sneak peak

Just a sneak peak from our 2009 family Christmas card...



Look at the chub on those arms!!

fiddlin' around

I'm in the midst of several projects...
gift shopping
gift wrapping
online gift browsing
cleaning
laundry
...

In general, just getting ready for the holidays. Today we were in the midst of major laundry folding, and Mia just really wanted to be a part of it. So, Greg plopped her in the laundry basket and she completely distracted herself by pulling things out of the baskets underneath the coffee table and ripping apart an old catalog (good thing I didn't want that anymore). I guess it's like what they say: the best things in life are free (or come in the form of junk mail).


And earlier this week, Greg set Mia down on the bed while getting ready and gave her the contents of his pockets...seems like Mia's already learned a thing or two about which items to grab first...iPhone, credit card...check! Smart girl!

Roly Poly

So, I read somewhere on the internet -- what a great source of accurate information, by the way ;) -- that when babies start rolling around all over their cribs and up on their hands and knees, it means they might be ready for crawling. If that's the case, then I'd expect some crawling action from Mia any day now.

She about scared the willies out of me the other night when she awoke around, who knows, 3 or 4 am?, and I went into her room and she was propped up by her arms just looking (and crying) at me. I'm not used to be eyed like that when I enter her room; it used to just be a squirmy crying baby laying in her crib.

In fact, she just woke up from a nap (a bit early, I might add!!) and is just playing quietly in her room, and I can see on her video monitor some backwards scooting action. What's funny is that if she can't get to where she wants to go, she just rolls back and forth, from tummy to back and vice versa, until she gets to whatever corner of the crib she feels like hanging in for a bit.

Good news in this arena...I have discovered that she will not necessarily scream bloody murder if she just so happens to roll onto her stomach. She has done that occasionally over the last couple of weeks and she might whine a bit but she seems to find a way to go back to sleep *most of the time*. We are still working on regulating sleep patterns, but I'm finding that teething, these amazing developmental milestones, sickness, and traveling are throwing off our games a little bit.

Every now and then I think, whatever, I'll just get over it (the whole sleep deprivation thing), but then one day I'll have a very angry moment where I'm really cranky and sleepy...and somehow, we just keep moving along. It never seems to last that long anymore.

Well, she threw a blanket on her face and hasn't figured out how to get it off herself apparently, so to the rescue I go.

*Sigh* My time is not my own anymore... :-S

Getting used to a new way of life

Since having Mia, my perspective on day to day things has had to change, adapt and evolve quite a bit.

Now that I stay home, I find the littlest things enjoyable, such as:

• walking outside to check the mail


• loading the dishwasher (especially when there's been a backup and all the dishes clouding the sink and countertop are spatially arranged in the dishwasher -- I guess you could say in some small way it exercises the tetris sector of my brain...didn't you know we all have one of those? Trust me, I was a psych major)


• making coffee, sitting down, and then enjoying that cup of coffee


• writing about 4,892 blogs in my head, when about .07% of those are actually published

There are certainly more little things I find enjoyable, but usually, and as illustrated right now, my mind is all over the place and it's hard to collect it all neatly in one place!


---------------------------------
In other news, we traveled for Thanksgiving up to Greg's parents' in north Nashville. I was a bit nervous about traveling to begin with, because we were to drive up the day before Thanksgiving, leaving early afternoon. It's normally a 10-12hr drive, kid or no kid, and the last time we drove up in July, it took so much longer! However, even though Mia woke up with a fever that day and some nasal congestion, she was a great traveler and we probably only stopped 3 times, making it in 11 hrs! Being upright in her carseat helped her nose to drain, and the fever broke over night. We found out Thursday that the fever was probably teething-related, as her first little bottom center tooth cut! What a girl.
Unfortunately, now we're all at some stage of sickness. Mia is still sick, with a croupy sort of cough and still some congestion. Greg already had the sore throat/congestion earlier this week, and guess what lucky person woke up with a sore throat today? Yes, moi. I thought since I hadn't gotten sick this past week I was in the clear. Guess not.

Well, I have a raspy baby rolling around on the floor crying for my attention ("Stop blogging mommy!") so...must get going.
PS: The picture of Greg & Mia is from the Grand Ol' Opry, which we attended Friday night!

