Mia's Mobile

Mia has developed some amazing strength in the past few weeks. Her latest feat is true mobility. Now, anytime she is placed on her tummy, within a minute, she has already started moving. The only problem is...she only moves backwards! She can push herself up with her arms and get her tummy off the ground, even occasionally getting her knees underneath her, but when she does this, she can only go in one direction.

This has created a new complication for Mom and Dad; Mia no longer stays in the place you leave her. It has also created a new complication for Mia; she backs up into chair and table legs and gets stuck with one leg on either side.

Mia was placed on her mat, but the fringe on the rug seemed to be a better toy.

She doesn't seem to mind getting stuck on the chair leg.

Play Date

Sunday was filled with fun, friends, and food. Mia and Mom had brunch at Jennifer and Noah's home. It was a nice chance to catch up with other moms who we don't get to see much as we're all working and see how much all the babies have grown.

Mia plays with (clockwise) Natalie, Noah, and Greydon.

Sienna tries to play with Noah, but Noah is much more interested in Natalie's outfit.

Dinner Time

Mia gets very excited at dinner time. She constantly tries to grab our food and beverages. Last night, she got her wish and was allowed to gnaw on the plate.

Mom and Dad seem to like this whole plate thing. I've got to try it.

Huh? This doesn't taste that great.
I don't understand why they like them so much.

Oh well. It is cold and hard so I'll just use it as a teether.

Happy 5 Months

Mia is now 5 months old and is working on mastering sitting. She's getting pretty good, but sometimes gets distracted by toys (or Dad) and topples over.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, we drove down to Aiken, South Carolina to spend the holiday with the Bishop/Wilson family. Mia was able to spend some quality time with the extended family (pets included).

Mia and the Ladies (Great-Grandma, Great Aunt Eileen, and Grandma)

Mia and Great Grandma

Mia and Great Grandpa

Mia with Great Uncle Jamie and Great Aunt Ginny
Wyatt (Aunt Kate's 9 mo old puppy) fell madly in love with Mia, wanting to be at her side at every moment.; this added a bit of complication at nap time.

Mia and her new protector - Wyatt

Sake has loved babies and watched over them since she was a puppy herself back in Skaneateles. She instantly took a liking to Mia, but was much more relaxed about it than Wyatt.

Mia and Sake (Grandma and Grandpa's dog)

Music, especially live singing, seems to be a favorite of Mia's. Our cousins Islen, Glenna, and Gaelyn performed an impromtu concert for Mia this weekend. Mia was mesmerized by their singing, not being able to take her eyes off them, and then started singing along.

Mia intently watching the Price girls perform

Mia's singing along

American Girl of the Year 2008

Normally, we don't follow the American Girl dolls, but the new doll for 2008 is named Mia and the resemblance is a bit scary. The doll was announced on Oprah (click here for the video).

iMac

Sorry for the delay in posting some of the recent events. Our iMac had to go to the doctors at the Apple store after suddenly dying last Tuesday morning. As our iMac holds all of our photos, we were a bit nervous about the whole situation. It turned out to be just a dead power supply and fixed for free by Apple. We are quite relieved and will be doing a much better job backing up the computer in the future. It was a good excuse to purchase the new operating system - Leopard, which has a new (and quite nifty) back-up software.

Updates from the Photograher

We received the full set of pictures from our Mini Session with the photographer. We're very happy with the pictures and now have the job of choosing a Christmas card photo.

If you'd like to see the pictures go to:

http://www.rpappuphotography.com/ and select high speed or dial-up
Click on [you] along the bottom of the webpage.
Enter the password mara

Help the Homeless Walk

We rose early on Saturday morning to head into DC for the Help the Homeless 5K Walk. It was a beautiful day, though a little chilly at 8am on the Mall, and a cause well worth losing a little sleep for.

Mazzucco's Visit

The Mazzucco clan (Dan, Betsy, Aidan, Wesley, and Benjamin along with Betsy's mom, Liz Braun) spent Thursday night with us on their way to Williamsburg for Lincoln Willis's wedding. It was probably the most full our house has been so far in both people and energy. Mia had a wonderful time playing with all of the boys and seemed fascinated with how much hair they all had. Ben seemed to really enjoy not being the smallest in the bunch!

Highchair

Mia typically sits in her bouncer while Mom and Dad eat dinner, but she has been fussy lately and seems to desire to be part of the action. Mom and Dad decided that it might be time for the highchair so she can feel more a part of dinner. She seems to be enjoying it so far.

Stuffed Animals

Mia was not very excited by stuffed animals until recently when she seem to decide that they're pretty soft and fun to hold (and gnaw on, too).

Photographs

Sunday, we had some family photographs taken. We hope to have a Christmas card out of these, so stay tuned. To get a preview, you can see two pictures posted to Rashmi Pappu's posting here and here.

Mia Has an Overnight Guest

This weekend, the Keatings came for a visit. You may remember Adleigh from Mia's trip to San Francisco. The Keatings have moved to back east and stayed with us while they looked for an new home. They were able to find a wonderful home in Bethesda and we are so excited to have them so much closer now.

Mia and Adleigh had fun playing together and are looking forward to many more play dates in the years to come.

Halloween

Mia went to daycare on Halloween with her black cat slippers on, courtesy of the Boyer cousins.

Then we went trick-or-treat watching in Old Town with Erica and Tyler. In case you remember Tyler from Mia's first visit with him, he has surpassed Mia in weight (16 lbs) and length (24 1/2"), despite being 2 months younger.

Happy 4 Months

Mia turned 4 months last Friday and had her check-up on Tuesday. She is now 12 pounds and 24 inches. Once again, she was a very brave baby during her shots and only cried a little. The doctor said she is a very happy and healthy little girl.

Halloween Party

Saturday, we held a Halloween party for our neighbors and friends. Mia was a little lamb. (Thank you Grandma for making the costume.)

Even some of the grown-ups dressed up. We were all impressed with the ketchup, mustard, and hot dog coordinated costumes.


In the excitement to get ready for the party, Mia failed to take her afternoon nap. She then proceeded to fall sound asleep on Mom's friend Jaime's lap just as the party started, costume and all.
At first, we tried to line up the babies on the couch for a picture. You can clearly see how that worked out.

So, we went down to the carpeted floor. We had kittens, a pumpkin, hot dog, lamb, cheerleader, ducks, lobster, monkey, Tigger, skeleton, frogs, and a fireman attend.
Mia is with Claire, the pumpkin, and Natalie, the hot dog.

Grammie's 90th Birthday

Saturday was Grammie's (Rob's paternal grandmother) 90th birthday. We celebrated with her and many friends in Trenton, NJ.

Meeting New Friends

On Friday, Mia got to meet her new friend Isaiah Halpern along with his parents, Jake and Tara.

Early Riser

Thursday, Mia decided that 5am was a fine time to be awake. After convincing her to stay in bed until 6, Mom finally got up and went for a walk with her. About half way through the walk, Mia decided it was a fine time to go back to sleep.

This is how she arrived home and slept until she had to get up to go to day care. (We did pull the hat off after the picture, but the entire walk was spent yanking the hat up off her face.)