view. She's moving around now like crazy--you have to watch her all the time--and saying things that sound very much like actual words, or at least good attempts at actual words. This, by the way, does not seem much like the product of linear development--she went from not being able to crawl at all (except scooting backwards) to crawling at will, and fast. We were caught almost completely unprepared.

She's really an amazing little baby. I don't mean that she's some kind of genius (how most parents around here see their children); I mean that she's kind and sweet and loves to laugh. She's (still) so patient with our lousy parenting--our fumbling attempts to change her diaper, clothe her (ok, I'm more fumbling than J), put her in her carseat (I typically bang her head on the roof of the car), and so on. Even when she's crying, she tries to regain her good humor. Sob, smile, sob.

Big event

Emily is crawling. Just now ( Thursday, 1:45 pm). Though apparently this isn't such a big deal, we've been told. Sitting up is a much bigger developmental milestone, and she's been doing that for a while now. Some babies never really crawl--they scoot around a little and then start walking. Still, I'm glad, for her sake--she's been getting very frustrated by objects that are out of reach, and now she can get to them. You're not supposed to move things closer to her, but usually we do because we can't stand to see her so unhappy.