But I know, one thing, that I love you.

Peeing in the car

2012-02-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

So Mia's been doing a really good job with potty training lately (most days) and it's really actually surprising me! Of course, she's not considered totally potty trained since she sleeps at night and nap in a diaper and has yet to poop in the potty. She's just so little and I can't believe she's really kind of getting the hang of it. The first three or so days she would sit on the potty for half a second and then be up and down and up and down. Now she actually SITS, and not just sits, sits with a purpose and sits for longer than half a second! She's started pulling down her pants and undies when she has to go, which is a pretty big signal. Thankfully she's able to hold it as we walk to the bathroom, and doesn't just drop the pants and go! lol

She's also having fewer and fewer accidents. The first few days she averaged about 2-3 a day. On Tuesday she had one accident in the afternoon when I was doing a water measuring experiment with my tutoring girls - guess the water did her in. Yesterday she had one accident - she got put in her bed for a minute for having a screaming fit and during that time pulled a "poop flinging monkey" and angry-peed in her bed. Argh! However, today, NO accidents. NO ACCIDENTS TODAY!!!! :) YAY!!!! We even went to Gideon's house and then out running errands for HOURS and my little baby girl had no accidents. It blows the mind! I was so worried when we spent an hour and a half in Costco that she would have an accident but she didn't! I guess one of my biggest fears was having her pee in the car and then start seeing that sitting in her car seat was the cushy equivalent to peeing on the potty.

Little side note. Many months ago as I was carrying a much younger Mia into Costco I saw a mom open the back hatch of her car and proceed to pull down the pants of their 3 year old and sit them on a potty chair in the back of the car. In the back of the car! In public! I thought, "Oh my goodness, really?!?!?"

Parking lot of Costco. Mia. Today. Going on the potty.

Yup, I am now THAT mom.

Today I sent many thanks into the universe to that brilliant mother who helped me solve the, "What do I do when I'm out and about with my "potty-training-in-process" daughter who will totally FREAK OUT if I try and put her on a normal size toilet?" problem. It further resolved my resolution to never judge others, because you never know when you will become that person you were so caught off guard by. One day you just may suddenly find yourself being able to answer that question you asked yourself - "What are you thinking?!?!" I thought that on that fateful day so many months ago. Well, now I know. I was so worried about her peeing in the car. Well, she peed in the car today and I was THRILLED about it! :)

Mia trying to make herself a little less conspicuous by putting on her sunglasses. :)

I think it worked.

Potty Training

2012-01-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

We were suppose to fly out Tuesday morning to visit grandma and grandpa in Utah, but on Monday I started having really bad stomach pains and ended up in the ER to get it checked out. My entire abdomen ached and was sore and felt really huge. They took blood and ran some tests and even did a CAT scan of my stomach but everything came back within normal ranges. So very frustrating not to know what was going on, but thankful it wasn't anything serious. On Tuesday instead of flying out, I tried to take it as easy as possible. The main pain that I'd felt the day before had faded a little, but I felt like I'd been beaten around the abdomen and back with a baseball bat. Not my most favorite couple of days. Thankfully by Wednesday I was feeling quite a lot better.

So, with some extra free time on my hands since babysitting and tutoring had already been cancelled, and as Mia's lately become more aware of her bodily functions, I thought, "Hey, let's try potty training." I'd read on BabyCenter.com that some people start potty training super early, and though 18 months seems really young when you're looking at your little 19 month old.

Omf blahbalee wehwe! Oh, silly me, you probably couldn't hear what I'm saying cause my FOOT was in my mouth. My bad. :)

Let me try that again - Mama, I'm totally ready for potty training!

I'd already bought a potty chair and a package of panties the previous week to have on hand for when I decided to try potty training, so we started with the potty training on Wednesday and I was actually pretty blown away at how well she did. I was surprised that they only make underwear for ages 2T and above. With how skinny Mia is, panties are almost a joke - Zeus teased that she might as well be wearing HIS since they fit her so poorly! lol

So, on Wednesday morning when I got her up, I put her her in her big girl panties and set the timer for 20 minutes. Every twenty minutes I'd say, "Let's go potty!" and she'd take my hand and we'd walk into the bathroom and sit her on the potty chair. (Can I say how horribly slow yet fast your day goes when you are walking to the bathroom EVERY 20 minutes!) I was so surprised when she actually WENT in the potty! Of course, she wasn't a huge fan of actually sitting ON the thing for very long. That made for two or three accidents in the bathroom because she'd sit down and then walk around for a second and then go back and sit down. There were a few occasions where she'd stop and do "the freeze", and on the few occasions I didn't catch her fast enough, she'd leave a little puddle on the floor. Thankfully it was super easy to clean up off the bathroom floor! I bought some M&M's to give her when she goes, but it doesn't really phase her either way, though she IS a fan of eating them. :) She is, however, a fan of the clapping after using the potty. She went the whole day without wetting on the carpet, and successfully used the potty about 5 or 6 times - until papa came home. I guess I wasn't being as diligent after he got home and she had two accidents. Oh, and I put her in her diaper during nap time since she's a big fan of pooping at some point during her nap. That was a very good idea.

I was really super proud of Mia and how good she'd done! On day two, we had quite a few successful events on the potty chair, and a few accidents - I think once in the bathroom and once in her pants. Today she had no accidents in the bathroom, had an accident in her pants and once in the living room - I swear I only got distracted for a second and I remember her taking off her panties and thinking, "Uh oh, this could be bad, I need to get those back on her," and half a second later it was too late. Good thing we are finally getting our carpets professionally cleaned soon.

Mia's little undies fit really loose around the waist and bag down to her knees, oh yeah, and she's all about pulling them up and down. Guess it's time to get out that sewing machine and take in those cute little undies. :)

What? You're telling me tea parties aren't more fun in big girl panties?!? I find that highly unlikely!

After wetting through one set of pants later this afternoon, I let her run around in her new pair of panties. My little dear devil trying to stand on her stacking bucket. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and was belly laughing SO hard and was so proud of herself and her new trick. She's getting so big so fast!

Yet as she tried on papa's shoe tonight after he got home I couldn't help but realize that she's still not quite THAT big! (This is our new anti-diaper-digging pajama configuration - with onesie buttoned over the top of the pajama bottoms. :) Works like a charm so far!

And one of my favorite photos from last week - Mia chilling after her nap at Gideon's house. This utter sweetness is what I was greeted with as I walked in to get her up. Is she not the cutest thing ever! :)

Holy Crap

2012-01-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

Argh! Mia seems to have decided that she needs to dig in her diaper any time she has a bowel movement now! Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!!! Yeah, I think she's ready for potty training because she does NOT like to have a poopy or wet diaper and she's also, as previous posts have revealed, able to get out of her clothes by herself. She usually has a bowel movement during nap time. So, needless to say, a few days last week I went in to find a poopy smelling room and a poop-covered-hands baby. Talk about crappy - literally!

Poop covered face and hands. Ick! At least THIS day the poop stayed in her diaper, even if it WAS smeared on her palms and face and back and shirt and crib. Sigh! Unlike the FOLLOWING day, to which I was greeted with:

No mom, you are not at the zoo with an angry poop-flinging monkey. I dropped the "kuck" over the side of my crib, I didn't FLING it! (Yeah, that's poop on the floor.) Ick!

Mom, you look a little worried and a fair bit disgusted. Is everything okay? Are WE okay mom? Oh, and Mom, why is my eyebrow crusty?

Yeah, the other side of her hand looked even worse. Gag! Do you know how hard it is to get caked poop out of baby fingernails?!? Very, VERY!

So, if you're having a crappy day, just remember, it could be worse. :) You could literally have crap caked on your face and hands and under each and every fingernail.

Isn't she just so stinkin' cute, though?!?! Literally, stinkin' cute. :)

Oh, and yeah, I'm totally saving these photos for her wedding video. lol

Hello Houdini, good-bye sanity...

2012-01-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

So I went into Mia's room this morning to get her up after hearing her stirring on the baby monitor and was greeted by a happy, naked, waving baby. Oh my! Someone had climbed out the neck of her pajamas and then taken her diaper off. She's occasionally gotten an arm out the top of her pajamas and once got both arms out and had them down around her waist, but this one definitely took the cake!

Hi Mama! I learned a new trick!

The empty jammies and the escape artist.

So I snag her up to put a diaper on her and am SO thankful that she didn't have a bowel movement! I inspect for damages and find a wet diaper (so HOPEFULLY she had it on most the night!) and a little wet puddle, but other than that things weren't too terribly bad. I put a diaper on her and then put her on the floor in her room to play for a second while I change the sheets on her bed. I turn around and can't help but shake my head and laugh to find this:

Someone has escaped from her diaper AGAIN and is happily sitting at her table eating pretend strawberries!

Hmmm.... there's GOT to be some way out of these things!

Uh oh, it may be potty training time. My baby's growing up! :(

18 months

2012-01-12T19:39:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Mia's already 18 months old - that she's been in our lives for a whole year and a half already. It seriously boggles the mind. Technically it took about half that long to "grow" her and now she's a walking, babbling, curly haired screecher who loves to chew on baby wipes. Go figure.

At her check up on Monday, I was happy to hear that, even though she's started walking, she hadn't dropped in weight at all. Yay! In fact, she went from the 5th percentile in weight to the 15th percentile. Yay!!! The doctor said she actually had a spike in both her height and weight and we were thrilled! :) I guess the nutritionist's advice to add butter and mayo to her food along with some other tricks really worked!

So, at 18 months old, here are Mia's stats:

height: 31 3/4 inches long, which put her in the 50th percentile
weight: 19 pounds 13 ounces (still not twenty pounds, argh!), which put her in the 15th percentile
head circumference: 48 1/2 centimeters, which put her in the 90th percentile

Mia has a collection of signs as words that she uses to communicate and amazes us at how quickly she picks up language in word and sign. She mimics what we say a lot, and she leaves off a lot of the ending sounds of words, but it's fun being able to see her learn new things. I'm not sure how many OTHER people would be able to understand her on the street, but we sure appreciate that she is starting to be able to let us know things. She has the following signs and words that she uses to communicate:

signs: hungry, all done / no thank you, more, stop, please, drink, hot, cookie, owie, brush teeth and baby
words: up, dog, woof, cat, meow, hot, more, all done, hi, bow, mama, dad, car, flower,boo, thank you, go, bye-bye, outside, down, duck, quack, hello, banana, moo, vitamin, baby, drink, cookie, agua (for water), tickle-tickle, knock-knock, ding-dong and (our absolute favorite) I love you!

Mia is a little mimic and is making a lot of new sounds and copying a ton of words. It's so fun to have a little echo and to see her realize that words are how we communicate. Of course, this can also lead to frustration when she can't communicate what she wants. She also loves helping and is my little shadow - she follows me around and always wants to be doing what I'm doing whether it's dishes or vacuuming or sitting at the kitchen table.

Mia is a big fan of taking shoes and socks off. I rarely bother putting shoes and socks on her at home unless they can be double knotted - and even then they aren't always Mia-proof. More often than not, when we drive somewhere and arrive at our destination I have a happy bare-footed baby in the back seat - shoes and a sock tossed around the back seat. She usually only tosses one sock and keeps the remaining sock to put on her hand. I'm not sure if she sees it as a sock puppet or a mitten, but man is she a fan.

Mia's also enamored of the wipes container. She can find them anywhere, even inside the diaper bag (which she also loves to empty) and loves emptying them out. She keeps one in her fist and squeezes it over and over so that it "juices". lol Then she loves to stuff it in her mouth and munch on it - chewing it like bubble gum while drool POURS out her nostrils and mouth. Man, she's such a little goof ball.

