September Update

The weekend that Jude turned 1 month old was Labor Day weekend. On Friday, Ong and Ba

came to town to visit and provide much needed assistance! Oh happy day!

On Sunday evening, we get a call from Nini and Papa letting us know that there are some wild fires in Bastrop and that the city/county has asked them to evacuate. Would it be ok for them to evacuate to our house? Or are the fires in Pflugerville bad, too? Fire? Fires? Huh?

Turns out it was the weekend of the great wild fires. We turn on the news and sure enough, there are fires EVERYWHERE. Because of the severe drought in the region, the extremely windy day and the holiday weekend things were catching fire easily and then being carried and spread like, well, wild fire.

The Pflugerville fire was not far from our house. Down at the end of Kelly Lane close to the Preserve neighborhood. The relatively small fire coupled with the quick action of the PFD and Travis County helicopters, the fire was quickly contained.

The Bastrop fires were a completely different story. The area is densely wooded. The fires raged for miles and miles. For days and days.

Nini and Papa stayed with us through the holiday weekend and then went to Ft. Worth to visit Jenni and Cade for a few days. With the same bag they had packed in their rush to evacuate. It would be well over a week before the fires were contained sufficiently to allow them to even return to the area.

When they were finally able to return, they were the lucky very very few. Their home was untouched. Not even any signs of smoke damage. All they had to throw out was some spoiled food from the electricity being turned off for so many days. We all counted our blessings.

During this time, Stephanie returned from a long weekend visit in California. On Tuesday after Labor Day, we decided to take the pups and Jude out for a nice long walk since Stephanie didn't have to work (she works for Bastrop ISD). Stoli and Diesel were as usual running and chasing each other. Having a generally good time. Diesel stopped somewhere ahead to do her business and then continued on chasing Stoli. Stephanie and I finally caught up to her pit stop and were heads down searching for her "treasures." After a few minutes, we were able to collect it all and wouldn't you know it, we look up to see Stoli and Diesel trotting back towards us. Well, Diesel trotted. Stoli was noticeably limping. We stop to take a look at him and he screeeeams. OK, so don't touch it. Stephanie takes Diesel and they run back to the house to get the car. I coax and comfort Stoli as we try to make it as close as possible back to the main road so that we can get in the car when Stephanie returns. The whole time, I've got Jude strapped to my chest because we didn't bring a car seat.

We get Stoli home and call the vet. They didn't have any appointments left that afternoon so instead of opting for the emergency route, I chose to just take him in first thing the next morning. Torn ACL. 100%. After leaving the vet's office, we go straight over to the surgeon's office. Surgery scheduled for the next day. Surprisingly, Stoli is able to walk out of the surgeon's office and into the car. He's a little loopy the first few hours, but he is a champ and recovers so so well. No more running for him =(

Our goofy dog going for aqua rehab

Figures he can kill 2 birds with one stone and hydrates while he rehabs

This maternity leave is one surprise after another. So now I'm bound at home. Stuck between painful fussy breast feeding sessions and ACL rehab. Yay for baby boys!

Mickey Mouse Club House

Every afternoon after school Mia watches a program on TV called Micky Mouse Clubhouse. It is that TV show that makes the following blog so funny to me. Within the show a couple things happen in every episode.

1. In order to make the club house appear, Micky says "Mishka Mooska Mickey Mouse"
2. Whenever Mickey reaches a point where he doesn't know what to do, he says "Oh, toodles" and this little balloon thing comes down with a variety of different tools that Mickey can use to solve problems.

A couple days ago, Mia walked over to me while I was in the kitchen. She said "Dada, I wanna snack." I said "Mia, what is the magic word?" The magic word in my house growing up was Please. Mia, stopped, thought about it, looked at me and said "Mishka, Mooska, Mickey Mouse" then she said "can I have a snack?" How do you say no to that?