6 month pictures

We just managed to get Mia's 6 month pictures done before she turns 7 months in 3 days!
Our friend Kara Cain took them this past Friday at Lettuce Lake Park. She did a great job capturing the many faces of Mia.

Take a look...

Mia's First Halloween

Mia had an enjoyable, albeit, warm Halloween this year. She helped us set up the candy, and went after some of my favorites (Skittles)!




And as for her costume...
After deliberating over several options for Mia's first Halloween costume, we finally found the perfect one: a little lamb costume (and for only $5.87 - deal)!




All in all, it was a fun, easy-going Halloween. Probably the easiest we'll ever have!

Pumpkin Patch

We took a family trip to the local pumpkin patch (aka a tent full of pumpkins) to pick out Mia's first pumpkin. Here are some pictures from the outing...

Independence

No, this is not a post about me and independence. Or about the 4th of July which was oh so many moons ago.

This independence is about the joy Mia is experiencing from getting stronger, bigger and more interested and alert in her surroundings. I can't remember now just why Mia was shirtless, but obviously she had just been changed out of some clothes and was playing around in her Bumbo seat and looking *purty* cute while doing it.

For your viewing pleasure :


Just needs a cup of coffee and she'll look a bit more natural


A close-up for her modeling headshots


"I'm the [queen] of the world!"

A slow down...

Mia is inching closer and closer to 6 months. Being the broken record that I feel/fear I am becoming, I am still in awe at how quickly we've gotten to this point. Just yesterday I took all Mia's 6-9 month clothes off their hangers in the closet, removed the tags, and washed them all. I started washing her clothes in 3 month increments, and even before she was born I wouldn't wash anything bigger than 3 months. It'll be nice to rotate in some new clothes now, but for whatever reason I have a hard time grasping we're already to the stage of these "bigger" clothes, and that we already need to retire some clothes I thought she'd be in forever. Aren't babies supposed to be small? Someone please explain this "growing up" phenomenon to me!


My mom, Mia's "Mommo," was in town for a few days last week, while Papa Jack was across the pond doing some work. She and Mia got in a lot of quality time, letting Greg & I get out and enjoying doing a few things sans child.



One of those things was traveling about an hour and a half northward to Ocala where I watched Greg drum with Colt Clark's band for a homecoming pep rally at Colt's former high school. They had an hour long gig and did really well! It's not too often Greg gets to jam out on the drums. They sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Other than that, things around here are pretty calm. We seem to have our fair share of busy weekends and slow weeks, and vice versa!

Sleep, Precious Sleep

There are certain things you take for granted when babies are newborns, or at least, in my limited experience, from when Mia was a newborn.

For instance, while newborns may wake up frequently to eat, they go back to sleep almost instantly and with little provocation from their parents.
The trade-off seems to be that as they age, they can sleep for longer stretches without needing to eat, but falling back to sleep in the middle of the night upon feeding can sometimes be a very challenging task.
Like this week, if you will.

The last few nights, we've spent more time in the wee hours of 4-6am with Mia than we have in months, literally. I'm not sure who is really getting more sleep these days, if it be us or Mia. I think we're all a bit sleep-deprived. And slowly losing our minds.

The joy of parenthood is not lost on us, but we're a bit more weary and not, what I like to call, on our "A-Game." Hopefully better nights are ahead of us.
Like my high school senior t-shirt wisely quoted from the band Semisonic:

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Good night, for now...

Wasn't I just saying...?

Yeah, Mia is already 5 months.

I know some babies that were born after her are already bigger than her, but I pick her up now and look at her and think, this baby is HUGE!

What can she do now?
-Roll over, bof ways
-Sleep through the night (well, on occasion, but there was a great string of 6 nights in a row)
-Work math problems using the quadratic equation
-Take random midday 3 hr naps
-Make sounds that sound like "hey" or "hi" or "okay"
-Style her own hair

We've always said she is very advanced.
You decide which of those above are true.

Minnesota Love

We made it back from our trek up to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. In short, the trip went really well. It was less a "vacation" and more a "journey" into what it's like to travel as a family of 3 and not a couple of 2 (semi-redundant).

