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!

Zilker Park

Mia's favorite thing these days: PARKS. Everyday after she gets home from Nanny's, 20 minutes later she tells us it's time to "walk." She goes and pulls out her stroller and proceeds to try to climb in on her own. So you know she was super stoked when she arrived at Zilker Park on Saturday and it was a beautiful day! Sorry about the flooding of pictures in this post. Usually we just have our little camera or Mark's iphone camera on us. With Mia being so squirrel-ie these days, it's hard to get one, much less a few, good shots. Saturday we remembered our good camera however. So many good shots I couldn't decide which to cut. So lucky you... here are most of them!

Mia's favorite things at the park were swings and slides. Until she discovered rocks.

Getting ready to go on the Zephyr with Daddy

Mark looks happy, Mia looks confused and Mary looks REALLY excited

Happy

This weekend was quite eventful. Usually, when we say that, we're traveling back and forth somewhere. But this weekend, we were actually here in town.

Started out with a quiet Friday afternoon. A walk to the park and Mia and Stoli playing until the sun started to set. Saturday morning, we woke up and all had breakfast together before Mark & Mia headed to the grocery while Stoli & I met up with Leslie for a morning run. Perfect weather, perfect activities, perfect company. After the morning's activities, some went down for naps while others quickly cleaned up and got ready. We had an 11AM 1st birthday party to attend!

Mia's nap ran a little long, but I was not about to wake a sleeping baby. As soon as she got up, I got her dressed and loaded up. We showed up to the party right as Uncle Tommy & Aunt Stephanie were walking up and the party was just getting into full swing. The birthday boy was happily eating chicken nuggets and Mia quickly joined him. With so many kids, toys and people she knew around her, Mark and I could actually enjoy ourselves! And I helped myself to 2 cupcakes =)

Another nap after the party before meeting up with the Martinez' for dinner. We went to Sunflower, one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants in Austin. Did you know that Mia can hold chopsticks??? Yeah, me neither. She's not bad. She also loves spring rolls. Just like Dad.

Sunday morning she spent with Stoli & me. After a bowl of cereal, bananas and milk and a few segments of Sponge Bob, she ran upstairs to get dressed to "play" outside. A hike on the trail and then crazy squealing time at the park. She really does love it out there. When she got home, she proceeded to tear up her room before walking over to me, tugging on my pants and saying, "Mama, nigh nigh?" LOL. Yes, you may go take a nap.

After Mark got back from his tour of Pflugerville bike ride, he was starved. We hit up a new restaurant for us. Good Luck Grill. Holy fried heavens. The name is a little deceiving. We did not actually have anything on our table that was grilled. Chili cheese fries, steak fingers, fried catfish and shrimp. Mia went to town on some chili cheese fries and mashers. She really enjoys sitting in a booster chair at the table with us now. Sweet little thing ate her lunch, pushed her plate away when she was finished, layed her head on the table and smiled. Ahhhh... guess she was full. The restaurant has this great outdoor area that has washers and tricycles, picnic tables and benches. I went outside to meet up with Mark and Mia after I refreshed our drinks. I found Mark throwing washer and Mia picking them up =) Then Mia and I had a tricycle race, but seriously, mine was bummed. It kept rolling off to the left. I nearly fell over like 10 times. Oh how we love the city/country living.

When we got home, Mark and I were pretty tired. Food coma. We were laying in bed with Mia running around and Stoli trying to stay out of her way. She found a hand towel in the bathroom and decided to play peek-a-boo. She came out carrying the towel, put it on her head and then quickly pulled it off to BOO Mark. It was really rather funny. Until she was walking around the bathroom with the towel over her head and ran into a wall. Mark jumped out of bed when she was wailing and found her sitting on the floor where she'd fallen with the towel still over her head. Sorry. We had to laugh.

Mia was pooped again after lunch and her romping. Took another nap. This time I did have to wake her up. We had to get over to Nanny Michele's for Jasmine's 10th birthday party at 2pm, it was now 3:15 and she was still sleeping! OK, we're gonna miss out on everything if we didn't get a move on. Fortunately, Nanny knows Mia's schedule so when we arrived, she was holding off the natives and had not started dinner. For Jasmine's 10th birthday, she wanted an old fashioned Family Dinner. How sweet. For Michele, this meant a family of about 40 adults and another 20 children! Insantiy. But those guys are troopers and took it all in stride. The food was delicious (all home made). The party was fun. And Mia LOVED it. She got to be with Gigi the whole time. Except for when it was cake time. And she magically made her way over to Jaja. (Yes, she knows the birthday girl is commonly found closest to the birthday cake. That girl is smart). And did you know that she really DID want a cupcake? I ran over there shortly after the cupcakes were handed out so that the older girls could enjoy themselves. And Mia was insistent that she wanted one. So I grabbed one of the mini's (Michele's so prepared) and gave it to Mia. She very expertly chomped off all the yellow frosting. Then peeled the paper (seriously, who taught her this???) and finished the cupcake in about 3 bites. She wanted another. As much as I wanted to let her (I mean, I did have 2 cupcakes the day before...) I knew I shouldn't.

