Bad news. Today Mara’s nanny gave us notice. Her last day will be later in September. Looks like there will be some work to do on Mom and Dad’s part between now and then. We will keep you posted. Wish us luck!

So Mara picked up a new skill the other day. The ability to read magazines. Steph tells me that Parker taught her how to do it. After you take a look at the video, you be the judge if Parker is a good influence or not.

; )

Magazine Reading Video
13.8 MB / Time 5:26

Based on Mara’s lack of attention span with the toys she has used from when she was born, we proceeded to break out some toys that had been lying dormant until she was older. One of them was a tower that lights up when “assembled” and I think its called dance dance tower or something. Anyways, she seems to like it quite a bit, although she is unable to really work it yet the way it is supposed to be worked. Within the last couple of weeks or so sitting up for her is the biggest thing going. It helps too, because she can sit and handle toys more easily this way compared to her lying on her back which was the most common position up to this point. This position is a little more independent. The video from today shows what she has been up to lately during playtime. More videos to come so stay tuned.

Playtime Tower Video
12.5 MB / Time 4:54

Our little girl is getting big. On Monday August 22 she had her 6 month check-up with Dr. Lowe. One day we’ll take a picture of her and you will know (visually) who this Dr. Lowe is that we are routinely referring to in our blogs.

So here’s the stats….she’s 25 & 3/4 inches long….weighing in at 17 lbs 3.5 ounces! She’s made great strides in both height and weight. Before long there will be no more infant seat. According to the side instructions posted on the seat she should move up at 20 pounds or 26 inches whichever occurs first. Looks like it will be 26 inches at this point in time.

Sorry for the hiatus! The end of last week must have been a little slow. Then we went away for the weekend up to Richmond to Aunt Jen’s house. While we were there Mara got to experience her booster seat for the first time. It worked pretty well, but I must say that she has a little more mobility in this than she does in her high chair. Good practice for Mom or Dad in hitting a moving mouth with the spoon. Makes the high chair feedings a piece of cake in comparison. Here you can see how entranced she is by the YELLOW tray. Once again, mobile phone pic, since I didn’t have the camera.

Whoa, what color is that?

So recently Mara has had some trouble going to sleep at night. No longer is it close the door and not hear from her until morning. We don’t know why really, but sometimes within an hour of going down she will wake suddenly and begin crying for apparently no reason. What we do know is that a little Sprinkles takes her troubles away. Here is one such episode.

Wrasslin’ With Sprinkles Video
8.5 MB / Time 3:26

If anyone knows us, they know that we tend to bum around on the weekends. We are already getting Mara into the same habit. Here she is relaxing and taking it easy on a Saturday. Her hair is unkept, and she could care less if she has a little food on her chin during mealtime. That’s our girl!

I love my carrots.

So recently with all the teething Mara’s saliva production is at its peak. Not to mention she recently caught onto the idea of blowing raspberries with her mouth. It’s not exact yet but she’s working diligently on a daily basis by practicing. The only problem is that with all this extra saliva in combination she is literally slinging it everywhere. Kind of funny.

The other common occurrence these days is everything she touches must immediately report to her oral cavity for inspection! So one day I had the bright idea that if she’s going to be putting things in her mouth, well it might as well be something that belongs there, a toothbrush. I pulled the one out of her baby hygiene kit and she’s been going to town on it ever since. I think she enjoys the way it feels on her teeth-sprouting gums.

Sure looks like she has the hang of it huh?

Mara has been doing very well despite having two teeth popping out of her gums simultaneously. No fever or loose stools from teething which is great. She has however had her moments of crankiness…i.e. the meltdown. Here is one such picture.

So, when Mom went away this past weekend Dad was left all alone to take care of the girl. This is not necessarily new since I stayed home with her a bit during my time off, although overnights are not all that common. Anyways, Dad was given only one rule. If he went out, he had to dress the girl like… well… a girl. In fact the actual suggestion was to use her new bow that Mom had gotten for her. So I did.

P.S. Dad picked out the outfit which Mom had also purchased. Pics are a little blurry because it was on the cameraphone since Mom had the standalone digital.