« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »

The nose sucker

September 30, 2005

Two things.

1. Mia loves to have her nose cleaned out with that big blue nose sucker thing. She starts laughing and just finds the whole thing hysterical.

2. Robert got her too close to his face when she was hungry and she decided to try to latch on to his nose.

Posted by Kimberly at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)

She'll be walking any day now!

September 28, 2005

At 3 months and 3 weeks old, here's Mia standing by herself.

This was only for a few seconds, and she fell over right after the flash went off, but still pretty good for her age I'd say!

Posted by Kimberly at 12:12 PM | Comments (1)

Thumb sucker

September 27, 2005

The Good News: Mia will suck her thumb and go to sleep by herself.

The Bad News: Mia sucks her thumb.

I'm glad she has started self-soothing. She rarely needs the pacifier now. She'll just suck her thumb and go to sleep most of the time now. But, I'm hoping it's a habit that she decides to break herself. I was thinking that I could just take the pacifier away when she got older. But, I can't very well take her thumb away. I just hope she's not going to be a 13 year old thumb sucker.

Posted by Kimberly at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)

Mia the Flirt

September 23, 2005

Women approach Mia all the time and gush over her:

"Oh, look a BABY!"
"She's so adorable."
"Hello, cutie!"

She takes it all in stride. Sometimes she rewards them with a smile and they think this is great. The baby SMILED at them! They're very excited.

What they don't know is that when men are around, she laughs so hard her whole belly jiggles and she talks up a storm.

The first time I witnessed this was with Gavin. She saw him and her eyes lit up and she started talking to him. The she started laughing. This went on for a half hour. Non-stop talking and side-splitting laughter.

A few days later I went to visit one of the schools where I used to teach and the man who runs the school asked to hold her. As soon as he picked her up she started grinning from ear to ear and then started telling him her whole life story. You wouldn't think it would take long, but she sure talked his ear off.

Last night we met with two male financial planners and she hardly let us get any work done; she just kept talking and talking and talking. As soon as one of them paid her any attention she'd squeal and laugh hysterically.

She's just such a big flirt. Robert doesn't like this one bit. He thought he'd get a good 10 years before he had to start thinking about how to chase boys away. But, he better start planning now; it looks like they'll be knocking down the door.

Posted by Kimberly at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)

Time for a bottle

September 19, 2005

I'm determined to get Mia to take a bottle. Yes, she's stubborn but where does she think she gets it from?

So, I found these Second Nature nipples online weeks ago, but no store in Jacksonville seems to carry them. I've searched high and low, but no one has even heard of them. I can order them online, but I end up paying two or three times their price in shipping so I never did that. Finally I found them on drugstore.com who has free shipping with a $25 order. So we threw some shampoo and conditioner in the cart and finally just bit the bullet since it seemed that we weren't going to get our hands on these nipples any other way.

Well they finally got here. I decided to try to give her a morning bottle while she's still happy instead of testing it out during the witching hour. I got the bib out as she eyed me suspiciously. I strapped the bib on her and she started wailing. She knew what was coming and didn't sound at all pleased. But, I got her to put it in her mouth and then she took a sip. She stopped crying and started sucking. I was pleased at this point, but knew we weren't out of the woods yet. She has done this with a normal bottle on occasion. If she's hungry enough, she'll suck for about 30 seconds then get mad and spit it out. Thirty seconds go by. Then a minute. Then 2 minutes. She's looking me in the eye over the top of her bottle and I meet her gaze steadily. This is the moment of truth. Who will win the battle of wills? Suddenly she smiles and coos as if to say thank you. Fanfare music begins playing in my head! It worked! Mia drank every last drop out of her bottle and smiled while doing it! Ah, it's a good day.

Posted by Kimberly at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)

Can you say mom?

September 18, 2005

Ok, so I understand that she's 3 months old and she's not supposed to say anything at all, but we were playing with her and saying, "Say Daddy. Say Mommy." And she said mom. I said, no way that doesn't count does it? It sounded exactly like it, but what in the world, she can't talk yet! Robert said, "If you can get her to say it again, it counts." So we started again, "Can you say Mommy? Mmmmmom, moooom, mommy." And she said it 2 more times! I know she doesn't have a clue what it means and she's just playing with sounds, but she did say it, clear as a bell, 3 times.

