Things that go THUMP in the night

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.

Illegal Drugs and Death Defying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Such a harmless looking little thing...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Silly Mia.

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

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