Hello Houdini, good-bye sanity...

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

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!

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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!

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?

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

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

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

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.