I am sorry for not getting these pictures up sooner. I have no excuse.

Oh! Wait! I do.

This week we have received our newest model Claire Helen style baby. It can pull up to standing by itself, and particularly enjoys doing so in its crib. Unfortunately, when you are ordering your model 8.5m Claire Helen stander upper, the standard package does not come with the necessary accessory part, the "return to sitting" program. It's like when you are trying to order a digital camera online, and see it really cheap on this one site, and can't figure out why, but figure, hey? Cheap camera! I'm seven months pregnant and need a camera so I can post pictures online for distant relatives to see- what could go wrong? And then the camera comes and it doesn't have a lens or a battery or any memory, and is basically a button that you push that would result in a camera taking a picture if you happened to own the other ninety percent of the camera. Not that this has happened to me.

So anyhoo. She can't sit back down on her own,* but can get to standing up from lying down pretty quickly, so when I put her down for a nap, she says "Look! Crib rails! Those are perfect for pulling up on!" So she pulls up to standing, and hangs out babbling for a minute, before becoming incensed that I have not returned to sit her back down, entirely missing the point of my putting her in the crib, which was for a nap, as we may recall from the beginning of this very long sentence.

There has not been whole lot of sleeping going on around here. My compatriots tell me this will not last long. I hope they are right.

She has also been talking a little more, although she is still not a command performance kind of gal, as countless grocery store clerks who have tried to get her to laugh or wave will tell you. But she will point out the kitty on occasion (ah KEE, because whenever we point out a cat, we say "Look, Claire Helen! A kitty." So she thinks the word is "a kitty." Pretty sweet, huh?), and responds to "Hi" about 30 percent of the time (with "iii" and a floppy wristed wave).

* Without hurting herself at least, which the scratch on the side of her head can attest to. All the baby books say that this is not true, that they will just tumble into an innocuous heap, but apparently those things were not written by people who have ever seen actual babies.

But before all the standing and talking, grandma H was here. Here are some pictures! We had a nice time. Happy Easter, by the way! I hope the Easter bunny leaves you all lots of goodies. I have been taking my Easter Bunny status very seriously, and could feed all of Gambia pretty easily, if Gambians were willing to subsist entirely on candy coated chocolate eggs.