Likes: Waving, playing peek-a-boo, Cheerios, being passed between her parents
Dislikes: Being held by people other than her parents when mommy and daddy are in sight, having a toy (or choking hazard) taken away, teething

Marla is ready to graduate from infanthood to toddlerhood!  Did this year go quickly or what?

Marla’s clapping abilities have evolved from just clapping for fun into being a big fan of “If You’re Happy and You Know it.”  She especially loves saying “hooray” (or raaay) and putting her hands up in the air.  We haven’t gotten to stomping our feet or anything else yet, but considering Marla’s seemingly always cool, calm, and happy disposition, she probably doesn’t need to sing “If You’re Happy and You Know it” all that often.

Another skill that Marla seems to have picked up this month is waving at other people, almost always accompanied with what sounds like “bye bye.”  We think she is getting near to having a true first word, as she is making consistent sounds that bear resemblance to words like “Daddy, book, brother, and cheese.”  Marla continues to be an expert peek-a-boo player, and even exclaims “a-boo” as she finds the person or stuffed animal she is looking for.

Marla has discovered she can climb up the stairs on her own in the past month.  She hasn’t tried going down yet, but we had better teach her before she decides to try it herself.

At this point in the writeup, we would like to share something about our own parenting experience.  As we expect pretty much everyone reading this to know, Johan was born in May of 2020, very much in the midst of the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic where no one knew a whole lot about this potentially deadly disease, and we had to navigate being parents for the first time mostly in the absence of community.  To say that Marla’s first year and Johan’s first year are different would be an understatement, and not just because they are different people.  Being able to have help at home, have Marla held by family and friends, have “firsts” in her first year such as her first Orioles game, first Hirsch family vacation, first Goodstein family reunion, first international trip, and more has given us the opportunity to experience the first year of parenthood in something akin to what we expected 2020 to be.  Johan’s first year will be a memorable one too, as he is the child who made us parents.  However, we’ve definitely compared 2025 to 2020 on various occasions and there are definitely advantages to welcoming a child into the world when there isn’t a global pandemic raging. 

With that all being said, if we could easily fix some of the other problems in our broken world, we would do so right away.  But please excuse us if we want to also take some time to watch our children grow.  Marla won’t be a toddler forever, and Johan’s age appropriate 5.5 year old behavior does tire us out some days.

Likes: Peekaboo, crawling away while laughing, clapping her hands (still)
Dislikes: Being sick, having a fever, having her temperature taken rectally

Last month, one of Marla’s accomplishments was starting to clap her hands.  This month, an accomplishment is that she can now clap her hands when we ask her to!  That being said, we as parents know better than to think she will always do everything we ask.  Marla enjoys peekaboo, especially with her food plates, which she holds over her head thinking we can’t see her that way.  She has discovered other fun “games” to “play” as well.  Her favorite of these is to crawl quickly down a hallway (either towards the playroom or to Johan’s room) while laughing hysterically.  If she’s trying to get away without us noticing, this approach doesn’t really work.  It has also led to the installation of another baby gate so she can’t leave the kitchen nearly as easily.

Marla was also approved for Global Entry this month.  We aren’t sure exactly what they do to determine if someone her age is approved or not, but I guess she hasn’t caused too much trouble in the government’s eyes yet.

Marla celebrated her first Chanukah this past month.  She “lit” a felt chanukiyah on some of the nights and enjoyed the celebrations, often watching intently while the rest of us lit our candles or enjoying playing with her stuffed dreidel.

Finally, Marla caught the flu this month (as did Allison and Johan).  Being sick is no fun, but in keeping with her calm demeanor, she was a champ when we were giving her medicine. 

Likes: Eating, making new friends, clapping her hands
Dislikes: Being passed off to strangers, not being held by Mommy or Daddy

Marla took her first airplane flights and used her passport for the first time this month!  She was a champion traveler to, from, and in London and seemed to make friends with her smile on each Tube train, double decker bus, and tourist site we visited.  Marla has also started to clap her hands with us as an activity (almost like monkey-see-monkey do) and wave at people. 

