Poor Mia had a terrible night

Current mood: confused

Last night was not a happy good night for little Mia. It was filled with pain, crying, and being scared. Poor little thing.

I should have known something was up, before bedtime she was extreemly fussy. She didn't want to play, be held, or sit still. I just thought maybe she was still recovering from the crazy weekend and she also had a busy day that day as well with little rest. So instead of waiting until her usual time to bathe her and get her ready to bed, I started her night time ritual early. I had her in the tub by 6:30 and she seemed to enjoy herself and have fun. (She LOVES baths) then it was time to get out. She usually gets pretty fussy when I take her out of the bath. She likes being little "nature girl" and wants stay naked without a diaper but of course I can't let her stay that way. So the battle of getting her ready for bed began. Due to her excema she has to have 4 different lotions/creams on. I start off with her Aveeno bedtime lotion on her body, then put some aqua-four on her face (she HATES this, I don't blame her its all greasy and thick) then A&D cream for her bootie to prevent diaper rash while she sleeps, and finally some cordizone on any spots on her body that are breaking out in excema, . This time it was the inner part of her ears. (I still can't understand why this happens sometimes). This made her fly off the handle. The cream is supposed to calm down the itching and clear up the rash but just touching it made her cry. She has been pulling at her ear all weekend and was still doing it that day. Anyways I eventually got her jammies on and fed her her bedtime bottle (8oz). Usually she finishes her bottle and throws it to let me know she doesn't want it anymore. However, after finishing it this time she just got MAD. I wasn't sure if she wanted more or if she was just being cranky. I didn't think she could still be hungry since she ate some snackies and water before her bath. So after a good burp I put her down to bed. She seemed to calm down and get comfy so I thought that was that. WRONG!

Two hours later, at 9 o'clock I heard her cry out. She does this sometimes and its usually due to her waking herself up or trying to get comfy in her bed again. I didn't pay much attention to it since it is a usual occurance. Sure enough she soon stopped and I figured that was that. WRONG!

I was dead tired from earlier in the day and started getting ready for bed myself at 10 o'clock. Thats when it happened. Mia screamed out again, but this time it was a different kind of scream. Not the usual whiny "trying to get comfy again" cry. She kept crying and crying and it was getting worse and worse so I ran upstairs to check on her. She was sitting in her bed just crying her little eyes out. I picked her up and attempted to comfort her. She usually stops crying once I pick her up and talk to her but this didn't work this time. She kept crying and pulling at her ear. Eventually after some pacing and rocking she calmed down. I figured since she was already awake I would change her diaper and give her a fresh one so she could be more comfy when I put her back down. She didn't like this, she cried through most of the diaper change. I got her back up and thats when Daddy came in the room. (He was working from home last night) She right away perked up and leaned over to him so he could pick her up. I thought to myself awww she doesn't want her Mama and was kind of saddened by this, however, after Adrian held her she quickly turned around and leaned back towards me. She wanted me to hold her. I thought this was kind of funny but very odd for her. I attempted to put her back down but she just exploded in crying again and pulled on her ear. So I got her up, walked her to the nearby bathroom and sat her up on the sink so I could get a better look at her ear. The excema was already cleared up by the cordizone I put on it during bathtime and it wasn't red or irriated. No more tiny bumps and the skin was smooth. She didn't really care for me to touch it but she didn't cry. I then checked her mouth to see if maybe a tooth was coming in and irriating her. She had her usually little bumps but they weren't irritated or breaking though, so that wasn't it either. So I laid her back down and she wasn't to happy with this but there was nothing else I could check. So I closed the door and left her crying. I waited by the door and after about a min. she calmed down and I didn't ear anything else. I waited an extra 15mins before I went to bed to see if she would cry again but I didn't hear anything. So before I climbed into bed I decided to check on her, assuming she had to be sleeping by now, I opened her door really quietly and snuck over to her crib. To my shock she was laying there with her blankey just staring at me!! I wasn't expecting that so I quickly left the room, not wanting her to wake up more. Sure enough she started crying again after she saw me. I went to bed anyways and listened for her to stop. She eventually did and I then let myself fall asleep. I was extreemly tired by this point.

