Less than Twelve Parsecs

Another visit to the library ended up in cute crawling through the isles, with plenty of stops to bang hands on the shelves. Mara reached up for books several times, as if to check the titles. I guess either none of the books were satisfactory, or the bottom shelf was still fun but less physically demanding, because she went back to the bottom shelf pretty quickly. Then we went to the special baby items on the floor - they have some awesome low-mounted wall toys for infants. One is a cool convex mirror with a gem toy she immediately grabbed. Another is a wheel that rotates a long mechanism - she can't wait to do this herself but she's still a bit young. Most loved were two green wood frogs with moving legs that are just right to munch on. I myself had a fun time looking at books with baby slowly crawling after me through the isles. The environment feels so safe for her, they did a great job planning this place. Libraries are fun!

Mara's third day of crawling forward. She'd been going all of the other directions for the past two weeks. Filmed at the library, using the car keys as bait.

We started solids at a little over 5 months because Mara was attacking every plate in front of her and begging for every morsel. Cuteness won, we gave in. But before she was even officially doing solids Mara had frantically sucked on a tortilla, a boiled broccoli, a slice of apple that had been left over night and was not easily breakable, a bagel with cream cheese and plenty others. The first official food was sweet potato, boiled and mashed till you could probably distinguish the atoms. Well, not really, but you get the point. A few weeks passed with us keeping feedings safe as per the doctor's order: every new food given alone for 4 days at first to see whether there are any reactions, everything mashed properly and spoon fed on the [bib, nostrils, nose, ear lobe, hair, elbow, mouth, chin, eye lashes, eye brows, forehead, hands, diaper cover, hardwood floor]. Soon Mara picked up on the fact that every plate around her contains the pieces of ambrosia that she

Mara has been interested in the large water cups that mommy has been using for a long time. She attacks them in all sorts of ways, with or without the straw and lid, with or without water. Here's some videos: Mara and the Empty Cup   Mara and the Cup with Water

 Mara had a great time (a few weekends ago) playing in some flowers.