My time: 4:52, forty seconds faster than average.
Theme: BABY STEPS — the second words of the five themed Across answers describe an infant's typical mobile development. JELLY ROLL, HOUSE SIT, PUB CRAWL, etc.
"Not an original, informally" had me stuck for a bit. I put *RETRO, naturally enough, I thought, but that got me *STRING TIDE on the intersecting Down. It's REPRO, as in short for reproduction.
"Seize the day, and put no trust in the morrow" was written by HORACE, the famous carpe diem of the Odes, book one.
"Shore phenomenon around the time of the new and full moons" is SPRING TIDE. I'm not familiar with this nomenclature. It's not named for the season but from the sense of spring meaning to jump or leap forth. It's the tide of maximal range, near the time of new and full moon when the Sun and Moon are in syzygy — i.e., aligned with the Earth. Spring tides result in high waters that are higher than average, low waters that are lower than average, slack water time that is shorter than average, and stronger tidal currents than average. Neaps result in less extreme tidal conditions. There is about a seven-day interval between springs and neaps.
For "shed tears" I had *WEEP for a while, and that held me up. But "shed" can also be past tense and it's WEPT, argh.
I loved the theme! I like it when words are used two different ways. This was a just-right Monday. A little challenging, not too hard.
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