Then at 12:30am she screamed out again. This time Daddy went over first. I was trying to clear my head since I was woken from a dead sleep and then got up. She was hanging out in her crib while Daddy was consoling her over the side. He said that she wouldn't really settle down and doesn't want to be left alone and to him she sounded congested. As soon as I walked into the room and sat down next to Adrian by the crib she lit up. She started smiling and acting silly. What to do now?! I figured eventhough it was a bit to early in the night to give her, her night time bottle I hoped if I did she would go back to sleep. We also agreed that something was definately not right with her and decided to give her some tylonal incase something was hurting her that we couldn't figure out. So I changed her diaper, this time it was more wet than the last time I changed it. I checked her nose and it was clear of boogers so she wasn't conjested in her nose. Then I decided to change her jammies. Though they were the thinner kind we thought maybe they weren't breathing very good for her and she was over heating. (Though she wasn't sweating when we found her). So I changed her into a onesie and checked the label of her other jammies. Sure enough, it was 100% polyester (I usually only dress her in cotton due to her excema) Ah-Ha!!! The possible culprit! I gave her alittle tylonal and fed her another 8oz bottle. The same thing happened again with the bottle, as soon as she finished it she got MAD! I burped her again and off to bed we went. She cheered up and I put her in bed, kissed her goodnight and she went right down. Phew.... now I can get some rest... WRONG!

4am she screamed and cried out again. I quickly got up and checked on her. This time she was on her side with her blankey and didn't see me. She kept whiny and literally started tossing and turning, crying out. I listened and sure enough just like Adrian said earlier, it almost sounded like she couldn't breathe very good. Almost like if she was conjested. She was getting frusterating because she couldn't get comfry so she sat up. Her tiny head woobling since she was half asleep. Her breathing got better, then she laid back down and sure enough started sounding conjested again. I needed to use the restroom bad and figured it would be some time of consoling of so I snuck out and used it before she saw me in the room. By the time I got back she had fallen back to sleep. So I went back to bed.

7:30am came around and again she started crying off and on (she usually wakes up at 9-930). However, She didn't cry as much like earlier in the night. I didn't want her to get up since I hoped she would get more rest if left in her crib. So I listened for her... she would go back to sleep then wake up then go back to sleep and at 9am I finally went in there and got her up. She seemed like she was in a good mood. I checked her nose and it was clean and clear. Her ear was fine too. I fed her breakfast and played with her a bit. She seemed back to normal. Then it was nap time, I put her down at 11 and she went down good. However, just now I heard her wake up again crying its 11:50am. This is really unusal because her early morning naps are always about 1.5- 2 hrs long. Not sure why she can't sleep. Hmmm... anyways we will have to see how the rest of the day goes and how tonight goes.

I am not really sure whats going on with her. Hopefully its just one of those things that will pass.

************ UPDATE***********

Well her nap didn't go too smoothly. She kept waking up off and on till I finally got her up. I gave her to Adrian to watch and I went up stairs and tore apart her whole room and spring cleaned it. I defy for anyone to find a spec of dust in it now. (I think the dust contributed to her congestion last night because I get that way with dust too) I washed all her sheets and blankets, cleaned every slat in her blinds, vaccumed her carpet like crazy, dusted all her furniture, pounded all her stuffed animals and just cleaned like mad. Then I aired it out, now it feels and smells clean. I wasn't sure if I should put her crib bumper back on so I decided to see what she would do without it for awhile. BIG MISTAKE! When I put her down for her mid-afternoon nap right away she went nuts in her crib and tried to stand up... she slipped and BAM! she hit her head hard against the side of her crib. I quickly picked her up expecting her to scream and cry but she didn't. I was surprised then put her back down. She seemed ok, and I went back downstairs to sit on the couch with Adrian. I had the baby monitor on and we both heard BLAM! .........*big pause*.....WAAAAAAAAAAH! I ran upstairs to see what happened and she was screaming and crying her crib. She hit her head again. So I picked her up, consoled her then put her on the floor to play while I put the bumper back on the crib. After I got that all set up I laid her back down. She eventually fell asleep and was knocked out for a good 2 hours YAY! I usually don't let her sleep that long so close to her bedtime, but I felt bad for her since she didn't get much rest last night or earlier in the day. So I let her sleep until she woke up on her own. After she woke up she was all smiles and happy. She played and played and we even watched her favorite show "Yo, Gabba Gabba" and she danced to it. It soon started really get late for her so I got her ready for her night time bath and set up her stuff for bed. I put her cool-mist humidifer in her room and got that going since it did feel alittle dry up there. After letting her play in the bath I got her all set up for bed and put her down. She seemed to go down good because I have yet to hear a peep out of her. Hopefully it will be a good night, we all could use some much needed rest.

