Little Miss Mara has been such a happy little girl recently. I'm not sure if it's her age, or the fact that she was sick for so long that it just seems like a big difference. She's very tolerant of me and the camera and snapping photos, more so than Zack at least.
I've been fighting with my camera recently so forgive the photos...
She's been working on her crawling (see above)... but her actual crawl resembles a limp duck. (No offence to the limp ducks we have owned in the past). Her crawl (or scooch?) comes out if the object of her desire is about 1-1.5 feet away and she slaps that belly to the floor, bends one arm underneath herself, and pulls with the other arm. She'll get into the position above occasionally and rock back and forth and talk to herself. If anything is farther than that distance, she's much more adept at and content with rolling.
She's SO good at rolling, as a matter of fact, that she made it from the floor in her room, around the corner into our bedroom Sunday morning. Zack was changing her diaper and just let her roll. She had to navigate the door a few times (picture roll roll, bonk into the doorframe... back up, spin around, roll roll bonk. Try again until she gets it right) Before I knew it, she rounded the corner into our bedroom! And apparently she rolled ALL over her daycare today, from one side of the room to the other and back, under the cribs, around a bookcase, and then fell asleep on the floor. I laughed so hard when they told me!
I think I've told all of you by now, but Mara's heart is completely normal. We had a cardiologist appointment last week and had another ultrasound done of her heart (she was such a good baby while they put the goop on her chest and monitored her little ticker). The VSD no longer exists, the hole is closed! She has a completely normal heart now.
Other Mara newsflashes: We lowered her crib yesterday because I just KNOW she'll be pulling up soon. She is very coordinated with her hands and feet - feeding herself cheerios, little Gerber dried yogurt drops (She loooooves those), bits of graham cracker, etc. I'm still working on getting her to eat a vegetable, but the lima beans are coming along. She started licking people and objects on Saturday (my watch for instance.) She'll lean forward with her tongue stuck completely out to lick you! I'm not sure if it's her version of a kiss... but it's amusing until you're dripping in baby slobber. She's turning into a little break dancer, spinning around on her back on our wood floors. She points at the bathtub drain and pulls the lever down to release the water (over, and over, and over). Zack showed her how he clasps his hands together (like you're praying with interlacing fingers) and she mimicked him! She usually enjoys when I read to her, especially if I make animal noises. She'll point out different smaller objects in the story, like a ball, worm, butterfly or mouse. She always finds Arson to be very amusing and laughs at him daily. She'll also roll to wherever he is in the room and touch/pet his feet or pull his tail hair. She loves to let me brush her teeth with her baby toothbrush and apple flavored paste. She KNOWS when I am preparing something for her to eat. She startles if the dogs bark suddenly and peers around corners or around me to see what the fuss was about. She loves drumming on objects with her hands (slamming a table, taking wooden spoons and hitting the floor, then a pot, then a cabinet, to make difference noises). Daycare said she loved playing some drums today (a drum toy, I'm guessing). She'll hold objects with her hands and/or feet and can put a ball into it's designated resting place (the previous post's pictures show the ball/toy I'm talking about). She loved playing with a zip-up beer bottle koozie that had a ring on the zipper. She figured out how to put one (just one!) finger through the ring and pull down to unzip. This fascinated her (and her Uncle Ian) for quite some time.
She loves loves loves her Daddy. He comes into sight and this happens:
And culminates in this:
I wish I'd been at a different angle... but you get the picture!
Hope that's enough to satisfy you!
