I Love This Age!

Have I mentioned before how much I love the age Maryn is right now?! It is SOOOOO fun! She is learning at such a fast pace and thoroughly enjoying her newfound mobility, increasing verbal skills and a whole new world of food! A little over a week ago she learned the fun game of raising her arms in the air whenever someone says "SOOOOO Big!" She loves this game! And then as of Friday, she can now clap her hands. I think Makenna and I were singing along and clapping to some song and then all of a sudden I notice that Maryn was doing the same. Only Maryn has her own version of clapping! She makes a fist with one of her hands and hits it with the other hand. It's quite adorable! She made up her own style of clapping! She is also starting to mimic a lot and figure out what different items in the house are used for. An example I can think is that she found Makenna's comb on the couch and she immediately put it up to her hair like she was combing her hair out. Maryn seems to be a pretty easy eater as well (just like Makenna). She is eating more and more solid food and within reason we give her whatever we're eating. She is doing so well. It cracks me up what she likes... in the past few weeks she has tried tomatoes, kidney beans, spaghetti, pizza, cantaloupe and fresh peaches for the first time and has devoured all of it!

And the other fun, exciting accomplishment for Maryn - yesterday she took her first step!!! And I say only "step" because it was only one and she didn't do it again. She took one the day before as well but it was pretty much a step as she was falling down so I didn't count that ;) Now she has been practicing all day today but still can't seem to get her feet to move underneath her. She'll stand up all by herself (not holding on to anything) and squeal and balance herself with outstretched arms. You can tell she is just trying to move her legs but nothing is happening. It's bound to happen soon :)

Oh and I almost forgot... she kisses now! :) I will never forget this... the first person she kissed was our neighbor Rhonda! Rhonda was holding her and Maryn very obviously leaned in and kissed her on the nose. I couldn't believe it and then she did it again! But as I got to looking I figured out that she could she herself in the reflection on Rhonda's sunglasses and I think she was trying to kiss herself (but no one tell Rhonda that - it would crush her)! The very next day I found her kissing the dishwasher because she could see herself in it (it's stainless steel)! And now if you pucker up and ask for a kiss she will lean and give you a very sloppy wet kiss! It's so sweet! I love baby kisses!

Our girls enjoyed playing at the water table together the other night. It was the first time they were able to do it together :) Maryn's stable and mobile enough to enjoy playing with it now, plus I was waiting until the weather got a little cooler. Maryn kept trying to suck the water off her fingers. I'm pretty sure she ate a few bugs but it's good protein, right?? Just kidding - we put brand new water in right before they played in it. But Maryn was fascinated by the water... it must taste better coming from a play table rather than a sippy cup.