Posted by Kimberly at 09:40 PM | Comments (1)

Car Seat

September 16, 2005

Those car seat manufacturers sure are tricky. They sell their infant seats as the seat for infants to 1 year OR 20 lbs OR 26 inches. Well I read this assuming that they'd get to the weight/length limits somewhere around 1 year. WRONG! I don't even know why they put the 1 year limit on there. Any kid that is still not that size by the time they're a year old has bigger problems. I of course have no idea when a baby might hit 20lbs or 26 inches when I was shopping for her seat the first time. Now I know. About 3 1/2 months. She's 15 pounds and 25 1/2 inches. So, off we go car seat shopping again.

Now, Britax has done a bang up job of positioning themselves as the market leader. Ask anyone what the best car seat is and they'll tell you Britax. Then ask them what makes it the best. Those answers aren't as quick to come. But, it costs $289, so it must be the best one, right?

I'm more than happy to spend whatever I need to to keep Mia safe. But, here's the thing: they all have to meet the same safety requirements or they don't get to go on the market. So, then Britax must go above and beyond-- they're even safer that the rest, right? Not according to the safety ratings that I found. In most categories it didn't do any better than the rest, and in some it fared worse! Well, then it must be more convenient to use. Nope. Online reviewers complain about it being big, hard to install, the straps get tangled... the list goes on and on.

So, I think we'll save our $289 and find a perfectly safe, more convenient to use, and significantly cheaper seat.

Posted by Kimberly at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)

Big Girl

September 14, 2005

We weighed her yesterday and she weighs.... (drumroll please)...15 pounds!!! That's the 90th percentile. I knew something was up when I held Gavin the other day who is 12 pounds and when I picked him up I almost threw him up to the ceiling-- he felt light as a feather!

Posted by Kimberly at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)

Growth Spurt

September 13, 2005

Oh boy are we in the middle of a growth spurt. And it's a doozy. She's been waking up only once (or sometimes none) per night for a while now. Usually she'll only eat for a couple minutes and then go back to sleep. But three nights ago she woke up an extra time and wanted to eat for a long time instead of just a few minutes. Then two nights ago she woke up every hour and a half and wanted to eat for 30 mintues each time. Then last night she woke up every 2-3 hours but ate for about 45 mintues. And this afternoon she was eating every hour. Then about 6:00 this evening she started screaming like she has never screamed before. Nothing we could do would stop her. Not even feeding her. Now that was a first. She has NEVER turned down food. That's like the Ace up my sleeve. If all else fails, that'll always quiet her down. But, not this time. She was screaming, and shaking, and red as a beet. We're not sure if it was teething or a tummy ache or something else, but it sounded like the worst pain imaginable. She did this for about 3 hours, and then just passed out from being so tired. She's been asleep in her swing for about an hour now, but we're not sure how long it'll last. I hope we can get through tonight unscathed and that she has a better day tomorrow.

Posted by Kimberly at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)

Mia at the Movies

September 12, 2005

Mia went to her first movie today! She was so good that no one even knew she was there. She sat there happily through the previews and then I fed her when the movie started. She fell asleep and stayed that way for most of the movie. Then she woke up and.... another poop blowout! This is what I get for putting her in a disposable again. But, her diapers were still in the dryer when we had to leave. So, she wakes up and I hear it. Yes, over the movie I hear it. And then my hand gets wet. Oh no. So we try to get her (and me) cleaned up in the middle of the dark theater and I can't see if I've missed anything so I just wipe her down head to toe with wipes and we plopped her in the bath when we got home. She still didn't cry through that though. She did try to talk through parts of the movie, but luckily they were loud parts and the theater was pretty empty. But, no crying! Probably because I let her eat twice during the two hour movie, but at least we know it's another thing we can do with her. For now I think we'll still stick to the not-so-new-releases weekday matinees, but I'll take it.

