Mia took her first step!

Christmas pictures to follow (I promise) but I just had to get on here and say that Mia took her first step on Christmas. My boss actually had said about a month ago when he saw her standing in his office (playing with his secretary), "I bet she'll be walking by Christmas". It was the evening and we were all gathered in Mary's (Mia's grandma) kitchen. That is, everyone but me (Matt, Harold, Randall, Dave and Mary). I was in the bathroom perhaps, who knows, actually I may have been napping because Mia wasn't sleeping that well. In any case, Dave was preparing dinner (portabello wellington) and Mia was standing in perfect balance when in walked grandma from the mudroom and Mia took a step toward her. Her other foot then came up from behind to meet the first before she sat down and took a break. There were 3 witnesses: her 2 uncles and grandma. Dave and I missed it! Later on that evening though she took another step with me before refusing to even stand (not a performer I guess).

Mia's vocabulary is growing just as fast as her motor development (she may end up a chatterbox like her mommy, unfortunately). She can imitate "woof woof" and sometimes knows to say it when she sees a dog. She also does "qua qua" for a duck. Although we are not completely convinced yet, her grandma said she said "daw" when she saw Lucy, her laborador retriever and I heard her say "ca" when she went by our cat, Gogo. These may be the beginnings of first words. We decided the imitating words don't count as first words. But if she consistently labels the animals without our help I think we have some first words. Do we have a future veterinarian on our hands or what?

updates

Dave's new puppy

Mia has been getting really good at following commands. She has been doing this for at least a month but I keep forgetting to get on here and mention it. It started with us stabbing food with her baby fork and then handing her the fork and asking, "give mommy the fork please" with an outstretched hand. I was amazed the first time she did it. She does it now too after we brush her teeth. We let her "practice" brushing on her own after we're done and then after a while ask for the toothbrush back. Regarding the title of this seemingly unrelated update: Dave was entertaining himself last weekend by throwing her a stuffed star toy with a jingle bell in it and she would proceed to crawl after it, get it, and then Dave would ask her to return it . . . and she did on multiple occasions so they played "fetch" for awhile. We are taking this opportunity to start teaching her the signs for "please" (rub chest in circular motion) and "thank you" (hand to mouth and then down almost like blowing a kiss without the kiss).

family marching band

This is also another month old update. So many things are changing and developing everyday there is no way I can list them all let alone post updates on them all but I think this is a cute one. So we have a couple of musical instruments that Mia has recently learned what to do with. She has for awhile been able to pound on keys of her mega blocks piano, shake the tambourine etc but had no idea how we blew into a recorder or a kazzoo until recently. I think it was by accident at first, perhaps a sigh of frustration into the recorder and when it made a "toooot" she immediately huffed and puffed until it happened again. The kazoo on the other hand was harder once she learned the recorder because she assumed they both took blowing. But you must hum into a kazoo. After several demonstrations, and again, potentially a bit of luck, she did it and now I think prefers it to the recorder. We frequently have music time where we each grab an instrument and make noise er I mean music :)

new teeth on the horizon

The 2 teeth next to her 2 front teeth have been bothering her for sometime and have been bothering us for that matter with many night wakings and even a bit of drool and runny nose. Fortunately, last night she slept the whole night through and I think they have poked out once but went back just below the skin waiting for their final entrance into her mouth. Let's see if she (fingers crossed) sleeps the night through again. Oh yeah, on a similar note, she has relatively recently began to learn how to bite pieces of something off of a bigger piece of food. It started with brocoli and today she did it with cheese and asparagus. We have to say "bite" and show her our teeth for her to do it consistently.

First birthday party

Mia and I attended our first of what I'm sure will be many kid birthday parties. The birthday boy was Martin Ackerman, Mia's first playdate. I met his mom through a La Leche League meeting. She clapped her hands to the musicians melodies and played with some other infants in attendance.

We're not ready!

Mia may be transitioning to a one nap schedule. She currently takes a total of about 2 hrs of napping broken up into the morning (10am) and afternoon (3pm) but today, 12/12/09, she had only 1 nap (10:30am-12pm). I knew this was supposed to happen around her first birthday but I am not ready. When will I get things done? :) Anyhow, on a practical note it is making it very hard to pin down when we want her first birthday to be. Originally we thought 11am-2pm would be great but if she moves to the mid-day nap this could be disastrous. . . she'll miss the whole thing. We'll wait a couple more days to send the invitations so we can see what happens and hopefully people can remain flexible.