She also loves to crawl onto things, whether it's the play structure at the park, the coffee table, rocking chair, couch, etc, Mia's all about climbing onto it. One of her favorite things to do is climb up onto the back of the couch and either throw herself onto the couch cushions or sit on the back of the couch with her feet in the window sill and look out the window. I fear that one day she'll try it and instead of putting her hands on the window she'll push on the screen and tumble out the window. It makes my heart stop just thinking about it. Luckily she can usually be distracted by something else.

Mia likes to eat by herself with a fork and spoon, and she's actually pretty good at it. Unfortunately, once she's got it sufficiently covered with food, she likes to comb her hair with the utensil like Ariel from "The Little Mermaid". I try not to laugh, but at the same time it can be a little frustrating when she JUST came out of the bath and smells so sweet. She's such an independent little soul and is starting to want to do things all by herself such as wash her face and hands and high chair tray as well as brush her hair and teeth.

Her new favorite things are this little cat she got for Christmas and the book "Buenas Noches Gorilla" (Goodnight Gorilla). There is a gorilla on the front cover that has his finger to his lips as if to say, "Shh", and Mia not only does it every time she see's the book or him doing it on a page, but also throughout the day. It always makes me smile and just want to hug her to pieces! She also loves to point out the banana on various pages. I was confused at first as to why she called it "aba" all the time until I realized that I would always ask her if she wanted a banana, or I'd point and say that it's a banana. "A banana" has become "aba" to Mia. :)

Mia is awesome at giving kisses. She's the best little pucker-er! You ask her for a kiss and she'll turn to you lips a-puckered. lol She's also just starting to say, "Muah!" when she gives kisses. She loves when daddy comes home from work. She shouts/squeals, "DA!" and hustles down the hall to greet her papa. She also loves it when daddy calls from work and sings her "Eensy, weensy Spider". She gets this huge smile on her face and will bob her head back and forth to the music and sometimes try the motions. When papa finishes she'll holler "moe!" (more) for papa to sing another round. :)

She's a great little sleeper - goes to bed at 8 pm and wakes up between 7:30 and 8 am and usually goes down so wonderfully. I snuggle her and sing her a song and sometimes she's already arching for me to put her down. I lay her down with her pink knitted blanket and close the door. She'll sometimes complain a little in a talking voice in her crib and occasionally fuss for a moment, but often she'll just go right down. It's SO nice! She's dropped a nap so she only has one afternoon nap. She'll usually go down for a two hour nap after lunch.

Mia also likes to play with her kitchen and pretend to wash her hands and drink from the little cups as well as chew on the plastic carrot sticks. Sharing is still kind of tricky but she will usually quickly and happily "trade" for something else. She's a little turkey as well and likes to get a rise out of mama and papa by catching our eye and then holding eye contact as she does something she knows will get our goat - like stuff a wipe in her mouth. She's also a big fan of throwing herself on things - on the couch, love sac (beanbag) and mama and papa (which is scary when we don't see her coming).

She loves to dance in the car and wear her sunglasses - well, she loves putting them on and taking them off. Today I went to the mall with my friend Olivia. She was looking for ear rings for piercing her baby girl's ears so we were in Claire's looking around. I'm pushing the stroller and the isles are really narrow. I turn to say something to Olivia and turn back to find this:

That's a headband you say? My sweet Mia sees sunglasses. :)

Playing with her kitchen and food with the "big girls". :)

I guess I need to get my rear in gear and get an 18 month photo of Mia with her blanket and giraffe to add to the collection. I'll try and get it done this weekend. :) Feel free to get after me if you don't see one.

Okay... UPDATE... here are her 18 month photos finally. I had them on the big camera and I don't download from it as much as I should. My little girl is growing up! (And I now have to bribe her with a sucker to get her to stay still for a half a second!

Man, she's getting so big!

Look how little she use to be and how much she's grown!

Mom! You're really cramping my style!

My little snuggle monster, so darn tiny!

Bribery (aka, sucker) will get you anywhere! :)

Man, in another 18 months, my little Mia-moo will be three and starting pre-school. Boggles the mind!!!

Cutie Pattootie!

2012-01-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

Man, I'm just so in love with my little Mia. She's smart as a whip and sassy to boot and she amazes me with all that's going on in that little noggin of hers. She's learning new signs like crazy, her two newest being "cookie" and "owie". We went into the doctor for her 18 month check up on Monday. I was trying to put her shoes on without undoing the laces by 'shimmying' them onto her foot and she starts saying "ah ee" and doing the "owie" sign which is touching her pointer fingers together. I'd been doing that sign for the past few days, but didn't realize she'd incorporated it already. I told her I was sorry for the owie and gave her a big hug and promptly untied the shoes to get them on her little feet. She only had to get two shots this time as opposed to the four she had to get at her 12 month appointment - yay! She also had a little growth spurt and went from the 5th percentile in weight to the 15th percentile - hooray! Of course, she's STILL not quite 20 pounds, but on the new growth charts they use she's had a spike. :) In height as well, but I'll have to look that up because I don't quite remember what it was. She's over 30 inches though now and it boggles both our minds that she's gotten so big so quickly. It seems like just yesterday she was our brand new baby girl and now she's our walkin' talkin' spit-fire toddler!

Man she's a little sweetie though and it's so fun to watch her grow and develop and learn new things! Monday was also super gray and rainy and cold. We went for a walk after her nap to go get the mail when the rain had stopped. Since it was so chilly out I put a couple of layers on her for the walk to the mailbox. She looked so stinking cute walking along that I just had to take a photo.

This walking is serious business.

She, of course, had to stop and lean down and touch every stick, rock, leaf and puddle. That one right behind her got a shout out of "agua" (Spanish for water) and a happy hand splash before mama convinced her to move along and not tough all the puddles of cold wet agua. I love it that she has a few words in Spanish as well and I try and keep after Zeus to talk to her more in Spanish. Speaking of Spanish, Mia got the book "Buenas Noches Gorilla"(Good Night Gorilla) for Christmas from Uncle Michael and Aunt Deena and it's her new absolute FAVORITE book. The gorilla on the front cover has it's finger to it's lips like it's saying "shush" and Mia does it all the time now, but also whenever she sees the book. The funny part is that she puts her finger to the side of her nose and makes this cute blowing sound. It totally cracks us up and brings a smile to our faces. She also likes the page where the lights go out and all the animals say good night because she knows the surprised face is coming up next and she'll squeal in delight! She's such a funny little turkey and we love her so!

Alcoholic's Anonymous?

2012-01-06T16:13:00.000-08:00

Nah, I don't think Mia's a candidate for AA, even if she's a heavy drinking biker chick. lol

I think her bike helmet is almost bigger than she is. Especially at this angle. :)

SOMEBODY'S excited to go for a bike ride.

I finally got around to jolly-rigging the baby bike seat so that it didn't cause the handle bars to get so loose that they become useless. Scary! Got it all worked out last night and this morning we went for a ride around the neighborhood. Mia thought it was so cool as we started off on our bike ride, but that only lasted for about three rounds of the block and then she was over it. It was even trash day today, *BONUS!* so we got to see the truck pick up and dump some of the neighborhood trash cans.

Note to self, it's not so cool to follow the garbage truck around the block when you're downwind. Ugh!

Home Sweet Home

2011-12-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like being back home after some fun holiday traveling and sleeping in your own bed again. Oh, and man how wonderfully we slept last night! Mia was an angel and slept in until almost ten this morning. I think she, as well as mama and papa, had a lot of crazy nights and lack of sleep to make up for. :) Hooray for comfy beds and a fabulous night's rest!

Today Mia got a package from her Great Aunt Charlotte and Great Uncle Harold that was filled with all sorts of goodies. It was delivered the day we headed out of town and our sweet neighbor grabbed it for us so that it wouldn't sit on our porch for a week.

The package was almost as big as she was, and there was so much stuffed into that small package that I felt like I was pulling things out of Mary Poppins' hand bag! lol

Out pops the giraffe's head. We LOVE giraffes around here. :) All of her 0-12 month photos were taken with her big stuffed giraffe and now we have a NEW giraffe friend - two in fact, this chair and a pillow pet that was also in the box which I thought was a footstool at first. lol

Mia sitting on her new giraffe chair in her new outfit. I was surprised that she was so good at sitting in it all by herself and she was in and out of it all day long. As you can tell by the look on her face, she's lovin' it!

In her jammies drinking some milk before bedtime as she chills in her giraffe chair.

In other news, as of a week ago and all during our holiday travel, Mia is walking all over the place and seems to finally use walking as her primary mode of locomotion. Whew! She's FINALLY a walker at 18 months, my silly little stubborn baby girl who only wanted to do it on her own terms and in her own time!

Also, I'm writing this blog on my new laptop!!! Santa (aka, Michael, Deena and Zeus) was terribly generous and thoughtful and got me a new laptop. Thanks to them, the blog and photo updates shall continue indefinitely!!! :) It's so incredibly nice and fast and totally problem-free as opposed to my old laptop which I feared was about to die any moment and which would blue screen a few times a DAY. It has a wonderfully clicky keyboard and is so thin and light and fast and doesn't overheat. It's amazing and I'm in love!

Thumpity Thump Thump

2011-12-28T22:45:00.000-08:00

Yeah, we have a three time repeat offender. Mia climbed/fell out of her port-a-crib for the third time last night. Needless to say I did not get much sleep at all last night, but it made it so Mia and I both passed out for over two hours during the drive home.

Before we headed home today we went to a friend of my cousin Kristi's house and went fishing. It was chilly, but pretty. Zeus even caught a two foot long gold fish, but unfortunately it wiggled off the line as he was pulling it from the water. Mia wanted to walk all over the place and it made me super nervous, but we all survived and no one fell in the water. Oh, and I got some cute photos of my little explorer. :)

Mia and papa checking out the dock and the missing boards that gave me heart failure.

Of course she's FINALLY decided she wants to walk all by herself. Scary!

Matthew, Zeus Karson and Kristi dropping in their lines.

What's this mom? A swing? I like swings.

Did you get a picture of my cute hair mom? Oh look, there's a hole in it! I like finding holes!

What's this mom? A canoe? I like canoes!

What's this? A fishing pole? I like fishing poles!

Look mom, I can wind it just like papa. I'm super smart. :)

A few other fun photos from our holiday trip this last week:

A moment of fun cousin playing together time. :)

Zeus working on his Christmas tamales - YUM!!!

The delicious tamales, all wrapped up and ready to get steamed. SO worth the day of work and three hour wait while they steamed! :)

The shirt that Mia got from Uncle Michael and Aunt Deena. I totally loved it - so fun and gave all of us a good laugh! :)

Mia in her first forward-facing ride from Arkansas back to Texas and LOVING the new view. Does she look ecstatic or what!?!

Ear-to-ear grin of our new forward facing girl. She makes me smile all the time!

Playing with her magneto-sketch thing in the store - she LOVES it and can even swipe the top to erase the screen, little smartie!

Mia and her new BFF Aunt Kristi walking through the store and checking everything out - great fun!

Such a fun day with the cousins before our drive back home. We had such a nice time in Fr. Worth and Arkansas, but I think we'll all be happy to sleep in our own little super comfy beds in our own rooms in our own little house. :)

Things that go THUMP in the night

2011-12-27T23:28:00.000-08:00

Apparently that's the sound that an 18 month old makes when they climb out of their port-a-crib and splat on the floor. Sadness. And the even SADDER thing is that we had not only one, but TWO thumps tonight. Oh my!

