Da-Da Gets A Kiss

Maryn is a genius :)

Aww Face

Nine Months Old

It seems there has been a burst of development for Maryn in the last month.  She seems to have become less of a baby and more of a really little girl.  Every morning I wake up and think, "I wonder what she'll do today?"  It's such a fun time to be parents at the Smith home.  Here are some highlights of the last month:

• Growth: I don't have her height and weight stats yet because her check up isn't until the 26th.  But I can definitely tell she's growing!  She has outgrown a lot of her 6 month size clothes and has started moving up to size 9 months!  She can still wear size 0-3 month shoes though; she has small feet like her momma.
• Food: We've introduced lots of new things and she's definitely developing taste preferences.  Some things she eats with gusto, like yogurt, avocado, and the mashed potato/corn/carrot combo I made.  Other things she takes one or two bites and then shakes her head "no", like cereal and green beans.  Other new foods include beans (black, lima, pinto - she really liked the pinto beans), tilapia (her first meat!), macaroni and cheese, watermelon, broccoli, pumpkin, peaches, blueberries, and spinach.  Next up - scrambled eggs!
• Drink: Maryn now drinks from a sippy cup with a straw on her own like a big girl!  For now she just gets water, but getting this skill down will make weaning and the transition to regular milk one day a little easier.
• Teeth:  All four top teeth are through her gums now!  I had hoped we would get a break before any other teeth decided to come in.  But today I noticed she has two more bottom teeth coming in - one is already partially through the gums.  This means she will soon have a total of 8 teeth!  Maryn is a teething machine!
• Mobility: Still not really trying to get from place to place.  No attempts to crawl, and she doesn't even roll.  She prefers to sit on the floor surrounded by her toys.  If she can't reach something, she moves on to another item.  Occasionally she reaches forward onto her hands and bounces a little, but has yet to move her legs from the sitting position.  
• Skills: Just because Maryn isn't mobile doesn't mean she isn't moving.  She loves clapping, waving bye-bye, shaking her head "no", bouncing, and raising her arms straight in the air when we say "touchdown!" (her newest trick).
• Dancing: The cutest development of the month is that Maryn now dances (see recent post with video).  It doesn't matter if it's a song we play from our computer, a song on a TV show, a song we sing, or a song played on her little baby cell phone.  Everything gets her dancing.  It's the cutest little bouncy dance you've ever seen.  It has provided us hours of entertainment.  She has rhythm! 
• Mimicking: Maryn is very much into copying things we say and do.  Although not saying words yet, she likes to mimic sounds.  She even started mimicking zerberts which is pretty funny.
• Sweet face: She started doing this face where she tilts her head to the side and does this sweet little smile.  It started as a way for her to get Billy's attention when she wanted to be talked to or picked up.  But now she just does it constantly to anyone and she wants you to do it back.  We call it the "awww" face.
• Pictures: In Maryn's room, there are several framed pictures of our family.  She loves for one of us to hold her and look at the pictures, while we point out Momma, Dada, and Maryn.  She gets really excited about it, and has even started pointing to the pictures herself.
• Skype: Maryn is now able to tell when someone on the computer screen is trying to communicate to her, as opposed to just watching a video.  This has made skyping with family a lot of fun recently.
• Brette:  Billy usually stays home with Maryn on Mondays and Thursdays when I work.  This has worked out fine for the most part, but lately Billy's school work load has been very heavy, and he needed a little more time to work on things.  Our friend Brette, whom we know from church and is in our small group, has been coming over on Thursdays for half a day to watch Maryn.  Maryn just loves her.  Brette may soon be getting a new job, so she may not be able to keep coming.  But we have been very blessed to have her.  It's nice that Maryn is able to have a relationship with an adult other than us.

Sippy Straw!!!

Here's a video of one of Maryn's newest skills: drinking from a straw! She's always refused a regular sippy cup, but took to the straw immediately. Which makes me happy, because before she preferred my cup, which led to yucky "floaties" in my drink. Please ignore my embarrassing commentary. And the fact that we still have frames that have not been hung on the wall. :)

Our Favorite Things: Books and Music

Counting Stars by Andrew Peterson: AP is an all-time favorite in the Smith household.  We've been listening to and loving his music since high school, and it just keeps getting better.  Peterson's latest album is perfect for us right now, as much of it tells the story of battles and beauty in the journey of marriage and parenthood.  It's funny how different songs speak differently to different people.  Right now Billy and I are always going back and forth in the car wanting to listen to our own respective favorites.  We love AP's music, his style, and his heart.  I also love the music video for his big hit "Dancing in the Minefields."

The Organized Heart: A Woman's Guide to Conquering Chaos by Staci Eaton:  I feel like this book was written just for me.  Eaton's short book discusses how outward chaos in our homes and lives are really the result of inner idols of the heart.  What are these idols to which we turn for peace and happiness, you ask?  Perfectionism, busyness, possessions, and leisure.  Ouch.  I was convicted by every section except the busyness part - although I have been tempted in that area in the past, it's just not where I am right now.  But the other three are an ongoing struggle for me.  Thankfully, Eaton shows us how the gospel is the answer - not legalism. ("We never conquer sin by adding more rules.")  I will need to read this book again and again, and I recommend it to all women, as these issues are common to us all.

Here are some cute pics of Maryn "reading" to make this post more interesting.  :)  She loves her books.

Single Baby

Maryn recently started "dancing" - you know, how babies bounce to music? It is quite possibly the cutest thing ever. Here's a video of her dancing while watching the music video for Beyonce's "Single Ladies." The song is stupid and shallow, with annoying repetitious music. But a while back, Billy and I read an article about how babies really like the video and song, because of it's primitive beat and movements, and black and white color scheme. Now that Maryn is dancing, we wanted to do an experiment to see if she, too, seemed to like the video. I think the answer is yes.  (She also shows off her new clapping skills.)

James Taylor!!!

Remember my post about me loving surprise gifts and Billy being good at giving them?  Well, occasionally I can be good at giving them too.  Billy is really difficult to get gifts for, but when I heard about James Taylor coming to South Bend I knew concert tickets would be the perfect surprise.  I even managed to score front row seats, as in touching the stage.  Not only was Billy surprised, he was ecstatic.  I don't know if I will ever top this gift.  He has been a JT fan for life, and he introduced me to his music, so now I'm a pretty big fan myself.  The concert also included JT's son, Ben Taylor, whom Billy also really likes.  Best. Concert. Ever.  I mean absolutely fantastically amazing.  Although I think we may have been some of the youngest people there, haha.  But don't let those 50 or 60 something old ladies fool you - they can boogie.  And boy were they going crazy over James.

Here we are waiting for the show to begin:

But then we were notified by the concert hall security (aka camera nazis) that there would be no photography allowed at all.  Here they are, just waiting for someone to pull out a camera (which I was doing behind their backs):

But an inner rebel emerged, and I just had to sneak a few shots.  Billy is the rule follower, and I think I almost gave him a heart attack while I was snapping these:

Yeah, see how close we are?  And it gets better.  When James came out for the encore, he walked over to our side of the stage, stooped down, said, "Hi", and then SHOOK BOTH OF OUR HANDS!!!  I told you it was awesome.  

Just to give you a feel for how the concert was, here are two videos taken from the concert in Tulsa, which was just a couple of days before ours.  Love these songs:

As a side note, this is Maryn's favorite James Taylor song (shout out to Melissa and Jon for watching her during the concert - thanks guys!):