It's been a week!

It's been a whole week and Mia is *officially* off the bottle!  We are amazed and so happy!  It's been nice not to have fight over bottles anymore, have some more space in our cabinets, and feel like Mia is making one more step in her growth to maturity. Not that we want her to grow up too fast, but, the bottle thing had just been a struggle we weren't sure would go away anytime soon.
I've noticed she drinks about half as much milk these days without the bottle--both good & bad.  Her appetite has increased, which means I have to find more to feed this hungry growing girl.  The bad is that the coconut milk I make for her is extremely nourishing--so while I am enjoying not having to make it ALL the time, it was just one more good thing I knew I was doing for her body that she's now not getting as much of.  So even though it's hard with a two year old who is often tempted by the same things adults are tempted by, I need to make her calories count with good food!

We are getting ready to depart quite soon for a trip to the great North.  Well, not sure if Indiana qualifies as the great north, but now that I live in FL, and it touches Michigan, which touches Canada (somehow, right??), Indiana seems very northerly.  When I lived in MN I used to think Indiana was in the South.  Funny how perspective changes based on where you are.  Inspired thoughts, I tell ye.

Anyway, we will be celebrating Jackson's graduation from the great university of Purdue (that is, if he found enough tix for our whole fam!) and hanging at Fort Wiley before jaunting back down to Tennessee to visit with more family & friends, Ciampa style.
Mia has done pretty well with long road trips in the past, but lots has changed in the last year or so since we've traveled extensively on the road, so here's hoping a flipped carseat (finally facing forward, perhaps?), some good snacks, books, and maybe a video or two (no Spongebob, don't worry) will get us through, and that she'll take good naps!  Send out a prayer for all 3 of us.  We shall need it!