Oh Christmas Tree

This whole month has been filled with lots of Christmas fun. Mia has been enjoying her first Christmas tree. Surprisingly, she doesn't seem to have too much interest in it but loves the ornaments when you bring her close up to the tree. We are well aware that we have gotten a break this year and next year she will be much more interested.

Mia received an early Christmas present from Auntie Erin...a pink tutu. Although it was an 18 month tutu, mommy couldn't resist and pinned the tutu to fit so we could play in it now. As you can see, she is practicing for her upcoming lessons... :-)

One of Mia's favorite things in this world is her daddy. She just loves her daddy. We went into uptown to have lunch with daddy and to see the Bearnstein bear orchestra play Christmas music. Whenever Mia sees something slightly out of the ordinary (such as 4 foot mechanical bears singing and playing music...she says "ooohhh" over and over. It's really very cute.

We keep getting the question...."is Mia crawling yet?". The answer is technically no. She is much better about playing on her stomach and gets into the crawling position. She moves herself slowly towards her desired location by doing an inch worm move lifting her butt in the air and then propelling herself forward just a little bit. Cruising, however, she is a pro at. She will pull up and then calculate the best way to get her destination using couches, coffee tables, walls, etc to get there. In the picture below, she had started off holding the slats on her crib and ended up over on the side wall to check out (much to our dismay) the phone jack behind her bed as well as the electrical outlet. Breaking news today is that she is walking by herself while holding a push toy in front of her so maybe we will have a walker before you know it!

9 Month Check Up

Quick update....we just got back from Dr. Richter and all went great. Mia is now 16 pounds 5 ounces and 28 inches long! She is still "small" for her age but her height is great so the doctor is not worried about it because obviously she is getting enough calories.

We are ready to launch into the world of peas, meat, and assorted finger foods. And...we are going to try out some Yo Baby yogurt soon and see what happens. Maybe we can get off that Alimentum some day soon.

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth...

I forgot to include this in the last post but we finally have a picture Mia's two bottom front teeth. Maybe for Christmas Santa will bring her her two top teeth!

Mia's First Thanksgiving

The Hanna clan boarded a Jet Blue plane to Boston for Thanksgiving week. Mia was thrilled with this experience and stayed up wired on the plane until we arrived at grandma and grandpa's house...at 12:30am in the morning mind you. She was a trooper and bounced back the next day.

I have to admit that I was extremely nervous over the Boston trip due to our last trip not going so well. But this time everything was fabulous...despite Mia still getting over a cold. It was like Mia arrived in Boston and said "I"m a big girl now and I get this object permanence thing." She let almost everyone hold her without an issue. This is a HUGE deal as Mia has screamed since 4 months whenever someone other than us held her. Being "older" now, Mia and grandpa had a lot of quality conversations about the Patriots and, as you can see below, caught up on the local Middlesex news with grandma. She tells me she is joining the League of Women Voters next week (sorry...inside joke for GG).

Mia had time to catch up with her old friend Caroline. They discussed many things ranging from what Caroline has done at day care recently, to their other buddy Aidan, and their mutual dislike of tummy time.

Gearing up for Boston trips this winter also meant purchasing a Boston appropriate winter coat (versus our Charlotte winter coat). When Mia's coat arrived in the mail, we tried it on and she gave me this look like "mom is all of this REALLY necessary???!!!!". Little did she know that she would fit right in with the rest of the Boston ladies.

This week we are off to Mia's 9 month appointment so stay tuned for our new stats. I am going to try to be more like Nick's mom and post weekly updates from now on. I'll make that my New Year's Resolution! Have a good week and make sure you check out the new photo's and video's!

8 months old and loving it!

I can't believe it but Mia turned 8 months old last week. The time is flying by and before we know it we will be planning a 1st birthday party. Last week we had a fairly busy week, we went to story time at the library of course where Mia is obviously jealous of the other babies crawling around and gets up on her hands and knees to rock back and forth as to say "see I can do that too" but the second we get home she is like "crawling? mother I don't know what you are talking about." We also had two play groups, one with our DT friends and the other with the neighborhood babies.