A few days later Mary was sitting on the couch feeding Jude. Mary has a pink cup with a straw she usually drinks water out of while feeding him. Mia frequently comes by and gets a sip of water from the cup while Mia is feeding him. Mia came by this time and grabbed the straw and pulled it out of the cup and threw it on the ground. She then asked Mary for water. Mary looked at her and said "Mia, you pulled the straw out, you can't drink water without a straw. What are you going to do now?" Mia stopped, looked at her, paused and said "Oh, toodles" hoping a little balloon would come down to give her a tool to help her.
Mary and I were laughing so hard I had to put the straw back in.

Smurfs

I came to pick up Mia after school and was greeted with this yesterday:

Her teacher, knowing how much she loves to draw, had gotten her her very own journal to draw in at school. Yesterday, she was drawing with (you guessed it) a blue marker (WHY?? I do not know). But her teacher turned her attention for a few minutes. When she looked back at Mia, she was greeted with a Smurf.

She was astonished and asked her, "Mia! What have you done???" To which Mia's response was:

"I coloring!"

*** For those who are concerned, her mouth is not blue because she sucked on the marker. It is blue because she sucked on her fingers after she colored her hands. The markers are non-toxic. This picture was after much scrubbing by her teacher and a deep cleansing by mom before snack time. Her dress and legs did not fair much better...***

Mia: 22 Months, Jude: 3 Weeks

August 22, 2011: 2 Milestones for our 2 little ones.

Mia Update:

• Mia not only likes school now, she kind of runs the show in the 1 year old class room. She says, "story time" and the teacher sits down and reads with her and gradually the other kids follow suit. Before they head out of the room to go to lunch or the playground, the teacher will usually peak her head out of the classroom to check to see if it's their turn to head out. If it's not, she tells them, "one more minute, kids." Mia gets in front of all the other kids and also tells them, "One more minute!"
• She is still not potty trained, but consistently tells her teacher when she has pee-peed or poo-pood. Now the trick is for her to tell us when she has to go as opposed to when she's already gone!
• Mia has gotten a lot pickier about what she wants to eat. There is still plenty that she will eat, but she doesn't always eat everything on her plate any more. Some days she's a big meat eater and other days it's carbs. Some days it's vegetables. Right now she's really big into ham, cheese, mushrooms and noodles.
• Since forever Mia has loved to draw and doodle. But recently, she comes home from school, has a snack, asks for her Mickey Mouse show and proceeds to plop down on the floor with her drawing book and special markers and declare, "I do my HOMEwork!"
• Since she turned 20 months, Mia has been taking swim classes at Aqua Tots. She loves it there. We started her out on Wednesday evenings and quickly realized that she was too tired for an after school activity. When we moved her to the Saturday morning class, she's all about it. She just finished her last class for this season last Saturday. Here is a clip of her swimming around with Daddy!

• One of Mia's favorite activities these days (besides drawing) is playing pretend. She's pretty good at it. She's pretty established at playing kitchen and baby. She's just now starting on dress up... if you don't count her get-up's everyday as dress up =) Here she is as Tinker Bell

I'll wait to do the Jude update at his 1 Month entry. For now, I will leave you with his newborn photos done at 3 weeks old.

Sibling Love

Despite all her angst before his arrival, Mia just can't get enough of her Baby Jude.

Well.

To an extent.

She says things like, "I want to hode it!"

... and "I kiss Baby Jude."

But what she really means is, "Plop him in my lap while I watch my TV shows, please."

20 Months

Photo Credits: The Life You Love Photography

Dear Mia,

You are a crazy crazy child these days. You are quite the communicator. There isn't much that you can't express in words. You're not speaking in complete sentences yet, but you are now speaking in phrases. For example, if you see someone with something you'd like, you say, "I want some!" Though it sounds more like, "awe-some!" If you're eating something and would like to share with Mommy & Daddy, you kindly offer, "Have some!" You invite others to share a seat with you, "Nana, sit here!" But your favorite phrase, unfortunately, is still, "No. Go Away."

