Life with Margo

In just a few short hours Margo will turn 1 year old. In some ways, it feels like Margo’s been part of our family forever. In others, it seems like the year has flown by. All in all, it has been an amazing year.

Some things were silly — her strong passion for waving hello (sometimes she even does it when there is no-one to wave at), the face she makes when she poops (which has been the same face from her first few days of life until today), her toe sucking.

Some things were hard — Margo’s difficulty breastfeeding in the first couple weeks, her inability to sleep for more than 1-2 hours at a stretch from weeks 10-16, her repeated ear infections resulting in missed work for Maia and Jake.

Many, many things were wonderful — having her sleep on our chest or in our arms for hours; introducing her to all our friends and family; seeing her smile for the first time; traveling to six states with her (or seven, if you count airports); watching her learn to lift her head, roll over, crawl, and stand; making her laugh; watching her try to make you laugh; the way she cuddles up to you and sucks her thumb when she’s tired; the way she strokes your hand and plays with your fingers when you feed her a bottle; how extraordinarily playful she is as you read her bedtime story; watching her splash in the bath; seeing her face light up when you come home from work; playing in bed with her; tickling her; holding her hand; telling her all about the world, and much, much more.

The best part is that there is a new best thing about her everyday. Happy birthday Margo. We love you.

Margo Arrives

Margo 1 Month Old

Margo 2 Months Old

Margo 3 Months Old

Margo 4 Months Old

Margo 5 Months Old

Margo 6 Months Old

Margo 7 Months Old

Margo 8 Months Old

Margo 9 Months Old

Margo 10 Months Old

Margo 11 Months Old

Margo 1 Year Old

As hard as it is to believe, Margo is just 9 days away from her first birthday. So much is going on with her at nearly a year.

She isn’t walking yet, but she is starting to get in some practice. She is using the furniture to get around and has just started pushing the toy grocery cart that Great Grandma Miriam gave to her. When she first got the toy, she loved playing with the toy foods–especially, for some reasons, the green peas, which she will carry all around the house with her–but she was terrified if the cart started to move away from her. Then, all of a sudden, she realized that there was something she could do to keep up.

Margo also understands more and more of what is said to her and will respond appropriately. If you ask her what she sees, she will point at something. If you start reciting the words to Pat-a-Cake, she will start clapping her hands. If you ask her how big she is, she lifts both hands above her head. If you ask her to say hi, she will wave. She also may say the word “that”–which sounds more like “dat”– when she points at something, although Maia and Jake are still not entirely sure about this. Some other words she may say are “hi” and “dada.”

Margo is getting better at feeding herself and now feeds herself bread, waffles, egg, veggie burger, cheese, quesadilla, pasta, vegetables, fruit, and more. She doesn’t seem to like to make a whole meal out of finger foods though and will usually eat about 10 bites very enthusiastically and then on the 11th bite, act as if the food is the most disgusting thing she has ever tasted, spit the food out, and shake her head “no.” One exception to this is Cheerios, which she seems to think she could live on.

Margo loves to laugh and to make other people laugh. She works very hard at getting a laugh out of people. One of her favorite ways to do this is to laugh a fake laugh. If this makes you laugh, then she cracks up. She is also very ticklish and loves to be tickled. She also just loves to be silly, as shown in the video below.

There’s been some lovely weather in the Bay Area recently and (although everyone is hoping for more rain) the Avidon family has been enjoying it by spending a lot of time at Dimond Park, a lovely park just a couple miles from the house. Here are some photos from a recent Saturday at the park.