Not to mention all of the shopping that we did for our upcoming Boston trip. I keep looking at the weather in Boston and I seem to think that Mia will be an ice cube even inside my parents house! But we now have an appropriate winter coat, mittens, a hat, and new shoes so we should be good to go.

Mia is becoming an expert "puller upper". She is pulling up on to whatever is within reach and now is cruising around her activity cube on her own. One day you could just see in her brain...oh if I put my hand here and move my feet like this I could get over there...hmmm let's try it. I have a feeling she will crawl and walk in the same week.

I leave you with this picture of Mia sitting in the grass for the first time. She ripped grass out of the ground and studied it and tried to put leaves in her mouth. Just a reminder to stop and appreciate your surroundings every once in a while. We are off to Boston on Friday....wish us luck this time!

I Love Mondays

I will profess that I love Mondays! Monday is one of the best days of the week primarily because of library story time. It's something which I look forward to very much because Mia enjoys herself so much. She loves watching the other little kids some which are younger than she is and others who are crawling around and pulling up on things. She sits and listens intently to the story teller and her favorite part is the bubbles signaling the end of the half hour. It gives me great joy to see her so happy and interested.

That being said last week, we went to a Halloween party at daddies work. Mia loved saying hello to everyone in her pumpkin suit (which I think she might actually miss going forward) and waiving twizzlers and mini m&m's in her hands. She also met up with her good friend Meredith sporting her lovely bee costume. My father commented that I had called it "daddies work" for the first time ever. And it was true, I had reached a real turning point of separation. I proudly walked in with my daughter on one hip and wearing jeans as to say "this is where my priorities lie and you can't take that away from me." It was a very liberating experience to be able to just not care at all about anyone's "busy season", etc, etc, etc. So hence, "I LOVE MONDAYS". I love being with Mia at home with her as my priority. It's a great feeling and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Updates: We are now saying "ma ma" when we want to get up and do something different or get out of her crib... I think she talked to Nick who told her this worked really well with his mom since he does the same thing. :-) She is now pulling up on her toys which is crazy given that she still wants nothing to do with crawling. And we are eating peaches and cheerios. She is growing up!!!

PS- Sam will upload the Halloween pictures tonight so look out for them on york photo soon.

Have a good week!

Catch up

So I have been a delinquent poster...sorry. There is so much to update everyone on. Mia now has her two front teeth although they are still too low to get a picture of them so stay tuned.

Uncle Meelad came to visit on his fall break. We had a great time. Mia and Meelad watched the game together. Mia is already a big Vols fan as you can see! We went to pick out pumpkins for Halloween.

It seems like every day Mia is doing or saying something new. She is more active than ever although still not crawling. She is babbling in sentences and has so much energy when she wakes up for the day or from naps. We are constantly looking for new ways to entertain her. A few of my favorite things that she has done lately: in the bath if you dribble water from a squirt bottle she tries to catch the stream of water to no avail, she tries to touch the wreaths on the wrong side of the glass front doors, gives you the biggest smiles when she wakes up from a nap, she LOVES paper, every new baby she meets she tries to touch their face, she says "da da" with semi meaning.

Sam and I have a new found freedom. We have discovered that Mia will go down for the night at someone elses house then we can put her in the car seat, come home, and she goes right back to sleep in her crib with no crying. We have been trying to take advantage of this and recently went to a Halloween party at Kristin and Patrick's house and dinner with Lisa and David. It's wonderful! As you can see below, Mia has gotten good use out of her Halloween costume. Her friend Maddy was thrilled by the sparkles on her witch costume.

Mia has been eating up a storm. She is now having carrot, sweet potatoes, avocados, butternut squash, summer squash, rice cereal, baby oatmeal, green beans, spinach, and today we started bananas....all made right here at home by mom! She is loving the solid foods and is finally gaining some good weight. We were at the doctor about a week ago (for an unscheduled visit of course!) and found that she now is in the mid 15's in terms of weight, which is great!

She is so steady on her feet these days that we think she will most likely watch before crawling or crawl for only a short period of time. It's like she watches us walk around and thinks she needs to do that instead of shuffling around the floor like regular babies.

