TEETH! No, not tooth, TEETH!!!! and 4 month pics

My baby has her two, yes, two middle bottom teeth cutting through!!! I've been wondering if she was teething because she's been so incredibly drooly lately. Well, yesterday Nikki and I decided that the bottom spot was definitely a bit swollen and today we decided it's for real - you could even feel the sharp little chompers when you rub her gums.

When Zeus walked in the door and we told him Mia cut two teeth, his response was, "Grrrrrreat. Now the doctors are going to have to pull them before she has surgery."  lol  I had to explain to him that no, these were NOT more natal teeth along her cleft like the one she cut at 5 days old, but that these were REAL honest-to-goodness baby teeth and that we would NOT be pulling them.  Silly papa!

I never thought it would be so hard getting pics of little pearly whites, but DANG it was!

Oh my. My baby is growing up!

How many adult fingers fit in a four month old's mouth?  ...about three

not the BEST pic, but you can KIND OF see the little white bumps of her teeth on the bottom there by her tongue

Mia having a blast playing "airplane" with Aunt Nikki and cousin Sofia

My baby is not only cutting teeth, she's already gone and turned four months old on us!  Sadness!!!  I can't believe how fast the time is going!  Zeus and I are both trying our best to savor every single little moment with our precious girl!

my long little skeleton

my silly bones can sit up with support!

On a side note of SUPER SADNESS - only one more sleep until the Lindgren's pack up their little family and leave us.  We are in the depths of despair over it and think they need to move next door as soon as possible.  For reals.

Poor little Sara was crying her little heart out tonight saying, "I don't WANT to go home to Germany.  I want to STAY in Texas with baby Mia."  I got teary just thinking about it and as I talked to her about how it would be okay because we could still Skype and that they should come visit again soon.

SADNESS!!!

More pics of family visit!

We are SO enjoying having family in town and the raucous excitement it brings to our little home.    :)  It is going to seem SO lonely and empty once everyone leaves, and Mia's going to feel bereft and alone with out her cute cousins to fuss and coo over her!  lol

Sara loves getting as close to baby Mia as possible and is so cute with her!

Quote of the day was from Claes as Sofia was climbing all over him on the LoveSac - "This girl's about as graceful as a tank!"

Sara and Sofia reading one of their new books with Grandma.

Putting their "piggies" together for goodnight kisses.  Cute book with awesome illustrations by Don and Audrey Wood - "Piggies".

Mia enjoying chilling with Uncle Claes.

Fun little Halloween week outfit.  :)

Playing at the pool - Sara and Fia "cleaning" around the pool with sticks.

while grandpa, mama Nikki, grandma, and cousin Mia look on

Sofia and Sara looking at the HUGE grasshopper Sara found and brought to show her mom - which elicited horrified screams from Nikki, grandma and me!

grandpa, Mia, and grandma chilling by the pool

Claes - the best dad in the world - getting the grasshopper for Sara to take home.  Quote of the day from Sara, "It's dead so we can take it home.  If it was alive we would have to leave it here.  But it's not.  It's dead.  So we can take it home."

Sara was SO excited to loose her wiggly tooth in Texas!  It was her first tooth and the American tooth fairy gave her TEN DOLLARS!!!  Wow, MY tooth fairy never delivered like THAT!  :)

Sofia and Sara with their pumpkins - faces drawn on and ready to be carved the next day

the fam preparing for dinner - Zeus cooked up some DELICIOUS enchiladas that everyone LOVED and devoured!

Mia's little cleft lip pumpkin - we didn't carve it cause it was so little!  Sara picked it out for her and I drew the face.  :)

Mia snuggling Uncle Michael and trying to charm him into giving her a cousin or three...  ;)

My sister Nik and her beautiful family - Nik, Sofia, Claes and Sara

Sofia and papa Claes, and Sara and mama Nikki carving pumpkins

Sofia's gooey fingers from digging out the guts

Sofia and Sara were WAY excited to help me give Mia her bath

they helped get Mia VERY clean and had fun rinsing her off with water and scrubbing her with wet cotton balls... I told Nik she should have another one since she had such great helpers... she declined to comment... 

Mia trying to touch the water - little cutie pie

clean snuggles with mama after bath time

Zeus called today to try and reschedule Mia's surgery at the hospital here in town. We heard back from Shriner's and they wanted to have a preliminary meeting with us on the same day - November 10th.  Shriner's will do Mia's lip and palate surgery for free.  FREE.  It would be such a blessing to not have the financial burden, but our primary concern is that Mia receives the best possible surgery and care.  So, we are going to drive down to Houston next week to meet with their team and see how we feel about it.  The team here is going to see if/what's available in December and get back to us, so we will be driving to Houston the original surgery day instead to meet with the Shriner's team. It is such a scary decision. After the fiasco tonight with getting her NAM in, I'm ready to have had the surgery last week, but then I think, we've already been doing this for 3 1/2 months, what's a month or two more in the grand scheme of things?SO many more pictures to share, but it's just after midnight and I need to get some sleep.  More pics soon of our fun "trunk-or-treating" and all three girls all dressed up in their Halloween costumes.