You're picking up that Jude is not just a body part. Another word for "belly." The other day, when we went into the nursery to pick out a book to read, you told me, "Jude's room." I was so completely caught off guard. We've been trying to express to you for weeks the idea of Jude being a person. "Mia, when Jude gets here, will you share you toys with him?" Mia: No, Go Away. "Mia, when Jude gets here, will you sing and dance to make him laugh?" At which point you go into your rendition of 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and twirl around the living room.

You know so many more animals and their sounds now. You still love drawing and coloring. You love playing pretend and are just getting the hang of dress up. You are getting better acquainted with school and today, you started swimming lessons! You were not a huge fan of kicking and flipping over in the water. But reaching for floating toys and climbing out of the pool (exiting the water area) were 2 of your favorite activities. You have absolutely no fear of the water... which is part of Mommy and Daddy's concern.

You are a pro at expressing emotions such as "sad" and "happy." You very dramatically throw your head into your hands and cry, "sad, I'm so saaaaad!" whenever you don't get your way. You dance around singing, "happy happy" when you're in a good mood. If ever you make someone else sad (ie, telling Ba to go away which makes her cry), you quickly run over, extend your arms and say, "hug, Ba!" and after you give her a kiss on the cheek, she smiles and you walk away with a big smile on your face.

In a few short months when you become a big sister, I suspect that you will be so very helpful. You love to feed Stoli and Diesel. You good at calling Bubba into the house when it's too hot outside. You bring us your shoes and bows when it's time to go somewhere. And you always come when it's dinner time.

There's nothing more we can ask from our beautiful, precocious first child. Well, besides that you PLEASE stop spitting. That's not moisturizer you're rubbing on your body, baby girl.

School Progress

Day 2:

• less crying, but still lots of whimpering
• napped 20 minutes, up from 10 minutes the previous day
• still walking around with blankie unless being held by Miss Jocelyn
• Miss Jocelyn's assessment: Mia communicates very well. 2-3 word sentences. She is very kind to the other children. She plays well when sitting in Miss Jocelyn's lap. Enjoys reading time. Mia needs to work on sharing caregiver's time and sleeping in her cot while the other children are sleeping
• Yikes. Right on point. She's always had 2-5 adults to herself. And she's never had to sleep in a room with other children. Both things she will have to learn as her family grows.
• Came home and ate a big bowl of blueberries and drank a full glass of milk. Napped 40 minutes, woke up and went to a library event where she danced and played. Was a little fussy, but I think that was more because she wanted to be in the middle of the room with the other kids and not on the side where we were sitting. She had fun once we moved, though she was very tired.

Day 3:

• did not cry when I dropped her off, but only slightly whimpered
• the morning attendant greeted her by name and immediately held out her arms to hold her. Mia did not refuse, though still whimpering. the attendant said that they'll go ahead and get Mia's blankie out right away. It's one of her comfort items.
• Geez, does she carry her blankie with her to lunch, too???
• napped 40 minutes, quadrupling the first day's nap time.
• ate a little on her own
• Mark picked her up and said that she was found playing in the middle of the room on a rocking horse with some kids standing around her, but not being held. She was VERY happy to see him and told him to grab her bag. LOL. She also told me that everyday. As if to say, "Grab my $hit, let's get the hell outta here"
• Came home and snacked on watermelon and played. I was working when she got home. When I got done, I came into the kitchen to put the watermelon tub in the fridge and she got upset. She told me, "Mama feed baby!" Wow. Long sentence
• She did not nap after school. Was very excited to see her entire Nanny team (Michelle, Chrissy, Mayra, Kurt, Jasmine) for the evening while Mark and I had to go to birthing class. Michelle reported she was very tired but didn't fuss. She went to bed early.

Which brings us to Day 4... today.

She is making very fast progress and I project that by next Friday, she will have gotten a hold of this new routine. Hopefully by next month she will actually be excited about going to school!

Mia Goes to School

Beautiful school, beautiful girl, beautiful day. Oh wait. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Today was Mia's first day at school. Montessori. She's about 19 1/2 months old and communicates really well. We all know she's ready physically, mentally.

