Welcome to the world Andrew Nicholas

Congratulations to our wonderful friends and now proud parents Nick and Betsy!!

Andrew Nicholas

January 26, 2009 1:33pm

6 Pounds, 0 Ounces

20 Inches long

Baby Brother

Mia found out today that she's getting a little baby brother in June (or there about).

Hair Styles

Since Mia had the flu this week and Daddy has had to work a lot, Mia and Mommy have spent a lot of time together. Saturday, it was still too early in Mia's recovery to go anywhere so Mommy decided to see if Mia's hair would go up in pigtails. It did and seemed to stay in, until Mia found a moment when Mommy wasn't looking and pulled the rubber bands right out. Oh well, it was cute while it lasted.

18 Month Update

Mia had her 18 month well-baby visit today. Despite having the flu earlier this week and not eating for 4 days, she's a happy, healthy little girl who has clearly grown quite a bit.

The Stats
Height - 31 1/2 inches (up 1")
Weight - 21 lbs 6 oz (up 8 oz)
Head - 18 1/3 inches

Trip to the Zoo

During our vacation, we took a trip to the National Zoo with our friends Noah and Noah's mom Jennifer. The kids had a great time together, especially in the indoor exhibits.

Noah and Mia are watching the tortoises.

A close up for size comparison. These are huge animals.

Three pandas were outside eating, enjoying the sunny day.

Mia in her Christmas dress

Christmas Morning

A couple shots of Mia from this morning

Christmas Eve

Mia: "Please, please, please Daddy, can I have a present?"

[Later] Grandma: "OK, Let's lets Mia open one present tonight"

Mia: "Playing is serious business"

Mia: "Shhhh... Night, night - time to go to bed so Santa can come"

Mia's First Haircut

It was finally time. The hair in Mia's eyes was just driving everyone crazy and she pulled every type of hair contraption out.

Mia wasn't perfectly happy until she had to walk into the front door. Then the crying started. I have no idea why, but she apparently doesn't like the look of hair salons. After a reassuring hug to Bitty Baby (brought along for the needed emotional support), we sat in the chair together. Mia also got to hold onto a comb so she would have both hands occupied and far away from the scissors.
In no time at all, we could see Mia's eyes again and everything was evened up.

Don't worry, her curls are still there. Thanks for being so patient, Julie!
Funny enough, when it was time to go, Mia refused to leave. She laid down on the floor and I had to carry her out. Who knows what is going on in that girl's head...

"Meme" - The Tagging Blogger Game?

Yes, we have succumb to some sort of tag on the internet, courtesy of Sienna's mom, Mimi. Here's how it goes...

The Rules
-Link to the person who tagged you.
-Post the rules on your blog.
-Write 6 random things about yourself.
-Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
-Let each person know he/she has been tagged (or let them get tagged by reading your blog).
-Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

6 Random Things about Me

1. Like Mimi, I worked on interesting projects in school. I am a physicist and engineer by education (and yes, I know I don't practice either of those in my current line of work). In engineering school, I worked on a design for a quick release shot gun mount for police cars and a disability friendly speed hump. (Btw, a speed hump is different than a speed bump, if you didn't know.)

2. I will take a cheesecake over any other cake any day of the week, followed closely by carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. (Seeing a trend here?) At our wedding, we had a small traditional cake, but many single cheesecakes and carrot cakes. Sadly, by the time Rob and I made it to the desserts there was no more cheesecake left. I did at least get some carrot cake.

3. When I was in college, my dad was running a company that turned recycled paper into alternative products (think kitty litter, etc). On vacations, I would work in the warehouse and have driven a skid steer and used a welding torch. (Clearly, no gender bias issues in my family.)

4. In high school, I volunteered for the local opera company. My aunt worked there and in return for volunteering at various fundraisers, I got to attend the operas for free.

5. I'm a sucker for a good cop/murder mystery paperback. At this point, the only time I get to read is in airports and hotel rooms when I travel. Since my brain is typically dead during those times, they are also about all I can manage to intellectually process.

6. The most listened to items on my iPod are the "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" podcast and an assortment of audio books. Even though Mia is sleeping through the night at this point, my body still wakes up. So, I pop in the headphones and fall asleep to one of the books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series or Bill Bryson's assortment of books. I'm asleep in no time instead of laying awake in bed thinking about my long list of to do's.

OK, now that I've completely embarrassed myself to anyone who reads this blog, here are the people I'm tagging. (This is hard as Mimi took some of my best candidates so I am only putting up 5. Sorry guys.)

1. Susan (of Matt and Susan's Blog)
2. Kristen (of Santa Barbara Blabey's aka Cyanne's Blog)
3. Karen (of Introducing...Baby G aka Anna G's Blog)
4. Christine (of Kiera and Cody's Blog)
5. Laurel (of Adleigh's Blog)

Good luck Meme-ing!!