Posted by Kimberly at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

Our Day at the Zoo

September 10, 2005

We took Mia on her first zoo trip today. She was mesmerized.

Actually, she did seem to have a pretty good time. She was probaby a bit more interested in the trees than the animals. She really likes to look at green plants! I was worried that she'd get too hot or sunburned, but she was fine. Toward the end of the day she got a little cranky, but she does that every evening anyway so I don't think it had anything to do with the zoo.

Oh, and a funny story: During a diaper change, I left my sunglasses behind. We walked a ways, then I suddenly realized that I didn't remember picking them up. Robert ran back to see if they were still there, but they weren't. On the way back to tell me the bad news he saw a tiny little girl wearing some great big glasses. He asked her if she just found them and she said yes and her dad made her give them back. Oh no, we had to take her new glasses away!

Posted by Kimberly at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

Let's get groceries

September 08, 2005

I've done all sorts of errands since Mia was born, but somehow getting groceries seemed way too scary to do by myself. At any other store, I could put her in her stroller and pushing her around with the canopy closed, she'd often fall asleep. I probably only needed to pick up a couple things which I could pile on top of it and if I needed to pick her up and carry her, the stroller is easily pushed with one hand.

But, at the grocery store I need to pick up many things and I can't push a stroller and a cart. So, put the car seat on the cart, right? Sounds like an easy enough solution. Only she doesn't always fall asleep in the cart. It's a much rougher ride, and you can't pull the covers over her so she stays awake to look around. And I certainly can't carry her and push that unwieldy cart around the store while picking up a case of Splenda Coke.

But, today I decided to brave the big bad supermarket. I was certain she'd start screaming her head off halfway through and I'd either have to decide whether to abandon my cart and run out of the store, listen to her scream through the checkout line, or find a place to change/feed her while my ice cream melted. But, amazingly none of those things happened. She fussed a bit in the 3rd aisle, but I managed to convince her to fall asleep on her own so I could finish shopping peacefully and she didn't wake up until we were home and all the groceries were put away. Thank you, Mia!

Posted by Kimberly at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

It was like a volcano!

September 05, 2005

Over the weekend, we were visiting some friends in Pennsylvania and we decided to use disposable diapers while travelling for the sake of convenience. Well, I'm sitting on their couch, and Mia is sitting on my lap. People are just starting to show up for the party when I hear it... and see it! Poop was exploding out of her diaper like a volcano! It came spewing out the top of her diaper, strategically hitting my shorts in the crotch and then landing on her couch! Yes, you heard correctly.... Mia pooped on someone else's couch just minutes before our hostess was expecting scads of company.

Well, luckily, there were some other non-squeamish new parents milling around so I had some help. One person grabbed Mia under the arms holding her as far away as possible from anything else that she could touch and soil. Someone else appeared with a handful of napkins so that I could wipe myself off and move from the scene of the crime. I think Robert had the wipes and a diaper changing station ready at this point, so we could get Mia changed while Sarah tried to clean her couch.

Somehow, Mia managed to miss all of her own clothes throughout this ordeal; she just made sure mine were a slightly darker color of khaki than they were when I arrived. I thought I was going to have to wear my dirty shorts around all night and explain to people why it looked like I just messed myself, but fortunately Sarah dug up a skirt that fit me. She even washed my own shorts for me so I had something to wear home the next day.

We eventually got everything all cleaned up and back to normal. I was surprised how well they took it actually. In my previously childless, party-hosting, clean house state, I'm not sure I would have reacted as calmly to poop on my furniture. So, thank you Nate & Sarah. We appreciate your hospitality and promise to only sit on easy to clean chairs in the future!

Posted by Kimberly at 04:13 PM | Comments (3)

Pennsylvania

September 04, 2005

We're visiting some friends in Chalfont, Pennsylvania (just outside of Philadelphia) today and the weather is great. Here's Mia swinging in the hammock. We're sure not looking forward to the trip back to Florida tonight.

Posted by Kimberly at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)