Martha at 10 months

Late is better than never, right? She’s almost 11 months old, but it seems like so much has happened for her this last month that I didn’t want to wait to post and try to remember 2 months worth of stuff.

And can I just say that it is so strange having a kid that seems to be doing everything so much quicker than Noa did. Noa wasn’t crawling or signing until she was 11 months old, but Martha has been doing both for months… it just goes to show how God makes everyone different with their own strengths and uniqueness. I love seeing the differences up-close in my girls.

Also, Eric and I have talked a lot about how strange it is that Martha is almost the age (11 mos.) that Noa was when we moved to Japan. It is so special to see her doing things that Noa did when she was this age in the same place and with the same people. Martha is also wearing most of the clothes that Noa wore last winter. Some are a bit big, but it is so special to see her in outfits that have such sweet memories for us with Noa, and to be making more with our precious second-born. I feel like I am at a place with both girls where I am always saying, “this is my favorite stage…”. Man, I just love having kids! I know there are hard things and it has certainly changed our lives a lot, but we are at a particularly fun time of having two very interactive, explorative, and fun little girls that fill our days with so much joy. Thank you, THANK YOU, Lord! Truly, they are gifts from YOU!

So, on to an update on Martha…

She continues to be on the move constantly. She crawls normally now, though every once in a while she reverts to the army crawl. She is quick, too! She gives her sister a run for her money in trying to keep up with her. We heat our house one room at a time here, so we keep the doors closed. But, I tell ya, as soon as that girl sees an open door, she makes a break for it. She’s a little explorer for sure. Since right after my 9-month post, she has been pulling up on things to stand, but in the last 2 weeks has been pulling up constantly and cruising a bit. She prefers to try to go higher, though, rather than along things. She is quite the climber. In fact, she made it halfway up the staircase the other day! As soon as I put her in her crib, she pops right up and stands there giggling away with her sister… I wonder if we’ll have a crib climber in her… I hope not! Oh yes, and the other day she was pulling up on me, letting go, standing for a few second on her own, and then falling on her bum. She did it over and over and over again. Good thing all that cloth in her diaper gives such good padding!

She has transitioned to nursing only twice a day now, in the mornings after she gets up and at night before bed. This month we pretty much stopped baby food and have transitioned her to our food. She loves spaghetti, any fruit, soybeans, and senbei (Japanese rice crackers). I try to have her eat as much as we can self-feeding from her tray, which has been great for me. However, when we do have food that we need to feed her, we’ve noticed that she is super impatient with whoever is doing it.

Speaking of meal times, that is mostly when she uses her signs. She does more, and accompanies it with verbally saying, “Mmmmma mmmmmma mmmmmmma”. Does that count as her first word? She also signs “all done” regularly. She has signed “drink” (she loves her sippy cup and drinks about a cup and a half of water a day) and “please” a few times but not consistently or without prompting. She claps and waves for “hi” and “bye” and sometimes says, “Haaaaaaaaaa” for “hi”. One of my favorite things that she does is babble all day long. Sometimes on the moniter in their room, I can’t destinguish whose voice is whose because she and Noa just chat it up with each other and giggle like crazy. And my absolute favorite times are when she is really sleepy, or when she just wakes up, she has a ton to say and just whispers it all to me. She has the sweetest little voice, and her intent little eyes while she whispers away totally melts my heart and holds me captive. It’s especially cute when she needs to stop nursing for a second to “tell” me something…. I just LOVE it.

Her sleeping is getting better. She has started to sleep til 7 or 7:30 most mornings, though sometimes wakes up much earlier and needs a paci and some soothing. She’s still taking two naps, the first being about 2 hours and the second about 2.5.

Martha loves to play with Noa, though Noa doesn’t always want her sister to join her. I had been having Noa move the toys she doesn’t want Martha to touch onto the couch to play, but that doesn’t work anymore since Martha can now climb onto the couch. So, both girls are learning to share. Martha loves to play peek-a-boo. She loves to get in the wrestling with Daddy and Noa. And she really loves looking at books. I have also caved (as far as my hold-off-on-television-as-long-as-possible policy) and let her watch some Baby Einsteins with Noa. She really seems to enjoy them (as long as she in confined to her exersaucer) and it is really nice to not have her underfoot if I am rushing around getting dinner ready or something. She has grown out of her crying/needing to be held by only mama stage (for the most part), but still likes to use my legs for pulling up, and that is hard when I am in crunch for time.

Martha was baptized as Covenant child on December 28th. It was a beautiful day of celebrating God’s promises, and exciting for Martha to be baptized along with 4 other children, 2 of them whose parents were also baptized that day. How we pray that one day Martha will call on Christ as her Savior, and we hope for that with anticipation, knowing that God is a God of families and loves to work within families to draw his children to himself. Here are two pictures from that special day:

My brother, Mark, brought over the baptismal gown that I wore as a baby, and that my father and grandfather wore as well. It was special to have her wear it too. And I thought it was beautiful!

As always thanks for reading up on our little girl. We think she’s pretty great and thank God for her precious life.  Can’t wait to see what the next 10 months hold!

Tags: Martha, milestone