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Like the speed of light

January 31, 2006

The first time I looked away for a few seconds and Mia was missing it was a little shocking. But I quickly found her. After all she was only a few feet away, just behind the ottoman.

Up until yesterday though, she hadn't left the family room. Now she's found that there's a whole house for her to explore.

How long does it take to get up and pour a glass of kool-aid? 20 seconds? In this time Mia has figured out how to leave the room and crawl into our bedroom. I came back with my drink and didn't see her. I figured she'd gone into the corner again like she usually does so that I can't see her from this angle. But when I go to look, she's not there either! What? Then I hear some rustling from our bedroom. I go in to check it out and there she is checking out a shopping bag from the day before.

She's been to every room now by herself. I followed her from a distance to see what she'd do and she went all the way up to the front door and stood up to look out those windows. I got her down from there because I had visions of her cracking her head open on that hard ceramic tile, but she wasn't deterred. She went into the living room, then crawled around the dining room table, then went down the hall to check out her room and started into her bathroom. I decided that floor wasn't the cleanest to be playing on so I turned her around again and she went back out to the kitchen after taking a brief peek into the office. She got a little lost at this point, but I showed her how to leave the kitchen and go through the breakfast nook to get back to the family room. I just told her to come this way and she followed me right out. What a little explorer she is!

Posted by Kimberly at 9:02 AM | Comments (1)

Monkey Chase

January 30, 2006

One of Mia's Christmas presents was the Monkey Chase. She seems to like it!

Posted by Kimberly at 4:54 PM | Comments (0)

She's as bad as Barclay

We used to just have the cats knocking things over and getting into trouble. Now they have help.

Mia apparently thinks plants are for eating too. At least this one can be taught...maybe.

Posted by Kimberly at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

I'm done!

January 29, 2006

There's no longer any question about whether Mia's done eating. She rips off her bib now when she doesn't want anymore. If you put it back on, she just pulls it off again. Over and over and over again.

I remember when I bought the bibs I thought velcro closures were a miracle. I wouldn't have to tie them on everytime. Now I'm thinking that wouldn't be such a bad idea...

Posted by Kimberly at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)

New flavors

January 28, 2006

Mia has a new favorite food combo. It sounds so delicious that I just know you are going to run to your kitchen to make some for yourself after you hear about it.

Tofu, avocado, pear, and garlic.

Yum!

I was looking for tofu recipes for her and I came across this one-- minus the garlic. I was hesitant since it sounded less than appetizing to me, but then a friend of mine said she tried it and her baby gobbled it up. So, I thought why not give it a shot. I've got all the ingredients right here. So I drop a pear cube and avocado cube in a dish and defrost. Add tofu and... wait why does this smell like garlic? Oh yeah. I forgot that I added garlic to her avocadoes and called it baby guacamole. Oops. Well, let's try it anyway. And she loved it! Crazy. Oh well, at least it's something besides bananas.

Posted by Kimberly at 3:29 PM | Comments (0)

Will you be my Valentine?

January 26, 2006

Mia & Gavin got their Valentine's pictures taken today. Here are the two little cupids.

Posted by Kimberly at 5:43 PM | Comments (0)

Peeking Over

This is how we used to find Mia after waking up from a nap. She'd be peeking over the side and often laughing and talking to us. This was on New Year's Eve.


Peeking Over on Vimeo

Posted by Kimberly at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

Pulling up in her crib

January 25, 2006

This was Mia pulling up yesterday.

Posted by Kimberly at 8:14 PM | Comments (0)

She figured it out

January 24, 2006

I was on borrowed time and I knew it.

When Mia pulled up in the clothes basket the other week we saw it coming. But, then she wasn't doing it anywhere else. She does laps around her Leapstart table or along the couch if you stand her there, but didn't seem to consider that she might be able to pull herself up to it. Then the other day she realized she could pull herself up on people if they were sitting on the floor. I think that was her epiphany because since then she's been going nuts.

First, I went to get her from her nap and she was standing there in her crib.

