Testing Out the Hiking Pack

In preparation for the warm weather to come, we bought a hiking back pack for Mia to ride in.  President's Day came with beautiful weather here; highs reached the 70s.  We decided to take the pack for a test run in our neighborhood.  It was great.  Mia loved the view and the pack was very comfortable for Mom.  We picked this pack because of the recommendations that it worked well for going between smaller and bigger people (aka Mom and Dad).  From the pictures below, you can see that Mia felt totally relaxed by the end of the walk.

Crawling Video Part 1

We've been a bit slow about posting the video because we wanted to do a comparison to show you how good she got in a very short period of time (basically Saturday to Monday), but we didn't get to doing the video on Monday so you'll have to just wait for the comparison video. Here's the Saturday video. (In case you missed it, we first saw her crawl the evening of Friday the 15th.)

We Have Crawling

It's official. Mia is crawling. We even have it on video, but it will be a little bit before we have time to post it.

Mia's Post-Swimming Hair-Do

We thought everyone would enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed Mia's hair-do this morning. (Click on the picture to have it blow up and see the true extent of Mia's mohawk.)

Happy Valentine's Day

In Celebration of Chinese New Year

In celebration of the Chinese New Year (yes, I know it was last week; I'm just a little slow), I thought I would provide you Mia's Chinese Zodiac. We'll see if it holds true...

Mia was born in the year of the Golden Pig. (Animal sign is the Pig and element sign is Fire.) According to Chinese Folklore, this is an event that occurs once in every 600 years and will ensure that a baby born on this year will experience a prosperous and wealthy life. Last year was a Fire Pig Year, which occurs once every 60 years. But because it's the 10th Fire Pig Year in a 600-year cycle, that makes it golden.

Pigs are very tolerant, kind and courteous with inner strength. They can be naive and too impulsive at times. "Its better to give than to receive" would probably be the Pig's motto. Pigs are more comfortable giving of their own time or attention than they are to ask others for it. They do not find asking for help an easy task and would rather carry the burden themselves. Pigs will do anything they can to maintain a sense of peace amongst family or friends. This can lead to a tendency to be taken advantage of, but Pigs basically forgive and forget everything. They are compassionate souls who simply want to keep the peace.

Sitting

In this video, you can watch Mia play with her stacking rings; she loves how they sound as they hit the floor. She easily goes from sitting to tummy and back to sitting. Crawling probably isn't too far off.

Mia Learns How to Cook

Mia helped prepare the Sausage and Chickpea Stew for the neighbor's Valentine's Day Potluck Party.

Growing Up

As seeing pictures of a friend's newborn baby reminded me, time is definitely flying and babies change so fast. Mia's quickly moving along in her ability to do and get what she wants.

She loves bath time. Her favorite activity is reading (or eating) her Dr Seuss bath book. We really have to wash her hair now, especially because of the amount of cereal that gets stuck in it; it is growing so fast (and is still very red).
She has finally figured out that she needs to hold onto something in order to stand. She's getting pretty good standing on her own.

Though sometimes she gets a little greedy and tries to stand without holding on.

But our biggest recent milestone is that Mia figured out how to sit up on her own today. She was playing on the floor, rolling around on her tummy. I turned around to check on her and she was sitting up trying to pull out a magazine from the bookshelf.

(Thank goodness we secured the bookshelf to the wall a few weeks ago!)

Superbowl Sunday

We spent the Superbowl at the Keating's house in Bethesda.  

Mia got to be "Grandma's Little Latke" when she borrowed Adleigh's highchair to eat dinner.

Then, it was off to the TV room for a little play time with Adleigh.  
Adleigh is 2 months older than Mia and has mastered crawling.  This meant she could go get the toys that got away and sometimes even bring one back to Mia to play with.

A Guest of a Different Sort

I thought about naming this blog, "When Nina and Taid are Away, the Doggie Comes to Play." Yet, Raskal seems to be uninterested in playing with Mia so the title didn't seem to fit.

Rob's parents are away at a conference for 5 days so their dog, Raskal, has come to stay with us. We've taken care of Raskal before, but this is the first time we've done it with Mia. Raskal and Mia have gotten to know each other during Mia's many visits to Nina and Taid's house, but they haven't become fast friends yet. Both are pretty unsure of the other.

