Marina Bella Shickler

October 2008
The Ninth Month

Marina's weight gain pretty much stopped. We weighed her on her 8-month mark and she's holding steady at 20 1/2 pounds (sometimes she weighs a bit less, sometimes more). Her teething might be a factor, as is her crawling. She's so fast at crawling! She's able to pull herself up now from a stomach position. She hasn't yet started cruising though, but she's very close to doing so.

She loves her little rocking chair (it used to be Mark's). Last month, she actually started rocking it on her own - very cute! Sometimes when she rocks it, she'll go forward until her feet touch the ground, then lean back! She loves to show off how she can get off the chair - she'll take a hold of our hands, then stand straight up.

She likes showing off what she can do! When she's going up and down the 2-step area, she'll look back to see if anyone is watching, then continue. When we have her walking with us, she'll wait to see if someone is watching her, then she'll squeal in laughter. It's the same when we have her "jumping", she'll wait until the other parent (usually me) is watching, then she'll break out in her cute laughs! She also loves watching herself in the mirror, but I'm not sure if she realizes she's looking at herself! Sometimes she's confused when she sees me or Mark in the mirror because she looks back and forth from the mirror to us! She also loves getting her picture taken! Whenever she notices me taking pictures of her, she'll crawl closer to me, soemtimes getting so close I have to back up or put her farther away from me.

She also loves playing with the door stopper in our bathroom. Sometimes she gets stuck behind the door though. She'll even close the door, leaving her by herself in the bathroom!

18th - Mark's parents came up to babysit while Mark, Mark's brothers Dan and Ted, Ted's wife Elise, and I went to dinner at Anissette. It was a nice get-together with Dan, Ted y Elise, because they haven't been up to see Marina in a while.

25th - We spent the day in Orange County, first with the Kys (Tom, Kimmy and Matthew), then with Ted y Elise for some Korean BBQ courtesy of Mike Kim. We hadn't seen the Kys since Mark's birthday celebration in June. Matthew is quite big now! It was also very cute seeing the two babies talking to each other in their cute little baby talk! We also went to the Pumpkin Patch in Irvine. It was neat seeing the babies around so many pumpkins!

Marina has shown her "destructive" side already! What she likes to do is pull herself up to the cd/dvd towers and our bookshelf and then pull everything within her reach out! It's gotten to the point that I gave up putting them back immediately, because she would just tear it up again! I've learned to wait until later in the evening to put everything back (I once put them back 3 times right away, only for her to go right at them a 4th straight time!).

We were given a UCLA cheerleader outfit shortly after Marina was born (12 months) and we decided to use that for her Halloween costume! She looked so cute! Underneath, she wore the Halloween shirt and socks given to her by her Aunt Jeanne Holt. It was cute seeing her at people's doors "carrying" her little pumpkin tote!

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See more of pics of October 2008:
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

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