Emotionally, that's another story.

After a big dinner and a good night's rest, Mia woke up smiling and ready for the day. Mark and I decided to tag team it this morning and both took her to school. When we got there, we continued to try to talk her up to it. We've been doing it for weeks now. As have the Nanny team. We knew this was our last shot because last night's conversation did not go well:

Mommy: Mia, you're going to start school tomorrow. Will you be good for your teacher at school?

Mia: School! Ja-ja school!

Mommy: That's right, Mia. Ja-ja goes to school! But now Mia will go to school, too! And you will have lots of new friends to play with!

Mia: NO! No, GO AWAY!

Daddy: *sigh*

We manage to walk into the school without too much commotion. And enter into the cafeteria area. There are about 6 other kids already there this morning and at the table closest to us are 2 of the younger children. They appear to be about Mia's age and are quietly playing with a toy each. Mark tries to let her down and introduce her to them, but she won't have any of it. She immediately attaches to my legs. Quickly racking my brain, I see that there are more little chairs stacked against the wall, so I grab one and set it down at the little table for Mia. Knowing that's one of her favorite things to do. Sit on a chair at a table. I was right, she can't resist.

She walks up to the chair, pulls it out, smiles at each of the 2 kids as if to say, "Hi. Mind if I sit here?" And then proceeds to sit down. Miss Kim, the director brings her a ducky toy and she's interested. After a few quiet seconds, Mark and I quickly excuse ourselves without announcing.

We disappear behind the front wall and I ask Mark to peek back in and snap a picture. She's quietly sitting and observing:


Before we can even get out the front door though, we hear wailing. We expected this. We've been here before. We've prepared ourselves. We stop for one second and both know that it's better if we just keep going and not go back.

And Mia is at school.

After a super busy morning at work, I finally get a chance to check in after her lunch time since I hadn't heard from the school. This was a first. Every nursery she's ever been in, we've been paged. Miss Kim reports that Mia nibbled on some Cheerios at breakfast. Didn't want her milk (why didn't remember to tell them that she just drank 8 oz at home???). Her crying had subsided to whimpering for Mommy and Daddy. And that she had managed to eat 1 chicken nugget at lunch after her teacher Miss Jocelyn held her and fed it to her. Otherwise, she was not interested. It was now nap time, but she was not napping. She was walking around the classroom with her blankie. I told her, that was not good! She must be very tired as she usually has 2 naps a day! Let me call back after 3 to see if she had either crashed or snacked. If neither, I would come get her and she could do both at home without completely ruining her dinner or bedtime.

3:30 rolls around and I finally finish my last set of meetings. I call, and as I had feared, Mia is on strike. Still no nap and only nibbles on the PM snack. I'm on my way!

When I enter the school, I run into her teacher in the cafeteria getting art supplies. I introduce myself and immediately apologize =/. It is her bathroom break time and I hear Mia crying from the classroom. Miss Jocelyn explains that Mia has had a tough day. But that she has had vast improvements from the morning to the afternoon. She started the day crying and would only mildly calm down when held by her. After an hour or so, she was able to hold a conversation with Mia and was impressed that she understood what was going on. Mia told her, "Mama working." Yes. "Mama coming back?" Yes! "MY Mama." Yes! "Daddy working." Yes. "Daddy back!" Yes... good girl!

When it was diaper changing time, it was a little more difficult. She changed Mia first since she already had her in her arms. Then she had to set her down in a chair to change the others. Mia cried. As she was changing the next child, she noticed that Mia's crying had slowed down. When she turned around, another student, Emma, was trying to sooth Mia by rubbing her arm. That took Mia by surprise. Sweet sweet babies.

