The "Bite Incident"

Yesterday Maren came home from daycare with a "bite incident report" and a set of very visible, red bite marks on her right forearm. Apparently she and another baby were sitting with their caregiver, Jessie, who was reading a book to them. Maren reached across the page and the other kid chomped on her! We're pretty sure that Maren was aggressively trying to turn the page, because she loves to do that when we're reading to her at home.

I'm sure I'd feel terrible if Maren was the kid doing the biting, but the fact that the daycare has a special paper for these incidents means they must occur pretty frequently. So it's just a phase that kids go through, and her forearm looked a lot better this morning at breakfast!

First Steps

Maren took her first real steps yesterday! She took a couple at daycare when James picked her up in the afternoon, and then they "practiced" at home. When I came home from work, Maren showed off her new skill for me, about 5 steps to the couch! She looked so proud of herself, and we clapped and cheered her on. She also face-planted a couple of times of course; she's not super stable yet.

Here are more photos from daycare. She loves feeding herself like a big girl!

Climbing stairs


I think she looks more like her daddy in these photos.


Painting with her feet


Not her favorite activity, apparently... For another kid's first birthday, everyone at daycare had cupcakes. That was news to me when I got the photo, because we've been avoiding sugar, of course. But I'm sure Maren enjoyed it!

Playing with a ball. Maren likes to use the ball to pull up to standing, and when it rolls away she chases after it.


Maren had a 10-month doctor checkup about a week ago. She is in the 96th percentile for height, and just over average for weight = long and lean. Must get that from the Schalla side, because I was a short pudge as a baby. We are dressing her in 18-month onesies now so that they will fit her long body!

We've heard it from so many parents, but it's true that she is growing up so fast! Less than a year ago we didn't even know we were having a girl, and she was a Shrimp inside!