Precursor and side note - in Arkansas Mia would sleep in Sadie's crib, but we are back in Ft. Worth on our way home and Mia's back in her trusty port-a-crib. Yesterday was our anniversary and we spent it on the road from Arkansas to Ft. Worth. We turned Mia's car seat forward facing so that I could reach her easier on the long trip and to see if having a view OTHER than the back of the back seat would make the drive a little more tolerable for her. She LOVED it! She was grinning from ear to ear and did SO much better on the drive facing forward. I got the cutest photos of her with her ear-to-ear smile, but I'm not on my computer so I'll have to upload them when we get home. Super duper cute! :)

We got in about 11 pm, put Mia down to bed and chatted for a little bit before calling it a night. We set the port-a-crib up in the walk-in closet in the room we were staying in and Mia slept until about 9:30 am this morning with no thumps of any sort - hooray for letting mommy and daddy sleep in and for no thumps! We spent the day hanging out, shopping for supplies for dinner and then cooking and eating and chatting. Zeus brought some of his Christmas tamales to share and they were a big hit! He also made homemade Spanish rice, re-fried beans and two different batches of home made salsa - yum! Kristi made some amazing chocolate chip cookies for dessert and we all got filled up on some delicious food.

Well, night time came and Zeus went upstairs to put Mia down for the night. We had the ancient monitor we use at home hooked up and could hear that she was NOT happy about being put down, though the sound quality is not the greatest. I was debating going up and getting her up for a little longer because she usually goes down really easy, and since sleeping in that morning had been a little off schedule. I was going to get her up to let her play a little more until she was tired, but decided to wait a few minutes to see if she settled down. Suddenly we heard a loud THUD from upstairs but thought that it was the kids playing upstairs and didn't really think anything of it. Suddenly we realized we could hear the crying a little differently and that it almost sounded like it was coming from the stairs. Sure enough, Mia was making her way tearfully down the stairs. Super sadness!

Apparently she'd gotten out, opened the closet door and room door (both of which were cracked open) and crawled over to head down the stairs. We checked her for bumps and red spots but couldn't find any, and when given an M&M by my cousin, she took it and quieted down a little. We thought it may have been a freak accident thing, at least we hoped it was! We let her hang out with us downstairs and play and crawl around a little more and then I took her back up to try and put her down again. I snuggled and sung to her and then put her down. She wasn't to happy about it, but I knelt in there by the port-a-crib and patted her back to try and get her to sleep. She kept putting her arms up and saying "Uh!" I told her I wasn't going to get her up because it was time to go to sleep and I kept patting her. She would calm down and then I'd stop and she'd get back up. I figured I'd step outside the closet and close the door so she couldn't see me and then listen for any climbing. I could tell that she had stood up in her crib, but didn't hear any scratching sound of her pushing her feet against the mesh sides. Suddenly I heard another sickening THUD! I flipped on the closet light and flung the door open, only to see Mia sitting on the floor outside of the crib! I was horrified that she'd fallen out so quickly and on my watch. :( Zeus came hurrying upstairs and was upset that I'd "let" it happen again when I was right there. I tried to explain what had happened and how quickly it had happened, but I don't think he realized just how quickly it had occurred. I was able to get her to sleep by laying down on the bed and snuggling her on my chest, and then transferred her back into the port-a-crib. She woke and I had to pat and "sh-sh-sh" her back to sleep for a few moments, but we haven't had any other thumps tonight. Of course, we are both a little paranoid that we'll be greeted with that sound bright and early tomorrow morning when she wakes up and realizes she's back in the port-a-crib. I usually hear her when she wakes up and will be hopping up immediately to get her up when she stirs in the morning and we've put pillows all around the side just in case this time.

Oh my - I've got a climber.

Family Time

2011-12-23T20:12:00.000-08:00

We made it safely to Arkansas for the holiday on Wednesday night after a fun stop in Ft. Worth at my cousin Kristi's house. Mia's having a fun time with her cousin Sadie who's 8 months older than her. They are so cute together and would be even cuter with some noise reduction head phones. lol They LOVE playing with each other's toys, but do not want to share said toys with each other and have not yet realized that they can easily share the same toys. Good thing they're so stinkin' cute and better yet, they sometimes even get along and play together for a few minutes. :)

When we first got in around 8 pm, Sadie was already asleep but her papa (my brother Dan) decided he needed to get her up to see her cousin. :) They looked SO cute in their jammies and actually played really cute together with Sadie's kitchen and Sadie kept repeating her name in the cutest voice ever.

Jammied cousins playing with Sadie's kitchen.

Sadie helping Zeus push the cart. So cute!

Mia thought Sadie's vacuum was pretty darn cool.

Her little pig tails are so stinking cute and are getting so long!

Sadie and Mia with their matching pig tails - SO cute!

The daddies feeding the daughters yummy spaghetti last night. :)

Another brother of mine, Michael and his wife Deena made it in last night from Washington after a day of flying. Today Michael and Deena ran errands and Zeus went grocery shopping while Dan worked so Brienne, and I and our girls hung out at home. Zeus got home and made a BOMBAY dinner of enchiladas, re-fried beans, Spanish rice and homemade salsa. It was so SO yummy!!! Here's some pictures of our day... as I uploaded them I realized that I should probably get more photos of the grown-ups as well, so that's my goal for tomorrow. :)

The girls coloring today.

..and today, again with the cute matching hairdo's. Nope, wasn't even planned, though tomorrow it may be. :)

We played with bubbles which both girls love.

The girls had fun coloring with Aunt Deena.

And ending the day with some kitchen play in the jammies again seems to make for a good way to end the evening. :) Mia's sporting a pair of Sadie's outgrown jammies - hooray for cousin pass-alongs!

NOOOOOO!

2011-12-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

Man, I've been trying to avoid it for as long as possible, but it's finally happened this week and unfortunately seems to be happening pretty consistently - Mia now says, "No"!!

I knew it would finally happen SOME day, and I definitely didn't want it to be her first word or even ONE of her first words. Thankfully she has said a TON of other words prior to this sadness. We try not to just say no to everything and to use it in a sentence along with what we want her TO do so that the emphasis is not on the word no itself. Thankfully she doesn't scream it yet, so that's a relief - it's more kind of this sweet little, "Na", but she's definitely meaning "no". It's kind of so cute that we have to keep ourselves from smiling when she does it. lol However, that same sweet little turkey swatted at my hand and told me "Na" tonight when I asked her to please not pull the power chord out of mommy's laptop and went to move her hand away from the chord. I do not know WHERE she got THAT from and we are not fans of that kind of behavior AT ALL. Oh my!

Mia LOVES reading books with her papa.

Her newest thing is giving kisses to the dogs and cats - that and "petting" them on the page.

Another new favorite thing for Mia is to drink the milk "all by herself" from the bowl after she eats her cereal. She's such an independent little soul! :)

Mia also loves the little slide that we picked up on the side of the road for free - score! :) We recently moved it inside and she loves climbing on it and sliding down the slide.

Hello - just chilling here in my little jeans and jacket. Hmmmm.... What's this? Peek-a-boo!

I finally went to the optometrist for the first time in years to get a new eye prescription. Zeus came to watch Mia during his lunch break and they took a break outside. Mia loves exploring - even exploring the inside of her jacket apparently!

Trying on the sock monkey hats at the store today. Mia looked SO cute that I almost got it for her, even though it was adult size! :) (I may just have to go back and grab it.)

Papa's credit union is the COOLEST!

(we may have to come back just to play with the toys in the waiting area!)

Mia taking the bulbs off the tree at Gideon's house tonight.

Zeus took Mia with him on some errands this past weekend so that I could have some uninterrupted time to get some things done around the house. I just saw this photo on his phone the other day and promptly requested a copy of my honeys with Santa. :)

Between that and peeling grapes for her at Olive Garden today (part way through eating them decided she didn't want the skins and would chew all the juice and pulp out and then spit out the skins), I'd say that Mia pretty much has her papa completely wrapped around her cute little finger. Yeah, he's pretty besotted - just as a papa should be. She's so lucky to have her as her papa, and we are so lucky to have HER!

I wish I'd never gone there...

2011-12-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

So, I taught Mia the sign for "please", which is a circular motion on your chest. She picked it up pretty quick, even though her version of it is more of a one or two-handed random rubbing motion on her torso. So now she uses it all the time. It's killing me though because in the mornings when I'm making breakfast she clings to my legs saying, "UH!" - her version of asking to be picked "up". Well, I usually tell her that I'm cooking breakfast but I'll pick her up in a second. However, now when I tell her just a minute, she keeps saying, "uh!" and then does the sign for "please" every time I look down at her. Man, how can I resist?!?! Sometimes I wish I'd never gone there. lol

Anyhow, today we headed to Elgin to Michelle and Amali's house for a cookie decorating party. I thought I had my camera with me but was sad to find that it hadn't made its way into the diaper bag after all. Bummer! Thankfully Michelle had her camera and was kind enough to send me a few shots. I didn't really think Mia would "get" the idea of decorating cookies, but part way through I picked her "uh!" and put her on my lap while I iced a cookie. I tried to hold her hand with the knife to spread the frosting, but those of you who remember her hand-being-touched aversion can only imagine that it didn't really last. However, she was SUPER interested in shaking the sprinkles out onto the cookie and did such a cute job!

Mia playing on the floor while mama chatted with the other mama's and decorated some cookies.

Mia getting in on the action and shaking on the sprinkles like a pro. :)

Oh my goodness mama, look! Look at THIS! Mama, my SHIRT is the same color as papa's! And our PANTS are the same color too!! And we both have black SHOES!!!

Unbeknownst to us all, papa and Mia were unintentional twinners today. :)

Speaking of twinners... my brother Dan and his wife Brienne went in for an ultrasound today to find out the sex of their second child. Come to find out, their second child is actually identical twin boys! :) My sweet little niece Sadie, who just turned two, is going to be a big sister to twin brothers. Wowza! How crazy and exciting is that?!?! My brother was so excited at the thought of having TWO sons to play with, and my sister-in-law burst into tears. How like the man to think of the fun, and how like a woman to realize the statistical and logistical implications. After the initial jealousy wore off (I've always thought it would be cool to have twins) and I returned to reality, I came to the realization that I'm too old for twins and can't wait to meet my new little nephews (as well as my new little niece) that are due next year!

Always a Day Late and a Dollar Short

2011-12-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

Man, time can get away from you so fast - especially in November and December between the holidays! I downloaded some new photos from my phone and camera and realized that I've been lax at posting quite a few of the fun things we've been up to. We'll see how much I can get down before little Miss Mia wakes up! :)

Mia got her first "trim" a few weeks ago on December 2nd.

It was just a few straggle bang hairs, but papa was really sad that I did it when he was at work - he's such a good dad and hates to miss out on anything!

Zeus picked up an electric popper since our microwave died and the one we borrowed from his sister before she moves back doesn't pop popcorn very well. Mia thought it was SUPER cool to watch the kernels pop and jump and couldn't wait to dive in with both hands and much down on the pop corn!

On Saturday, December 3, Carrie and Mia and I braved the rainy weather to head to Gruene Christmas Market down in Geuene (pronounced "Green"), Texas.

Luckily it only sprinkled for a minute or two while we were down there. He's one of the cool old trees with some HUGE wind chimes. Of course I had to pull them to see what they sounded like - way worth it, they were gorgeous sounding!

We ate in the Old Gristmill Restaurant that had a decorated Christmas tree hanging upside down as you walked in. It's kind of hard to see in this photo, but it looked really cool.