At lunch time, Mia was totally distracted by all the kids in the room eating. She was not interested in eating, she was so upset. So she just sat there. After 15 minutes, Miss Jocelyn came over and asked her if she would take a few bites for her. She took one. And then declined another. After a few more offers, she said she needed to get up and clean up Mia's plate if she wasn't going to eat it. Mia started crying. She told her, if you're eating, then I can sit here with you, but if you're done, then we need to get up. Mia understood. She ate another nugget while her teacher held her in her lap. Ugh.

Naptime came and Mia was utterly confused. She sleeps exclusively in cribs and pack and plays. So a cot? Totally new concept. Miss Jocelyn introduced her. Mia, this is a cot! This is Mia cot. This one is Jacob cot. Again, she was very surprised when Mia immediately pointed and repeated, "Mia cot." But that didn't mean that she knew or wanted to stay in it. Her teacher said she'd stay in it as long as she was there to rub her back. But she really wanted to get down and play. The first time she wanted to play all day. Of course! All the other kids were sleeping! She had the whole room to herself. So when another kid started to get out of their cot and her teacher went to that child, Mia immediately sprang and ran to the rocking horse. Or to the play kitchen. She slept less than 10 minutes.

At reading time, her teacher said she was totally engaged. Sat very quietly and followed every word. Yes, she loves books. At afternoon play time, she actually got up and played independently for a little while with cars. But as soon as her teacher was out of sight, she started crying. Which brought us to the present.

We walked over to the classroom and there was Mia. Standing about 3 feet from the door with her back to us. Holding her blankie to her chest and sucking on her fingers. Crying. No Mommy. No Miss Jocelyn. We open the door and she mad rushes me. Crying, smiling, screaming, "MAMA! MAMA! MAMA! MY BAG! MY BAG!" Yes, apparently, she was ready to go.

I apologized again and thanked her for her patience. We'd be back in the morning to try again.

Mia came home and laughed when she saw Bubba. Ate a huge bowl of turkey-roni and drank half a glass of milk. Cuddled with Mommy for about 15 minutes before crashing out in her crib for a little over an hour. She was cranky and still tired when she woke up, but at least she'd gotten in some food and sleep. She had no interest or patience for dinner. Daddy bathed her and set her down for bed and she was out by 7:45.

Hopefully tomorrow won't be too much worse. The saga continues...

Lasts and Firsts

This is the face of a HAPPY girl

This is the face of a SAD girl

Why is she sad, you ask?

With good reason. On the day this picture was taken, Friday, May 27, 2011, it was her last day to go to Nanny's house. And she didn't even know it.

She was actually upset because I was taking so long in starting our walk to Nanny's house =)

Mia has been going to Nanny's house since January 2010. She was just a few days short of being 3 months old. And with the exception of a few vacation days here and there, she had been there almost every work day.

In Mia's vocabulary, "Nanny" does not equal "care giver." It's a family member. Probably something along the lines of "Aunt" or even "Second Mommy." Nanny's house is Mia's house. Nanny's Kurt is Mia's Kurt. Nanny's mommy is Mia's Mimi. And of course she has her very own Gigi and Jaja over there. Along with an entire zoo of animals.

In the time that we've been taking Mia over to Nanny's, there might have been a handful of times 16 months where she fussed about us leaving. But never more than a few seconds. And hardly ever a tear. I know this will not be the case when it comes time for school. I know she will have a difficult time. I wish she could stay at Nanny's forever.

But Mia is not going to be an only child forever. She is going to have a sibling and one day she will go to real school. We've decided that even though she is still young, she needs to start socializing with other children her age. Even more so, it's time she start to learn how to share attention with other children. I know it will be tough on her (and therefore on us) in the beginning. But I have no doubt it's the right decision. And that very soon, she will be very good at it!

And so with a tear in our eye, we must say good-bye to an era.

But Nanny won't be far! She's still our good neighbor. And she's still our #1 go to. In fact, she's already scheduled to watch Mia the next 2 weeks after we get back from vacation so that Mommy & Daddy can finish the last 2 childbirth classes. Nanny's also offered to pick her up from school a few hours early every so often so that Mia can come over and play with Jazzi before having to head home. God bless her. How did we ever get so lucky???


