Illegal Drugs and Death Defying

Catchy title, eh?  :)  I heard some where that if sugar were discovered today, with it's effects on the body and addictive nature it, would be considered an illegal drug. I laughed when I first heard that and thought it was ridiculous. Well, today when we ran to make a deposit at the bank, Paulina was holding Mia and grabbed each of them a sucker. A tiny little sucker. I thought, no problem. Sucker. Tiny. Mia will probably drool all over, but as long as it's light colored, sure. Entertain her until we get her home for her nap. No problem. Paulina picked out bubble gum pink for Mia and watermelon green for herself.

Thank you Paulina for the little pink ball on a stick!

Wow, this is amazingly delicious! (Notice the crazy baby hair.)

Don't even THINK about taking away my tasty treat.

Yum! (Notice the string of drool and wet drooly shirt.)

Sucker gals heading to the car - doesn't Mia look like a pro.  lol

Yeah, she LOVED it! This is what was left of the sucker at the point that Mia decided the slobbery stick was equally delicious and popped the whole thing in her mouth!

Such a harmless looking little thing...

...and then she skipped her two hour afternoon nap and was up for six hours straight through until bedtime.

I totally get why it would be considered an illegal drug.  lol

Also, now I am worried for Mia's life. I can no longer leave her in the baby-proofed living room while I run to the bathroom for two seconds. This death-defying act happened last night:

Someone climbed onto the top of the coffee table. Dang it!

She was trying to grab her little butterfly thing that attaches to the top of her car seat. It was on the coffee table and she grabbed hold of the side and pulled herself right up. Oh my! I was equal parts excited and horrified at witnessing this newest trick of hers.

Though she was very proud of her new-found skill, she was equal part sad that she was now STUCK up on the coffee table.

Silly Mia.

(Now I feel the need to explain the coffee table and Mia's hair. The coffee table is missing the drawer because it was just glued on and fell off a few months ago. We were going to glue it back on, but 1) we didn't have any wood glue and 2) Mia decided she loved climbing under the table and peeking out of the whole, so we've decided to leave it a little ghetto for now in the name of "it really doesn't matter and the baby loves it".  :)  Now to address the hair. Earlier in the day (see above sucker photos) she had it in a little Pebbles-like pony tail. Mia had mac and cheese for dinner. Mia likes to rub her fingers through her hair, and the occasional food-covered fingers through her hair. Mac and cheese has greasy butter in it, which made itself into said hair. Put both those things together and you have an intense case of crazy hair.)

On a side note, I had a doctor appointment with my OB as my six month post surgery follow up from having my large fibroid removed via C-section. We got the health clearance to start trying for baby number two, if we so choose. Oh my! I know I've mentioned this before, but I LOVE my OB. I took her Mia's one year birthday announcement thing and she loved it. :)  I seriously will be super sad if she ever moves somewhere else or we move someone else. She and her nurse were bummed that I didn't have Mia with me - they love seeing her and hearing about her progress as well, but it was her nap time so I left her home with Zeus. I also stopped by the NICU to drop off Mia's one year birthday announcement as well. I was so happy that one of our NICU nurses was there as well as one of the nurses that took care of me when I had Mia. I think it's great that they remember us and seem to love us as much as we love them, and they also love hearing about Mia and how she's doing. Between family and friends and our wonderful doctors and nurses, Mia sure does have a huge team on our side that love and are interested in how Mia's doing. Lucky, lucky us!  :)

Surgery Date

Yesterday I called Shriner's and left a message to let them know that Mia's weight was 17 lbs 6 oz at her one year check up. I wondered if they'd want to wait until she's older and 18 lbs to do the surgery or if they'd go ahead and do it since she's close and already a year old. I was a little worried that waiting longer for palate surgery could result in speech delay, but also want her as healthy and strong as possible prior to surgery.


I got the call back from Shriner's today and we have our surgery date. The doctor feels that she's close enough to 18 lbs to go ahead with the surgery.  We will go in on Wednesday, August 24th for her clinic and pre-op appointment, surgery will be the next day and will head back home on Friday. The nurse said to be sure and try and pack on as much weight as we can and to keep her as healthy as possible. If she gets sick, they won't do the surgery and it will have to be rescheduled. She'll be the second surgery of the day so it will be interesting to see how she does with the pre-surgery no food and liquids thing now that she's a little earlier and more vocal about things. They will be doing a little baby girl's lip repair surgery right before Mia has her palate done. I was so looking forward to having this surgery over with, but now that we have a date and a count-down, I feel sick and anxious about having my sweet baby have surgery again and having her be in pain. I'm so glad it can be done when she's young enough that she shouldn't remember it when she's older.


So now the count down begins. 35 days until palate surgery.

One year update

Oh my goodness, a year already!

My sweet little Mia.

