Pump Up the Volume

Lucy has really been getting her groove on this weekend. Anytime there's music (even if it's just us humming), she's likely to start bobbing around. She especially likes holding onto the edge of her crib - time to lower that mattress again! - and rocking out while we dance along with her. We'll try to post some video of this since it's really adorable.

Now that she can stand up to dance, Lucy has also discovered that her stereo has controls that she can touch. She's really good at turning the volume up.

Climbing Stuff

Lucy had her nine-month check-up last week (she's very healthy and still growing like a champ), and the doctor asked if she was pulling herself up to standing yet. I said not really - a few attempts, but nothing consistent. Lucy took that as a challenge! She worked on it for the rest of the day and through the weekend and now can stand up and pull herself up onto things like stairs and, strangely, boxes. Here she is perched atop an Amazon.com box. What a funny baby!

Mommy's out!

Barbara is out tonight - leaving Lucy and I to fend for ourselves.

Lucy claims the highlight of the evening was our adventure in Costco whereseemingly endless aisles of HDTV's had her cooing and drooling. She did mention that other highlights of the evening included eating turkey way too fast, laughing at Daddy's foot, and refusing to go to bed.

I did manage to get a little video in of our new "steal the sock" game (available in stores this holiday season).

Little Explorer

Lucy is getting into more and more things nowadays. She's still working on pulling herself up to standing (a kneeling stance is as far as she can get), but that doesn't keep her from crawling around (quickly!) and exploring things to her heart's content. She's not opening too many drawers yet, but we know it's just a matter of time.

Baby Friend

Lucy and her old friend Milo got to catch up this morning. There was some bouncing, some crawling, and some cuddling. It was all very cute.

Conquering Stairs

Full disclosure: this photo makes Lucy look a little bit fancier than she actually is. She did get to this position on her own, but couldn't sustain it for more than a second or two. Still, I'm convinced that most of her developmental advances are coming when she's motivated to get somewhere or do something that she's not capable of getting to or doing quite yet, and she's definitely getting curious about the stairs - especially when there's an exciting cardboard box sitting just out of reach.

Bath Time

Lucy has really gotten excited about her bath of late - it's a full-body splashing experience which is very cute to watch. Of course, we often need a towel ourselves after all is said and done, but we don't mind so much.


In other news, Lucy is starting to get some anxiety around strangers - even "strangers" she sees a fair amount. It's an important developmental stage, but one that takes a little more finesse on our part than watching her learn to crawl did.