She played downstairs with some game the kids had out while I looked at Jasmine's baby book. Then Mark said he was tired and we should start heading out. We looked around for Mia, but didn't see her. She was around somewhere. Mark looked outside and all downstairs. I straight upstairs to Jasmine's closed door. "Is Mia playing in there with you?" "Yes." smile. Three other girls came out with her.

When we got home, Mark took Stoli out for a walk while I got Mia cleaned up. She found her cowboy boots from her Aunt Lori, sat down on the floor and tried to put her "jdews" on over her squeak shoes. I laughed, but she was insistent. So after the diaper change, she put on her boots and went to meet Stoli at the park. And didn't you know, she ran around on the trail wearing those things for a good 15 minutes. Until it was time to go home. And the whole time she was running around? She kept saying "HAPPY." Mama, "HAPPY."

How can you argue with that? It was a very "HAPPY" weekend indeed.

And we didn't get a single picture.

December Update

Wow. After Thanksgiving, the Christmas holidays really go into full swing. Especially when you have kids. I guess I didn't notice it last year because we were still dilirious from our lack of sleep and Mia was all of 10 weeks old. This year, she is older and starting to enjoy it much more. And so are we!



We kicked things off on December 4th with a family holiday party at IBM. She thought the music was loud, but the hot dog buns and the ice cream were good. She wanted to climb into the jumpy things, but is still too small. She was big enough to pet the baby goats and Christmas lamb.



Following the party, we headed over to the Domain to see the big Christmas tree outside of Macy's. She thought that was pretty cool.


But when we headed to the kids section of Border's, she really tore it up! Loved looking (read: tearing) through all the books, pulling all the toys off the shelves and hugging every stuffed animal in sight. After Borders, over to Viva Chocolat for more gelato and probably a little belly ache.

Hanging out upside down with Dadda

This past weekend, the city of Pflugerville upped the anty and held their annual Old Town Christmas Stroll and Parade. We decided to take Mia and Stoli to check it out. We couldn't have planned it out better as we were getting out of the car, our good friends and neighbors were unloading in the car next to us. Mia was so very happy to see her friend Hailey. Of course Mia had to try fair food. She had no interest in Mama's favorite, the corndog. She thought the potato ribbons were edible. And she dug the funnel cake when I gave her bites with her milk. But by and far, her favorite part was the Parade. It was lead by Pflugerville's finest in their cars with lights and sirens going. As soon as they got in sight, Mia's mouth dropped and her eyes got wide as golf balls. She was in awe. She stayed this way through the highschool marching band's performance as it was pretty loud. This whole time, she was sitting in my lap with her fingers in her mouth watching intently. She started to get a little antsy as the other floats passed. Not understanding Hailey's obsession with the candy being thrown. I did however catch a dum-dum for her at one point. She liked holding it and sucking on the wrapper. I felt bad for the poor kid who is now almost 14 months and has never had candy. So I wrangled the lollipop out of her hands (which was a feat in itself), took the wrapper off and gave it back to her. She stuck it tentatively into her mouth without ever taking her eyes off me. Once her taste buds hit it, it was all over. Her face lit up, her smile went from ear to ear and her hand started twirling that dum-dum around in her mouth. She was quiet the rest of the night.

The next evening, we had the Martinez' over for an evening playdate. Kettle corn, hot chocolate, beer and wine (last 2 for the parents). It was a fun evening catching up with Leslie and Jacob. And the girls had a blast playing in Mia's playroom. Here's a better picture of the 3 than the last one taken at the Martinez house =) It was getting late in the evening so excuse Mia's sloppiness. Also, we just got done with a walk so she had been wearing her winter hat and didn't feel a need to switch back to her bow. She was so wired that night. Running around the house swinging her legs and laughing hysterically. It was so funny to watch her. She went to bed that night at 9pm. One whole hour past her normal bedtime.

