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!

"This scrunchy pig book is riveting!"

4.5 months old

Okay, so I'm a crappy parent just starting this blog now. Actually I started it when I was three months pregnant and didn't keep it up. My resolution is to keep this up for as long as I can. Maarika is four and a half months old now. She is extremely cute (not biased at all) and she is very alert and aware. She loves Elmo. I'm sure I have something to do with that. And she has started to laugh out loud! It's adorable!!! Her hair is still crazy, but we love it. She likes watching sports with her dad-especially baseball. Then again, I could just as easily say she likes watching Jersey Shore. She also loves Bave, the cat. She is totally mesmerized by her tail and loves it when Bave smooshes her head against her hair. Her favorite toy is a talking/singing plastic camera that has lots of buttons and spinny things. Maarika just started eating rice cereal and she's pretty good at it already. She's just awesome.