Meeting Another Cousin

Mia does have more second cousins than most small children can handle, but today was a special treat as Mia got to meet cousin John Stephens (from Nina's side of the family). This was her first chance to meet anyone from this group of family members and she had a great time with John. We hope it isn't too long before Mia gets to meet Uncle Rick, Aunt Mary, and Cousin Christa.

Girlfriends

Mia and Anna have been friends since they were just a few weeks old. Now they are big toddlers who can play together and even relax together.

We had a lovely dinner at Anna's parents' home and the girls had a great time playing together. Sadly, Anna will be moving to the Boston area soon. Mia will be the only one left of their little trio in the area, though this will give us one more reason to visit Boston.

P.S. If you're wondering about Mia's pet tree frog, try feeding it by clicking inside the green background to release a fly.

Happy Babies All Around!

We have two wonderful updates to make. Tuesday was a very exciting day.

First, baby cousin Ellie (Aunt Kate and Uncle Matt's daughter, born June 7th) had a successful surgery on Tuesday to repair a hole in her heart. She is doing well and the nurses have already found out how feisty she is. She refuses to nap anytime she hears her mom and dad's voices. Think good thoughts for a speedy recovery.

Second, we welcomed into the world yesterday baby Sarah and congratulate her parents, Cousins Elizabeth and Christian. The whole family is doing well. Mia is thrilled to have another baby girl cousin around, though it will be a bit before they get to play together.

Forts

Mia and Adleigh got a chance to spend some time together after their dads helped Erin Moodie and her parents pack up the U-Haul trailer. (Erin has a 1 yr stint teaching in Ohio State's classics department.) Mia particularly liked Adleigh's idea of making the sideboard into their own little fort.
She was also particularly interested in the dog "purse" Adleigh had brought along.

A lot has changed since they met almost 1 year ago when Adleigh still lived in the Bay Area and came to help take care of Mia in San Francisco.

Watching a Tree Grow

One year ago, Rob planted an American Elm in our front yard. The plan is to take a picture of Mia with the tree every year to show how big the two of them grow. In the year 1 picture, Mia's just trying to hold her head up. You can easily see how this has changed below.

Here is Year 2:

Communication Explosion

Mia has had a communication explosion recently. She is learning words lightning fast and picking up signs almost as quickly. She really loves using words and signs because she completely gets that we know what she is trying to say so much better when she uses them.

We were recently asked how many words Mia can say now. We had no idea, but spent a few days adding them up. The total is a little over 20 spoken English words and 8 signs. She also does a bunch of sounds; vroom-vroom, blub-blub, etc. The lists are below. Some we don't always understand and I'm sure there are ones she's trying to say that we have yet to get, but this seems to be pretty comprehensive for today.

Spoken Words:
Baby, Ball, Uh Oh, Turtle, Up, Down, Mama, Dada, Dog, No, Yeah, Cheese, Fish, Nina (the name she uses for Rob's mom), Milk, Bottle (for any type of bottle, especially water bottles, or sippy cup), Shoes, Book, More, School, Truck, Bye-bye, Hat

Signs:
More, Hat, Milk, Eat, Bath, Bye, Come, Baby

Note: We've done some back-dated posts. Sorry for the delay. Make sure to scan back to early August to see any updates.