More on Joy. I am currently downloading pictures of her from my camera. Like I said before, Tim tried taking a picture of Joy walking to me, but it looks like she's reaching out for my hand and not really walking on her own.

Earlier in the day I took a pic of her standing on the coffee table, one of her favorite pieces of furniture to climb. She's so conditioned to me taking pictures that now whenever she sees the camera she stops whatever she was doing that I wanted to photograph and looks at me. She was determined to get to the coasters, another favorite. She likes to chew on them, bang them, and throw them. Truly, a multi-purpose toy :)

Ah well, more later. It's getting late and I need to sleep.

SHE WALKED!!!!!!! Honest to goodness. Just now. Josh was playing with her, teasing her with her See 'n'Say and she took 2 steps. Josh called my attention to it. They were literally "baby steps". But then he moved further back, held out the See'N'Say and she took 4 steps unsupported!!!!!

I was thinking about blogging earlier today to show her new fave thing ...climbing on furniture, but this is cooler. We tried taking a picture, but a digital camera is too slow to catch the action when you don't know when it's going to happen. Josh thinks I need to call all the relatives and let them know. ... She's 4 days shy of 9 months and just about walking 8sigh*. I'm proud and ... very very afraid. At least she still thinks crawling is faster...

I just read over the last few posts ... from crawling to taking first steps/walking in just over two months ... is it just me, or is that a little fast?

I think Joy said "Mama" this afternoon (ok, yesterday afternoon now by the clock). I called Tim when it happened. Joy was crying and crawling towards me. She grabbed my pant leg, said "Mama" through her tears and starting pulling on the leg. I picked her up ... it was nap/feeding time. She can eat and snooze at the same time. This is not always conducive to actually getting anything done around here.


Anyways, Joy does babble a lot .. and the last few days it's sounding more and more like words. Very exciting ... and very ... disappointing. I want my baby to stay a baby *whine*pout*cry*. I'm not ready for her to grow this fast!

And to top it all off, she's bona-fide cruising like it's second nature. Her big feat today ... going from me to the video case. It's almost two steps and she had to let go of me for a split second before grabbing the case. She's going to be walking way too soon for my likes. OH! before I forget, she's also mastering climbing.

I had one of the cushions off the couch and she managed to climb up on the couch and then onto the middle cushion. I have one of those babies who has figured out climbing before walking ... though I guess this shouldn't surprise me since she has *always* loved to scoot up me and Tim and anyone else who will hold her long enough .... and Lord knows she's been climbing up me for months now. i guess I just never translated that into actual *climbing* ,... on things.

Well, I best get to bed. I'm starting to be incoherent.