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.