We had a blast, but it was a LONG day for Mia who hardly napped. I had to snap a photo of her just laying there on the floor when we got home. lol Of course, she had enough energy to take a photo to send to papa who was out of town that weekend.

We had a cold front come in near the beginning of the month, so I've been taking along an extra blanket to tuck around Mia. She LOVES getting tucked into to car seat and gets this HUGE grin on her face as I tuck it around the edges. Luckily I was actually able to snap a picture of it! :)

I needed to trim my toenails so tried to quick get it done before running errands. Monkey see, monkey do - need I say more? :)

Mia in a winter coat and mittens by our mail box. Thank you Jan Vargas for passing along the darling warm coat set!

Shopping with mama - can't help but try on the cute headbands!

Narwhal, unicorn, or Hershey's Kiss? Mia's hair is getting SO long!

Gotta wear those holiday shirts while you can! :)

Mia LOVED the stairs at Eddie and Olivia's house. Mia and I went to have a girls night this last weekend and had such a nice time until Eddie ran out to run some errands and got in an accident when someone ran a red light. Thankfully he's okay, but his car was totaled. So scary!

While Eddie was out running errands, all the girls (Olivia and her daughter Adelina, as well as Olivia's mom, cousin and sister and her daughter) went on a walk through the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. This one was a favorite in green, blue and purple. Christmas lights are one of my most favorite things!

Mia's other winter coat from Aunt Nikki - thanks Sara and Fia for passing it down! We think of you guys every time Mia wears it!!!

Mia's growing entirely too fast! She's 18 months old at the end of the month and we can hardly wrap our minds around the idea that she's only been in our lives for the last year and a half! We can hardly remember our lives without this little bundle of joy! :) In my church, they have a nursery class for kids that start at 18 months, so we've decided to drop in a few times this month to get her use to the class. This past Sunday was our first week. Unfortunately Zeus had to work his part time job so he missed out on the first of her in Nursery. She did pretty good, but definitely needs to hone her sharing skills as she wanted to play with whatever someone else was playing with! The baby strollers were one of the hot items in the class, so we've added that to her Christmas list. :)

Mia with her name written on a piece of tape on her back. :) Aren't her tights the cutest?!?! She was SO styling! Thank you Aunt Nikki for the dress and Tia Hilda for the tights and shoes!

Checking out the toys and other kids.

The tiny chairs were a big hit, but mama was NOT such a fan of the climbing ON the chairs!

Well, my little big-girl is waking up. On to start our day! We have a cookie decorating party out in Elgin to head to, as well as some Christmas shopping to do, so we've got a busy day and lots to do before making it back home for Mia's nap and tutoring. :) Tis the season for busy days!

Holiday Cleft Party and Santa Visit

2011-12-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

Today Mia and I went to a Holiday Party for cleft families put on by Dell Children's Hospital and Austin Smiles. We got to see some of our friends, touch base with people we haven't seen in a while, make some new friends and even get Mia's picture taken with Santa. Good times! I was glad to see that she didn't cry or scream, though she wasn't SUPER thrilled about it. I totally had a flash back to last year's Santa visit - see below. :)

Uh, mom... help...

This scene was a total flashback to last year's Santa visit. Who IS this bearded fellow?!?! He seems oddly familiar... Oh yes... I remember this bearded fellow from LAST year!

Here's the photo from last year - Man, she still has the same amount of hair on the side of her head! lol

Mia and I with our friends Evelyn and Susan - both girls had bilateral cleft lip and palate repair

Mia with Mary the nurse coordinator and Dr. D who did the awesome work with Mia's NAM - we saw theme nearly every week the first four months of her life so they feel almost like part of the family.

Isn't she just the prettiest and sweetest thing! I love the look on her face in this one. Mia and I were on our own for the party since Zeus is out of town this weekend to see the Cowboys get their butts kicked by the Cardinals. Bummer!

Mia's new thing is knocking on doors. Whenever we come home and I'm getting the keys out to unlock the front door, she always MUST reach out and knock on the door a few times. She'll even say, "naw" for knock. :) She also has kind of a set "routine" that she likes to do in the morning when I get her up. I get her out of the crib and turn off her white-noise heartbeat noisemaker. On that same dresser are some of her bows, and she likes to pick a few up one at a time and put them in my hand as I tell her the colors. After that she turns towards the windows and likes to pull the string on the blinds to tilt them open before I lay her down to change her diaper. Do you think this means she's a little OCD, or maybe it's just MY ocd tendencies rubbing off on her?!?! lol She also has started this stage where in the middle of eating, she'll decide to randomly push all current food out of her mouth all chewed and mushy before going back to eating as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Silly girl! She did this with four or five apple slices on Friday as we were driving home from a friend's house. I'd bitten the peels off and she was happily munching on the apple slices and asking for more. Well, when we got home and I went around the car to get her out of her car seat she was covered from chin to toes with chewed up tiny pieces of apple. It almost looked as if the wood chips from a hamster cage had exploded on her for goodness sake!

As a closer for tonight, Mia's working on a new skill that I'm sure is going to make our lives MUCH more difficult in the near future...

And darn if we don't have those doorknobs throughout the entire house, including the front and back doors. Darn!

Thanksgiving anniversary

2011-11-28T20:13:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that a year ago on Thanksgiving we were two weeks post Mia's first major surgery - her lip repair - and were finally able to take off her Pedi-Wrap arm restraints. Man, we were so excited for that day and terrified all the same that somehow she would do horrible damage to the surgery site once we actually took them off. She still had her Hitler style steri-strip on her lip from surgery that we'd been slowly trimming down, but was such a little trooper and was doing so good. I can't believe we are a year out! Mia's made it through lip AND palate surgery like a trooper. We are SO THANKFUL to have her in our lives and SO GRATEFUL that we are on the other side of these surgeries and ready for a much needed break for a few years. :)

So thankful for this little bug that's growing up so fast and for the cooler weather we are FINALLY having.

Last Thanksgiving finally free of the arm restraints. Man, look at this little cutie - so tiny and so precious!!! (even with her Hitler-style bloody steri-strip mustache) :)

Only 5 months old in this photo - my how time has flown! She's growing up so fast, but continues to be such a joy. She's learning and growing and changing so quickly and continues to amaze us. She's doing so many great things that I don't even know where to start.

At 17 months Mia:

is finally walking, though her locomotion method of choice is still crawling
seems to walk better for anyone BESIDES mom
gives huge two-armed hugs that just slay us
loves to climb on the couch, rocking chair and almost anything else she can find
loves to look out the windows and pull the string on the blinds to tilt them open
gives kisses by either leaning her head towards you to kiss or sometimes leaning towards you with her sweet little baby mouth
does baby sign language for 'more', 'hungry/food', 'all done' (which she also uses for 'no thank you') and has started doing the sign for stop (although her version is one powerful clap) lol
regularly says "up", "more" and "dog"
has recently started nodding and will nod to let us know that she wants what we are asking for, though her nod cracks us up because it is slow, over-exaggerated and very deliberate
LOVES LOVES LOVES dogs
has a hard time sharing
is constantly taking off her shoes and socks
loves going "out" side for walks or to the park
is fearless and loves to go down the slides at the park
will wave her hands "no thank you" when we ask if she's ready to go mimi's (Spanish nickname for 'dormir' - to sleep) but goes down to bed easily and sleeps 12 hours through the night
loves to stack her stacking buckets and will stand up and balance to stack the highest cups
likes putting the shapes and numbers in her sorter cube
loves playing with people's phones
is growing like a weed
is moving into size 18 month clothes, but still wears a small size three shoe - we aren't sure where she got the tiny feet from!
does not like you to take things from her, but if you say, "Can I have it, please?", she'll usually hand it over
is still the light of our lives and such a joy to have as a daughter
she loves to eat scrambled eggs with cheese, hot dogs, oatmeal, quesadillas , McDonald's dollar hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, soggy breakfast cereal and fruit leather, among other things :)

I definitely need to write about our last few weeks, especially our road-trip to El Paso for Thanksgiving, but that will have to wait for later. Right now I'm thankful for my comfy king sized bed with it's memory foam topper. :)

Sadness

2011-11-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

Sadness. Super duper sadness. Today Nikki and her family left Mia and I behind today to head to San Antonio and Mia and I got a small peek into what life is going to be like once they leave, and let me tell you, it's going to be super quiet and lonely around her. Super duper quiet and lonely. Super duper sadness. Mia and I are going to be so lonely once they leave. It's been so fun having them here, and having them here for three whole weeks makes them feel like part of our little family - like they are a permanent part of our life. I'm sure they will be relieved to be back in their own space and their own beds and I know Sara has really missed their dog, but we sure will miss them!!!

Here are a few photos from the last little bit:

Nikki and Fia spider swinging - fun!

Mia's loving the licorice. By the time she was done both her AND papa were covered in red drool. :)

Mia walking with the help of Sara and Fia.

Sara loves to push Mia everywhere we go. She's such a good little mama!

This one of all of us girls was taken right after we picked them up from the airport. Man, we are going to miss them!!!

On Sunday we went on the Austin Duck Adventure. It's this bus/boat contraption that drives you on a tour around town and then drives into the lake and putters around the water as well. I'd gotten a great deal on Groupon before they'd come and so we were in a scramble to find a date that would work for all of us. I was a little worried how much the kids would enjoy it, but it was so fun. They gave us all these duck bill whistles that were a big hit with the three girls and I SO wish we could have captured the look on the girls faces when the big bus made a HUGE splash down as it drove into the water. Too too fun!!!

Our classy bus/boat ride looked like this. (from www.austinducks.com)

All aboard the boat/bus!

Almost everyone sporting their cool complimentary duck bill whistles (can you spot the party pooper?!?!).

Cheese! ...or should I say, "Quack?"

Mia was very relieved to find that mama was willing to share her duck whistle.

Mia LOVED the duck whistle, even though she couldn't make it quack, and pretty much chewed on it the entire ride. lol

My beautiful nieces taking in the water view after splashdown.

Man are we going to miss the Lindgrens! Thankfully we still have three more sleeps before they head home!!!

Apendicitis Sucks

2011-11-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

So, this year Halloween wasn't so fun. About 4:30 pm I started having a pain in my side. By 6 pm I was in horrible pain and my entire abdomen hurt so terribly and was super tender to the touch. Zeus was tired from working all weekend so between the two of us, we sat on the front porch with Mia (non-costumed, sadness) and passed out candy. I'd heard of someone experiencing something similiar, had gone to the ER and had an ultrasound etc., and it had ended up being gas pains, so I was really holding out on going in. However, by 9 pm I thought I might be dying. It was worse than labor pains not only because it hurt so bad, but because it was constant and just would just NOT stop. We headed to the ER where they did blood work and even a CT scan. My white blood cell count was slightly elevated and my appendix was slightly enlarged, but they were perplexed by how sore my entire stomach was. At about 3 am they admitted me to the hospital and my appendix was removed the next morning. When they went to take out my appendix, they found a pocket of puss that they had to suction out as well, which was probably the cause of the extreme abdominal pain. Luckily, they were still able to do it laproscopically, so I have three small incisions versus one longer one that would have had to go through four layers of muscle. Ouch! Because of the extra "goody" they had to suction out, I got to stay an extra day in the hospital. Got home today and feeling MUCH better than Monday, but still generally crappy. This is my second surgery this year, you think I'd be over it by now. In the last two years this is my third surgery. Man, between Mia and Zeus and I, we've had seven surgeries in this household in the past 16 months! Sheish! I say, enough all ready!

