Weekend on the "farm"

Mirah enjoying the grass in the front yard (while mom tries to keep her out of the occasional dog poop!)
Here's the little mini-horse, Frank! You don't really get the idea of his small stature from this photo, but let's just say he was raised with a labrador retreiver! And you can see his blue eyes (and where he gets sunburned on his nose because of the white hair! Have to put sunscreen on him!)

Here's Mirah's first ride on mini-horse Frank, turquoise mini-saddle, overalls and all! She wasn't all too sure about it, but she did ride a few steps with us holding her. She wasn't as intimidated by Frank as by the full size horses, who she was a little afraid of, especially at first (they are a LOT bigger than she is!) She also liked the cockatoo who can talk a little bit, and all the other animals (cats, guinea pigs, dogs, another bird...)And here's the family sans Leigh (who's taking the picture) out in the yard on our way out to the car to leave. We had a fun weekend on the "farm"--who says you need to pay $300 a night to actually visit with some animals and play in the grass (as they do in this NY Times article on farm stays.)

The Stairmaster

So Mirah has been climbing the stairs for a while now, and she's gotten pretty good at going up. However, aside from one or two somewhat successful tries, she still hadn't figured out how to go down. On Sunday night she decided she was going to puzzle it out and so now she can go both up and down. In celebration she when up and down the stairs like 5 times before she went to bed Sunday. She'd climb to the last step before the top, then turn around and go back down, turn around and go back up... smiling all the while. She was quite proud.

On the standing/walking front, she can pretty much stand at will now, only occasionally needing something to steady herself, and she's getting really good at cruising. She still hasn't made it more than 3 or so steps without holding on to something, but she has walked pretty long distances a few times when we've held her hands. I'm sure it won't be long now.

-jeff

Cruisin, and bein' cute...of course

Ok, only crawling here, but she IS cruising and has taken a couple of steps on her own (before plopping down on her butt, but after longer and longer!)

This adorable little outfit is a gift from a friend, though you probably can't see it all that well in this photo, it is very soft as well as cute. And it's 12 mo size, but fits already (a little big in the shirt, but not crazy big and the pants fit length-ways!) And of course, the accessory must have, the pink and green water bottle! She wouldn't let me take it away for the photo w/o screaming, so there it is.
So she didn't feel like really smiling for this one, but it's still pretty cute!

The pearly whites

As promised, it's pictures of the teeth! I took these yesterday on the car ride home. What a smile :)

Also, on the new stuff Mirah is doing front, she's been quite fond of Cheerios for a while, and usually we just feed them to her. If we put them on the table she'll pick them up, but she hasn't been able to put them in her mouth because they're tough to grasp with just fingertips. A few days ago she started picking them up and feeding them to us the same way we feed them to her. She'll grab one and stick it out towards your mouth until you come get it. Then this morning she finally picked up a Cheerio and fed it to herself. She was quite proud.

She's also figured out a week or two ago how to feed herself with a spoon. She still can't scoop things with it, but if you load it up she'll take it, feed herself with it and then hand it back to you so you can put more stuff on it. She's also managing to stand on her own for longer and longer, and even walking a little if you hold her hands.

-jeff

The full set

Mirah now has two top teeth, bringing her grand total to four. It is so adorable when she smiles with them now. I'll be sure to post a pic of it soon.

In other news, she has figured out how to feed herself with a spoon, and is very proud of this. Also, if you say Yay! Good job! to her now about things, she'll look at you and clap if you aren't already clapping for her so that you will. So cute!

-jeff