Wonder, thy name is Mia

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

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!

Forward Momentum

So, Mia may not totally have the correct form of crawling down yet, but as of yesterday has finally mastered what Zeus and I call "forward momentum".  She use to get up on her hands and knees, rock back and forth, and then push herself backwards.  She would scoot backwards all over the floor in this fashion, often ending up against or under random furniture.

Well, as of yesterday, she's learned to inchworm herself forward to go after things she wants.  It has been so much fun seeing her learn how her little body works.  I catch her, on various occasions, with this stunned and fascinated look of concentration on her face as she's learning to do things.  I SO love being a mommy, and being HER mommy in particular!!! 

Speaking of "forward momentum", I'm trying to work on that myself.  Like Mia, lately I've felt that I'm doing a lot of turning in a circle without getting anywhere lately.  That, or I see where I want to go or where I want to be and I face in that direction but only seem to be moving backwards, farther and farther away from it instead of towards it.  Hopefully, like my little Mia, I will soon get down that same kind of "forward momentum"!

She also LOVES to stand up.  I put out my fingers and she'll pull herself (with my help) to standing.  I'm not sure if it was HER mimicking MY look of excited, open-mouthed wonder, or if it was ME copying that look from HER!  Either way, we BOTH get really excited when she pulls herself to standing.  Luckily she doesn't do it on other things yet, but it's just one more reminder that I need to baby proof the house and move her crib mattress down a notch or two!

I THOUGHT we had mastered solids - feeding her rice cereal and baby fruit or vegetables with the majority of the food ending up in the baby instead of on the bib.  I was very excited about it and how good she was doing.  Then yesterday and today happened.  She still opens her mouth for the food, but then has decided she likes the feel of then sticking her food-covered tongue out and letting the majority of the food slime down her face and bib.  ARGH!  I'm not sure how to get her to quit doing this, but it's seriously becoming a HUGE mess.  Aye mi amour!

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!

Recently my mom brought some of the baby things I’d tucked away in my "hope chest", (man, does that totally date me and make me feel silly, or what?!?!) and low-and-behold, there were a few of the old outfits my Aunt Sue had made over 20 years ago.  Apparently I’d snuck them (so very sneakily I might add) into my own personal collection.  Hehehe!  (ßsneaky laugh)  I’ve been anxiously awaiting the day when Mia would fit into them, especially this darling pair of teal overalls that I've loved for, well, about 20 YEARS.  She would always send the cutest outfits and I remember wishing I could use them on my dolls back in the day.  J  Well, today I pulled them out again and she’s finally big enough for them!  Yay!  She had kind of a rough day today, but looked so stinking cute that I had to take pictures anyway! 

Serious little girl + cute outfit = seriously cute photo of my baby girl.

I wanted to get a photo of the whole outfit with her standing up because it's just so dang cute and she looked so adorable in it.  We started out with me holding onto her hands, but at one point I let go to wipe some ever-present drool.  She could still stand by herself, not because of any incredible balance skills that she has, but because she was standing leaning slightly back against my legs.

Holding on to mama - her little armpits come up to about my knees!

Well, after I let go that one time to wipe her little face, she realized that she could stand up on her own and would NOT let me hold onto her hands for ANYTHING, little turkey!  I'd try to reach down and hold onto her hands and she'd shake them off every time after that.  Oh my!  She is SUCH a determined little thing, even at such a young age.  Hopefully it will serve her well as she grows up and sets goals for herself.  Man, just thinking of her being old enough to make goals makes me feel old and a little sad! 

What?!?!  You think since I'm only five months old I can't stand up on my own?!?!

See... no hands.  Told ya.

Ah, silly rabbit, Trix are for kids... but I must admit, it's a pretty cool trick and such a cute little rabbit to boot!