Teeth!

As promised, here are the beginnings of Mara's "pearly whites." Can you tell that she's thrilled to have Aaron pulling her lip down like this? (If you click on the picture it will enlarge so that you can see the teeth better.)

Grandma Time

Mara got to see both of her grandma's this week! What a treat for her (and them...except that Mara is exhausting. LOL.)

On Tuesday night, Carol came to take Mara for the night (and the following day) and while Mara was at her house, she became obsessed with a blue rubber duckie. Carol said that she took it with her everywhere they went (Wal-Mart, Carol's office, the Great-Grandparent's house) and would get upset if it was taken away. So, of course, when Mara got home, Aaron took it out of her hands and she threw a fit. Carol just laughed and said, "Told ya." She's been pretty obsessed with it ever since.

"Blue Duckie" went to Grammy Jo's house this weekend and went to the K-day parade with Mara. In fact, I think Blue Duckie went to the pancake breakfast, the K-day parade and to church over the weekend. Grammy Jo got Mara another toy over the weekend too, a baby doll! Mara enjoyed sucking on it's head and feet more than anything else, but that's okay. She'll be playing "house" in no time, I'm sure!



Look closely and you'll see Blue Duckie in Mara's left hand in this picture too.

I *heart* Photoshop

The "Clean Happy Baby" picture from the post below becomes this with a little help from Photoshop! I don't seem to be that great at capturing good "original" pictures, but with a little Photoshopping I can remove the elements I don't like and fancy it up a bit. This has turned into a portrait that I really love. Mara loves it too! I have it framed in her room and she smiles and talks to it. Too funny.

Clean Happy Baby

Daddy gave Mara a "faux-hawk" after her bath today. The pictures don't really capture the "beauty" of the faux-hawk, but they do capture her exuberant smiles! She loves bath time and apparently likes faux-hawks too.

Who's Bob?

Mara's favorite things to try to play with are the cords of a hair dryer and fan that are usually plugged in in our loft. She has even figured out that if she is going towards them that we will not be far behind and she books it with her army crawl when she sees us coming after her. A couple nights ago she started going to the cord and I came out of her bedroom to grab her. When I picked her up she said, "Bob." She said it plain as day. Aaron was sitting at the computer and we both laughed about it. Of course, she had to make another attempt to get the cords and once again I thwarted her and when I picked her up she said, "Bob." Aaron and I cracked up again. The third time it happened I said, "We have to get this on tape," and I ran downstairs to get the camcorder. Of course, the next time she was pulled away from the cords, no "Bob" was uttered. Go figure. So, we kept recording and the next time I pulled her away from the cords she said, "Bob," kind of under her breath and the camcorder didn't pick it up. Last night, the "Bob's" continued each time I snatched her away from the cords, but we were out of tape so we couldn't capture it on camera. I'm starting to think that "Bob" is Mara's version of a cuss word because she only says it when she's frustrated at being pulled away from the cords. Perfect. My 7 month old is cussing in baby talk. I knew I would have my hands full with this little one!

The Pictures Say it All

Yet another "containment" device that our mobile-baby can Houdini her way out of.

Bow Head

I finally found hair bows that will stay in Mara's fine little strands. So, of course, I had to buy 4 of them! 2 purple, 1 pink, and 1 white. The store owner said that the lady who handcrafts the hair bows will be making another batch soon...so Mara is about to have one to match every outfit! Until then, she'll just have to wear this outfit every day since all 4 bows match it.

The New Family

A Week of “Firsts”

This has been quite an exciting week!

Thursday:

Mara got her “first” cousin on my side of the family. Now she has a boy cousin on each side! She’s the only female grandbaby so far.



Friday:

Lots of “firsts” today! As I was getting ready for work, Mara started babbling. It was her first real “babble” and it sounded like she said, “MamaDadaPa.” Charlotte said that she babbled all day at her house too and said, “Mama” a lot. Her babbles and “Mama’s” continued all weekend. Sometimes it even sounds like she’s saying “Mom.” So cute.

Mara also got her first “Kewpie doll” curl today. Charlotte sent her home with this cute little tuft on the top of her head.



While taking pictures of Mara’s Kewpie curl in the crib, she grabbed the rail and pulled up to her feet for the first time! If I hadn’t been right there she would have toppled over the rail because I had it down to take pictures of her. Luckily I was right there to keep her contained and also to take pictures!



Saturday:

Mara rode in her “big girl” car seat for the first time on our way to visit Kade in the hospital. That dang car seat is HUGE, but she loves it because she can see out the windows. She can even see out the back window of the SUV since she sits so high. She babbled happily all the way to the hospital, which was a nice change from the screaming she has been doing in her infant seat.






While we were at the hospital, mom was holding Mara and asked me, “Does she have any teeth yet?” and I said, “Nope, but surely they will be coming soon. She has been teething forever!” Then mom put her finger in Mara’s mouth and said, “She does have a tooth!!! I think it may even be two teeth.” Of course, Mara bit her for sticking her finger in her mouth and that confirmed that there were teeth in there. I went over to check and sure enough, her two front, bottom teeth have come in! They are just barely through the gums so I can’t get a good picture of them yet, but believe me…I tried!!

Sunday:

Aaron and I had a “first” on Sunday. We went to Sunday School at church for the first time, so Mara had to go to the nursery. That was a “first” for her, but the nursery helpers said she did wonderfully and was so sweet and cute.

It was the first time that Mara crawled under her bed too! She mainly just got her head under and then laid down and rolled over to grab some books nearby. She's so crazy.







Every new "first" is so much fun.

My Nephew Has Arrived!

