Miss Marlo: 11 Months!

On Marlo's 11 month birthday, we went to her friend Magnus's 1st birthday party.  We dressed her up in this crazy adorable Baby Boden dress from her Nonni + matching mama stripes.  

At 11 months, Marlo loves to wave to every person and animal she encounters.  She climbs UP the ramp part of the slide on the playground!  I know the pictures aboive are blurry, but they are most representative of her right now since she's moving so much.  She's all about her push cart/walker--she LOVES that thing.  She look so proud and walks all around with it.  One morning, she melted our hearts by clapping when her papa and I kissed.  She's fascinated with hardware like hinges, locks, and  door jambs.    She points out dogs and yells, "Dah!"  She says, "Mama!"  She says "Ba-Bye."  She clearly signs for "more" and "diaper" (although at this point, sometimes the diaper is a false alarm).  She uses a fork and spoon (when loaded by us and handed to her).  FORTUNATELY, she's sleeping for longer stretches, typically waking about 2 times per night.  As co-sleepers who are hoping to avoid sleep training, that's good news for us!  She now helps put away some of the things she loves to pull down like books, records, toys.  

And most sweet, is that she's a huge nuzzler and snuggler.  She leans in and nuzzles, and presses her face against other babes, the cats, and us.  She can also pat too hard, which looks like a slap!  We're doing our best to teach her to be gentle.  Marlo snuggles for everyone!   

Miss Marlo: 10 Months!

Marlo's first birthday is Tuesday so I'm trying to catch up on these (FIRST BIRTHDAY already!!!).  At ten months, Marlo's all about crawling on her hands and knees, standing, climbing stairs (up, up, up, the on belly and feet first to go down!), clapping, taking steps with a push walker, and going through the tunnel at Recess!  

In these pictures, she's wearing a vintage onesie from 1980--it used to be her papa's!  Below, she's chewing on my bookmark.  You can still see her sweet ankle rolls, but they're starting to shrink with all of her mobility.  Baby's a mover and a shaker!

                   

2 Year Wedding Anniversary: First Dance

Our two year wedding anniversary was March 4th!  Here are some pics from my one of my favorite moments:  our first dance to this song. 

If heaven is like in the film Afterlife, where you just relive your favorite memory over and over, this one would be a strong contender.

Two years ago, I was hope hope hoping we'd have a baby by this time.  She's more incredible than I could have imagined.  She must have spent a long time thinking about what to get us for our anniversary.  On that day, she began signing for the first time!  "More."  More of ALL of this, yes please.

Miss Marlo: 9 Months!

       

        

        
She looks SO much like her papa in this one!

        

As as an English teacher/mama, this picture of her at the library is my dream come true.

MissLady just started pulling herself up to standing.  She's only done it a handful of times so far so I hope it continues.  She also crawled on her hands and knees for a very short distance today, but I'm counting it.  She's on the move so much now.  A few days ago, she started trying to climb our stairs!  She even wakes up in the middle of the night and starts rolling and crawling around, trying out all of her new skills.  I don't try to hurry her back to sleep, so far it's worked out where I can half sleep while she's partying, then nurse her back to sleep when she's ready.  

We had her 9 month check up and she's doing great.  I feel very lucky that we like our pediatrician so much.  She pointed out that Marlo's two front top teeth are coming in and that makes sense because the baby's been noticeably more irritable lately.  We'll get through it, little sweetie.

Miss Marlo: 8 Months!

        

By eight months, Marlo started crawling!  She began with a combo of the yogas pose "cobra" and an army crawl--dragging herself forward on her belly with outstretched open palms.  It happened when my BFF was visiting us and felt extra special.  Now she does a full army crawl and booty scootch.  Not crawling on her hands and knees yet, but not even sure if that will happen since all babies crawl differently.  She's also pulling herself up onto her knees by grabbing onto furniture or other things.   