Mia handled the flights really well. Thankfully NWA/Delta still offers a nonstop between TPA & MSP so in only 3 hrs we were at our destination. She did manage to poo her pants during the final descent into Tampa on our return flight (you know - the time when you are sequestered to your seat with the seatbelt light on and cannot move?) so we had to wait until we deboarded the plane to change her diaper AND her outfit.

Being back in MN was surreal. This was the second time I've visited since my parents moved in Dec '07. Despite what many may think, it's not automatically cold in MN this time of year, in fact, it was considered "hot" even in my book on a couple of occasions. However, the two nights we stayed at a friend's house, we slept without the AC on and even got chilly in the middle of the night. I forgot that was possible.

As for Mia in Minnesota...we were so busy even though we got up there a few days early that getting a regular dosage of naps was seemingly impossible. I underestimated the effect of this but soon realized she was looking for sleep, which is sometimes hard to get in an unfamiliar place. She seems right back to normal though now that we are home.

And as for the wedding, it went very smoothly. Both the bride and groom (my brother) were very calm and at peace the day of. It was a really special event for the whole family and I'm glad we all got to participate. Greg handled Mia all day Friday almost entirely by himself and did a bang-up job. He showed up for family pictures early with Mia who was dressed and even had the bow I laid out for her in her hair. Of course, family pictures got moved back until after the ceremony but what can you do.
I managed to be the whitest girl in the ceremony. I dyed my hair a bit darker the week before we left and was hoping I'd get some color on my skin beforehand, either via a spray tan (gasp!), some actual sun, or e'en self-tanner, which I hadn't fiddled with in years. None of those things happened. So, I worked the goth/Anne Hathaway/white porcelain look. Just call me a poster child for the Victorian years. Of course I remind myself, no one really cares what the bridesmaids look like, it's the bride for whom we're all the rage. And she looked smashingly beautiful.

And, always one to please, here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment:


Sleeping on a jetplane




Rehearsal Dinner







Prepping in full effect







The Ceremony






Harley Get-Away

I somehow did not manage to actually get a picture of Nate & Jenna together on their wedding day, and the only other picture I have of them from this trip has some serious red-eye (and is totally candid) so...we must all wait until their real wedding pictures arrive for you to see what they really looked like!

septiembre

Is it September already? I think the month of August flashed by in an instant. It was just weeks ago (right?) that I was thinking, "September won't be for a while. I have time to prepare for this."
Which reminds me - I totally forgot to pick up my bridesmaid dress from the alteration shop this week! Let's hope they're open on Saturdays or that I can quickly run and grab it Monday morning. OOPS. Slight oversight. My mind's not as brilliant as it once was...thanks to motherhood. :-D

So yes, a bridesmaid dress. I'm in my eldest brother's wedding next week, indeed, a week from tonight, as a bridesmaid. I was so honored to be asked, and really quite surprised. He is marrying a very sweet soul, who is also a labor & delivery nurse. She works at the very hospital where I was born years ago. As a family, we're braving the airports and planes and flying up to Minnesota early next week and will be in my beloved Twin Cities for about 6 days. I'm excited yet nervous about flying with a 4 month old. Everyone says it'll be fine and babies this age are pretty easy to travel with. I think it's more all the junk we'll be hauling with us that I'm worried about. Will we pack the right things? Pack too much? Not enough? Forget something majorly important? All these things...
I guess that's what Super Target is for, and since we're going to Minneapolis where Target's headquarters are, we'll be in a safe distance of several Targets once we hit our destination. Can we say *sigh of relief*.

Well, enough of me. I'm aware enough to know that most visit this blog for pictures of Mia and I do not want to disappoint.
Here's a few word updates though:
-She rolled over, tummy to back, 2x on Monday. Good girl!
-She slept through the night (which I personally consider to be past 6am) 3x this week. Thank you!
-And she found her hands/fingers a few weeks ago, where she'll sit and stare at them like they're super cool.

She's pretty amazing, that Mia.

With the glasses, she's posing as Joe Madden, the Rays baseball coach.
The other picture is Mia modeling her 2 piece Calvin Klein ensemble. I wasn't sure about this outfit when I saw it on the hanger, but when I put it on Mia it fit her like a glove (well, a little long in the legs, but longer pants > high waters, yes?)

And I'm sure I'll have more pictures after next week!

4 months already? What?? [Pictures!]

