Practicing Self Feeding

We thought you might enjoy seeing how Mia is learning to feed herself. In this meal, she had a diced nectarine and some oatmeal.

"I like feeding myself. This spoon is great."

"Look at how I can smear fruit and oatmeal everywhere. Sometimes it even gets in my mouth."

"Hmm, maybe it is time for some more food."

"Ok, there is the bowl. I have the spoon."

"Now I've got the bowl, but the spoon fell."

"Maybe it is easier to just try to lick the oatmeal out of the bowl. The spoon isn't really necessary."

Visiting the Monuments

Aunt Eileen, Uncle Win, Cousin Gaelyn, and Gaelyn's friend Eva, an exchange student from France, came to DC to spend Easter weekend. They arrived Friday afternoon and took Mia on a walking tour of the Mall so Mommy could get some work done. (No daycare on Good Friday.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

California Trip

March 8th, we took off for our first plane trip as a family. Mia had already been to California twice before, but this time Daddy was joining us!

Instead of the traditional stroller in the airport, we went for the hiking backpack. Mia loved it as you can see below hanging out with our luggage. We stayed with Alex and Erin, who have put us up several times in the past year. It is so much nicer to stay with friends than at a hotel.

Sunday was a beautiful day on Potrero Hill in San Francisco. After brunch, we took a walk to the top of the hill.


Mia had fun playing with all of Mom and Dad's friends. She even tried on James's motorcycle helmet. Safety First!

Dad stayed with Mia during the week while Mom went to work. They had a great time playing including peek-a-boo around the corners of the living room.


Then, we headed down to Santa Barbara to meet Cyanne Blabey (and see her parents, Tom and Kristen). Mia thought Cyanne was pretty cool. Despite her being 3 months younger than Mia, they were about the same size.

Mia showed Cyanne all her cool toys and how to play with them once she can sit up on her own.


Mia also got to see the Blabey's wonderful fruit trees. Dad introduced her to citrus fruit and avocados (one of Mia's favorites).



Saturday the 15th, we went for a lovely hike along the bluffs.


Thank you to the Blabey's for a wonderful (and always too short) visit.

Mia is Online!

Happy Heiny's chose two of Mia's pictures from last Saturday for their website.

On the home page:
Mia is the bottom baby picture. Mia's friend Sienna is the second from the top.

Mia is also on the Care and Sizing Guide page. Sienna is also on the Baby of the Month Contest Entry page.

Mia is actually not the first in the family to be photographed for her red hair. This was also the case for Mia's great grandmother Mary (Gilmore) Wilson, who was one of Kodak's first color photography models. She worked at Kodak as a secretary when they were first developing color photography and was asked to model because her red hair showed up so well on the color film.

Sneak Peak of Photo Shoot

Mia was photographed with her friend Sienna on Saturday for a possible ad for a cloth diaper company Happy Heiny's. Stephanie Zbiden the photographer, was wonderful even when Mia kept crawling off towards the toys instead of sitting for the pictures. Stephanie's blog has an initial picture from the session and will probably have more in the future.

The 100th Post

Rob took this picture Saturday morning after swim class. It is one of our favorites to date. I thought it was perfect to commemorate our 100th blog post.


(Just in case you were wondering, I didn't count. Blogger tells me how many posts we've done when I log in.)

Happy 8 Months, Mia!

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day

Thursday and then again Friday ended up being, "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day."  Wednesday afternoon and evening, Mia's tummy wasn't feeling so well so she stayed home from day care to hang out with Mommy.  Then Friday, we had an ice storm so all the area schools were closed along with our day care. 

With the progression to crawling and the lack of baby-proofing in the office, we discovered very quickly that Mia could not be left to play on the floor.  (Those power strips are just too enticing.)  This led to the Pack n' Play being brought out.  Mia was very good about playing in the pack n' play, given that she wasn't in there too long.  She was also very good about taking her naps at very convenient times so Mommy could actually attend her conference calls as scheduled.  Mia especially liked the feeling and noises one could make with the mesh on the side of the play yard.  The airplane she is playing with is a lot of fun to run up and down the sides.

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!