With all that's going on in the world today, my goal with this entry is not to get *too* heavy. Just a fun little pause to celebrate the ever continuing saga of "Alexander Grows Up." Alexander Benjamin has begun crawling, as of a couple days ago. And today, he turned eight months old.

He's not super fast at crawling (yet), but he can go a fair distance now without having to stop and think about what he's doing. This time last week, he'd go about one and a half paces forward, then get back into a sitting up position before moving ahead again. Made for slow progress.

We haven't child-proofed the house yet. Is that a bad thing?

Actually, Paulette has at least started to gather the chemicals from underneath the sinks and put them up on high shelves. And I make sure to unplug the phone wires before letting him play with them. So we're making *some* progress.

We've also started to watch what we say around the little guy. Paulette and I are keeping a running total of verboten words that the other says in daily conversation. This started when I suggested that Paulette uses colorful language more often than I do. She disagreed, and so the running tally began. She's winning so far. I think the score is something like 427 to 1. We started two days ago.

Another recent change as Alexander hits the two-thirds-of-a-year-old mark: his strong grip has become a vice grip. And his fingernails have become claws. My left arm is covered in short, deep scratches. When I change his diaper on the changing table, I always set him down so his head is to my left and his bottom to my right. As I undress him, etc., he likes to reach down and grab my left arm. Youch!

Alexander is generally a happy baby. He recently recovered from a cold, which wasn't necessarily his most favoritest experience, but he still spends more of the day smiling than complaining. That's just fine with me.

And while I want to keep the news in today's entry all about Alexander, there is something on my mind that keeps me from ending on a completely happy note. (Although, how could one look at that face and *not* be happy?)

We just received word a few days ago that little Alexander will soon have an even littler cousin. My brother-in-law phoned us with the news that he and his wife are expecting their first child to arrive later this year. The news is bittersweet, however. Lee phoned us from Ft.