Kaden Donald was born via c-section this morning. I was thrilled to get the call that the baby would be arriving soon (Jen had had a very long night starting the induction process so the c-section came as a relief to everyone) and I left work immediately. I made it just in time to hear the chimes ring in the hospital signaling Kaden's birth. Of course, I cried tears of happiness and couldn't wait for Nick to come out and tell me if I had a niece of nephew! I was the only one in the waiting room when Kaden was born because I was closest to the hospital (my office is only about 30 minutes away) when we got the call about the c-section, but thankfully Mom and Dad, and Bill and Claudette arrived in time to hear the big "reveal" from Nick. It was such a special moment to share with Nick and the grandparents. Jen, Nick, and Kaden are doing well. Nick and Jen are such proud parents and they have every right to be...Kaden is absolutely perfect and handsome in every way.

If you would like to see more pictures of Kaden, click on the link to my picture website on the right-hand side of this page and view the "September 2008" album.

Welcome to the world (and to our family) baby Kaden!

Time for Some Schoolin'

I went to Subway for lunch one day this week and this is how the conversation went with the Subway University Graduate:

Employee: Are you a teacher?
Me: No, why?
Employee: You look like a teacher.
Me: (laughs) I'm not.
Employee: You look like a teacher that I had once, her name was Mrs. Johnson. (looks at me as if asking, "Is that your name?")
Me: Nope, I'm not Mrs. Johnson.
Employee: You look like you should teach reading or something.
Me: Well, if I were going to be a teacher, I would probably be an English teacher, so you weren't too far off.

End of conversation.

As I walked away, I thought to myself, "Why did I say that I would be an English teacher? I never even got the hang of diagramming sentences in the 8th grade! How could I ever teach English?!" I think I probably said it just to make the situation a little less awkward because he seemed almost insistent that I was his beloved Mrs. Johnson and I just wanted to get the heck out of dodge! Quite a strange interaction, not to mention that I was wearing one of my most non-teachery looking shirts, with a somewhat low-cut neckline. I guess Mrs. Johnson must have been well dressed and must have worn shirts with plunging necklines too. No wonder he remembered her!

Friday Night Primetime Viewing

This is what we watch on Friday nights. Aaron and Cassandra give it two thumbs up for comedy and cuteness!

It Feels Like Fall

My external car thermostat said 69 degrees on my lunch hour today and there was a definite chill in the air. I don't think I'm ready for fall yet and I'm especially not ready for what comes after that!

New Tricks!

Mara has learned many new tricks in the last couple weeks.

Crawling into the bottom of the exersaucer to retrieve toys she has dropped while "excersaucing."



Turning over in her bouncy seat. She's been doing this for weeks, but she finally has enough force that I'm afraid she could fall out of the seat! If we belt her in, she about turns the seat over in her attempts to get out so we don't use the bouncy seat much any more!





Sticking her tongue out.


Doing the Army crawl.


Sleeping with her hiney in the air.


Last but not least. Pulling up to her knees in her crib. She did this for the first time on Sunday. Aaron lowered the crib mattress last night since she is probably motivated enough to learn to pull up to the standing position in no time at all!

The Many Faces Of Mara

How We Celebrated Mara’s 7 Month Birthday

After viewing the picture of Aaron and Mara at JCP, we went grocery shopping and Mara got to sit in the seat of the shopping cart for the first time! A few weeks ago, I bought a “Floppy Seat” cover to use in shopping carts and on high chairs at restaurants and I love that thing! Mara leaned forward to suck on the Floppy Seat immediately so I was glad that it was on there! It’s so much cleaner and softer than a shopping cart. Ewww, just the thought of her chewing on a shopping cart makes me a little gaggy. Anyway, enough about the Floppy Seat. Mara seemed to enjoy that she was able to get out of her car seat for this shopping trip and I enjoyed that I had the whole cart to put stuff in. Before she could ride in the seat, I would have to put the car seat down inside the shopping car, which made for little room for groceries. Like this:


Mara was a little unsure in the new seat at first though and she kept reaching for my hands, but eventually she relaxed and just enjoyed looking around and chewing on the strap on the Floppy Seat. I can’t believe my little girl is already so grown up! Mom said last weekend that Mara acts more like a 1 year old than a 7 month old because she’s little Miss Busy-Mover-Independent-Strong Willed. Now that she can do the Army Crawl she thinks that she owns the place… and the cat. Tagalong is getting quite fed up with Mara’s new mobility and when Tag runs away from Mara, Mara throws a fit. If she wants something she WANTS it and if she doesn’t she DOESN’T. Mom says that Mara acts more like a one year old, but I think we’re embarking on some very early “terrible twos” some days. She can be so sweet and precious sometimes, but other times I think that we are going to have our hands full with this little one!

My Family is Famous!

Even if it is only at the JCPenny Portrait Studio in our town. My friend Beth sent me a text message saying that a mutual friend from church saw a picture of Aaron and Mara at the JCP Studio. I asked what picture it was and Beth replied, “Amy said that Aaron is half-naked and holding Mara.” I yelled upstairs to tell Aaron what was going on and he said, “Oh jeez, that’s embarrassing! Someone from church saw it?!” I pulled out the pictures we had taken at JCP when Mara was 6 weeks old and found the one that we thought was on display and Aaron said, “Oh, okay, that ones a good one. Let’s go see it!” So, last night, we loaded up and went on a family outing to the Portrait Studio to take a picture of the picture on the wall. When we got there, they had already closed the studio for the evening, but an employee let us in to see the picture. The picture was a different one that we thought it would be, but it was still cute and it was fun to see it on display. I have such a beautiful family!




The picture of Aaron and Mara is to the left of the door.