Man, so I'm a few weeks late, but here's our one year update on our little June bug Mia. We can't believe she's already a year old!!! My how the time has flown and how quickly she's grown. She's such a sweetie and we love her so much! It seriously boggles the mind that we have a daughter. And she's one! Oh my!


So, now that she's getting so wiggly and rolly and fights the posed photos, I'm quite relieved that the monthly photos are done for a few months. I may do an 18 month photo shoot before only doing one each year. Sadness - my baby's growing up, so it's kind of a happy/sad thing. Paulina helped me take Mia's photos today and it was SO helpful to have another set of hands to help try to distract my little munchkin.  lol

Getting so big!!!

Hello! I'm the birthday girl!  :)  It says so right here on my shirt.

I'm SO not laying still for this - I'm outta here!

I seriously cannot get enough of her sweet little face!

Her silly little cheezer face makes me laugh.

Mia's one year stats:

• length - 28 1/2 inches, which puts her in the 25th percentile for height
• weight - 17 lbs 6 oz, which puts her in the 6th percentile for weight
• head - 46.6 cm, which pus her in the 90th percentile for head circumference  lol

Mia's still a dainty little thing. At her one year check up we were hoping to weigh in at the coveted 18 pounds so we could go ahead with palate surgery. Well, we still aren't there yet. The doctor thinks that based on her growth curve so far, that she won't break 18 pounds until around 15 months.  Sigh!  I need to call Shriner's tomorrow and see what they have to say. I'm worried that the longer the palate surgery is delayed the more her speech may be affected. I'm not sure if they'll want to go ahead with surgery or wait until she hits that 18 pounds. The doctor is still not worried about her height and weight, as she's still within her growth curve. However, I'm thinking I may pick up some higher calorie formula and maybe some Ensure to help her get some extra calories.

At one year of age, Mia:

• pulls up and walks along the furniture but is not a walker yet
• still doesn't like her hands held, which makes the walking practice null and void
• has mastered the pincer grip and uses it (much to our chagrin) on people as well as food
• she gives great two armed tight hugs that make us melt
• she still loves books, stories and snuggles
• loves food with flavor and is pretty good at trying new things
• pulls her head back to check out what's coming at her on the spoon during feedings
• smiles at nearly everyone now and still goes to new people
• loves to pull out all of her toys
• loves to climb on mommy, the love sac (bean bag) and the couch
• has started bopping her head to music
• loves to be outside and going for walks or bike rides
• is a people watcher for sure and likes to be able to see what's going on
• loves to take her socks and shoes off and often chews on them
• pulls bows out of her hair the minute they are put in now
• "Mowgli" bear crawls when she's in a dress or other outfit that catches her knees
• loves to pull all the Tupperware out of the cabinets and play in the pots cabinet
• loves to smile and laugh and investigate things
• goes down for naps and bed so very easily after a quick snuggle and song
• almost always wakes up happy

At one year old, Mia loves to eat most baby food flavors except green beans and is eating a lot of table food including, so far, cheerios, any cereal that's soggy with milk, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, toasted cheese sandwiches, strawberries, peaches, arroz con leche, bananas, egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, toasted cheese and turkey sandwiches, sweet potatoes, squash, pudding, yogurt, cheese pizza, ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, goldfish crackers, chocolate birthday cake, chicken, noodles, sausage and ground beef (though she seems to chew the flavor out of the meat and then spit it out - lol)  She does NOT like green bean baby food or tomatoes so far.


And a few more Mia-isms in photos.  :)

Has enough hair for pigtails!

...sort of!!!  :) 

microscopic up-close proof of pigtails  :)

LOVES the baby in the reflection - and loves to check out mommy in the reflection as well!  :)

Loves her blankie - found it in the laundry basket and pulled it through one of the holes to snuggle with.  :)

Loves books and reading stories.

Loves to be pulled around the house in the laundry basket.

Finally has enough hair for mommy to do something OTHER than pigtails.  lol

Found the Velcro on her shoes and is a pro at using her pincer fingers to peel it open and take her shoes off!

Still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth!

Loves to explore new places.

...and peek through holes.

and snuggle her papa.

Mom, we really need to get one of these - they are SUPER cool!

And finally, Mia adores and is equally adored by her family!  :)

Birthday Time! :)

Our little Mia turned one last Thursday.  We had Zeus's brother Danny and his family come into town on Wednesday and stay through the weekend to help us celebrate.  Hooray for family celebrations!  :)

Cousins Carlos, DJ, Dahnia and Mia

Mia (12 months) and Dahnia (9 months) in their matching "snug as a bug" pajamas.