To make up for taking Mia from her happy place, I finally introduced her to the beach on Memorial day! It was loooooooong over due. I'm sorry it took us so long baby girl. We promise we'll take you more often! Because... YOU LOVED IT!

Please disregard the nastiness of Galveston beach. It was a beautiful morning, the air was breezy and there was a slight overcast. Mommy & Ba had a wonderful time with you!

Happy Birthday Mama!

Mia decided to get down to her birthday suit in honor of her Mama's birthday.

Hanging out at Nanny's with Jazzi, drawing on her Elmo sketch pad

Thx for the smile Michelle!!!

Happy Easter + The Big Reveal!

The Lord has risen! Let us rejoice and celebrate!!!

And celebrate we did.

Mia started with a big neighborhood egg hunt on Saturday morning.

YAY! "Ecks!"

Hmmm... I don't see many more "ecks"

Maybe they can tell me where I can find more

Toot, we're all done.

Didn't get enough of Mia's first egghunt?

Check out this diddy Mark put together for her:

She was not a huge fan of the Easter Bunny this year and would not take a pic by herself with him!

The baby goat she loved. It had a pretty bow on.

The bunny had very soft ears.

Not very sure about the chicks. They moved a lot!

Then on Easter Sunday, we had a family brunch at the house.

Little Miss Mia received the most precious Easter gift from Nini and Papa. Here she is showing it off

Come, everyone! Eat at my restaurant!

The little chef taking a much needed gummy bear break =)

Uncle Tommy and Aunt Stephanie also joined in Mia's party and brought her a sweet Peter Rabbit book. Yes, that is being enjoyed at bedtime now =)

Lots and lots of goodies, but these were probably my favorite.

My classic velveteen cake (white velvet cake recipe)

And these little guys remind me of bunny noses!

And here was Mark's favorite. Fruit pizza. With a surprise twist. Everyone was anxiously awaiting the announcement of Baby Dos' gender. Only knowing that it would be revealed at Easter, not knowing when or how. How else, but via Mark's all-time favorite dessert!

Blue = Boy!!!

1 + 1/2 Year

I can't believe it. Our baby girl is 18 months old today. Thank goodness she still doesn't have much hair or I'd be forced to believe that she really is growing up.

Here she is asking daddy "peas" for some cereal

giving me a BIG "CHEEEEZ" for the camera and then running away

Mia is moved into her big girl room now and loves it. Though it's not quite complete, most of the components are there.

One of her favorite things about her new room is that she has a table and some chairs just her size. She is constantly climbing in and out of the chairs and telling us, "eat food!"

Mia got into her Easter basket. Can you guess what her favorite thing was in it?

The maracas? No.
The tambourine stick? No.
The bumble bee bath mitt? No.
Give up?

Her Easter window clings!!!


She played with these for almost 40 minutes

A little pooped, but this was the man that made that room possible. Thanks Daddy!!!
{P.S. - love the ballerina slipper pink paint =) }

Here is the monthly Mia update:

• Stats: Weight - 23 lbs 2oz (25-50%), Height - 31 1/4 inches (50%), Head 31 cm (75%!) Head continues to be well ahead of the rest of her!
• She has all her teeth in, including her incisors. She won't be getting any new ones until her secondary molars come in at 2 years.
• At 18 months old, Mia still fits into most all of her 12-18 month clothing. She can wear some of her 18-24 month clothing, but mostly that's just pj's. She's still got so much in the 12-18 month range that she hasn't worn that we haven't moved her up. She's also pretty much into a solid toddler size 5 now. Her diaper is still a size 3 and it seems like her cloth diapers are starting to fit better around the waist (she's less chunky)
• She's adding onto her family vocabulary. She can clearly say Nini, Papa, Ba and Ong now. I've also heard her say Dean and some contorted version of Jenni and Jonathan.
  
