Maritt - Happy 8 Months & An Update

Happy 8 months, Maritt!
Amazing how quickly the time is passing around here.



You had quite a day today being baptized this morning and spending the afternoon and early evening "walking" on the beach with Mommy, Daddy, Cyanne & Lucky.

A few things about Maritt these days:
Food:

She's eating up a storm. She loves her solid food and, unlike Cyanne, loves her pureed vegetables. Even more so than the fruit ones. The first couple tastes of any food whether she's had it before or not elicit hilarious, scrunched up faces like she just sucked on a lemon. Then... she decides (usually) it takes good and she wants MORE. She loves mixed veggie, green beans/peas, carrots, squash, pear, sweet potato, applesauce... funny though, the one she really doesn't seem to like is the pureed banana and really, I don't blame her. It smells rather funky and not like a real banana. Real banana however, she loves. Can't get enough of the bananas.

We've given her fresh peaches, plums and apricots off of our trees which are very full right now.
We'll pick a fruit, be holding her on our hip and she'll lunge forward to grab it with her hand and pull it back towards her mouth.
We have to watch her because she's quick! She'll take big slurp-y "bites" and have a big smile - followed by juice all down her chin.



She also likes to "talk." She makes all sorts of sounds and in varying decibels... She grunts when she gets excited, cries when she's tired or upset, chirps, blows raspberries, and generally enjoys making noises and sounds almost all of the time. We are working on the sign language with her as it was extremely helpful with Cyanne. And, given how she's been so far, I'm sure she's going to love and want to communicate with us what she wants before she can actually verbalize it.

She loves:
watching all of us, sitting up and playing with toys, putting just about anything in her mouth, eating, drinking milk, going outside, playing peek-a-boo, being tickled, the anticipation of being tickled, banging the pots with spoons, reading books/chewing books, her soft, crinkly books that she chews on and sucks the labels on, and being held or snuggled.

She adores:
the cats. Max and Sonsie - when they walk into the room - make her squeal with glee and she starts to rock back and forth and her hands open and close rapidly. Oh, to grab a tuft of cat fur... We'll bring her right over to them and she is one happy little girl manhandling those kitties.... And she loves Cyanne - when Cyanne isn't "bonking" her on the head, that is.

She doesn't much care for:
sleeping, sleep training, being left alone in a room, banana puree, having her face wiped off, Cyanne's shrieking noises, Lucky barking when she's right next to him, or firetrucks going by with their sirens on. Other than that... she seems to like pretty much anything. =) She's one happy, pretty easy-going baby!



This is mostly so we remember but, at 8 months, she's eating about 4-5 servings of solid food and drinking about 15 ounces in a bottle and breastfeeds in the morning and in the evenings when I come home from work. She sees me and boy does she get excited to have some food...
She sleeps from about 7:30/8 PM to 6-7 AM - this varies wildly depending on her inclination to 1) go to sleep and 2) to stay asleep. Fingers crossed though, she seems to be getting the hang of it.

She greets us with BIG smiles and bright, happy blue eyes in the morning.



We can't wait to see what this next month has in store.
We love you, Maritt!