For example, this morning, Mia got up a little before 7am. Mia and I fed the fish and I set Mia down to play, while I was intending to get the paper. Raskal shows up, somehow knowing my intentions, to do his doggly duties and be the one to bring the paper in. (I think he can't stand the thought of missing a treat opportunity.) Immediately upon receiving his treat, he heads back upstairs to his bed on the floor of our bedroom and joins Rob in sleeping. He doesn't seem to care at all that I've already put his breakfast out on the floor.


We have to commend Raskal on how well behaved he is. Mia's toys are easily accessible and he is very good about only playing with his toys. He can easily jump our fence, but seems to be restraining himself very well. We have warned our neighbors in case he slips out.

We'll see how the week plays out. I think the warmer weather (highs in the 50's) will help to ensure he gets all of his walks in and remains a happy puppy. Wish us luck!

Welcome to the World, Sophia Claire

Our friends, Ryan and Melissa, welcomed their new little baby girl into the world this week.

Sophia Claire was born January 30th and weighed in at 9 lbs 2 oz.

Mia is looking forward to playing with Sophia at the River this summer.

Life is Good

...when you're surrounded by your favorite toys.

Happy 7 Months, Mia!!

Mia is a solid sitter, scoots around on her tummy or rolls around and around to play with her toys, and easily rocks on her hands and knees. She's also made one or two "formal crawls" with forward motion. Since Mia's getting very good at going where she wants to, we've started putting up some gates at the stairs so we won't be caught off guard by more mobility than we thought she was capable of.

Mia also started swim class today. She had a great time playing in the pool, singing songs, and watching the other kids.

Lounging With My Girls

Mia spent Wednesday night hanging out with her girlfriends. The series of pictures below really show each of the girls' personalities.





Emma has a great smile on all the time. Anna loves to explore (especially others' heads). Mia, typically happy to flash a smile, will be very serious and stick her hands in her mouth just because you have a camera out. Any guesses on where her stubborn nature came from?

Mia Has Babies!!!

Baby fish that is! After laying dormant 3 1/2 years, the fish tank is back in action. We're doing a live bearing tank, which means we only have fish that birth live babies or that won't hurt any of the babies born in the tank. At the moment, we have Swordtails, Platys, and Guppies. Since the tank has only been up and running about 2 weeks now, we had a pleasant surprise this morning when we saw some baby fish hanging out in the rocks and grass.

Mia is very excited about having new pets and especially that she is no longer the youngest in the house.



Look about 3/4 of the way down and right in the middle of the picture below. See the orange dot on a green rock between two red rocks? That is a baby fish. We're not sure what kind yet, but probably a platy.

Sorry about the blurriness of the picture, but these guys are hard to catch on camera. We've seen at least 3 different babies, but there are probably more that are less adventurous and hang out only in the grass.

When Mommy's Away, Daddy Will Play

Mommy had to go back to California Thursday night, arriving home very late Friday night. Mia and Daddy had a great time together and even got a mini photo session in Friday night.

Mia goes to SF

Mia took her second cross-country trip to San Francisco. This time, she was escorted by her grandmother who came along to take care of her while Mommy worked. We got to see Susan and Matt on Tuesday night and Alex, Erin, BB, and James on Wednesday night.

January 2 recovery...

New Year's 2008

Mia trekked up to the Sheldon Farm in the mountains north of Scranton, PA.  We got about 6 inches of snow both nights that we were there, so the scenery was great and Mia was able to have some real fun in the snow.  We tromped through the woods, did some sledding and sat in the snow.

Christmas Day

Mia enjoyed lots of quality time with Uncle Allan and Tia Raquel.  This trip was their first time meeting Mia as she was born 3 days after they were married in Zamora, Spain.

Mia exchanged funny faces with Cousin Gregory.

Practiced her spanish with Raquel's sister Paloma.

Enjoyed seeing Aunt Mary Beth

And even helped Grammie open some of her gifts.

She particularly enjoyed drinking water from glasses, pictured here with Grandpa and Grandma.