Luckily we were able to have some fun before "the appendix" took over and ruined the last few days. On Friday we trick-or-treated at the nursing home. On Saturday we "Trunk-or-Treated" at the church parking lot. We hung a spider web over the hatch of my car and hung our home made decorations and spider rings on the stretched out web. I think it turned out pretty awesome, and apparently others agreed because we won second prize in the trunk decorating contest! Yay!

Looking pretty great, eh?

Sofia and Sara rocking the cake walk, and Mia and I rocking the cake walk.

Cake walk winners and their winnings.

Sara and Fia trunk-or-treating.

Mia surprised us by carrying her own bucket at actually walking from car to car for a little bit!

Zeus worked his part time weekend job was was able to jet over after work and catch the last few moments of trunk-or-treating. Mia's cheeks are full of candy in this one. lol

Mama and papa and Mia trunk-or-treating. Cute little butterfly!

Man, we just can't get enough of her! :)

On Sunday after church, we went to two Halloween themed activities. The first was our friend Chrissy's little mommy-and-me Halloween party and the second was at the University of Texas for students and their family. What a full, full day!

Mia looking cute as a bug in a rug on Sunday at church.

Sofia and Sara decorated scary mummy cupcakes at Chrissy's.

Sara and Fia also painted some mini-pumpkins.

Mia caught up on her snuggling of some good friends we haven't seen for a bit and charmed everyone in her little butterfly costume.

Then it was off to the Erwin Center at UT for their Halloween celebration. Zeus was able to get out of work a few hours early and meet us there.

Fun Halloween peek-troughs.

Mia thought the free balloon was the coolest thing ever.

Sara and Fia fished for candy and bowled for candy.

I gave Fia a ride on my shoulders so she could see the dancers. Her dress made for a cute bonnet and a silly photo op. :)

I got recruited to help with the super complex scary face Sofia chose when grandma's hands got tired. Man, at times I wondered if I would be able to even finish it!

Grandpa helping Sara with her happy jack-o-lantern.

My easy ghost one for Mia, Sofia's scary grin, and Sara's happy pumpkin.

We were able to get them out and lit before their papa got in from the airport.

That night their papa finally flew in from Germany to join the party. However, Zeus still got some quality Sofia time in before her papa took over. They have such a fun bond and it's fun to see them together.

Then on Halloween we decorated Halloween cookies before the trick-or-treating took off. Sara and Sofia were able to wear their costumes one last time for a trip around the block with their mom and dad and grandpa while Zeus, Mia, grandma and I held down the fort and handed out candy before the fateful trip to the ER. Man, no wonder my appendix gave out. Way too much Halloween fun going on in the past few days!

Got home from the hospital today and was suckered in to going and sitting by the pool while everyone swam. The pool by the house was finally on lock-down so we went to the neighborhood YMCA. Good times! Go ahead, I know you're already singing it... "It's fun to stay at the Y, M, C, A!"

Nikki, Sofia, Sara, Zeus and Mia swimming in the pool at the YMCA today.

Sofia and Sara could swim all by themselves with the life vests on and thought they were super cool.

Though you can't tell by the look on her face in this photo, Mia enjoyed swimming and her life vest as well. lol

Anyhow, it's time for my next dose of antibiotic and pain meds, so I'm off to pop some pills and catch some much needed rest. Nightey night.

So Fun

2011-10-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

It has been so fun having my sister and her girls in town to play! My mom and dad flew in last night as well and the girls are busy loving on grandma and grandpa. :) It has been so fun seeing our daughters interact and play together. We only wish our other siblings could have made it out as well and that ALL the cousins could have been her to play together!

Sara loves holding Mia, even though they are getting closer and closer to being the same size. lol

Mia, my cute little bug, trying to keep up with her cousins.

Hard at work on Halloween decorations for the house.

It is, apparently, VERY serious business.

This morning we got up, ate breakfast and put on our Halloween costumes to go trick-or-treating at a nursing home for a play group activity. Nothing like a little candy first thing in the morning! :) It made me think of a bib I saw at the store the other day that said, "The sugar made me do it!" I think we'll have to get three of those shirts for these three cute candy-loving girls for the next few days.

My little pink caterpillar playing with mom's sunglasses before getting into her butterfly costume. :)

Sofia, Mia and Sara - 3 little beauties! Mia's loving sitting like a big girl with her cousins. :)

This little Butterfly is read to Trick-or-Treat rock-and-roll!

My niece Sara did NOT want to smile for the camera. I decided to use reverse psychology by telling her I wanted to take an "ugly senorita" photo so she should show me her ugly senorita face. It worked, and Sara smiled. However, Sofia took me seriously and this was the resulting photo:

Ugly senorita photo. lol

Aren't they the cutest things ever!

Ready for trick or treating. :)

Trick-or-Treat!

Uhm, mommy, is that MY piece of candy in YOUR mouth??? Whoopsie!

LOVE this smile! I just have to say how great her lip repair surgery has healed. We are almost a year out and her lip is so smooth that you'd never guess it was open on both sides of her sweet little mouth/nose when she was born.

And a few last photos of the girls with grandma and grandpa:

Mia getting some grandma loves. :)

Fia chilling with grandpa...

...while grandma reads to Sara.

Still Alive

2011-10-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive. It's been busy and and I've been tired on top of all the business, so that pretty much sums it up. :)

Last week Mia and I went to a play date that was Halloween themed. She has a darling butterfly costume and also a pumpkin costume that we got on clearance last year after Halloween for this year. Our friend that we invited didn't have a costume yet, so we let them borrow the butterfly and Mia went as a pumpkin. She looked SO cute!

Standing with mama and checking out the scene. She was actually dragging me all over by the finger since she's STILL not walking on her own. Argh!

Mia was really interested in checking out the sand box, but not actually playing in it!

Luckily she's so dainty or she wouldn't have fit in this one! :)

With her "stem" hat on. :)

Afterwards Mia and I dropped our friends back off at their apartment and headed up north to meet papa for lunch at Olive Garden. YUM!

Mia has started being interested in coloring and it's so fun to watch her!

Hey dad, you can color, but stay outta my way! :)

My sister Nikki, who is just younger than me, is in town with her girls from Germany and we've been having so much fun! Grandma and grandpa fly in tomorrow night and their papa flies in on Sunday so we'll have an even MORE full house soon. Yay!

So here's a quick sneak peek so far from cell phone photos:

Mia and Sofia checking each other out while Sara checks her watch.

We have the coolest "cows" outside the airport. :)

Too bad there was a sign saying not to sit on them. :(

Mia going down the slide with Fia.

Swinging on the hammock at Giddeon's house - Sara, Fia, Gid, Nik and Mia.

Mia getting ready to knock down Sara's tower. :)

On the old fire truck that's part of the playground down town.

Getting their "crawl" on. :)

Super Sadness

2011-10-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

So not only do we have our 15 month appointment tomorrow, but I think Mia is cutting TEETH. Not just a TOOTH, but TEETH. When I looked in her mouth the other day I saw what I THINK was a lateral incisor on the left coming in right between where her regular gum-line meets her front clefted gum-line. Besides that, I see one lump where a molar is thinking about coming in as well as the two bottom canine teeth and maybe the top two canine teeth. That would make - if you're counting - SIX new teeth that are in different stages of coming in right now. Only one of those (maybe two) have cut through and she's seemed pretty miserable. :( Tonight she woke up after being sound a sleep for a few hours and was just fussing miserably. We waited for a little while to see if she would go back to sleep, but the pain must have been keeping her awake, so I went in and gave her some acetaminophen and some teething jel and then planned on snuggling her back to sleep while we waited for them to kick in and work their magic. Well Zeus couldn't stand hearing her so sad, so he came down and took over for the snuggling part - good papa!

I also realize that I haven't posted in quite some time and have a ton of photos that I just downloaded from my phone. So if you are anti-photo-mass-posting, I'm warning you now... look away! :)

The weekend of Sept 24, I watched my friend Michelle's daughter while she had a girls' day out with some of the ladies in her family. It was fun having her and she LOVES Mia which was both a blessing and a curse for a little girl who's use to having mommy and everything else to herself for the most part. lol

Climbing fun - Mia and Amali

Some together time..... and some alone time = happy friends! lol

What'cha doing buddy?

Wow, this IS fun! Busy little heads together making plans for later. :)

And the fun just keeps on going!

On a ride in the "buddy stroller" to the pool for some swimming!

Don't even THINK about taking your sucker back mom! MOMMY, GIVE ME BACK MY SUCKER!!!

Happiness, thy name is blue sucker!

Bath-time fun - check out how long her hair is getting!!!

Looking at photos and videos with papa on his phone.

Playing with papa - they have so much fun together!

She was teaching papa how to do THIS cool trick, but once they were both doing it I couldn't seem to get a photo, darn it!

Playing today with Gideon, the little boy I watch twice a week. It's so fun because they know each other now and play so cute together (usually). :)

I've also been busy coming up with t-shirt designs for my new little side business called ClefTees. When Mia was born I looked all over for some shirts we could get for our family that had something to do with clefts, but never found anything I liked. Well, I made up some designs for a clef seminar we went to last month. I posted the photos on my cleft lip / cleft palate group and people wanted to see more, so I've been working on different designs. It's been a lot of fun, but also taken up a lot of time, which is part of why I've been so lax in updating the blog lately. My first order shipped out today and I have another one going out tomorrow. I'm excited because I'm donating some of the money from each order to Smile Train, an organization that repairs cleft lips and palates all over the world! You can check out some of our designs on Facebook or by clicking on this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ClefTees/234579949924954. Here's one of my new favorites. :)

Man do I miss that beautiful wide mile! :)

Silly little monkey

2011-09-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

I might have a renter for my Utah house. Hooray! Needless to say, with that good news and a good night's sleep, today is a better day. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Speaking of small miracles, mine is such a silly little monkey! :) Here are some recent photos of her that make me smile.

Look at me mommy! I fit in the big girl car seat!!! ...Mommy, why are you crying?!? I'm growing up, but it's okay! Look, I'm SO big!!!

Hello. Hello? Is anybody there? I got new shoes and I love talking on the phone. Hello...?

Okay, thanks Gid, you hold my shoe while I work on getting the other sock off... Oh, and can you keep an eye out for my mom so she doesn't realize what I'm doing...? She just BARELY put them on me, so she might have mixed feelings about this situation...

Okay, go straight ahead, then left at the corner...

...What do you mean back seat driver?!? This is my hood, I know the way to the park! :)

The face of perpetual motion. ...Which is why that's the only part of her that is semi-focused... lol

Little cutie-patootie in her little pigtails and purple Converse shoes.

Look Mom! I have a new trick! I took off my pajamas!!! All by myself!!! Yup, pants AND shirt!!! I've got MAD SKILLS!!!

My saving grace

2011-09-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

Things have been rough lately. Everything's seemed hard and discouraging and the hubby's been irritating (as opposed to me being irritating, I'm sure - lol) and I've just been feeling really overwhelmed and really stressed and really ready to throw in the proverbial towel. Today I'd had it so Mia and I went for a drive and where we ended up there was a PetSmart. Mia loves dogs so I figured it would be a fun thing to go and walk through the pet store and look at and talk about all the animals. She got the biggest kick out of the dogs that the owners had brought into the store with them. She starts "ooh"-ing and giggling and gets so excited. She also enjoyed the birds because there was so much movement in the cages. I wish I'd have gotten a video of her with this one lady's Jack Russel terrier, but I WAS able to get this one of her by the fishes but every time I try to upload it, it shuts down my browser! Just my rotten luck. Sigh...