Mia and mommy have been doing many activities during the week. We go to story time for pre-walkers at the library which she is a big fan of. We have a Wednesday play date with her friends Nick and Maddy. We go to the kiddy pool at the YMCA. And this past week we met a new friend and her mommy from CharlotteMommies so it looks like we may have another play date in our future. Not to mention, her friends Jill and Silas up the street who are now 4 months old. She is part of the Hanna family...so a heavy social schedule from the beginning is essential!

Ok, I think that is it to get everyone caught up. I will try to be better about posting every week in the future!

Mia's First Tooth

What a big day it is today. Mia's first front tooth has broken through! The funny part is we had no idea it was coming. On Friday, Mia had her reflux medication changed to a dissolvable tablet so this morning I put it in her mouth and she bit down on my finger and I was like "ouch!" Too k a closer look and there was a front tooth breaking through her gum. So cute!

Last week grandma came to visit for a few days. We had a great time and took Mia for her first professional photos. Talk about child model...she loved the camera! She also went to the YMCA childwatch program for a whole hour on Friday. This was a big step for both Mia and mommy. I felt horrible leaving her there. And she did melt down to the point that they almost had to come get me but she was not crying when I arrived back just sitting in her strolled looking ticked at mommy. Wish us luck again tomorrow!

A Whole New World...

The world has changed for Mia over the last 2 weeks. She is rolling from front to back and then back to front as a mode of transportation. Also, Sam went away on a trip for work on a Monday and by Wednesday she was sitting up and playing with toys while sitting up. It was amazing. Mia is definitely enjoying this new vantage point and independence although now you can see the frustration mounting when she wants to run or crawl across the floor and can't do it. It will only be a matter of time.


The other big accomplishment of the last 2 weeks was the introduction of solid foods. We started with rice cereal which Mia is now a big fan of and then this past Wednesday we started on carrots which she is loving. Mia had her 6 month appointment last week. She is now up to 13 pounds 9 ounces and 25.5 inches tall. A growing but slender baby for 6 months so it looks like she picked up Sam's genes along the way in that category!

Mia helped me make a birthday cake for daddy. Pound cake of course....her cake decorating skills are really great don't you think?!

The biggest news of this week is that I am officially as of today a stay at home mom for the time being. The laptop and the pda are turned in. It was a hard but good decision. I look forward to spending lots of really great times with Miss Mia!

Miss Independent Goes to the Beach

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posting this month. Things have been busy around here. We had a visit from cousin Jamie which was wonderful. I'm realizing what the power of a baby will do to get your northern relatives to visit! Whatever works!

Last week we were at Myrtle Beach with my parents and grandparents. It was so great. We had wonderful weather for the most part, a great view, and just had an all around great time. We were so sad to come home.

In the past few weeks Mia has become quite curious and independent. Anything within her reach she will grab and put in her mouth. She is not discriminatory in any way....remotes, my hair, daddy's glasses, cups, spoons, anything we happen to be eating, kitchen towels, formula cans, it doesn't matter....she wants to hold it and try to put it in her mouth. As a parent, it's great to watch. All of the sudden she is so interactive, so smiley, so much fun. You just want to indulge every curiosity she has...within reason of course!

Mia has become so independent in an 5 month old kind of way. She definitely has an opinion about everything these days, what toy she wants to play with, when she wants to eat, when she wants to sleep (she just is put down in her crib these days after 2 hours of awake time and falls asleep on her own), she wants to do everything she can on her own. It's really amazing to watch. Grandma and grandpa bought Mia her first sippy cup and she just stuck it right in her mouth as if she had been using it forever.

We had so much fun in the water while at the beach. Mia took to the pool like a fish. We went every day and every day she perfected the art of splashing even more. This has now made bath time very messy! We are definitely signing up for the pool next year in the neighborhood and we are looking into joining the YMCA soon because they start baby swimming classes at 6 months.

Overall Sam and I were very relieved that the vacation went so well given that the last trip away was so stressful. But she napped like a champ and after a day or so got over her "stranger" anxiety and loved hanging out with everyone.