Mia sat in the big girl chair at a restaurant

Current mood: enlightened

Today was definately a learning experience for us all. Especially, Mama. I learned that graduating Mia to new things isn't always as fun as I think it will be. Haha

Today Adrian had some new tires put on his new car, and I felt bad for him that he had to wait 2hrs while they mounted them. So I offered to keep him company and I brought the Baby and myself down to the tire shop. He was hungry so we went to a near by restaurant to get a quick bite to eat. I wasn't planning on taking Mia to a restaurant but since her diaper bag was still pretty packed with goodies from our recent trip to Oxnard this past weekend, I didn't object to going. Especially since they always have good Mexican food at the place we choose to go.

I thought that since she has been acting like such a big girl lately, that I would graduate her from sitting in her car seat while we eat to sitting her in one of those baby high chairs the restaurants offer. I was all excited but Adrian kept suggesting we should leave her in her car seat since it would be easier to keep her entertained and we could eat our food pretty much undisturbed. But me, being the over zealous Mama I insisted we get a high chair, so we did. I was all proud of her when we strapped her in. I handed her a toy to play with out of her diaper bag and looked at the menu. It was so cute to have her sitting at the table with us, it was almost like she was a tiny little person as she sat there playing all grown up. I treated her to a couple of snackies which she fed herself and I thought everything would go great! WRONG!

Mia decided that it would be more fun to throw her toys and stuff on the ground. Once they hit the ground they were instantly contaminated and into the diaper bag they went. Soon I was running out of things to entertain her with since she kept throwing them on the floor. I soon resorted to lotion bottles, water bottles, diaper cream lotion bottle, wipee box, plastic containers, anything I could use from that diaper bag etc. haha you name it I tried it. She would play for a bit then toss it aside. But if she didn't have anything to play with she started squirming and trying to get out of her chair. Our food later came and she tried grabbing that. Then she started grabbed everything in sight, the menus, the straws, the chips, everything! I started getting tired of getting her away from things on the table, picking up things tossed on the ground, and trying to make her happy. Adrian kept going "see told you we should have kept her in the car seat!" I reluctantly agreed. We were fighting a losing battle and fast!

Finally it was snackies to the rescue! We started just feeding her tons of snackies because it would buy us some time to eat while she munched on them! Then the snackies ran out! Oh-no! So thats when she tasted her first couple of rice pieces. Then she started to get antsy and wanted to go so we had to pack up and leave. We usually sit and chat after a meal but the chatting was cut short due to Mia's insistance on leaving.

Well it was a nice little lunch but I sure did learn something. Graduating Mia to new things don't always go as smooth as planned. I think until she officially grows out of her car seat, we will keep her there when we go anywhere to eat in the future.

Big Trip to Oxnard

Current mood: exhausted

Talk about a fast and wild weekend! In fact it is still going as I write this! As I am writing we are on the 118 freeway and I am on the laptop on our way back home. We went to Oxnard this weekend for Cousin Robert and Tiffany ‘s baby shower for little baby cousin Delilah.