Although Marla is generally friendly with everyone she meets, she has developed some separation anxiety and is much more reluctant than she used to be to be held by others.  That said, she remains extremely friendly and chill, rarely fussing unless she’s extremely hungry or tired.  She has achieved other accomplishments as well, including an increased willingness to sit up on the floor and “cruising” as she prepares to start standing on two feet and walking in the coming months.

Likes: Playing with the s’chach she brought into the house, being the center of attention at shul
Dislikes: Having the s’chach she brought into the house taken away from her, being forced to sit in the exer-saucer inside while everyone else was building or dismantling the sukkah outside

So many holidays, to the point they dominated the past month!  Did Marla do anything else besides celebrating holidays?  

Yes, she actually did.  She went to Johan’s t-ball games (and slept through many of them), and also to nearby playgrounds so that Johan could run around after school.  But otherwise, getting ready for holidays, celebrating holidays, and getting ready for the next holiday was a primary activity this month.  Marla was too young to help with sukkah construction and deconstruction this year, but she did “contribute” by bringing pine needles from the s’chach that make up the sukkah’s roof into the kitchen and then playing with them.  We would then have to take them away, but she’d always find more, and the cycle would repeat.

Hopefully next month has some more activities and variety in it, and it probably will, given what our Thanksgiving travel plans are…

Likes: Crawling, eating, babbling
Dislikes: Not being given food when others are eating

In the midst of the busy holiday season, Marla celebrated her 8^th month birthday.  Allison repeatedly said that if/when we had a second child, she wanted to be able to pass around that child to the point she would only see the baby to feed it.  During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, it certainly seemed as if Allison’s prayers were answered, as it did seem as if we rarely held Marla during services.  We’re thankful to be in a community where we can hand her off and know she’ll come back to us safe and sound.

Marla has certainly mastered the army crawl, although she has only done a “true” crawl with her body being supported by her knees just once.  This means she has ventured through the “caterpillar tunnel” toy that we have a few times, and we have to rush to make sure baby gates are installed at the stairs and other places before she gets to be too adventurous. 

Marla has also continued her culinary explorations.  She makes it very clear that she wants to eat when we do, and has tried chicken, steamed vegetables, and various cheeses in addition to “staples” such as Gerber puff snacks.  And just like her brother, she loves challah.  She doesn’t have any teeth yet, so we are limited in what we can give her, but more and more of it gets into her mouth.

Finally, Marla certainly “talks” a lot, more than Johan did at this age from what we can remember.  She seems to be learning some new sounds.  If only we knew what she was trying to tell us…

Likes:  Food, looking at her reflection in the refrigerator, watching people open the refrigerator door and take things out or put things away
Dislikes:  People walking away from her, big ocean waves

Just because we’re over halfway through year one doesn’t mean the firsts stop coming!  The month started off with Marla’s first Orioles road game in Philadelphia.  Meeting Cousin Shira and Cousin Scott during the game was much more fun than watching the Orioles serve up way too many home runs.

It was also Marla’s first time at the Montgomery County Fair, a highlight for the family in most summers.  She’s too young to really see the animals, ride the tractors, or go on carnival rides, but she did sit in the driver’s seat of the Ride On bus that was on display!

Finally, Marla went to the beach with her grandparents and cousins in Delaware towards the end of the month.  The waves were too rough for just about everyone, regardless of age, to go in the water, but she did get her feet wet in the ocean for the first time.

In non-travel related updates, Marla continues to progress towards crawling.  She’s definitely achieved forward motion, but hasn’t put all the pieces of crawling together at the same time yet.

Marla is very lucky to have so many family members living close by to her!  She did move a little further away from Mommy and Daddy this month, as she graduated from the bassinet to the crib and now sleeps in her own room, but this means she is slightly closer to Johan’s room.  Aunt Lisa moved back to the DC area this month, so she is now around quite often.  And cousin Ella who lives not too far away in Arlington, VA asked her mom (Marla’s aunt) to visit and play with Marla.  There are definitely advantages to having so much family in close proximity!

This was an oddly quiet month in terms of accomplishments or special events as it was a “lull” between the big trip during month 5 and upcoming trips in month 7.  But Marla continues to bring us joy and we are enjoying watching her grow.