she's on the move

In a matter of two days, our house has managed to get even crazier that it already was. How this could happen can only be attributed to one thing, and that thing just happens to weigh 18 lbs, have big blue eyes and a smile that could charm a rock. You guessed it - Chloe.

Chloe has always been a busy baby, grabbing at things from the moment she had any sort of control over her little hands. We always assumed she'd be the baby that crawled at 6 months, but fortunately for us, she held out longer than that. I think, though it's amazing how quickly details are forgotten, she started sitting really well around 5 months, and for at least a couple of months, she was content to sit around and watch her older sisters fight play. But the days of contentedness are soon to be forgotten. Chloe has become very vocal about feeling "left out" of situations and gets downright angry if she's left sitting on the opposite side of the room with a pile of toys while the older girls are playing a game of Candyland. I knew it was just a matter of time...

Last night as I was preparing dinner, I left Chloe in the living room playing with her toys on the floor, assuming there wasn't anything she could choke on, electrocute herself with, or possibly pull on top of her head. She was safe and sound, chewing away on the edge of her book. About one minute later, as I'm stirring food on the oven, I hear a squawk not 5 feet from me. I look down to see Chloe, smiling at me on all fours. She had crawled across the living room and positioned herself just at the top of our stairway - um, let me rephrase that - our ungated stairway - in the kitchen. Naturally, I instantly felt the knotinmystomach, imagining all the potential things that could've happened in less than a blink of an eye. Thankfully her little squawk saved her from her first major tumble down the stairs...and my first heart attack that would've gone along with it.

Now that she can get around, there's no stopping her. In two days she went from sitting, with hardly attempting to move, unless it's to purposely tip so she can roll over to a toy, to this:

And if she spots something she wants from across the room, like my camera strap for example, she makes a beeline for it.

She realizes, after the long trek across the room, that's she's getting rather tired...

She's had ENOUGH and fusses and cries and wants Mommy to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way...but WAIT, Chloe...Look!

She lifts her heavy head, blurry-eyed from tears, and sees it dangling all but a few inches from her face...

...And she thinks: "I made it and now I claim it! It's MINE!"

We're really in for it now, aren't we?!?