Guess we'll have to go with photos instead, and goodness knows, I've got plenty of those! :) Last weekend we went to a UT (no, not Utah, but University of Texas, for all my Utah family who might be confused by that) tailgate. It just so happens they were playing BYU which is a Utah team. lol Thus, Mia wore her UT Longhorn orange. I sent this photo to my best buddy up in Utah who is a BYU fanatic with the following captioning.

Lord, please let my Longhorns beat Uncle Iain's Cougars. lol

Watching the game and excitedly clapping along with the excited spectators - Mia gets really excited when other people clap and cheer and always has to join in.

Earlier that day we'd gone to a Cleft Seminar near Dell Children's Hospital. I'd been looking all over for some cleft themed shirts and just haven't found any that I liked, so a week or so before the seminar I decided to make my own! :) Needless to say, I played with some different designs on the computer - I knew what I wanted it to look like, but it was tricky getting it to look like it wasn't drawn by a five year old. I asked the hubby if he minded if we all wore shirts that were the same, and he wondered if I could tweak something so that they weren't all EXACTLY the same. So, last minute I made a change to the color of the hearts for each of our shirts. Then Zeus said, well can mine be in Spanish? Luckily he got his request in before they were printed and already made. I finally got it all figured out and was finally ironing away like crazy at midnight the night before the seminar conference. lol

Unfortunately Mia was way overdue for her nap by the time we got home, so she went down for her nap before we thought to get a group shot. Luckily we'd gotten some of her before and after in her shirt. :)

I made this shirt for a mommy I've messaged back and forth with a few times on my babycenter.com cleft group who just had a baby girl with a unilateral cleft lip. Since her baby's so new, she didn't make it to the seminar, but she saw the photo of it that I posted on the group and sent me the sweetest text about how she'd seen the post and it'd made her cry and she copied the photo of it to her facebook and it'd made all her lady friends cry, which in turn made ME almost cry. :)

I SO wished I'd have had onesies like this to put Mia when she was brand new and prior to her lip surgery. I would have had her wear a different color or design every day! :) When you have a baby that's born with something that's a deviation from the norm (I hate the word birth defect, because my beautiful, spunky little girl is in NO way defective), you want other people to see the beauty that you see in them. You want to shield them from all the ugliness in the world, but you don't want to hide them or have others think you are embarrassed of them, because you aren't! I'd love to be able to give every new-born baby one of these onesies.

I've gotten some great feedback from them, so I think I'm going to start a mini-small business and make these to share. My hope is to be able to get it all worked out so that I can donate part of each purchase to http://www.smiletrain.org/ to help pay for cleft surgeries. Anyhow, that's the plan.

My old computer is having trouble uploading more photos right now, so I guess that's it for tonight.

Catch'in Up

2011-09-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few weeks. Arm restraints came off, Mia sprouted a new tooth - on the roof of her mouth no less, we went to a friend's niece's quincenera (sweet 15 type of Mexican party), and now we are battling the "icks". So, here's the past little bit in photos:

This is one of my silly favorites - my new phone screen saver.

Mommy and Mia - quick break from the arm restraints at the restaurant.

Who's that cute little mouse?!?! :) Costco was selling these huge Mickey and Minnie stuffed animals.

We had a fun time ripping paper.

Decided to start trying to climb anything and everything.

Went for a wagon ride with my friend.

Decided to climb some more and give mommy heart failure.

Was super sadness so we went for a walk to check the mail.

Was still super sadness. - She was breakin' my heart! Super snuggly and fussy and so incredibly sad. She hadn't been this sad an inconsolable in a long time. :(

Ice cream helped a LITTLE, and that's when I got her to let me take a quick look in her mouth and I spied that darn new tooth on the roof of her mouth - through her newly repaired palate. Sigh... Apparently it REALLY hurts and for quite some time. My poor sweet baby!

"All you need is love." Mia's new outfit from Great Uncle Harold and Great Auntie Charlotte, as part of a post-surgery care package made us all feel better. :) Thank you!!!

Papa and Mia at the quincenera Mass - she loved her shiny black shoes. :)

And then one with mama and her pink favorite pink blankie.

Family photo at the quincenera reception hall.

Mia LOVED the cumbia music that the band played and was bopping her head along to the music. Here she is clapping away with papa - a huge old grin on her face. We were glad she enjoyed the music, but she just could not wind down - not only because of the music but because of all the people-watching there was. (She is her mother's daughter on that one!)

She finally passed out around 11:30 pm, but unfortunately it was a 30 minute power nap and then she was up until 2 am. Next time we go to a quincenera, mama and Mia are leaving at Mia's bedtime. :(

More on the over-the-top quincenera that was probably in the $20-30 grand price range later. Yeah, crazy price range!!! I kept telling Mia, "Don't even THINK about it honey!" Hopefully she won't remember it by the time she's turns 15! :)

One more day!!!

2011-08-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

One more day until the arm restraints come off!!!

Okay, so I just read that, and had the thought that someone who'd never read my blog before might get the wrong idea of what kind of blog this is!!!

The restraints I'm speaking of are the ones that little Mia's had to wear for the past two weeks to protect her little mouth after palate surgery from not only her fingers, but from her toys and anything else she manages to grab and stuff in her mouth before someone can run interference and or intervene. We've made it 13 days and tomorrow WE ARE DONE!!! HOORAY! (I must admit, though, to being more than a little terrified to suddenly take them off and turn her loose without them.)

Of course, THANKFULLY they don't seem to bother her much.

Nope, not bothered one bit!

Couldn't be happier!

Chilling in the car up front with the AC while we wait for our friend to get home.

Mia LOVING the front seat and chilling with mama.

They don't interfere when playing with a friend...

...or when helping mama go grocery shopping...

...though she has tried on multiple occasions to try and undo the Velcro. Which, would explain why she now has leg warmers on her arms over the restraints so that she can't get to the Velcro.

Ba Da Be Da Da, Feelin' Groovy!

2011-08-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

Mia is doing so good that I have to keep reminding myself that she had such a major surgery just a little over a week ago. If she didn't have the arm restraints on to remind me, I'd probably have to catch myself from feeding her non-mushy foods and would think that it had been longer than surgery than it actually has been.

Here are some photographic proof from the past three days:

What? I LIKE emptying out buckets and playing with all my shoes... and socks... and tights... and leg warmers... and bibs... and bows... and...

Who's cute?

Climbing over, around and through things = fun times!

Arm restraints are not toys... arm restraints are not toys... Whenever we take them off to get her dressed for the day or to put her pajamas on, she thinks it's great fun to look through the "tubes" of the arms and to slide her skinny little arms in and out of them one at a time.

Heading to the pool in her new swimsuit with built-in floaties = huge torso-ed baby. :)

Man, do I ever know how to work it.

For reals!

Zerbit! Enough with the camera mom. Feed me already so I can get my "swim" on!

Just chillin.

What? Aren't YOU teething too? If so, you can have some ice cream too!

Yummy cold goodness.

Man, we love this little turkey so much!

How do they do palate surgery?

2011-08-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

That's what I asked our surgeon when we had Mia's pre-op appointment last week. (Yes, we are officially one week post palate surgery!) I knew all the "stuff" they needed for the surgery was blessedly already there, but just wondered what it entailed. Well, he pulled out a pen and used the paper on the exam table to draw us a diagram of what Mia's palate currently looked like, where they would do the incisions and what it would look like afterwards. As he started drawing, I thought, "Dang, not only is he a great surgeon, he's also an excellent artist." I don't know why, but that thought was oddly comforting at the time. Call me strange, but it was. Seriously, the drawing looked exactly like what I'd observed when I'd looked inside Mia's mouth. After he went over it with us, we were able to tear out the sketch and take it home with us. I took a photo with my cell phone so I could upload it here. I added notations on what the doctor told us so that we could remember and share.

The pre-surgery sketch.

The post-surgery sketch.

They left a gap in the skin of the palate right behind the front unattached center gum line that the surgeon explained would be closed when they do the bone graft when she's a little older. One of the reasons they wait to do that is to help reduce the risk of inhibiting that front top jawline from growing. I guess there can be growth issues with the top jaw, so they leave it alone in hopes that it will keep growing like it should. It was all very fascinating and informative. Because of that small gap, she still has some food come out of her nose but not nearly as much as she had previously. I think that if she didn't have the propensity for blowing air out her nose after taking a bite of food (when she's playing around), there would be a lot less issues with any food being blown out. Silly girl!

I must admit that last night I saw a few videos on youtube about palate repair. One was a "real-time" video. Ick! Needless to say, I am so SO SOOOO glad that I didn't see that prior to surgery. I highly HIGHLY recommend that parents who are soon to have their little one's undergo plate surgery do not watch any real-life palate repair videos. I don't think I would have EVER been able to hand her over for this surgery if I had seen them prior to her surgery. My advice to anyone even thinking about viewing videos like that prior to their sweet little one having surgery is a very VERY strong DON'T!

That being said, I'm super curious about how things look in Mia's mouth, both before and after surgery. When I was changing her diaper earlier today she was making open-mouthed silly faces and I got a good look at the roof of her mouth. It looks exactly like the second diagram! :) I can see black stitches down the middle of the palate, like the surgeon had told us we would. It looks to me to be the same black thread that they used for the tongue stitch. To be quite honest, the stitches look a little crazy and uneven on that middle part - and kind of look like the careless stitches you'd use on an old shoe or something. It's held together nicely though, so I can't complain. You can't even see any of the stitches around the outer edge of her palate. I'm not sure if they used different string or what. The surgeon said the stitches will dissolve on their own, so I guess I'm glad they are so thick since they should hold for a while as they slowly dissolve. I can see where the black organic stuff was placed, but it's already gone so I can see the exposed area where the skin will grow back. Such an amazing process.

One week. One week! It's already been one week post surgery and Mia's pretty much back to normal. I feel so grateful and so lucky. She slept in her crib last night for 11-12 hours straight and has taken her normal set of two, two-hour naps. She's taking her bottle and soft foods like a champ again and we are so relieved! The arm restraints don't really seem to bother her that much, though when we take them off, that little turkey immediately looks right at you and holds eye contact as she puts BOTH her hands in her mouth. Oh my! As I was telling a friend via email earlier today, the only really hard part about the arm restraints is that she can't bend her arms to sign "hungry" (fingers to her mouth) when she's hungry and she also can't bend her arms to rub her eyes to let us know when she's ready to go down for a nap or for the night. She can however, still wave her arms to let us know when she's "all done" during feeding time.

Well, yes it's a miracle, we made it through palate repair surgery none the worse for wear. We hope and pray that no fistulas (holes) open up in her palate, which would require another surgery. She's doing so well and in one more week we'll have the arm restraints off and be good to go! Thank you to all of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers and sent good vibes and positive karma our way - all of your efforts definitely paid off in BIG dividends!

And now, for your daily dose of cuteness:

Is that a giraffe on my shirt?!?!

I LOVE giraffes!!!

Silly baby.

Uh, oh. Somebody is working on figuring out the Velcro on her arm restraints.

We survived!

2011-08-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

I must admit that at day one and two post-surgery, I had my doubts that things were EVER going to return to any semblance of normalcy. EVER. However, I am pleasantly shocked and amazed at how quickly Mia has bounced back. She seriously continues to impress me with her happy, pleasant, sweet, indomitable little spirit and how she just tackles anything placed before her head-on.