On a happier note, Mia's started giggling more regularly and it is SUCH a joyous sound!!! :) We took a ton of pics of her and her cousin's in their Halloween get up. It was funny because when Sofia asked where Mia's costume was and I showed her Mia's skeleton outfit, she said as we were walking back down the hall, "Mia is NOT nice. Sara and I are nice, but Mia is NOT nice." It took me a second to realize that she thought Mia's costume was mean/scary. lol I told her that Mia's LOOKED scary, but it was really a NICE skeleton. ;) She said, "Ok," and trotted off to the next thing. Silly kids!

Surgery dates and family visits!

So, we got a call yesterday from Dell Children's Hospital and they have Mia scheduled for her lip surgery on November 10th.  It's so so so much sooner than I was expecting - not that mid November is a whole lot sooner than the end of November, but still.  My knee-jerk reaction was "NOOOOOOO!"  I LOVE her little wide smile and precious little face and can't imagine her looking any different.  Also, the thought handing her over for a three and a half hour surgery just stops my heart.  She's so little and so incredibly dear to us!!!  Knowing that this is in her best interest and that she would WANT us to do it if she could tell us so doesn't even make the thought of it any easier!!!!  The only positive that I can think of (besides of course that after surgery our first big hurdle will be behind us) is that we won't have to mess with the DAM NAM anymore.  Hooray!!!

On a more chipper note, my sister Nikki and her little family got in safe from Germany and arrived at our house Monday afternoon.  Sara and Sofia immediately wanted to hold "baby Mia" as they call her.  They are (usually) super sweet and gentle with her and it's so fun to see them together!  We've gone to parks and gone swimming and all sorts of fun things so far.  The first thing the girls wanted to do was to hold "baby Mia".

Monday:

 Sofia won "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" and got to hold baby Mia first.  :)

Then it was Sara's turn - big smile!  :)

Next, they had to try on their Halloween costumes.

and then Sara had to hold "baby Mia" again

Nik and Claes went to run some errands and the girls and I went to the park across the corner from our house.  Sara and Sofia had a great time playing on the play ground equipment and digging in the ground with sticks.  They even found a little snail shell that we brought home.  Unfortunately our outing was cut short when Sofia got attacked by a horde of fire ants.  Sadness!!!!  She has bites all over her feet and a few on her hands.  It was truly one of the saddest things ever!  :(

 after baths, Sara and Mia chilled on the couch and watched a cartoon

when it was time to feed baby Mia, Sara and Fia both wanted to help and did a great job!

they built a boat and here's Fia sitting in it and rowing with the little blue sticks

Tuesday:

 Sarah holds baby Mia again before we head to Costco for lunch and some US shopping

Sara REALLY loves to hold baby Mia - even standing up, which we aren't quite sure will ever happen again... lol

Sara and Sofia love for baby Mia to be in her swing - this time Sara decided baby Mia needed some toys

so pretty much ALL of her toys ended up in the swing with her

Wednesday:

Sara checking out and comparing HER toes with baby Mia's toes  ;)

all three girls playing in my pop up school bus and having a grand time

then we went to Gatti Land Pizza place for lunch.  the girls thought that watching TV on the big screen while they ate was super cool.  here's the whole Lindgren family

Then we went to pick out pumpkins at a place by Zeus's work:

Sara quickly found her pumpkin

after some searching, Fia found hers too

Sara helped Fia carry her pumpkin to the wagon because it was SO big and heavy!

Sara and Sofia posing

When I asked Sara to hold Mia, Sofia insisted on "holding baby Mia's legs"

Mia and mama

my little cutie patootie

Mia on a pumpkin - being propped from behind with another pumpkin  ;)

one group shot before leaving

It was SO HOT outside - in the 90's so we didn't stay too long picking out pumpkins.  Sara picked out a little pumpkin for baby Mia and then we drove home to go to the playground and pool across the corner from my house.  Mia passed out on the couch while we were getting ready to go. 

she's started trying to suck her thumb and I love how in this pic she's got her fingers curled around her nose

Sofia and Sara had a blast splashing around in the kiddie pool while Nik and I chatted and laughed with Mia as we watched them

Papa taking a break from studying to play with Mia while Nik cooked us a DELICIOUS dinner of artichoke pasta - YUM!!! 

what???  you think "I" did all that drooling???  lol

Mia chilling in her bath - cracks me up because she locks her knees and it pins her in there  lol

Thursday:

Mia all bundled up in the DARLING cap and mittens Auntie Nikki got her

Uh, yeah.  Yesterday it was in the 90's and we were sweating like crazy, and today it was in the low 60's and breezy in the morning and we've had the windows open all day in the house.  Crazy Texas weather!!!

Sara and Fia climbing at the park under mama's supervision

Sara - far left, arms folded - was NOT thrilled to wait for her mom to finish pushing Fia on the swings before she could have a turn - lol

when it was Sara's turn, cool Aunt Darcie pushed her REALLY high and showed her how we use to push and run underneath when her mom and I were little - she loved it!  :)

Mia slept through the trip to the park

cute mama Nikki playing with her sweet Sara and Sofia