A quick visit to Boston

Here I am with my Poppop and cousin Randall (I think he's tired)

This is everyone except for Dada. From the left is Mama, Poppop, Tio Harold, and Uncle Matt (Cousin Randall and I are in the center of it all)

Cousin Randall, Tio Harold and me hanging out

Only 9 days apart and sure to be good friends, look we're already sharing toys

Swinging in the park

Higher Dada, higher!

Peek a boo ME
Ready, set, go. . . weeee!

Thanksgiving in NH (Grandma's)

Here I am with my Uncle Ben

And this is me with my Aunt Nichole

This is me with dada and mama

Bathtime with Grandma, she was making raindrops for me
Here I am in her sink getting a bath
I love poking my big cousin Alex

Here I am again with Alex playing horsie

This is me with my Great Grandma G

Cousins are fun to hug, this is Emma, she is 5 months old and I am 10 months old

This is the Thanksgiving table; I slept through the whole dinner (2 hrs)! Look at my daddy, what a silly face.

Welcome back Maria

To one of this blogs most dedicated followers, Maria, who lives in Germany and will meet Mia for the first time (since I was pregnant) very soon:

Mia's Uncle Ben & Aunt Nichole's wedding

Aunt Nichole and Mia at the rehearsal dinner
Dada and Mia at the rehearsal dinner
Dada and Mia before the wedding
Aunt Nichole and Uncle Ben
Dada and Mama dancing to our song at the reception.

standing, pointing and talking

Over the past couple of weeks we have noticed Mia standing for a couple seconds at a time unassisted. Just the last few days the duration she stands for has increased dramatically. Tonight, as she was watching the tub fill with water, she stood for almost 10 seconds unassisted. They daycare ladies, who I'd guess know infant development better than most, seem to think that Mia will be able to stand like a pro within a week. She definitely does seem really sturdy. Oh and tonight when we were putting Mia to bed (or trying at least, she had way too much energy) it was as if she was showing off her new skills. She would stand and then clap while doing it and so I started counting "one one thousand. . . two one thousand. . . " until she fell on her tushy and then I exclaimed the number she made it up to, "five seconds!? that was soooo good!".

Later on this same night, we noticed for the first time that she is starting to point to things. We look at family photos on the wall regularly before bed time. We usually point and say, "theres uncle Matt, Randall, Tio Harold" etc well tonight she started to point too. Then, instead of looking at our finger (as was usual) when we pointed up to the cat sitting on the window she figured out to look at where we were pointing. Then (the icing on the cake) we said, "kitty cat" and she totally imitated us with a "kee caa". We thought she had imitated words that we said in the past but this was pretty unmistakable.

Finally, I was asking the hygenist when we should start brushing Mia's teeth and apparently we are negligent parents because she said, "as soon as they come in". Whoops. Mia has 2 and a tiny one poking through. Next trip to the grocery store I'll pick up one of those finger brushes and perhaps some non fluoride children's toothpaste.

Here she is "brushing" her teeth:

pictures

In Tarrytown, NY for Ben & Nichole's wedding (Mia's grandma, me and Mia)

Family photo. We set the camera to timer mode and then rushed over. I have no clue why I found this so hilarious but it made Mia smile.
10 months old and still loves her feet. (can you make out the whiteness under her gums? those teeth are just about to pop out)
I think this squinchy eye look was due to the flash, Dave took so many pictures in a row but she seems to know to smile for them. Look how her baby belly is going away :(
What vegetarians do for teething toys :)

So she was playing with a brocoli after dinner and figured out how to use her bottom two teeth (and top gum ridge) to actually pull off "leaves" of the brocoli crown. This was the first time she ever used her teeth to bite off a piece of something. Later I saw her chewing (long after dinner) and scooped out a way-too-big piece from her mouth. Now if we open our mouth to her and look pleadingly at her she will feed us. . . too cute!

A Mia Month (9-10 months old)

So we have decided from now on to only take these Mia development photos once a month on her "birthday". We did pretty good taking so many for so long and we deserve this break. Not to mention her growth should slow down with age (otherwise she will outgrow me by her 2nd birthday- yikes). I'm going to contact the professor that was going to make a slideshow out of these pictures and see when that will occur. I can't wait!

