Swinging

Here is Maarika enjoying the swing at 10 months!

TEETH!

Maarika is almost 10 months now! She has the beginnings of her two front teeth. They sure are cute! At her nine month check up, Maarika was off the charts in height. She is as tall as most 16 month olds. Words she can already say are Bye! Ball! Cat! Dog! (sorta) Mama! Dada! Car! There is no doubt she will be talking soon. She is also cruising around like a pro; she can easily pull herself up, walk along the furniture and get pretty far with her walker. Her personality is still bubbly, curious, playful, and happy! She loves Lucy and Bave.

I just love this girl!

Laughing, pulling herself up, waving and saying bye, and clapping!

Maarika is almost 9 months now and she can clap, pull herself up to standing position, wave bye, say bye, and point! I can't believe this kid.  She's such a fun and lovable little girl. Maarika loves her swimming class-she kicks better than the older kids! She has so much fun with daddy.  He always makes her laugh. 

She can crawl!!

On January 1st of 2011, Maarika took her first crawl forward! Up until then, she had been going backwards, falling on her belly a lot, and rolling around to get places. She starting bridging, but couldn't figure out how to get her knees to go.  It's been a week now and she is MOVING! I feel really proud to have such an advanced and smart little girl! She has been clapping for about a month now and the doctor just told us that that is the behavior of a 9 to 10 month old! Wow! Who did she get her big brain from? Mom or Dad??

Maarika will be 8 months next week.  We signed up a for a music and a pool class at the Elgin Community Center.  We were supposed to start today, but we'll have to wait till next week since Maarika and I have both been very sick with a bad cold.  She celebrated her first Christmas this year with all her cousins-Dayne, Evan, Audrey, Matthew, Marissa, Mikey, Mandi, and Rachel.  Also, Nana and Grandpa, and Gramma and her other Grandpa. And Aunt Tammy, Uncle Case, Uncle Jon, Aunt Jill, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Brian, and Uncle Jeff.  All her Schroeder Aunts and Uncles sent gifts home since we couldn't see them Xmas Eve.  Everybody spoiled her rotten and she has been crawling to play with all her toys!

One of her favorite things to do is take a bath with mom.  We fill up the tub and she kicks and kicks like a natural swimmer. She always shows off her kicking skills when Daddy comes to check in.  She's still quite fond of Elmo, but she's come to find out that Dora is pretty interesting too, thanks to Nana! So far, she's right on track-happy, gorgeous, sweet, curious, smart, amazing, and perfect!

5 Months Old!

Maarika turned 5 months old! She is eating rice cereal two times a day.  I have to use two spoons to feed her because she insists on taking the spoon out of my hand and feeding herself so I keep another handy to keep the process going.  I took her to see the animals at Goebbert's Farm. She got super close to a big mama giraffe and a baby giraffe too! She especially liked the pygmy goats. 

Daddy got Maarika to laugh and it was so adorable! She loves making screeching sounds and is constantly smiling.  She likes bathtime too.  She loves watching Sesame Street clips on YouTube.  Her favorite is Elmo had four ducks. Her cute little feet already are getting tiny stink toes when she wears her footy pajamas.  She puts everything in her mouth these days. 

Here's her favorite video~


Bouncy Baby having fun

Happy Halloween!