"Yeah, that's how I roll!" :)

Mia learned how to climb on and off her little car today and was on and off it ALL day long. She can even propel the thing herself... backwards. It about gives me a heart attack when she leans back, doesn't hold on and pushes herself backwards because she ALMOST tips the thing over backwards with her on it!

"Yeah, I roll THIS way too."

She cracks me up!

Sleeping arrangements have changed!

Up until tonight, this was Mia's bed. Her car seat. In the middle of our bed. We had to keep her at a 40% angle or more to help with swelling, so car seat it was. Thank goodness we have a king size bed!

Now for a close-up, in case you missed it in the above photo. This is why Mia LOVES her knitted blankies - loves to stick her fingers and toots in the weave of the blanket. Silly girl! (And no, her toes are NOT all crookedly normally, just when they're stuck skewumpussly in her blanket!)

We tried this for a night... actually for about 5 minutes. She'd stir and wake up and sit straight up and then all towards mama for a human pillow and so she could sleep face down on my torso. She sure looked cute though, so I had to take a photo. :)

BACK TO THE CRIB FINALLY!

This was Mia taking her first nap today in her crib. I had to sneak in and make sure she was okay with the arm restraints and hadn't gotten them off or gotten herself into a horribly uncomfortable position. Yeah, she was pretty comfy and had some of her favorite knitted blankets handy and cozy.

So, I'd read up on palate surgeries on my cleft group prior to Mia having her palate surgery, and there were so many stories about their sweet kiddos not eating and/or having huge eating issues, etc. There were a few "best case scenarios" that I was hoping for, but a lot of really rough stories. I was really worried, and any time I'd think about the approaching surgery I'd get sick to my stomach. I'm glad that I knew all of the different scenarios so that I could be adequately prepared for what might happen, but I'm even MORE glad that things went so incredibly smooth. Yeah, those first days were rough, but dang, she'd just undergone a three hour surgery! Seriously, that sweet baby girl of mine is such a tough little cookie and just seems to take everything in stride. She's only 13 1/2 months old and I think she's already tougher than I'll ever be!

Day after surgery - first day home. Arm restraints don't slow her down at all!

What is Mia eating, you might ask. Well, for breakfast she usually has baby oatmeal cereal with a can of fruit baby food mixed in. Lunch, rice cereal with veggies and/or veggies and meat baby food mixed in and a Gogurt for a snack. Man it's hard not being able to do sandwiches anymore for her for lunch for a bit. Today I actually contemplated trying to puree milk and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her. I didn't actually DO it, merely contemplated it. Of course we still have a week and a half of arm restraints to go, so I'll let you know how it goes if it comes to that. :) For dinner we do some more cans of... wait for it... wait for it... baby food and then a chocolate pudding cup for dessert. I'm started to get sick of this soft foods already. Sigh! Thankfully Mia's still eating, so that's good!

Nice cold Gogurt. Yum!

We still are having some issues trying to get her to drink fluids. She seems to do best with open cups, but they aren't the tidiest way to drink. Her favorite is orange soda. Yeah, not milk, not apple juice. Orange soda. Does this make me a bad mother? We're at the phase where we're trying just about any non-alcoholic fluids we can find. She has not taken a bottle since that one time until tonight when I finally got her to take her bottle. Zeus and I were shocked when she actually took it because we've been trying daily to get her to take it. We both tried not to talk or move so that we wouldn't distract her from drinking and make her stop. I was so paranoid that I was going to squeeze it wrong or that it would get plugged or she would choke and it would be over. I'm not sure Zeus or I even breathed! She actually took 4 ounces, which is around what she use to take. Hallelujah!

Of course, it hasn't all been a piece of cake today. Last night and tonight she's had a rough go of things. To add insult to injury, it seems as if some of her one year molar teeth have decided it's the perfect time to try and break through. She's been kind of sad and clingy again and was really sad and cuddly today when she woke up from her afternoon nap around 5:30 pm. We lathered on the Orajel and did us some cuddling!

Snuggle buns!

"Look Mom, I've got mad skills!"

What?!?! Is my precious baby girl climbing on a wheeled object just a few days after surgery?!?! Be still my heart!

"Look Mom, no feet!"

Yeah, she's going to be the death of me.

Palate Surgery is Finally Behind Us!

2011-08-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

The next big surgery that we'd been waiting for - palate repair - is finally behind us. Okay, so it's only ONE day behind us, but it seems almost like forever ago - probably because of extreme sleep deprivation. :) I'm happy to report that Mia made it through surgery and is doing relatively well with her recovery thus far. In fact, she has amazed us with her resiliency and continued sweetness. I have to put up a recent photo before I go into the surgery info and pictures because some of them are very sad and I want to reassure those who read it that she's okay and really doing amazingly well.

See, I'm okay - I don't even mind my arm restraints... too much.

Where's Mia?

There she is! (lol - her hair is pulled forward from her pulling down the blanket) :)

See, I'm doing good! :)

I started typing this Friday night when we got home and we were still in the thick of things, but was so incredibly bone-tired I had to shut it down. There were some pretty strong emotions and a severe lack of sleep that made the highs all the more high and the lows all the more low. Somehow we made it through those first couple of days with all our limbs in tact (mom and dad's, not Mia's!). So (DISCLAIMER) here's what was started back then:

On Wednesday morning, Zeus and I got up at 5 am to load up the car in order to hit the road by 6 am to drive to Houston and Shriners Hospital for Mia's 10 am pre-op clinic appointment. There was a mix up with the ladies at the desk and so we ended up waiting for around 75 minutes before they realized in a panic that we were still there and that the doctors were about to head home for the day. Yikes! Luckily we made it in and were checked out by the doctor and ENT. She had fluid on her ears, so they decided to go ahead and put tubes in her ears along with palate surgery. She passed the throat culture - no strep throat - so we got the go-ahead for surgery the following morning. We were scheduled to be the first surgery case and had to report to the hospital the next morning at 5:45 am to check in for her 7 am surgery time.

We headed to the hotel to try and put Mia down for an overdue nap, which ended up being chaotic in and of itself. After we checked in, I had Zeus watch Mia so I could run to the bathroom, and thank goodness he was actually keeping an eye on our little explorer! Zeus saw her just as she found a white powdery ball of something and immediately stuffed it in her mouth. Zeus was on her in a second and swept her mouth with his finger, even as he barged into the bathroom and starting flushing her mouth with water. An eraser size gob of stuff came out of her mouth and washed down the sink. We were a bit frantic, not knowing what it was. Zeus tasted it to see if he could tell what it was and said that it tasted like chemicals. We called the manager and in a round about way decided it was the deodorizer they use to clean the carpets. We got a copy of the info for it and it said it was harmless to digest, but sure freaked us out. One of the cleaning ladies came in and re-vacuumed the whole room and we tried to put Mia down for a nap and Zeus left to try and figure out some problems with his cell phone. It was pretty pointless because she could see me from the port-a-crib, so she ended up exploring the hotel room until Zeus got back.

Ohhh, what's this?!?

Ohhhhh, what's this.... and what's THIS?!?!? My silly little curious monkey!

When Zeus got back from the Sprint store, he laid down for a nap and Mia and I headed to the pool to waste some time until dinner. Zeus met us down there a little later, and stayed about an hour total. We ended up going out to dinner with a Vaughn (a friend of Zeus's) and Danny and Hilda (brother and sister-in-law) who drove in from Odessa for the surgery.

Happy run away baby when it's time for jammies - luckily papa caught her!

Oh no! Where's Mia?!?!

Hilda and Danny on the other queen bed in the hotel room.

We finally all laid down to go to bed around midnight and had to be up at 5 to head to the hospital and check in the next morning. Needless to say, after getting up at 5 am two days in a row, we started out the day with our sleep banks in the negative.We got to the hospital and all checked in and they showed us to our room to get her changed into the hospital gown. She looked so cute and tiny in her pink hospital gown, and promptly set off to explore the new surroundings.

Mia "bear crawling" (so her knees didn't get caught in the hospital gown) out the door of our hospital room.

At 6:45 am they gave her some medicine in a syringe to make her sleepy before they took her back to put the mask on her little face for the gas. The medicine worked quickly and it was sad and endearing and unnerving all at once to see her so loopy and unable to fully control her eye focus as well as her little body. As I carried her down the hall to the pre-op area, she could hear them pushing the bed - the wheels rattled - and she strained to lift her little head to turn and see where we were going and what was making all that noise. As always, our curious little monkey. :) Once there, we made it through all the pre-op questions for the third or fourth time and handed her over to one of the nurses. It was nice to be able to hand her over to an actual person and have our last view of her be of her being snuggled on a shoulder of a nurse instead of having to lay her on the surgery gurney and walk out. We headed to the waiting room, we were in there by 7:30 and they came in around 7:45 to tell us that she went to sleep just fine and they were starting the surgery. Man is it hard to wait for hours for your sweet baby in surgery! They came in a few times to let us know that things were going good, but the surgery took over three hours.

At around 11 am, we finally heard that palate surgery was complete, ear tubes were in, that everything had gone fine with both surgeries and that we should be able to head back into the recovery room soon to see her. We could hardly wait! There was some lively conversation between Zeus and I about who got to hold her first, as Zeus had got to hold her first after lip surgery because I'd had to run get a warm bottle. Because of that, and how hard it had been to miss out on going straight back to see her at the previous story, I wanted to be able to hold her first this time. Zeus would hear none of it, saying that he had to leave to work every day without being able to kiss her good morning and hold her. I think there have only been a few other times that have been even close to being as irritated and irked and disgusted with a conversation as I was with this one with him. He would not back down and would not take no for an answer and some how I managed to NOT kick him. He even went over closer to the door and sat in one of the little "kids" waiting chair that was right in front of the door where they come in to take you back to recovery. I didn't want to make an ugly scene in front of the doctors, so what else could I do? Irk!

Zeus in getting the "jump" on holding Mia first, sitting in front of the door. :(

When we got back into the recovery room, our sweet little Mia was there thrashing about on the bed making the saddest crying noises we'd heard. They were still unhooking some of the leads from her little chest as Zeus went right into the "holding" rocking chair. I couldn't stand her being that sad so I walked around the bed to the other side so that I could touch her little face and tell her it was okay and all over. Her little eyes couldn't even focus and she was just so miserable, but I think that hearing Zeus and I talking to her seemed to calm her a little bit and brought us some comfort as well. She knows the what the words "All Done" mean from having her NAM put in for months at a time and we've used it when we've had to give her medicine in the past, and so as I stroked her little head I kept telling her, "All Done, All Done Honey, All Done." I'd like to think that it penetrated the fog of anesthesia and helped calm her.

Our sweet little sadness as we walked into the recovery room.

There was fresh blood rimming her little nostrils and mouth and she had a long, thick black string hanging out of her mouth. Luckily we'd been warned about the string, so it wasn't as disturbing as it might have otherwise been. The string went through her tongue and was quite a long string. It had to stay in for a few hours after surgery so in case the swelling made it hard for her to breathe, in which case they could use the string to pull her tongue forward to open her airway. They taped it to her cheek and handed her over to Zeus in the rocking chair. Thankfully it didn't bother her AT all. I don't think she even noticed it and thankfully she didn't even move a muscle when the time came to take it out.

Zeus snuggling and comforting Mia in the recovery room.

They taped the string to her cheek to keep it out of her way until later when they removed it.

Thankfully Papa realized it was killing me to wait to hold her so he handed her over after only a few minutes. Finally it was Mama's turn to snuggle her sweet baby, who was still quite sad and quite out of it.