Then a little bit later, I looked up and she was standing at the door looking outside. That was a bit of a shocker. Then she proceeded to walk along the door/wall until she got stuck in the corner and started yelling Mamamamamama.

So much for finding her in the same place I left her!

Posted by Kimberly at 11:03 AM | Comments (1)

Please pass the bananas

January 23, 2006

Mia has been eating all sorts of foods for the past month or two. Sweet potato, avocado, rice, banana, pear, squash, peach, spinach, blueberry, yogurt, carrots, and of course garlic & herb tofu. Recently though, she's decided she only likes bananas. If I make anything else for her she'll eat a few bites and then act like she's full. But, if you offer her bananas out she'll suddenly start opening her mouth and eating again. She's ravenous. Little Diva likes bananas.

Posted by Kimberly at 4:15 PM | Comments (0)

Can you say Daddy?

January 22, 2006

When Mia talks, her mouth moves independently of her voice. She's like one of those old, poorly dubbed kung fu movies. Sometimes she gets her mouth going a few seconds early as if she has to get warmed up before she makes any sound. Other times, she says what she has to say and then you see her lips still moving after the words stop.

She's been saying Mamamama for a while now but we could never convince her to say Daddy. Today she finally did it!

Posted by Kimberly at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)

The wonders of Photoshop

Posted by Kimberly at 1:03 AM | Comments (0)

Standing by herself

January 21, 2006

Today Mia learned how to stand up by herself for a few seconds at a time. She was crawling around on the ground and came over to sit next to my leg. She put her hands on my leg and then stood up, but was leaning over since my leg was only 6" off the ground or so. The next thing I know, she has pushed up with her hands so that she is standing straight up not holding onto anything! Of course it was only a few seconds before she lost her balance and sat down again, but she repeated this about 3 times in a row. Who knows what she has up her sleeve for tomorrow!

Posted by Kimberly at 8:26 PM | Comments (1)

What happens when Mia doesn't like her food

January 20, 2006

Mia is actually a pretty neat eater when she wants to be. I've come away with clean bibs and one quick wipe of her mouth would get her back to good as new.

It's a different story when she doesn't like what you're trying to feed her. She sticks her hands in her mouth and pulls the food back out and smears it around her face and head and well, pretty much everywhere she can reach.

I guess she didn't like the blueberries and yogurt today.

Posted by Kimberly at 2:07 PM | Comments (1)

Moving the crib mattress

January 19, 2006

We finally moved the crib mattress down so Mia can't pull herself up and fall out of bed. Everytime she wakes, we go in and find her sitting there crying. How does she think she's going to fall back asleep sitting up? Anyway, if she's sitting, I figured it was only a matter of time before she figured out she can stand there and then she'll lean her big head over the edge and it'll be a bad scene. It seems we were just in time too. She has been pulling herself up in the clothes basket but hadn't really noticed that anything else would be good to pull up on. Just this evening though she crawled over to me and pulled up to her knees on my legs. She didn't quite get all the way to her feet since she ran out of handholds, but let the climbing begin.

Posted by Kimberly at 9:25 PM | Comments (0)

Peek-a-Boo

January 18, 2006

Mia's really taken to this peek a boo game. I had tried to play it with her a couple times before but she didn't seem at all interested. For the past few days though, she seems to think it's just the funniest thing in the world. As soon as you cover your face she starts smiling and talking, and when you suddenly appear she laughs hysterically. It's pretty funny to watch. I wonder how long this game will last until she's bored by it.

Posted by Kimberly at 1:33 PM | Comments (0)

Drinking the bathwater

January 17, 2006

Mia was taking a bath at Tatie Ninie's over the weekend and we didn't have her usual bath toys. Tatie improvised by finding a shot glass for her to play with. She showed Mia how to fill it up with water and dump it out in the bath.

Mia took this all in. The next thing I know, Mia picked up the glass, reached down and filled it with water, put it up to her mouth, tilted her head back and took about 3 big gulps before getting just a little too much and sputtering a bit.