10.23.09

11.15.09

10 month update

Good bye gummy grin Mia still only has her bottom 2 but the top 2 are seriously millimeters away (both at once). I have been saying this for awhile but they are really right there. I wish it would be a little quicker because these 2 have been tough for her. She is sleeping through the night again though, which is good but has recently developed a wet cough. At first we thought it was just the extra teething saliva but now it sounds phlegm-y. We didn't make a sick visit appt because she has her well baby visit tomorrow. So I'll definitely bring it up. I'm afraid it may be the later stages of that cold that never seemed to go away after she started daycare. Though her nose is much clearer now.

UPDATE: So we took her in and it seems the cough is just from congestion. . . seems she still has (or has another) a cold. Here are her stats: She is 23 lbs and 7 oz and 31.5 inches tall. I believe the weight is coming onto the charts at 93% but she is still above the charts on height. I am also pleased to say she got her seasonal flu booster and her first H1N1 shot so we are 1 shot away from full flu protection :) yay!

Movin' on up. . .to the other side. So Mia is officially transitioning from infant room 1 to infant room 2 (across the hall). It is a good thing too because I don't think she enjoyed her floppy 6 wk old friend's company much. The daycare we use doesn't have many kids her age (one 2 months younger and one 2 months older). They took her picture for her infant room 2 cubby. .. funny what excites me huh? The older infant room has tunnels for them to crawl through and lots of toddling room and such. She is standing for a few seconds at a time now, which is neat. She seems to sit down though once she realizes she is standing unassisted.

(pictures to come. . . I swear)

On the move!

Mia is officially a crawler today (November 8th). Before today she would go forward at most one or two hand/knee movements and then give up and sit (or her legs would slip back until she was on her belly). But 11/8 we saw her crawl seemingly an unlimited number of times with the motivation of Teddy Puff's on her side. I put one of these cereal things she loves on the ground and she went right over to it. It is a very traditional type of crawl though she occasionally puts her leg out to the side as if she's going to stop and take a sit but then she tucks it back and keeps crawling. We have now put up a baby gate in the kitchen to separate her from the dangerous/messy stuff (bicycle, shoe rack, cat food/water etc) while we cook.

As far as standing goes. . . she hardly holds on and seems very sturdy. She only uses one hand to keep her balance and if that hand is on your thigh you can tell that she is barely even using you. So I think she could start to stand independently soon but she still isn't the best at stepping. That's okay with me, though. I am relishing these last months without her walking before I am constantly on guard to either catch her or sooth her when she inevitably falls and cries.

Her eternal cold may finally be over. So Mia has been congested since she started daycare mid October and today was the first day her upper lip wasn't smothered in mucus since then. Yum!

Mia's two front teeth have been visible but not yet through the gums for weeks now. I feel like everyday I say, "looks like these teeth are just about to come out". Well here's hoping they surface soon because I think they are the source of her recent inexplicable yet frequent and annoying night wakings. With these 2 top ones that would make 4 teeth total. How many more teeth are there? Sigh!

Halloween/Autumn

First pancake. In her "Goblin up Treats" bib :)

Carving pumpkins at our annual carving get together. Mia liked to suck on the edge of the pumpkin and scrape her teeth along the rind. She also liked the squishy insides. Mia painted a pumpkin of her own at daycare but it was water soluble paint and stupid mom left it on the porch in Binghamton (read: rainiest city ever!).

Everyone's pumpkin's as steady as I can hold a camera without flash. Mine is the blurry cat on the top row (far right) and Dave's is the middle one on the bottom row (pumpkin).

Here is Papa bear and baby bear just before going Trick or Treating.

We decided, lame as it sounds, to take Mia trick-or-treating at the mall. I didn't even know this existed except I had had some errands there earlier in the day and saw all the little one's going store to store. It threatened to rain (of course) and our neighborhood is very dispersed, poor and foreign so this results in likely a lot of walking for hardly any gain. Of course the gain was all Dave and mine since little Mia isn't eating candy yet :) Sadly, despite our 6pm trick or treat timing, many stores had already ran out of candy but she got a good large handful of stuff for us.
Here is Mia at the mall gathering treats for mom and dad with her cute looks. The package officially calls this costume "oatmeal bear". We thought a bear costume would be appropriate given that her dad is very bear-like and she wore a bear related onesie home from the hospital.

Celebrating autumn!
A birds eye view

Here is a nice shot because you can see just how active she was being with the leaves. Throwing them all about. Surprisingly (perhaps due to our extensive training with the "no" word particularly with leaves, grass and paper) she only tried to eat one leaf.

