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| post-popsicle |
This is the blog entitled, "chiquita bambina," is it not?? So, why keep you waiting on facts about the darling little Mia any longer?
In about 3 days, Mia will officially be 17 months. Like a broken record, it is hard to believe we are almost parents of a child halfway between 1 and 2 years old. It feels like since she's turned one, the months
fly.
And her mental development has really shot through the roof too. I'm not bragging, just statin'. For a while, Mia's vocabulary was pretty much limited to a variation of one word: dada. Dada meant daddy, mommy, dog, random inanimate objects, etc, based on the tone and the circumstances. If you asked Mia to say "mama," or "mommy," she'd look straight at me, and without fail say, "Dada." Thanks a lot, Mia, thanks a lot. I carried you for 9 months, birthed you, had acute pain in my lower back from bouncing you to sleep for several months, and I don't even get my own name?? But that has all now been remedied. And I'm really not bitter. Promise. (Girl loves her daddy, what can I say??)
Words Mia can say:
- Daddy
- Mama
- Dog (dah!)
- Cat (dat)
- Car
- Bird
- Bye
- Hi (that's another favorite, probably #1 or #2)
- Bible
- Bathtime (said in a singsong fashion)
- Ball
- Papa (for Papa Jack)
- Nana
- Bug
- Shoe (shees)
- Sock
- Outside (side? side?)
- What?
And she signs "milk," "more," "all done," "down," "please," "thank you," "eat," and "drink."
That's just about 25 words! There are probably other words she can say that I'm forgetting, or words she regularly says that we still cannot understand, but it's getting pretty exciting to hear her actually repeat words we say, even if barely intelligible.
The last ones on the spoken word list are the most recent. All of these things relate to what she likes to do or what she sees regularly. She loves to go outside and will find our shoes and try to put them on our feet for us; quite an obvious cue, huh? She sees animals and usually calls them dogs first until we can differentiate. "No Mia, that's a cougar." "Close, but that's actually a very rare species of buffalo." We're still working on those words.
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| Mia waving to "the cougar" |
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| playing with the trains at Barnes & Noble |
She's been walking like a champ ever since our South Carolina trip, and loves to take daily strolls around the block. This has been good for all of us, as it's giving us a chance to get to know our neighbors better, plus a little Vitamin D never hurt anybody, and hopefully it will develop into a healthy routine as she grows.
She cut a huge molar within the last week or so. We'd been suspecting teething pain for a while, and just this past week, I noticed a bulging tooth had made its way through, so that means Mia has 9 teeth total.
Her hair is getting longer and more curly, especially when it's humid, and she's thinned out from her pre-walking days. She's gradually, albeit slowly, getting taller, but I can't tell if she's remarkably bigger. Sometimes it feels like she is, but it could just be that her clothes are shrinking too!
Mia will sometimes hold hands with you, but it's usually an attempt to get your attention so that she can walk in a certain direction. It's pretty cute.
She sleeps about 10-11 hrs at night, and will go anywhere from 1.5-3 hrs for a nap in the afternoon. We officially cut out the morning nap in mid-June. It was a bit of a transition for both of us, but we made it through and are in a happy zone now!
Mia can eat a variety of things, depending on what we have available. We've recently learned she loves to dip her food in things like condiments, so if she is served veggies with a dipping sauce, she will suck the sauce off the veggie and continuing dipping for more. It's cute, funny and super messy.
Case in point:
ranch dressing w/ carrots on side Plz on Twitpic
She can drink out of a cup, a sippy cup, a cup with a straw, and most obviously, a bottle. Due to some malfunctioning sippy cups, most of the time Mia drinks from a bottle (and would prefer to), but I think with some careful rearranging of her drinking products, she could segue into sippy cups or cups with straws gradually (hopefully before age 2).
Mia likes being around other people and doing her own thing, but she still has a sense of stranger anxiety and will be tentative and timid if in an entirely new situation, staying close to mommy! Most of the time though, when she feels comfortable, she is very outwardly friendly and says "Hi!" to everyone, with a royal wave. Try to hold her though and you'll get thrown!
We're pretty much amazed by Mia on a weekly, if not daily basis. Milestones I just could never imagine us reaching we achieve. It's not that I didn't have hope or faith, it's just hard sometimes to imagine your child doing something they've never done before. She's very much an observer though, and will see you do something once and then try to do it herself. Little eyes!!
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| so serious (photo credit: LPK) |