Now, I'm not too thrilled with the drinking of the bathwater, but truly amazed that Mia took it upon herself to get a drink!

Posted by Kimberly at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

Slideshow

January 10, 2006

A new slideshow featuring your favorite 7 month old:

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

The best toy ever!

January 9, 2006

Mia has always loved her Baby Einstein Play Gym but I never realized it would have so much staying power!

She first started using it when she was only a few weeks old. She'd lay under it and look at all of the lights and colorful dangling toys. Soon she learned that if she wiggled enough she could make the music play and the lights flash. She could play under this thing for hours on end. Once she started crawling around she might not be motivated to go get anything else you waved at her, but she'd always crawl over to the play gym!

After Christmas, I thought maybe it was finally time to put it away. After all she'd just received every toy on the market for her age group and I thought laying on the ground looking at red bird wouldn't seem all that exciting anymore. She was having a great time with all of her battery powered, highly stimulating new toys. But, as it turns out, she still loves the thing! We brought it out yesterday in desperation to find something to entertain her for longer than 2 minutes. She just crawled right past 5 of her new toys to get to her play gym. I have to say now I think this is the best shower gift I received. Thank you Wehner family!

Posted by Kimberly at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

Wow, big day

January 8, 2006

Turns out Mia had some more tricks up her sleeve. She also decided to pull up by herself and start cruising today! Congratulations Mia!

Posted by Kimberly at 9:09 PM | Comments (0)

Not a day off

Even though Mia is a bit under the weather, she's not taking a vacation from new skill masteries! Today she started getting up by herself to a sitting position. She had done this on occasion before but it always seemed like more of an accident. She's gotten pretty good at it today. And it's amazing she found time for this in the 30 second intervals she would spend NOT in one of our laps!

Posted by Kimberly at 7:55 PM | Comments (0)

First cold

January 7, 2006

Mia's sick. She's hoarse and has a nasty cough, but is still in good spirits most of the time. She wants lots of extra cuddle time and is doing what every proper breastfeeding baby should-- refusing solids and nursing more frequently. Sleeping has been posing the biggest problem so far since she only wants to sleep in someone's arms. I read some statistics today that most healthy babies have 7 colds before their first birthday. So, if we made it to 7 months before her first one, we're not doing too bad.

Posted by Kimberly at 8:32 AM | Comments (0)

Temper, temper...

January 6, 2006

The green spoon is for playing with during dinner. Mia sits at the table with us during meals and plays with her spoon and sometimes her sippy cup and is usually such a good girl. Depending on her mood, I often feed her some solids before or after we eat.

Last night, she was playing with her green spoon and we finished eating so I started trying to feed her her dinner. Apparently way too much was going on though and I couldn't get her to pay attention. She was looking at the cat, at Daddy, at the big blue ball, anything and everything besides me. I would finally manage to catch her attention for a second and cram a bite into her mouth and then she'd stick her green spoon in her mouth and smear that bite out of her mouth around her face and head. So.... I say guess what Mia, I'm taking the green spoon away. She has the thing in a death grip and I have to pry it out of her little hand. As soon as I've finally wrestled it away and hidden it behind my plate I hear the loudest, angriest wail I've heard since we had to get into the car seat. This is immediately followed by about 10 seconds of breath holding, which is followed by even louder screams. Man, was she MAD! This went on for about 2 minutes when she abruptly stopped and was ready for more food. Oh boy we're not ready for temper tantums yet. I thought we had at least until the toddler years for that!

Posted by Kimberly at 9:22 AM | Comments (0)

She's slowing down

January 3, 2006

I think Mia's finally slowing down a little on her weight gain. Today she was 19 lbs 6oz fully dressed. So guesstimating from her last appointment and how much her clothes weigh, I'd have to say she hasn't gained much in the past month. She seems taller to me though and her sleeves seem to be fitting better.

Maybe she's going to start stretching up instead of just out and around now that she's a little more active. I guess we'll see!

Posted by Kimberly at 9:35 PM | Comments (0)