Other updates: Mia is now up to 12 pounds 5 ounces (as of a week and a half ago) so she is probably more than that now. We have finally broken into the 3-6 month clothes...yes I know she is about to turn 6 months! Also, we are up to a little more than half a bottle of formula and the rest breast milk. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will be fully on formula and I can finally eat something and Mia will have a happy tummy.

There are so many new pictures so make sure to check out the link and we have tons of vacation videos to upload so look for that in the next couple of days too.

So Much Fun

I think I can honestly say that the last week has been the most fun yet of Mia's life. She is changing ever so subtly every day but in big ways and is so curious. Now she is rolling over many times a day and doesn't mind the tummy time as much because she can roll on her back when she wants to. You can just see the satisfaction on her face when she does it and knows that she made it happen. She has been grasping toys for a couple of weeks now but now when you dangle a toy that she is interested in in front of her she literally grabs out for it. Actually it doesn't have to a be "toy" that she grabs out for....it can be hair, your nose (which is my favorite), daddy's tie, other babies feet (see picture), you name it if she sees it she'll grab it. The bouncy seat which she has despised up until this point is her new best friend. It has a cause and effect setting on it where when you grab and play with the hanging toys it makes the music and lights work. She just thinks this is FABULOUS and now sometimes tries to play with all the toys at the same time. She is rocking her exersaucer and she has two favorite pieces....this thing she can bend and put in her mouth to chew on and a thing that you can spin around and it shows different pictures. In the past, when she stands up and sees her toys on the floor and she wants to get them but only leans forward like a plank to get them...which ends with her being on her stomach. Now as of this morning, she has figured out that if she squats in the standing position that she can reach her toys on the floor and pick them up and stand back up. Small things but really cool.

We are back onto the bottle and trying to get some new formula into her slowly so stay tuned on that. She seems to be feeling better on the no diary, no soy diet which is great. She has fallen into two stable naps and a catnap so mom can finally get some stuff done around the house.

We had a really busy week this week. We went shopping with Auntie Lisa and her family. We went wedding dress shopping with Auntie Lisa (rumor has it though that Lisa was jealous that Mia got all of the attention from the sales people). :-) We had a play date with Madeline and Nick. And we went to the doctor to get checked out. This week she has gained a little weight so this is good. Next week we go to the gastro appt to make sure they don't think anything else is going on with poor Mia's tummy. Phew...that was alot of stuff. Be sure to check out the pictures and videos. Some new ones will be up by the end of the weekend.

Auntie Erin Comes to Visit

I struggled with what to call this weeks blog...Auntie Erin Comes to Visit....Mom's New Diet....Thumb Sucker....so many things have changed over the last week or so it's crazy.

Let's start with Auntie Erin coming to visit. Erin came home on the plane with us from Boston which was super helpful. Mia did really well...took her bottle on the plane and did her best to sleep through all of the loud speaker announcements and the bathroom door opening and closing right behind us. We got home and quickly got her into the car and back into bed so she could finish the night off. Saturday she bounced back to her regular self and was happy to be home in her own bed. She started napping like a pro and all was good. We had a great time during the week. Auntie Erin taught her lots of camp songs outside which she really enjoyed. We did lots of shopping. Mia's favorite store was Sephora...as you can see below. So many colors and stuff to look at!

Next up...Mom's New Diet....when we were at the doctor on Monday for her 4 month appointment they decided to test her again for a milk protein allergy because she is not gaining very much weight. This time the test came back positive. There are 3 formulas which she can take and we are trying the least smelly one (although it still smells like cat food). Miss Mia is voicing her opinion loud and clear that she does not want any of it....we are trying to change her mind. So in the meantime, I have to be on a dairy free and soy free diet which is not as easy as it sounds. Your obvious offenders such as milk, cheese, yogurt, etc are out but so are the hidden dairy items that are in most breads and packaged items. I tell you if I don't lose weight on this diet then I don't know what else will do it! C'est la vie....we just want Miss Mia to feel a little better no matter the cost.

Thumb sucking....Mia never has been a pacifier girl. She looks at a pacifier almost saying "only babies take those...I'm a big girl". Well as of last week she has discovered her thumb and is actively sucking it. Very cute...I will try to catch it on video so you can see it. Let's just hope this does not become a multi year habit...you can throw out a pacifier but you can throw out a thumb!

