Since this is, technically, also a family blog:

I know....after the list of things I posted today, you're sure you're looking at the blog of an English teacher, right? Maybe a copy editor?

Yeah, being a mom doesn't beat those things out of you. Moms still have interests and talents, believe it or not.

But, since moms are ALSO interested in their children, here is the monthly baby update.

Nathanael turned 8 months old on the 9th of Sept. About a week ago, he started talking. He says, "This" and "That" and points with his pudgy fingers and seems to know what those words mean. He also says, "Is? Is?" meaning "What is this/that/it?" It's very cute.

Then tonight, he crossed whatever barrier was holding him back and started crawling around the room. Slowly. But he crossed the room in both directions by himself. He's my first child to crawl using the normal crawling position--two hands and two knees. Everyone else crawled two hands, one knee, and one sideways leg or foot so they could get to sitting really fast and get playing with whatever they caught.

So now I'm looking around with an eye to baby-proofing.