Merritt Wynn- 10 months

Merritt is still, by far, the most popular member of our family.  Hale and Zetta fight for the space nearest to her so they can hug her and kiss her cheeks.  Zetta still asks to hold her every day- but she's moving so much that this really isn't possible.  Whenever Merritt wakes up from a nap the older kids dance around me until I finally get up to get her out of her crib.  Lately, they haven't been waiting for me to get her out- they just join her in her crib and hang out until I come and get them ALL out.

She's finally learned to crawl on her knees and she is pulling herself to standing.  She still has not learned to consistently sleep through the night.  Though we're sometimes sad to see her getting so big- we are ALL ready for her to start sleeping better.

I took these pictures on a morning when the older kids were away with Landon running some errands for the farm.  [Can I just say how excited I am that all this cool old stuff is just steps from my back door?] The kids have had a renewed interest in working with Dad now that the raspberries are over.  They got a little burned out on the raspberry routine.  Hale has been especially excited to be with Dad and I think he is subconsciously anticipating the beginning of kindergarten next week.  Merritt (and I, and maybe Zetta) will really miss having Hale around.  He put in a couple long days at the farm this week and I realized how much fun he brings to the house.  There is never a boring moment when he is here.

A strange side effect of raising kids in Washington: they develop an extreme sensitivity to sunlight.  Merritt squinted in 90% of the photos I took on this day (see below squinty eyes) and we were in a big patch of shade!  What is the deal?

He loves me, he loves me not.