• Some of Mia's favorite phrases this past month:
• Oh shoot. As in, "Oh shoot, gotta go get my shoes." Or "Oh shoot, I dropped it" Though those are just scenarios she uses the phrases in, she can't actually say all that yet.
• This one, I really don't like: "Go Away." I think she was originally taught that phrase to tell the dogs and cats at Nanny's house when they begged her for snacks. Now she's learn the full usage of this phrase and uses it on people. As in, when daddy messes with her in the afternoon for hugs and kisses, "GO AWAY DADDY." Or when I have to wipe her running nose, "NO MOMMY! GO AWAY!" =(
• She likes to play pretend a lot. Most of it has to do with food. So she uses the phrases, "eat food!" and "NACK!" (snack) a LOT.
• Whenever she hears or sees that someone is sleeping, she puts her index finger over her mouth and says, "shhh" Very smart. Hopefully that carries over to when she has her baby.
• She likes to tell us when to take "walks". "Momma, Bubba walk?" Which means I need to take her and Stoli for a walk. She goes, pulls out her stroller and climbs in. And waits for us there.
• Mia really enjoys her sweets. She can say, "cake" and "cupcake". When she hears the Happy Birthday song, she makes a beeline to where the singing is happening. She knows that where there's that song being sung, there is sure to be cake. She's been right every time.
• She's learning how to sing the Happy Birthday song. It's not really recognizable yet, but it is hilarious to listen to.
  
• She loves to blow "bubbles" every evening after dinner. This involves her dipping the wand into the giant jug of solution and waving it around like a maniac in the backyard.
• She's also been heard saying things like, "wipe", "Oy", "Wow", and "Yeah!"
  
• Mia knows so so many of her body parts now. In addition to belly ("benny"), nose, eyes, ears and teeth, she knows: hair, toes, tongue (can't say that one yet) and hiney. She knows you're suppose to wipe your hiney after you go potty.
• Speaking of potty, she's getting much better at telling us when she's gone pee pee or poo poo in her diaper. She still cries wolf a lot though.
• Her favorite show is still "Buh-Bomb". I don't know how that translates to "Spongebob" but it does. She asks for it all day long. And will sit in her chair (little leather chair) and put her blanket on her lap and hold her remote for an episode at a time. The other thing she asks for is "Yo!" as in "Yo Gabba Gabba" but I don't think we have that on our TV.
  
• One of her other favorite activities is, "drawing". She gets a book and a writing utensil (no preference) and starts "drawing". She can sit there and do this for 15 minutes at a time. Most of the time, she is very good at keeping it in her book or on her paper. But sometimes she gets a bug and will throw a tantrum when we tell her not on the wall or furniture. Who knows... maybe she's going to take after her Aunt Cathy!
  
• On that note... tantrums. They have certainly arrived. We get at minimum 2 a day now. 2 is a good day. I'm hoping that as her language and communications skills improve, the number of tantrums will inversely decrease.
• Mia hasn't really learned the art of playing dress up yet. But she loves getting dressed up. Every morning, sometimes as early as 5AM, she'll wake up asking for her bow and shoes. Don't wear pretty things like bracelets and necklaces around her unless you're willing to share. She asks for them all the time and will run around the house wearing them... until they fall off or she gets tired of it.
• She is learning the magic word, "Please" ("peas"). One day at Olive Garden, they brought out our dinner and Mark had gotten a pizza. Evidently, this looked good to her. She picked up her little plate, reached it across the table and said, "Daddy! Peas!" She still won't say thank you.
  
• Mia is so very interested in babies. She loves touching and caressing their skin. She is amazingly gentle with them when she wants to be. But, you have to watch her. She is a baby herself and sometimes does get irritable that you're holding them and not her. Yikes.
  

One parting last shot as we look forward to the second half of this year

Nurseries

Ever since Mia was 3 months old and I went returned to work, she's been staying with Michelle aka Nanny. Nanny, her family and her home are so much a part of Mia's life, I think she thinks it's just her 2nd home. I know she thinks of Michelle's daughter Jazzi as her own big sister.