She finally cut her first teeth!  The bottom right was first and the bottom left followed a few days after.   

Here's Marlo at Recess.  Note the small red mark on her forehead from being more mobile and falling.  That's what these days are all about lately.  On this day, she had discovered that stop sign was on a hinge and kept swinging it back and forth.  We've been going to Recess several times a week.  I like taking her from 4-6 pm.  She'd typically be bored at home, but gets to explore and watch or play with other babes.  I get to chat with adults, too, so it's a win win.

BabyButt Sunday

Was there a football game yesterday?  We went to the Academy of Sciences where we some some penguins, and checked out the exhibit on Africa.  Marlo stood for quite awhile (I placed her there--she's still working on regularly pulling herself up), then cried because she couldn't get down. :)

We just became members.  It's great with the baby since we can go back anytime and there's no pressure to see everything in one day.

We tried to take her to the planetarium, but learned it's only for 4 years & up!  Papa went while Marlo and I looked at the animals.  Maybe I'll go next time.  I want to learn about dark matter and dark energy, too!

I have a confession.  After the museum, the baby was napping so we drove to In 'N Out in Daly City.  Eric went in and ordered and so as not to wake the baby, we decided to let the car run the whole time.  Ironically, there's no such thing as getting in and out of In 'N out quickly, so the car running for probably a good 20 minutes.  And it worked!  The baby stayed asleep and we were able to enjoy our food.  We were not kind to the environment, but the burgers were so tasty.  Worst part: would I do it again?  Yes.    

Miss Marlo: 7 Months!

Trying to catch up on these while the babe naps!  I finally put her in a swing at the park and she LOVED it!  HUGE hit.  Now we try to go every day.

         

I love these pink moccasins, which were a gift from another mama friend.  Pink moccasins + monkey bum = win. 

Here's my delicious babe inspecting the flower on her swimsuit just before her last swim lesson at the Janet Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center.  They have a saltwater pool, so no chlorine, and we very much enjoyed the lessons!  We sang and "danced" with other babies in the pool and it did wonders for accustoming Marlo to the water.  We're going to sign back up again in March (didn't want to go swimming in Jan & Feb, although it's been warmer in SF Dec & Jan than in Aug!).  

That tote is from this podcast.  My mamafriend told me about a meet up at Zeitgeist to chat with Cristen.  So we went with other fans of the show and had drinks--my first beer with a ladyfriend outside of the house, post-baby!  It was great and Cristen is, of course, funny.  

                      
Marlo and Eric in Hilton Head, SC, for Thanksgiving.  She had just learned how to wave so there she is looking unsure about it.  :)

Seven months was a pretty exciting time!  Marlo learned how to drink from a tiny, normal cup.  On the advice of a child specialist, we used a shot glass because it was just her size and wouldn't break if thrown.  We've since graduated to small, normal glasses.  I didn't know she was old enough to learn that, but the specialist encouraged us to try and she's become an old pro.

Marlo began trying to crawl and would rotate 360 degrees on her belly.

She began "talking" quite a bit more, especially the word "ball."  I'm still not sure if she's intentionally saying it, but when it's obvious we can count it as her first word.

At 7 months, baby girl began exaggerating her moods.  She's always been smiley, but now she'll definitely let you know that she no longer enjoys diaper changes.  Fake cries, as I call them, or big cries without tears made their appearance.  We try to stay calm and reassuring, while not making too big of a deal of it.  Finding that balance can be a challenge.  Hello parenting!  :D

Finally, a huge family change was we moved!  We're now in a beautiful home in Potrero Hill, where it's MUCH warmer and sunnier!  We also have many more conveniences in our home that we didn't have in our NOPA apartment, like parking, laundry, a heater we control, and no steps (before we were up 3 flights of stairs)!  I'm building up a great community of mamafriends in the city and our parking space allows us to visit our friends in the east bay more.  I am SO much happier and am finally beginning to be able to see ourselves staying here for awhile.