Mara was Kung-Foo Fighting

This is what happens when Daddy gets a package with a lot of styrofoam...

Loving Bath Time

Our big girl is growing up. Along with getting stronger at sitting and standing, she gave up the swaddle this week and rolled back to tummy (however we missed it because she did it in her crib during nap time and hasn't repeated the feat. Her she is showing off during her favorite time of the day.


Who wouldn't love bath time with a rubber duckie as big as themselves?

Noisy Week

(After much time spent making the last post pretty with lots of pictures that were supposed to be on the same line I am giving up on blog formatting.)

It has been a noisy week at our house and not because of the remodeling project (although that is making significant progress with an end in site). Over the weekend Mara replaced fussing to communicate displeasure with a high pitched squeal. It was cute for the first two days now mommy thinks she better be careful what she wishes for (I had a hard time tolerating the fuss). Then the last couple of days she added a new "happy" noise. Turn up your volume and check this out.

Mara's First Blog

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Slacking

So the last time I wrote I had Mara's 2 month stats and I promised to update after our trip, oops. It has been nearly a month since our trip already and I have her four month stats now (maybe ped. visits will be my inspiration to post).

In honor of turning four months old on Saturday Mara found her toes. A new favorite pastime is to lay on the floor with her feet in the air, fingers holding toes. So far they are the only thing she doesn't put in her mouth. Our big girl is 15.5 lbs and 25.5 inches. She smiles, laughs (at lion noises, baby presses and other random fun especially with daddy) and talks up a storm (to the trees outside or the back seat of the car). Her favorite book is "Guess How Much I Love You" making it not such a good choice for a bedtime story as she ends up rolling with laughter. She is also a big fan of Dr. Seuss rhymes like "There is a Wocket in my Pocket" and of a couple classics from our childhood, "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" and "The Monster at the End of this Book" (of which we have Tom's copy from growing up which sold for $.89 and contained a coupon for $.15 off another 2 golden books over $1.50, we got a good laugh out of that one).

Our trip east (ha, ha) was a lot of fun. We thought the weather gods were smiling on us because they had so much rain the temps remained mostly in the eighties and we got to see great Midwest thunderstorms. Though it did seem very humid to us (and everyone else of course). Its funny how quickly you acclimate to the weather you live in or rather deacclimate from things like humidity, heat and cold. Mara sweat more in those 2 weeks than she ever has in the rest of her life combined by several fold, and guess what her hair was curly because of it. Everyone we were visitng was very tired of rain and felt like it was spring instead of middle of the summer.

Speaking of acclimating, my spicy taste buds that were built up over four years in Austin have dwindled already but we enjoyed several meals of Tex-Mex and Bar-B-Que while were there.

Ok, enough about food and weather, the real reason we went there was for people and events. Here is the picture story of our trip.



First stop, Doe and Buck's house (above), where Mara hung out with her grandparents and met the Cunningham's (below) for the first time and various other Tulsa friends.



Next, it was off to meet Mara's cousin's.



Try to get a good picture of a 3 month old, a 1.5 year old a 3 year old and an almost 5 year old. Good luck! After getting both of the girls looking cute. Mara crashed for a nap. When she awoke this photo shoot occurred. It's almost comical to go through them and try to pick the "best" one to post.


Here's Mara hanging with her aunts in Texas.



The Dallas finale was a college friend's wedding. More friends to meet equaled Mara using the occasion to get used to strangers in preparation for all the attention she would get the next day (i.e. third times a charm). Here she is checking out her date for the wedding. Read and see more here about how this first impression turns out.


Finally, it was off to Austin for Mara's baptism. Where Mara got to see the church where Mommy and Daddy got married and meets lots more friends and family (many about her size or so even). Iga took some awesome photos and we're hoping Bryan's video turned out.



And though Mara had a wonderful time she was ready to be out of the car and airplane (and sweaty weather).

Let the Adventures Continue

This past weekend Mara ventured over the Golden Gate bridge to meet her first cousins twice removed and second cousin once removed and see her Great-Great aunt and Great-Grand uncle again. In case you're not up on you family tree vocabulary that is Mara's grandfather's aunt and uncle from Notre Dame who were visiting their son (Mara's grandfather's cousin), daughter-in-law and granddaughter in the Bay Area. Mara's second cousin once removed was precious and adored Mara including sharing her bed, imitating her and calling her whiny when Mara screamed that the swimming pool was too cold even for feet splashing.

One more word about extended family vocabulary. Did you know that great and grand can be used interchangably? So your great aunt is also your grand aunt! Bopba made it clear he wanted to be known as the Great-Grand uncle. Here he is playing with a kite under the guise that he is entertaining his granddaughter.


The trip also included some great hand me downs for Mara for which she is very grateful. See doesn't she look thankful?



Finally, we celebrated Tom's first Father's Day with relaxation. Mara even let him sleep in. The requisite photo that just might find its way onto future personalized cards.

The next weeks are chalk full of activity too as we venture to Oklahoma and Texas to meet adopted grandparents, an aunt, an uncle, cousins, some other not too distant relatives, college friends, Austin friends, and the baby Mara is betrothed to :-). Along with all the new faces there will be a few familiar faces and some great celebrations (a wedding and Mara's Baptism). Pictures, stories and videos are sure to show up here after we return.

Look what I can do

In honor of being 11 weeks old today Mara learned a new trick and she'll repeat it with enough regularity that I was able to capture a snippet of video.