The last few months, as we became aware that Mia needs to experience new environments and socialize more with children her own age, we've started to introduce her to nurseries. Twice at my parents' church in Houston and once yesterday at our new gym.

We're 0-3. All 3 times, she had a melt down as soon as we left. All 3 times they called or came looking for us.

Never mind that we got there at 5:55 and I waited in line until 6:15 to drop her off. That I warned them she's not very good with these scenarios and to feel free to page/call me if she cried too much for them to handle. I would come get her right away. That I was careful to take my phone with me the whole time I left her and that I was too afraid to waste my time getting on a machine in fear that the call or page would come at any time. Or that I'd miss it if a machine was too loud. That Mark and I returned to the childcare line at 6:45 to wait another 15 minutes to pick Mia up. When we got there, they told us they had paged us but couldn't get a hold of us. Yup. She was in the back in a care giver's lap with tears coming down her eyes. What the heck??? Never mind all that. Because I know it's just logistics. That although it's not a perfect process, that the people there were taking the best care of her they could. She was not being neglected.

But how do I get her to get more comfortable with this process. To actually enjoy going somewhere and making friends sans Mommy and Daddy in the room? Our hope is to transition Mia to daycare later this year. Our greatest fear is that we end up losing a lot of work time due to tantrums at drop off.

So back to Mia and the gym experience yesterday...

When we picked her up, she came out sobbing to us. Fingers in the mouth, tears and boogies streaming down her face. Mark had grabbed her shoes, jacket and bag while I carried her. As we left the child care area, she whimpered for her shoes. Of all things. So we stopped at a table in the gym to put her shoes on. Then her jacket. At which point she demanded that her jacket be buttoned up and her "bow" (hood) be put on. Yes. We were still inside the building. As soon as I did all those things, she stuck her fingers back in her mouth and layed her head on my shoulders. Whimpering. Poor baby.

Going outside, I asked Mark to hold Mia while I put my sweat shirt on. She immediately broke into tears but Mark was determined that he had her and that she would be fine. She cried a little but then settled down when I asked her if she wanted to go home to see Bubba. She smiled when I told her she could have fruit salad when she got home.

When I unloaded her from the car, she was hanging onto this baby doll and did not want to let it go from her grip. So I let her take it in the house with her. This was the picture of a girl after a rough evening with all her soothing items about her. Jacket with hoodie on. Baby in one arm. Bib on, fruit salad. All was well in her world again.

The Business of Growing Things

Spring is in the air and we have LOTS growing here at the Neubauer house!

I am now into the mid-way mark. I can't believe how fast Baby Dos is growing in there. We had our 20-week ultrasound today and yes, I have another super active one in there. Legs were swinging, arms were pumping. At one point, there was a hand over the forehead and a giant (Stoli-esque) yawn. It was so adorable. It's quite incredible that something 0.5 lbs can be so developed. God is Great!

The interesting thing about the visit was how baby was measuring. Based on my cycles, Baby's due date is August 17th and should have been measuring 19 weeks and 5 days today. However, based on the ultrasound and their estimate of Baby, it was measuring only 18 weeks and 4 days today. A whole week and day behind and measuring in the 25th percentile. At this point, we aren't concerned because I'm obviously a smaller mommy and Mia was born slightly smaller (but still normal) and is now in the 5oth percentile. Still interesting to note, nonetheless.

I finally realized that we need to start documenting this pregnancy for Baby Dos. Aye! Here I am in Week 19. And look who snuck into our baby shot with their fruit snacks... =)

The other big thing we're working on growing is a garden! As an early birthday present, Mark built me a family garden box. It's a HUGE box! Saturday he set it up in the backyard, we went to the nursery to get plants and seeds and here we are trying to get things going

The hope is that we can have something resembling produce by my birthday!

Hopefully with all of Mia's experience in gardening (she's been helping Nanny set up their gardens this year), we'll be harvesting by the bushel soon!

She's very serious about her work

Cheese!

Down right silly