EIGHT MONTHS (WELL ALMOST)

As they say about time when it comes to caring for a baby, the hours crawl but the days fly.

Bella's almost eight months old now, and officially has four teeth - the two bottom ones that came in early July, and now two tops ones. For a few weeks, only one of the top teeth erupted and was visible. We'd called her Snaggletooth and Fang. But a trip to Junaluska over the weekend - Junaluska again with the teeth! - pretty much brought out that matching top tooth.

Which made for some rough nights for Jen and I, but her folks met us there and got to spend time with Bella for the first time since March. They loved seeing their first granddaughter, and though she was unsure of them at first she quickly grew to remember and love Noonya and Nana (which is what Wyatt named them when he was a baby). We spent two days in Asheville and got to see Leslie and Amy again, and spent a lot of time just chilling out at the house. Jen got to sleep in, Suzanne would often watch after Bella or take her and Frank to Waynesville for a paper and coffee, and I got to work on cutting back the hedge and weeds along the driveway.

The sad news from our trip was that Erin and Matt Urbanski lost their two-year-old son, Adrian. He had cancer and fought it off, but the chemo treatment did him in. Jen was devastated for them, and has flown up to New York City for a few days to help with the funeral and do anything she can for them. I cannot and do not want to understand what Matt and Erin must be going through. Jen says they are distraught. She's printed something like 260 photos of Adrian to put onto display boards for the visitation and funeral.

That leaves me with Bella for three or four days, my first real solo time with her in a few months. I left my job at the Progress-Argus after 13 years on July 30, and have been home with Bella ever since. She can now stand on her own if she holds on to something, and has assumed the crawling position but has not figured out forward march yet. She likes to do the downward dog yoga position with her head on the floor and her feet and hands planted there, too. She'll rock back and forth on all fours, and has a pretty good backward movement going on now.

All this means we can't leave her anywhere on her own for more than three seconds. She rolls like a tumbleweed, and is always curious about whatever is just out of reach for her. Fortunately, she can also play on her own now for a solid half hour. I can sit her down among some toys and she'll busy herself with them for a while so I can eat breakfast, wash bottles, or type this. What else? She enjoys trying to pull Jen's glasses off her face, peed on me the other day after I had put her diaper on a little lopsided, is fascinated by Kelly Teasley's painting we have, sits up in the bathtub, weighs about 17 pounds, is the tallest baby we know, and is vocalizing like a wild monkey.

That last bit is funny. She howls and screams and basically makes high pitched sounds often, which makes taking her out in public a bit dicey. Some folks might think she is in pain or being abused, but she's really just testing her vocal chords out. And I finally got her saying "ma, ma, ma, ma, ma" even though she has not idea what it means. I worked with her while I was on paternity leave to make the "m" sound, and take it from the "ah" sound she already had. She also says "hey" all the time, and we say it right back to her.

She still enjoys lying on her back and kicking her legs, and it's priceless to watch Jen do the same and mimic Bella's kicks.

Bella has also developed a Popeye face in which she screws up her mouth and squints her eyes. She uses this most often in the high chair when something we're trying to feed her doesn't agree with her highly developed taste buds.

Basically, life is good. We're moving into a new rental house in a few weeks if all goes according to play. We opted not to buy anything now since my house in Jackson is hanging over my head like an albatross. I can't get rid of it, and it's killing me. I'm working on the History of Jackson book about three hours a day and starting to interview folks for that. I'm thoroughly enjoying it all, as I am enjoying the new computer we bought for me to use.