But when she finally did, this is how we found her. Leg up in the air and all.

Yesterday was bootcamp day for Mama. This means that Daddy takes Mia and Stoli for a walk. However, Mark reported back that he took Mia for a walk. And MIA took Stoli for a walk. This is what it looks like from Mark's angle.

And that's what we've been up to in December up to this point. Holiday vacations start shortly so we'll have lots more to talk about soon!

Aunt Jenni's Baby Shower

This past weekend we celebrated Jenni and the upcoming arrival of dear baby Embrey Catherine. The beautiful relaxing shower was held at the Ft Worth Club downtown and let me tell you, they did a fabulous job. We only had to mention that we needed something and it was taken care of. If you have the financial ability to have a shower at a location, that's the way to go. Jenni and Embrey scored the sweetest things, too!

Glowing mother-to-be and Nini
Fabulous spread!

The dessert table (yay, my cookies and candy buttons!)

The adorable candy buttons I made

Jenni and her girls

**** Pictures by Gara Hill****

Hamilton Pool

Mark's birthday celebrations continue on into Friday! Mark and I both managed to take a day off to enjoy Austin in the heart of summer. Amazingly, we found something to do outdoors that we were surprisingly comfortable in. We went out and spent a few hours at Hamilton pool. It's a natural spring fed pool with a beautiful waterfall gracing one side. It was just a short 1/4 mile walk from the parking lot out to the pool area. The entire area was shaded with massive trees and the water was just on the cool side.

Under the grotto was a nice size cave where you were able to set up picnics if all the beach area was taken. Honestly, if it were a hotter day, we would have taken cover under there! But it was actually a pretty fair day as it threatened rain while we were driving over. Fortunately, it held off until we made it over to the Oasis for a quick lunch.

I believe we found us the annual location of future Mark Neubauer birthday celebrations!

Mia's 1st Pool Party

From Mia:

I had a LOT of fun at my first pool party. It was at my Ong/Ba's house. There were so many people.

Ong spent alot of time doing this:

My uncles helped, too!

But Aunt Stephanie and Mommy spent most of their time doing this:

Uncle Cade and Aunt Jenni joined in on the fun. But Uncle Cade looks very full.

Here's a close up of what you missed out on if you weren't there:

I paddled and paddled with my friends

And when I was done, Ba had this warm robe waiting for me!

Mommy said I'm still too little for the crawfish. So I did alot of this after I got done swimming. Next year though... make room for me at the crawfish table!

Chuy's Hot to Trot 5K

What a beautiful weekend we had... an excellent one for Mother's day weekend!

Saturday we got up early early. Mark had flag football, but more importantly, Mia/Stoli/I had our Chuy's Hot to Trot 5K to get ready for! This was Mia's first race and my first one since having her. Fortunately for us, Nanny Michele and her family were also registered. Which meant Mia was actually going with Michele and Kurt. Stoli & I were taking Jasmine.

Here are the happy girls with Chuy

Jazzi is looking at her Mommy while Mia is looking at me =)

Jazzi and her friend Layla finishing their 1K... this was right before the big spill =(

Birthday Weekend

Last week was my birthday. It flew by in a blur. My best friends from DFW came down to visit. It use to be really really crazy times when we all got together. This was crazy, too... but in a totally different way. Regardless, it still left my house is disarray =)

Mia was infatuated with all her new friends

We could not have asked for better weather. We had lunch on the dock of Hula Hut (yes, a table for 5 adults, 4 kids. no, no slings. but 2 high chairs, 2 boosters). The Mark made us a delicious grill out dinner later that evening.

Greg & Kara enjoying some of Austin's best

Just the kids... Kara (4 1/2) holding Mia (6 months), Michael (1 1/2) and Zander (2 1/2)

Daddy and his little islander

Headed North

Quarter close had me slammed beyond belief last week so I'm a little behind on blogging.

Last weekend, we travelled north. Not very far. To Ft. Worth. It's amazing how close that city is to us, filled with friends and family and yet we only make it that way once or twice a year. We need to work on that because we love it there!

Even though I had to work late into Friday evening and first thing Saturday morning, we were still able to make the most of the weekend. We went to Arts Fest on Saturday and then jogging on the Trinity on Sunday. Good times. Thanks to Aunt Jenni & Uncle Cade for their hospitality!!!

This sculpture at Arts Fest just screams Summertime! to me

Sweet Mia & Aunt Jenni taking a break

Kisses from my dear Aunt

Checking out the sites with Daddy

Another family break