We have B's!!

Mia started babbling in earnest this morning. :o) I heard her saying "buh-buh-buh" over and over for the first time this morning. So cool!

Sitting up on her own!

Today was another big milestone for Mia: she was able to sit up on her own! Twice!! :o) She's been working on this really funny side sit for the last week or so, and she finally figured out how to push all the way up today. I think she's pretty bored w/ being immobile these days, especially since she's really discovered the cats. She laughs whenever she sees Friday walk past her and tries to reach for him. She's started a bit of an army crawl, so I don't think the real thing will be too far behind.

Play date

Mia and I spent our morning at the park and a local coffee shop. Mia really likes (eating) the swing and rolling around on the floor at the coffee shop. They have a kid-friendly corner full of toys and a large carpet to play on, which means we moms actually got a chance to talk! :o)

Playing before nap time

I shot this today just before Mia went down for a nap. I caught one good smile and her most recent trick: she likes to try balancing on her side instead of rolling all the way to her tummy or back. :o)

Menu so far

We've been adding new foods to Mia's menu every few days, and so far she's not really excited about eating in general, but this is what we've covered so far:

• rice cereal - Mia reacted like we fed her something labeled "food". Then I tasted it & agreed w/ her. Pretty boring stuff.
• oatmeal - Better, but still not exciting. It seems to be growing on her though.
• mashed banana - These are going pretty well.
• pureed yams - Started off well, but she got bored of them pretty quickly.
• mashed avocado - She ate 'em, but I think she was mostly puzzled.
• pureed zucchini - Seemed to like them pretty well.
• pureed butternut squash - Couldn't care less about these, though I though they turned out really well. :o)

For breakfast most days, we now do mashed banana in oatmeal, which was her first combo food & she eats it down pretty fast. Next on the list is stewed pears. Yummy! :o)

Another day at the races?

We went to the race track for the second week in a row! You'd think we had a habit or something, eh? This time we were invited by a couple of friends from church to join them at the Turf Club, and we had a great time. :o)

Last week, we were all dressed in running garb and covered in salt from the race...but the Turf Club required a slightly different dress code. Hehehe. So the nice thing is that we got to use Mia's Easter dress again! She was a hit and seemed to have a really good day. The picture is of her catching some ZZZs in Daddy's arms. So cute!!

Rub-a-dub-dub

 

Here's a quick one of Mia and her rubby ducky. :o)

End of the swaddle

Last update for today. ;o) This is a picture I took of Mia the other day doing something totally new: sleeping w/o a swaddle. Many of you have seen Jeff or me swaddle her up and it's been like an off switch. I'd read that most babies who like to be swaddled give it up around 3-4 months and that some occasionally hang out w/ the swaddle until about 6-7 months. Mia was definitely in the latter camp. The problem is that she still likes being swaddled, but at just over 18lbs it's no easy task to keep her in one. And whenever she broke free, she flipped over to her hands and knees and cried like the world was ending. So Jeff and I decided that we probably just needed to move on. So on Sunday night after our long drive home from Easter dinner, she was already sleepy so we just put her down in the crib and prepared to endure the crying. And then...nothing. She just went to sleep. And then she did it again for all of her naps yesterday and at bedtime last night. So...seems Mia was ready to move on before her parents were, eh? ;o) I'm just glad that she can sleep more easily now!

Plastic bibs are the way to go...

Here is a picture from lunch today of Mia in her new frog bib. It's made out of soft plastic & has a little pocket to catch spills so they don't end up in her lap (and from there to her hands/hair/me/etc....).

Mia's first Easter!

We celebrated Mia's first Easter over the weekend, and there are several new pictures up in her photo album. She was a little ham all day in her dress. We attended an Easter breakfast at church before the service, and Mia kept herself entertained w/ a spoon while I managed to eat. I missed most of the service itself hanging out w/ Mia who was upset b/c she'd missed her mid-morning nap... But we got hang out w/ a couple of other moms who were doing the same thing. (Yet another one of these secret mom worlds I've discovered!)

After church we drove out to my mom's place for Easter dinner w/ the whole family. (Check out how much Mia how grown since we took a similar photo at Thanksgiving!!) In the picture here are (from left to rightish): Pam & Chuck, Melissa, my mom, Justin & Heather, Pat, Jeff, Mia, me, and my grandma.

A Day at the Races

Today we took Mia out to the Santa Anita Race Track for the Santa Anita Derby and 5k. Heather, Jeff, and I ran the 5k race, which ran through the beautiful LA County Arboretum and then finished around the race track at Santa Anita. After the 5k, we met up w/ Melissa, my mom, and my grandma and explored the infield before heading to the stands to watch the first six horse races. The highlight of the day for me was that we held the program open in front of Mia, and when we asked her to pick the Derby winner, she pointed to a horse named Tiago (a long-shot at 20-1 odds) and he won in an upset. Unfortunately, her parents didn't put any money on her horse...