I AM THE MASTER OF MY CRIB!

When Merritt woke up this morning at 5:30am crying, Mark staggered out of bed (I was getting dresssed for work in the bathroom)and went to check on him. Then, I hear..."Renee! come here." Merritt was standing in his crib, holding the rail, tears were streaming down his face and dripping off of his chin. It was precious.

Yesterday, while Mark was on duty, Merritt was making a big ruccus during nap time. Mark went to see what was going on and found one arm grasping the elephant music box, and with the other he had ripped off the mobile and was violently thrashing it around in the crib. This child DEFINATELY TAKES AFTER MARK! hee hee...

Wow! It's a mile mark day...

Merritt started to "walk" on his own today. What I mean by that is that he will walk while he holds my fingers. He cruised all the way from the living room into his bedroom. Then, he promptly fell asleep!

Feb/March

Mark is at work, the dogs (we are baby sitting) are sleeping, Merritt is sleeping, the cookies are in the oven, the baby food is getting steamed on the stove and ahh...I can take a deep breath, relax and spent some time catching up with this blog. ohh-standby, the cookies are beeping...ok, where were we... The Merritt update! Merritt has a cold with quite a bit of conjestion, so far he hasn't had a fever! His only two teeth are on the bottom, front of his mouth. He is so much fun to play with, but is learning to assert his will at the dinner table. I think that he got Marks obliging demeanor and my willful stubborness. We are trying to teach him some sign language and that it is not ok to pound the table, highchair etc while eating.
As many of you may remember, at Christmas he was starting to try and sit up on his own. He does that now with ease and even scares us on occasion when he tries to see just how far he can lean back before his abs get tired. He loves to stand and hold onto anything that will support him-even some things that don't (the dog). He is not taking any steps on his own, but is definately headed in that direction. His favorite place to hang out is in front of the living room window.
He still talks a lot, but nothing really understandable. There is a lot of mamamamamam and dadadadada. He has started to reach up when he wants to be held or wants MY water bottle (even though he has his own). His dinner menu now consists of green beans, peas, carrots (his favorite, he takes after his grandpa), plain yogurt, butternut squash, apples, pears and a whole bunch of "baby mum mums."

Merritt continues to develop at light speed! He has, for a while, mimicked us when we clap, but just yesterday he learned how to make noise with his hands while clapping....we did alot of clapping yesterday....! He continues on his mission to skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking by standing at any chance that he gets. He may not be able to go from laying to sitting on his own, but all he needs is a hand to grab, and he's on the move to sitting and then standing. He loves to stand while holding onto: his crib, the bathtub, the coffee table, hands, chairs, window sills, Max, Maya, the couch, cabinet doors...anything that allows him to grab and balance. He used to be so wobbly when he was standing, but now he stands only holding on with one hand and can shift his balance from one foot to the other while taking an unsteady step. We (by we I mean Renee) lowered his crib today because when he stood in it he began to notice objects on the ground and was able to lean out far enough to fall out!

I (Mark) just got back last week from skiing for five days in Montana at Whitefish Mountain resort. I went with nine other people from work and had a blast. We took the train from Bellingham to Whitefish which was an overnight, 13 hour trip, in what is purported and advertised to be a "sleeping" car. When we got on the train and I went to my "bed" it turned out to be nowhere near as big as the online pictures made it look. But to make up for that it did have a "closet" that may have held two or three sheets of paper at the most, but certainly no clothes, and definitely not the winter ski jackets that we were wearing. I shared the room with one other guy and to accommodate for two beds, what looked like the overhead luggage bin on an airplane, folded down into a "bed" that was six feet off the ground and had about 18 inches of clearance to the ceiling. But in the interest of safety, they provided a cargo net to hook to the drop down bed and ceiling so I wouldn't fall out. Not having fallen out of bed for a few years, I scoffed at this item until I was awoken (about a dozen times) in the middle of the night by the sensation that I was being flung across the room only to grab the side of the bed and haul myself back in moments before I tumbled to the ground. I didn't scoff after that. As it turns out, riding on rails isn't as smooth as I thought it would be. All that was forgotten, though...sort of... when I tasted the complimentary (paid for by my ticket) dinner and breakfast that were prepared. They know how to make good food on the train!

We skied every day and the snow conditions improved every day because of the couple of inches that fell every night. Everyone skied or snowboarded at relatively the same skill level and we all explored the mountain together, leaving no run untried. You might think that keeping ten firefighters armed with two way radios and cell phones together would be a simple task, but I'm here to tell you it's not. We lost people in the trees, on the lifts, at the bathrooms, and especially at lunch. It seems that the draw of food and drink was too much to overcome and some never made it back to the hill after eating and drinking. But we came home with everyone and all had a good time! It was another successful trip.

Daddy Comes Home!

This picture was taken on the eve of Mark's departure. It almost looks as if Merritt knows. We are getting really excited though because Mark returns today. We are picking him up from the train station this afternoon!

Merritt with one of his favorite babysitters

This is out good freind Dorothy. She only lives a couple blocks away and is definately a Godsend! She watches Merritt while we work and for those shorter times when we "play." Merritt loves to talk to her and giggle at her silly faces. As you can see by the photo, he loves her very much.