I snuggled her standing for a moment and then took over the rocking chair. She was still making the saddest little noises and crying off and on, so I started quoting to her from the "The Goodnight Book" that we read that's one of our favorites. I think I 'read' it through at least twice to her as we were rocking and that seemed to calm her as well. Zeus and I both have it memorized so we were able to deliver it to her in stereo. :)

We finally got to take her back to the room and snuggle her and after a bit we tried to get her to take a bottle. We were worried that she wouldn't take it, since she wouldn't take it after her lip repair surgery. She surprised us though and took a whole 4 ounces of watered down apple juice. Yay Mia!

Back in the room - hooked up to IV, blood pressure cuff and pulse monitor. They also had a humidifier set up to put out moist air to help with her breathing after surgery.

There was some SERIOUS comforting and snuggling going on. Later I would sleep the night propped in the bed like this with Mia on my chest.

Once she had a wet diaper we were able to get her off the IV drip and take her for a walk in the hall way. This is one of those times when you "smile for the camera" and when you see the photo it feels totally inappropriate. :( Sweet Mia was SO not feeling good and there's her dorky mama all smiling for the camera. Oh well...

We walked down to the patient play room to see if we could distract our sad baby, but she wasn't really in the mood so we continued our walk.

Her poor little face was so swollen, especially her sweet little lips, from having her mouth stretched open for three hours. We kept her propped upright constantly to help with the swelling.

Later that day she still had the bloody nostrils and sores on the side of her mouth and lips from being stretched open for so long. We're still putting some nursing/nipple cream (since it moisturizes and protects skin and is okay for little ones to ingest) on them to help with the healing. The surgeon said that they only loose about a teaspoon of blood during surgery which was comforting. Still sad, but comforting that it was such a small amount.

Playing hiding peek-a-boo with her Tia Hilda.

That day was was long and very tiring, but Mia started eating (though not drinking as much as we'd like) better. She ate a whole container of applesauce and later a container of vanilla pudding. We were able to get her to drink a little bit of vanilla Ensure from an open cup that night. It was messy, but worth it, and considering she'd just had surgery on her little mouth, she did amazingly well. We were allowed to give her anything that you could easily squish between our fingers, and were told to only feed her with plastic spoons. I was surprised because a lot of other moms reported only being able to feel their little one's liquid for days after surgery and also had to use a syringe hooked to a soft feeding tube to feed it to them. We used her regular bottle and her little plastic baby spoons starting that same day.

Besides surprising us with her good eating, she started babbling again and we noticed that her voice is deeper than it use to be. It's still super sweet and still endearingly Mia, but there's a definite change in tone. We aren't sure if it's due to the newly closed palate or from surgery or a combination of the two. We'll have to see if it changes at all once swelling goes down.

All went relatively well during the night. Mia would start squirming and stirring on my chest about 30 minutes before it was time for her pain meds. I would comfort her until they came with the medicine and then snuggle her back to sleep on my chest. I was terribly worried that she'd startle or roll off of me in the middle of the night, so needless to say I didn't sleep all that great, but was glad of the comfort I was able to offer. With a good night behind us and no complications, we were able to leave the next morning. Thankfully Mia slept for two of the three hour drive home. When she woke up, I climbed in the back with her and fed her a Gogurt and then got out some books for her to look at. I'm so glad she still loves books!

Checking out one of her new books.

Looking at her you would never think she'd just had a three hour surgery the day before.

We stopped in Bastrop on the way home for lunch and Mia finished most of a container of mango baby food. Such a little trooper!

Passed out on Mama for another nap once we got home and administered her next dose of pain meds.

Later, she started running a low grade fever, so we stripped her down to help her cool off. She was so happy to be home and seemed to catch her second wind. She was crawling all over like crazy and playing with all her toys and even pulling herself to standing.

Man, NOTHING keeps this sweet girl down! :)

Surgery Date Change - Surgery in TWO days!!!

2011-08-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

We got a call yesterday from Shriner's that they had a cancellation for surgery this week and wanted to bump Mia's surgery up a week, so we are heading out first thing in the morning for a three hour drive to Houston for Mia's pre-op appointment at 10 am tomorrow and then have to be at the hospital at 5:45 am the next day (Thursday) to check into the hospital for Mia's surgery first thing that morning.

I'm glad it will be over soon, but the hours in the waiting room as she undergoes surgery loom largely in my mind and I am also so worried about recovery! Mia was babbling away so happily in the back seat of the car yesterday as we ran errands and when I thought about how sad she's going to be when she comes out of surgery and not understanding why she hurts, I almost lost it. I remember how sad she was after her lip surgery and how we walked the halls nonstop with her in our arms until they felt as if they would fall off, at which point we realized we'd brought the stroller with us and switched to that. I think we pushed her in that stroller or held her in our arms for most of that first day and again for the nest few days.

Please keep Mia and her surgeons and nurses in your thoughts and prayers and send all the good karma our way that you can! We pray for a perfect surgery outcome and a speedy recovery for your sweet little Mia.

Off to pack for our three day stay in Houston - sure hope I don't forget anything critical! Stroller is already going into the pile.

I just have to post a few photos of my happy girl to cheer me up before I go pack.

Never can get her to sit in the cart correctly, even when the seat belt is done up tight!

Don't even THINK about touching my cookie mama!

Leggo my eggo!

Drinking from the BIG cup!

Shopping's always more fun with a friend! :)

Hmmm... what is this?!?! Can I try?

My little Sleeping Beauty.

My future mountain climber.

Ahhhhhh!!!! This bottle is good!

Surgery? What's that? I'm not sure I like the sound of it...

Wonder, thy name is Mia

2011-08-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

I must say that it is so fun seeing the world through the eyes of your child and the simple things they find wonder in. Case in point:

Fascination - thy name is an "outtie" belly button.

I guess we have been neglecting having Mia have enough time around the house without her clothes on because she's just BARELY noticed her belly button over the past few weeks. Now that she knows it's there, she'll lift her shirt to look at it, and even push the top of her diaper down in search of it if the diaper happens to be covering it. Silly girl!

A few other things Mia's finally started doing are pointing and climbing things. She'll point to us in the mirror and she'll point to touch things. It's so fun! She's also a little monkey and seems to have no fear, which is frightening! She loves climbing up on the Love Sac (a HUGE bean bag that we have). From there she'll either look out the window if the blinds are open, or climb over the arm of the couch (which is pushed up against it) and across the couch. She can reach some of the things on the wall behind the couch, so those are going to have to be taken down soon. The scary part is that she likes to head off things head first, so I'm always paranoid that she's going to break her neck!

She's standing all the time now as well. She's even started pushing up from the ground yesterday - before it was from the bean bag or a push toy, etc. She will stand there with this huge grin on her face, making excited baby noises that make us smile. Unfortunately, she still won't take any steps and even more horrifying is that she'll be standing there and sometimes will fling herself forward towards Zeus or I and it doesn't matter if we're watching or not! The good thing is, that now that she's all excited about standing up, she's more likely to hang onto our fingers to walk around. Tonight we went over to Zeus's sister's house to work on her car, and Mia walked all the way across the sidewalk in front of the house and down the side and then up and down the drive way quite a few times. Yay Mia! We're hoping she'll be walking soon! (I know, I know, you're thinking, "Famous last words," right?!?) lol We'll take our chances.

Some other cute pics of Mia from the week:

Looking through the photos on papa's phone with him as he reminds her who everyone is.

Ohh!!! Opening a care package from Great Uncle Harold and Great Auntie Charlotte. Fun!!! Mia LOVES reaching inside something to take things out.

A book! I LOVE books!

Walking the halls at papa's work when we came to visit him.

Chilling with papa and doing her, "Awe, cute baby!" pose. :) Such talent!

Standing and Signing Wonder

2011-08-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

I almost feel a little silly about being so excited about this at Mia's age, but yes, at 13 months old, I'm ecstatic to report that Mia is finally pushing herself up to standing and then standing on her own. I know, I know, so months ago standards, but this is a big thing for my little girl who does NOT like anyone to try and get her to stand up OR hold onto her hands to try and get her to walk. I'm not sure if this makes me a bad mom or not, but I figured that she was pretty much refusing to do either of those things, so I decided to just leave her alone with it and let her do it when she's ready. I'm not sure why she has this aversion to having someone try and hold on to her and help her do these things - maybe related to all the cleft appointments and having that "dam NAM" inserted and re-inserted in her little mouth multiple times a day as well as the many doctor appointments.

Either way, though we still tried to do those things from time to time, we decided to let her have control over this aspect of her development. :) Well, as I expected, she just finally decided to do it on her own one day - and that day was yesterday. The funniest thing about this new phenomenon of pushing up to standing and then standing unassisted is the huge look of wonder and excitement on her face. Her grin stretches from ear to ear and she does this excited breathing and cooing noise that totally cracks me up. She's SO proud of herself when she does it, and it's just so fun to see!

I watched my friend Jenn's kids yesterday, and that's where the infamous "first stand" occurred.

Of course, I've not been able to get a good video of it yet, and the one video I was able to snap of her doing it was the one time she actually plopped down almost immediately instead of standing like she had before. For two or three times prior, I would hold my breath, thinking she would plop down any second, but she'd just stay standing for what seemed like forever! Also, it's from the back, so you don't get a view of the adorable expression on her face when she does it. It is seriously SO freaking adorable!!!

As always, she's got something in her mouth, and barely stood THIS time before plopping right down. Argh!

Here's Mia crawling around through Jenn's cute kids while they watch a movie.

Not only did she stand for the first time yesterday, she also did her first unsolicited 'sign'. I've been using the baby sign language for "hungry" (putting your fingers on one hand towards your mouth). I ask her if she's hungry as I make the sign and over the past month she'll sometimes put her hand to her mouth when I ask. Well, yesterday she didn't take her afternoon nap at my friend's house and I had a quick errand to run on the way home. She was overdue for her bottle and as I was going down the isle to check out, she did the sign for hungry when she caught my eye. I signed back to her that I knew that she was "hungry" and got out some goldfish crackers for her and told her we were heading home to get her some food. I was so proud of her, but at the same time felt kind of like a bad mommy, to have a sweet little hungry baby who was trying to let me know that she would please like some food. Sweet baby.

And now, for a few of my favorite photos from the past week or so.

Mom.. I'm telling you. I"M HUNGRY...

...guess I'll have to take matters into my own hands and feed myself this pot.

What do you mean, my pig tails are crooked?!?!?

Are you sure mom??? They don't look even to you???

Oh well, that's okay mom, good thing I'm just naturally adorable. :)

Paulina snuggling Mia before her nap time. She sings the sweetest song in Spanish to Mia and Mia LOVES it. Next week is our last week watching her and I'm already feeling the beginning of withdrawal.We sure are going to miss you Miss Paulina! :(

Mia looking through photos on Papa's phone as he reminds her who everybody is. She's loving her "Mia and papa" time!

I'm on the Love Sac!!! I climbed on it all by myself!!! I'm SO proud!!! :)

Mia's sweet little face - man I love this baby girl! We ate lunch at Subway and Mia was a big fan of my Meatball sub and Paulina's chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

Next time this month, we'll finally have Mia's palate surgery over and done with. We are so ready to have it behind us, but it sure does make us nervous when we think about it rapidly approaching. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as she undergoes palate repair surgery on August 25th. I've heard a lot lately on how hard it is to get them to eat after surgery and am concerned about not only the surgery, but also the recovery for my precious little baby girl.

Mia's definitely growing up so fast and is such a little sweetie pie. We love her SO much and are so very thankful and grateful to have her as part of our little family!

Illegal Drugs and Death Defying

2011-07-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

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! :)