And the ornaments were hung on the tree with care...

Ok, it is supposed to be the stocking being hung by the chimney, but our stockings are hung on our railing as we don't have a mantle on the fireplace yet. Instead, we'll talk trees and ornaments.

The Christmas Tree finally went up this weekend. Mia was thrilled and found the tree fascinating.

She "helped" hang some ornaments, but we found her patience and willingness to stay away from the glass ornaments only lasted a few minutes. So, Mia got dinner and watched us hang ornaments from her high chair. This produced a much happier little girl and definitely more relaxed parents.
Happy Holidays!

Christmas Card 2008

We are a little slow getting our Christmas Card out this year so here is the sneak preview!!

Christmas Wish List

Mia is here, hard at work, figuring out what she is going to ask Santa for.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a bit chaotic this year as Rob's grandmother had some complications with her illness and family plans were changing every 1/2 hour or so. Mia did get a chance to spend some wonderful quality time with her cousins.

They had an amazing dance party (Bitty Baby included)


Mia and Raskal bonded some more.
And, Mia and Maddie had a great time making their own music. I believe there was even a building block parade where the two of them marched around the house clapping their blocks together.
Mom and Dad really enjoyed the cousin quality time, too. We had lovely adult conversations and didn't have to run around after Mia in the middle. (Thanks Maddie!!)

Baby Alan Photos

We finally have pictures of Baby Alan W G!

Alan with His Daddy

Alan with His Nina

Alan with his Taid

Alan and his mommy are finally home from the hospital and Nina has stayed in Spain for one more week to help Mom and Dad.

You can see more pictures of Baby Alan on Nina and Taid's Website

From "No Dog, No" to Where's Raskal?

While Rob's parents were in Spain, their dog, Raskal, came to stay with us. As frequent blog readers know, Mia has not been too keen on dogs (See this post from last February and this one from June). Though two weekends ago, she went from crying to tolerant of Grandma and Grandpa's dogs in South Carolina. And this weekend, Mia completely changed her attitude towards Raskal.

Before I picked Mia up from day care yesterday, I dropped Raskal back off at home because Taid was going to be home from Spain later that evening.

Last night, Mia got home from day care and started looking for Raskal. When I explained to her that Raskal was at home, at Nina and Taid's house, she said, "Go Nina." I explained that Nina was still in Spain taking care of Baby Alan. Then it was, "Go Taid." I explained that Taid wasn't home from the airport yet. Then, "Go Raskal. Outside." I explained that Raskal was waiting for Taid to get home because he missed Taid and wanted to see him tonight. She was a bit disappointed when we didn't get in the car.

This morning, she saw Raskal's tennis ball and started looking for the dog again to give him his ball. She kept pointing upstairs, as Raskal tends to like to sit at the top of the stairs. Rob explained that Raskal went home to be with Taid. She then told us that Taid should bring Raskal over.

We have hope that when we someday get a dog, Mia will still believe that we love her and it isn't a punishment.

Welcome to the World Alan W G

Mia has a new cousin!!

Uncle Allan and Tia Raquel now have a wonderful baby boy, Alan W G. At 5lbs 8 oz and 18 inches, he is a happy, healthy baby.

Nina and Taid head out to Spain on Friday to meet their new grandson. We hope to fly out in February to meet the newest family member.

Visiting the Fam

We had a wonderful long weekend in South Carolina visiting Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kate, Uncle Matt, Ellie, and even Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa.

After traveling and then a quiet Friday afternoon, we went to the local quilt show on Saturday to see Grandma's quilt.
The Aiken Historical Museum staff let us know that there was a carriage parade going on outside. We ran out and got a few pictures of the neat carriages, horses, and women's hats.

Ellie was quite a blast as you can see by how much fun she had wearing her pants on her head.

Mia adored her little cousin. All she wanted to do was talk to her and play with her. Ellie also loved her big cousin and gave many open-mouth kisses.

Party at Noah's

We spent Saturday night at Noah's house having dinner with Mia's crew (and their parents' too). The kids got the seats of honor and got to eat at the table, while the parents ate 2nd tier nearby.


Noah's mom baked some wonderful cupcakes (that were actually good for you)! All the kids loved them.
After dinner was more playing. Noah took all of his toys out of his big basket and thought it would be great to play in it.

Mia thought the idea was pretty cool. We're not sure how Noah felt about the company.
Rob was a big hit during story time.

A big thanks to Jennifer and Darren for a wonderful night!

The Morning After

Everyone knows Halloween can be a bit rough on a kid; the let down after all the excitement, no more parties, realizing you have to wait a whole year before you can go door-to-door again. This morning, Mia woke up and decided she had relive Halloween by putting on her costume again. It seemed to be best to slowly leave Halloween by reading the newspaper after eating breakfast.