back from outer space

I've had trouble blogging regularly lately. People were sick, stuff happened, then more stuff happened, more people were sick, even more stuff happened, and a few more people were sick just to top it all off. We've had visitors, work issues, household issues, travel document issues, new teeth, and our first big bruise from a crawling/pulling-up/taking-over-the-world accident. And somewhere in there, I got so behind I felt as though would never catch up. Intimidating. Until you decide to just not catch up. Howdy! This is me, livin' in the now.

Today Monroe has taken a new interest in books. She's always liked them (okay, well since she was a few months old she's liked them) but it wasn't until today that I got a sense of her liking the book-like quality of books. Before, it was more about chewing them. :-) Today she seemed to have a limitless attention for her books. In the big squishy yellow chair, she sat in my lap as I read them, one by one. She touched the pictures and turned the pages (almost always in the right direction) and cooed and gurgled. This may sound like typical baby behavior, but this is MY Monroe we are talking about, the thrill-seeker who ceaselessly roves the house looking for something new and dangerous to chew on. I don't think she's sat still in my lap that long outside of nap time since before she learned to roll over! Could she have just a few of my genes in her after all?

Here is one of the many pictures I took for the blog in the past three weeks and never found time to publish: