Curious and incredibly long-armed baby!

You know what's worse than waking up every three hours with a newborn? Waking up every three hours with a nearly-eight-month-old who's conditioned you to 12-hour nonstop sleep blocks and is now breaking that pattern, presumably because of a growth spurt. Oi.

But anyway. This otherwise-totally-awesome baby has developed a curiosity that is only matched by her suddenly astounding wingspan. She can reach ANYTHING, and she wants to put it in her mouth, and she thinks you should think it is as totally awesome as she does! Recently her choice of chew toys has included an envelope (which was almost worth the very strange look on her face as she considered the three-inch piece of it that got plastered to the roof of her mouth, which I had to dig out very much against her will), the edge of the table at Celia's, R's house slipper and my flip-flop. And yesterday, futzing around in her crib instead of taking a much-needed nap, she found the cord to the baby monitor and started yanking on it -- necessitating both the lowering of the crib mattress (which we were going to have to do anyway, what with her standing and all) and the threading of said power cord through some picture hooks up near the ceiling instead of letting it dangle down behind the crib.

In other news, we had a visit Saturday from friends I&K and their little Theo (three weeks younger than Annika); the two babies assessed each other, decided there was no threat, and happily milled about on the floor while the adults enjoyed an adult beverage and some doughnuts. Wednesday evening, friends K&K and young Skyler came over to babysit Annika while we went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; we will be returning the favor this Wednesday -- a wee babysitting co-op takes its first steps! The people we used to go see movies with are now the people we trade kid duty with in order to see movies alone ...