The clock has "fallen back" and the nights are darker earlier. As the days shorten and leaves continue to fall I am continually reminded (unlike in eternally sunny Miami, FL) of the passage of time. Soon it will once again be winter, the season of Mia's birth. ***Sigh*** (a content long drawn out breath to remind me to savor these moments)

update

A page turner

If you ask Mia to "turn the page" when reading a board book with her and if you make sure to separate the page she needs to turn from the next one just a bit she will do it, consistently. Very cool to see comprehension on her part (whether it be from words or not).

Cruising USA

Recently, Mia got the understanding of how to take a big step when the table she was standing at started to slip away. Then, the very next day, Dave was at home with Mia and witnessed (over the course of 20 mins) her going from her activity table to a chair to the toy box to the other chair. She can't get enough of standing and even tries to pull up onto our legs.

Daycare update

Mia is doing well at daycare. I go to nurse her 2-3 times a day. Her naps are definitely shorter there since there is so much stimulation (cribs are in the center of it all) and excitement. I will have to ask her doctor if this sleep loss is a big deal. At home she sleeps about 3 hours over 2 or 3 naps a day and at the daycare center she is only taking 2 naps for a total of about 1.5 hrs if we're lucky. The other 2 kids remotely close in age to her are 7 months (Hayden) and 12 months (Sophia) old. But the 12 month old was born 12 wks premature and so is about the same age as Mia in gestational age.

Dinner party of 3

For dinner last night, Dave made cous cous, brocoli, peas and tofu. Mia had already been exposed to tofu and peas prior to last night. We decided to introduce her to brocoli (she loved it!) and cous cous and so it became the first time that the whole family ate the same food. Isn't it funny how these little things excite me?

9 months old!

Wow, I can't believe Mia is 0.75 years old already :)

Mia,

I love you so much. Even when you are sick, you smile. And your laugh is so infectious. Today your laugh triggers seem to be: dancing with me (we tango), hearing daddy and me make funny voices through puppets, watching me dance/sing for you, and of course nibbling on your fingers/toes/ribs/just about anywhere. You start daycare at Future Faces tomorrow (3 full days a week). Sometimes I wish I could just get paid to spend time with you but I realize that you also need to get some social time with other babies your age. You seem to like playing with other infants a lot (squealing at them, grabbing their hands, their toys etc). You are still sleeping 11 hrs at night but now you only take 2 naps during the day (your evening nap dropped out). You are getting good at feeding yourself finger foods even if they are really slippery (like cantalope and kiwi). And we played ball today so well: I roll the ball to you and you immediately push it back to me. Communication-wise you seem to be signing "more" and "milky" though I am still unsure what is "more" and what is a failed clap attempt :) I love how amazed you are when you look up at the leaves barely clinging to the autumn colored trees in the wind. I hope you never lose that sense of wonder for nature. I have the same sense of wonder for you. It never ceases to amaze me that I saw you go from a parrot looking blob on an ultrasound (see post from June 16, 2008) to an ever growing little girl that melts my heart when I'm holding you and you lean in and squeeze me for a hug.

Love,

Mom

Mia goes to Chicago (well almost. . . Rosemont)

First off, sorry the quality of these photos isn't as good as those in the past. . . I used my small digital camera for these instead of Dave's good camera.

Here I am with my new used jogging stroller running 4.5 miles with Mia all bundled up on a chilly autumnal morning. She didn't even play with the toys I tied onto the stroller for her, just looked around for the entire 40 mins. Can you see the tiny mittens?

Perhaps I should take this opportunity to say that my Team in Training training is going well. The fundraising is going pretty good too but we can definitely always use more money to fight the cause. Right now I am running 6 miles throughout the week (in 3 days) and 6 miles on Saturday. As for my fundraising, we (my family and I) have raised almost $2,500! If you haven't already, please go to http://pages.teamintraining.org/cny/wdw10/staciemiller even if just to show your support with a $10 donation. Thanks! :)

Here is Bubbe and her granddaughter one morning in the Westin O'Hare in Rosemont, IL. Nothing beats morning cuddles!

Here is Bubbe (my mom) and Mia in Chicago at a bus stop on our way to . . .

The Shedd Aquarium!!! Here is Mia in front of a fish tank. We were all sick but still enjoyed the belugas, dolphins, sea lions, and other cool aquatic life.

Here is Mia at her walker today on our new foam floor mat. She even took a few steps and occasionally lets go momentarily--very exciting!