sorry we've been absent

Sick Maarit

Hello Family and Friends,

Sorry we've been absent so long! Poor Maarit has caught her first cold (from mom, she doesn't stand a chance with her parents both teaching elementary students!) Here she is showing her sick, sad little face. If you look close you can see the big alligator tears. Little honey, she actually tries to smile and still be wonderful even though she doesn't feel good at all. This is rare sad/crabby moment and it's only because she just spit up all over from coughing. What a mean mommy, taking her picture at a time like this. Now I feel guilty.

However, that isn't the only reason we've been absent. My brother and Shanna came to visit us at the end of January. We took tons of fun sledding pictures with Uncle Bubs and Shanna and some family pictures. They turned out great and I was so excited to post them. But, a day after I loaded all the pictures onto my computer (and erased them from the camera) the computer promptly died and will never be resurrected. We are waiting for a handy little device which will allow us to attempt to recover files from the harddrive. I really hope it works because literally ALL of my pictures of Maarit are on that computer and I would be so very sad to loose them.

February has been pretty exciting for us : death of the computer, Maarit's first illness (sad things), but also Maarit's four month appointment where we learned that she's growing well and is, except for the cold, very healthy! She is 27 inches long and 16 1/2 pounds. She was 99% for her height and 95% for her weight. It's so amazing to watch her growing and changing. I know all parents say that, but it's true!

She has started to sit up pretty well on her own, holds her head up really well and has developed a fascination with her hands and anything she can grab. She has really enjoyed grabbing for Karhu and has surprised Karhu by getting ahold of her collar and hanging on tight! She laughs and smiles all the time and she loves to 'talk' to us. She is now sleeping all night in her crib that Uncle Bubs built. It was a hard transition for me, the day we realized she was too heavy for her bassinet I cried and cried, but she's much happier in her crib. She had started to wake up a bit at night in her bassinet, but now that she's in her crib she's back to sleeping through the night. Believe me, I know that we are lucky, lucky first time parents to have a baby who sleeps all night.

When I get the other pictures recovered I will post some of Maarit 'flying' with daddy and balancing on his hand. They are priceless. Below is Maarit's first Settlers game! For all you fans out there I know you understand how monumental this moment truly is!

Let's Settle This!

Hope you are all well. I will try to keep my next post from being so tardy! Until then,
Peace and Love
The Mattsons