On Mia's actual birthday, we woke up to pink and purple streamers decorating the kitchen - in case you didn't guess it, the Birthday Fairy decorated the kitchen the night before for Mia's birthday.  It's a fun tradition that my family had that I LOVED growing up, so I decided to institute that tradition with our family.  Zeus had two responses to the Birthday Fairy's decorating - 1) I LOVE it! and 2) Why didn't the Birthday Fairy decorate for MY birthday.  The Birthday Fairy felt duly chastised and will be decorating for his birthday as well from here on out.  :)  

Mia in her "1" outfit on her birthday.  Such a little cutie pie!  :)

After breakfast we went birthday party shopping to stock up on things for the party where I realized that we were going to end up BBQing  for Mia's birthday in addition to the snacks and cake and swimming that I'd been anticipating.  I wanted it to be a quick and simple and stress-less so didn't particularly want to BBQ, just to have snacking food that could be put out and be done with type of thing.  Apparently the first birthday in the Hispanic culture is a pretty big deal and includes BBQing and major feeding of guests, so I was overruled and decided to just go with it, especially as it's a family tradition on his side.

Lunch at Terra Burger which had a playground and splash pad, prior to shopping at Costco across the parking lot - Mia and Paulina playing in the water.

Uncle Danny and Aunt Hilda were such sweeties and got a small Tres Leches cake for all of us to share to celebrate the actual day of her birthday along with a little balloon that said Happy Birthday on it.  We sang Happy Birthday to Mia and she enjoyed the yummy birthday cake!

DJ giving Mia her balloon.

Mia was enthralled by the lit birthday candle!  :)

Mmmmm.... birthday cake - yummy!!!

The next day we headed to Sea World with Danny and Hilda and their family as well as with Paulina who I'm watching this summer.  I was torn between staying to get the house and food ready for Mia's birthday party the next day and going with the family, but was glad that we all went.  We had a fun time hanging out in the water park.  Dahnia and Mia especially loved the shallow pool bordering the front of the wave pool that they could crawl around in and sit and splash in.  We came home happily exhausted and ready for a nap!  :)  I could shoot myself that we didn't think to take any group shots or any shots of us playing at the water park at Sea World!

Zeus took this one when we first got there and were waiting on Danny and his family to get their passes.

I got this last minute one of Carlos, Hilda, Dahnia and DJ as we were leaving the park.

Needless to say, the morning of Mia's party was a mad rush on the part of Hilda and I to get the breakfast dishes cleaned up (why oh why did we do a big breakfast on party day?!?), clear off the counters and island, and get all the birthday food out and ready while Zeus and Danny ran to get the cake and balloons.  Everything came together (thankfully) just in time for people to start showing up.  At one point I was in a mad panic because I'd poured the punch into the drink fountain, turned it on, and the light came on but the fountain part didn't work.  After plugging and unplugging it numerous times, as well as sending up multiple prayers on the fountain's behalf, low and behold it started working - thank goodness!!!  I didn't have time to frost the cupcakes or mini smash cake for Mia, but other than that, everything else was done and ready and I just decided to skip the smash cake and just give her a piece of the yummy Costco cake we'd gotten.  :)

Hailey and Mia - yes, that dark little one is Mia, sporting a tan.  :)

Valorie, Ammon, Hailey and Mia getting ready to get their bday grub on.  :)

The darling twins I tutor Shelby and Taylor and their mom Rachel.

Savannah, the twins' older sister with Mia and Shelby.  :)  Sweetest girls ever!

The infamous birthday fountain with Tio Danny, Tio Carlos, and cousin Carlos grubbin'.  :)

Mia and I with Carolyn and Maddie (who was born with the same kind of clefting as Mia) who's only one month old and so precious and tiny!  She's the same size Mia was when she was born - man how a year changes things!

A very happy Birthday Girl and her favorite mama of all time!  :)

Family photo!  :)

Mia was enthralled with the birthday flame.

So I got distracted by the camera and Mia's excitement over the candle and TOTALLY spaced and skipped the "Happy Birthday" singing to Mia.  Sadness!!!

Chocolate birthday cake - YUM!

A whole fist full of chocolaty Y U M M I N E S S !

What?  Do I have something on my face?

Good to eat AND fun to finger paint with - bonus!

A beautiful day for a pool party!  Playing with Papa and Tio Carlos, with Amali and Michelle in the background.

The Rodriguez family - Amali, Michelle and Mauro

Stephanie, Mia, Leah, and I - Mia is one week older than neighbor friend Leah.

The family that plays together stays together...  :)  

I had a BLAST at the pool with my family and friends!!!

Friends and family playing at the pool.

A VERY happy birthday girl at the pool!

Then back to the house to eat BBQ and blow out the candle one more time (with the friends who showed up later) - this time we remembered to sing Happy Birthday!  :)

Dahnia, Carlos, Tio Danny and Tia Hilda 

Carlos and DJ are ready to help Mia and her papa open presents at the end of the day.  :)

I guess after two cakes, some streamers and balloons, some party food and a few times through of singing happy birthday, our little Mia is officially ONE!!!