As incredible as it may seem, Mia is already 4 months old. I've stopped counting how many weeks she is...after a while doesn't that just get confusing?! But yesterday was the 26th and so she is thus, a 4 month old baby.

Let's do a little photo re-cap with some commentary, shall we?


This was just a few hours after birth. We had no idea she'd be so tiny (barely a 4 and 1/2 lb'er!)...she didn't really fit into this 0-3month onesie that my BF from work got her. About 5 hrs after she was born we had to take her to the hospital. We thought, hmm, maybe this will be just a check-in and check-out. Or perhaps just an overnight stay.



Us at the hospital the day after she was born. Looking at this picture brings back lots of memories...how small our room was (and that bed!) and how 'swollen' I still was after delivery. At that point I wasn't sure how long we'd need to stay there, I thought, maybe just another day? That turned into 6.



She was so tiny...being swaddled with 2 blankets, wearing a little cap from the birth center (that we unfortunately lost!) that we couldn't put all over her head because of an IV. She put up with a lot during that first week and did amazingly well. Greg and I thought she was the strongest one in our family at that point. I think we shed more tears than she did with all the pricks and prods!



This was Mia at 1 month and obviously at home and happy to be there! (Too bad I already lost that bow -- where did it escape to?!) She had already grown quite a bit...I think she was closer to 7lbs by this point. That first month was very tough, for obvious reasons. I tend to be a pretty optimistic person, and so even when people told me, "The first 6 weeks are really rough, then it gets better," I thought, "Maybe it won't be that way for us, maybe it'll be 'easy'." Well, I'm going to be honest with you...it was very difficult. I was blessed with a healthy pregnancy and a great delivery, but the postpartum period kind of hit me like a mac truck. With 2 hospitalizations and such, it was really hard for me to focus on recovery and just getting into the newborn groove. But as a family we learned A LOT and Greg & I grew SO much closer as a team. I've been very very thankful for him and for my kind family and friends.



2 months. We were out at Panchero's having lunch after church. This is when we started to get more 'adventurous' in our outings, which was really fun. The 2nd and 3rd months didn't seem nearly quite as difficult and I have to say I was starting to enjoy myself? That was nice. She was plumping out too! Check out them thighs.



3 months. You know - hang time with Daddy. Wear the same kinds of clothes and such. She had already found her voice and I'm pretty sure was voicing her opinion in this picture. I'll show her this picture later and ask her if she remembers what she was saying.



Close to 3.5 months...taken at Amy's wedding, courtesy of our favorite family friend photographer Laura (why did you move?!! :P) She's kind of gotten over the ridiculousness of all of us and going along with the flow, although she was not the happiest of babies during the ceremony. I heard that it was nice, and that I was featured in the post-ceremony slideshow a few times. I'll have to ask Amy to show it to me at some point!



Just this morning, at 4 months and 1 day old. Her official 4 month check-up is tomorrow and I'm sure she'll be somewhere around 13lbs. She was close to 13lbs when I unofficially weighed her about 2 weeks ago, so I'll be interested to see what it is "officially". I'm proud of the weight gain! The goal for healthy, full-term babies is for them to nearly triple their weight by the time they turn 1, or double it by 6 months. Since Mia was "small for gestational age" (SGA)/low-birth weight, she's already done that!! In my opinion, she pretty much looks "normal" now and is actually on the growth charts, if you're into that sort of thing.

There are still no real answers on why she was SGA or why I had a blood clot, other than that postpartum women are at very high risk for them and I guess I fell into that category. We've done several different tests now - Mia & Greg & I - to see if we had any disorders and everything came back "normal," which is a great thing, but doesn't answer our questions. So, perhaps some of it was just a fluke.

We're very thankful that things have gone so much better after those first few weeks and that our health is on the up and up. During those first few weeks, I would wonder, "Why do people have babies? This is so hard." Yet, it was only a few weeks later that I was thinking, "I could do this again...and I might want to." [Disclaimer: That was just an honest thought, not an announcement!] Babies are slightly addicting and Mia is no exception. My camera already knows to hone in on her if she's in the frame.

So to Mia, thank you for napping long enough for me to blog this. I really appreciate when you sleep. And please, keep staying sweet.

That's all.

Retro Mia

Mia is modeling vintage baby clothing circa 1983.