Till next week...

Back Home

So week 2 in Boston was a little bit better. Mia finally got used to her surroundings 2 days before we went home...sigh. But we still had a great time, saw sooooo many people, and enjoyed lots of the MA summer air.

Auntie Erin came home on the plane with us which was a BIG help. Having scheduled our flight home before Mia gave herself a bedtime of 7pm. The 6:30pm flight was stressing me out. But she took her bottle and managed to catch some zzzz's despite all of the noise on the plane from the loud speaker and the bathroom door behind us opening and closing.

Our first day back, we went to our first 2 year old birthday party. Mia was a special guest known as "baby Mia" to the birthday girl. Mia had a ball just relaxing in her car seat watching all of the little kids play on the play ground. The birthday girl also gave Mia her exersaucer to use for a couple of months which Mia is totally enjoying. Thank you Meredith!

Yesterday, we went to Mia's 4 month check up. Her new stats are posted to the left. She is now 11 pounds 8 ounces which is on the small side. Just to be safe, they are running a few tests to make sure she is really just a "petite" frame and not that she is allergic to something and therefore not gaining weight. But we are pretty sure she is just "petite". Cognitively, she is doing great for her age. She is very interactive with people and toys and rolled over from front to back last week for the first time. Any 4 month check up can't go without shots unfortunately. But Mia did well. She was a little agitated the rest of the day but wouldn't we all be!

If only Mia knew what happened after she went to sleep...this week she is missing out on margarita's on the porch with Auntie Erin.

Boston....and stuff

Ok, ok, I know I am a bit behind on posting so here we go. A couple of weeks ago we were gearing up to come to Boston. We had a great visit from our friends Nick and Maddy (two other Deloitte babies) which was super fun. We had a little photo shoot to show those back at work what we are doing with our maternity leave. Mia wasn't terribly cooperative but stayed quiet long enough for us to get at least one good shot.

Then we came to Boston which was Mia's first plane ride. Courtesy of daddy's upgrade, mommy and Mia sat in first class...she is already being spoiled. Things went really well and although she didn't' sleep that long she was entertained by the new experience. Our first week in Boston was a fun one although Mia has been a little crabby because of big time teething. We visited with so many family and friends. We made friends with Farley and they seem not to mind each other although Farley gives us this look like "what the heck" when she starts crying.

Mid-week her uncle Meelad came in from Memphis to visit before her baptism. Sunday was Mia's baptism. She did very well and did not cry when the water was poured over her head. We also did not spit up on our 80+ year old baptism gown which was a plus!

We had our first check up from Dr. Lloyd to make sure that Mia's teething blisters were just blisters and not Hand, Foot, and Mouth so that we could play with our new friends Caroline (Lloyd and Leah's baby girl) and Aden (Lanie and Mark's baby boy).

Today Sam and Meelad flew home and Mia and I will be here another week. It's been great to catch up with everyone although even 2 weeks is too short of a time. More next week and I promise to be better about updated the blog Jamie!

The Beach

Last week, I picked up a Bumbo for Mia. She loves it and is thrilled by the new vantage point. We are working on holding and grabbing objects instead of just grabbing fabric and my hair. So far so good if you put the object near her hand but she is not reaching out for things yet. Sam taught her to put her arm up as her mobile gets closer to her which is really cute although it will be a while before she can reach it on her own. She is also talking alot more and has figured out that we move our tongues when we talk so she is doing the same which changes the sound of her noises. Also...mega cute!

This past weekend we took Mia to Myrtle Beach for the first time. She put her toes in the sand, felt the waves cross over her feet, and took a dip in the pool. To say the least, she was pooped by the end of Saturday with all of the new experiences. I think I expected her to react with delight to the ocean but she just stood there and intensely studied the ground as if to say..."I thought I had the ground thing figured out but this is a new one!" It was really fun to watch her take in the new sights, sounds, and smells of the beach.

Oh and if the pictures look more washed out than usual it's because we forgot the digital camera this weekend so they are taken on a disposable camera.