So because Daddy had to go to work on Friday and the party was on Saturday at 1’oclock we had to leave the house extra early Sat. morning. In fact we had to wake up Mia earlier than usual even before she woke up on her own. I had packed the night before so I packed up the car the morning around 5am and got Mia up from bed (she was really grumpy for being woken up early) We fed her a big bottle and figured she would make up for the lost sleep on the road.. WRONG! After we left she refused to take a nap. To top it off she was so grumpy from earlier she fussed in the car most of the way! This is very unusual for her but we chalked it up to traveling early morning for the first time. A little half way trough the trip we finally had to give Mia a break and we pulled off in Granada Hills. After getting some fresh air , stretching her tiny legs, getting out of the car seat, some snackies, and water she was A-OK to get back into the car. I then took over the driving and drove us the rest of the way. Mia FINALLY decided to fall asleep about 5 mins from the off ramp in Moorpark. Once we got off the freeway she woke up again… sigh.. however, this time she was in a better mood.

We decided to stop off at my parent’s house first so we could rest up there before the party. We got there about 9am. We were quickly greeted by Grandma Pizano and she couldn’t get over how big Mia has gotten. Right away Mia’s face lit up and she smiled. Grandpa Pizano soon came out too and they both fussed over her and each wanted to hold her and play with her. Mia was so happy to finally get out of the car seat and showed off all her new things. She crawled around, pulled herself up on the furniture, an d attempted to stand… all to the ooooh’s and ahhh’s of her biggest fans, her grandparents and us. Then we got a not so good phone call from my sister in law regarding her pregnancy and the baby. She wasn’t feeling to well and needed my Dad to go over to their house to watch my nieces while her and my bro zoomed off to the hospital to make sure everything is ok (and it turned out to be ok.. THANK GOD! But they are still in our prayers… as always) so my Dad ran out the door to their house. It was still to early for the baby shower so Adrian went to my old room and took a nap. I hung out with my mom and Mia and waited for her to get sleepy. Eventually Mia finally got tired and we set up the playpen in the spare room and she went down for a little cat nap. I was just about to rest myself since I was already beat tired from getting up so early, the drive, had a killer headache, and was still tired from the busy week when Mia woke up. Sigh.. she only took a 30mins nap and was ready to go. My mom then had to get ready so I had to wake up Adrian and have him watch her while I got ready myself. (We all went up in our jammies… Daddy, Mia and myself! Haha) After I got the baby ready, got myself ready and Adrian got ready it was off to the baby shower we went.

The shower was about 30 mins away on the other side of the Conejo grade. I had never been to the restaurant where it was being held before, but I had a slight idea where it was. We thought things would go good but we were wrong. Mia decided she wanted to go poopies even before we hit the freeway! The classic red face pushing Mia happened so I figured we should pull off at the nearest gas station so I could change her before we hit the freeway so she wouldn’t have to sit in her poopies very long. We found a Cheveron and I popped out of the car and got Mia set up in the back seat to change her, I checked her diaper and there was nothing!!! Oh-no! not a good sign, she was pushing to much for it just to be gas so I knew something was coming soon and it wasn’t going to be pretty OR easy. I figured she would finally go by the time we get to the party so we all got set up again and on to the freeway we went. About 5 mins later right when we hit a point in the grade where there is no where to turn off she decided to try to go again. Unfortunately for us all, especially little Mia, it was one of her “poopie attacks!” We call it a poopie attack when she becomes so constipated she can’t get it out and she ends up pushing so hard tears come out and she screams in pain. Poor baby. So there she was screaming in pain and scared, we are climbing the grade, and I couldn’t do anything to comfort her like I always do when she has one of these attacks. So I did my best to rub her tummy under her safety belts and talked to her calmly. We didn’t make it to the turn off we needed to take and ended up pulling off a off ramp early (Wendy Dr. ) we found a McDonalds to park at and I jumped out of the car lightening speed, grabbed Mia out of her car seat and attempted to comfort her. Once she was up and out of the car she felt better. I set up the backseat with her diaper stuff and checked her diaper……. Still nothing! Oh-no! (By this time we were already over an hour late to the party) Daddy said we would stay put for at least another 10mins to see what would happen. So I kept Mia there, laying the back seat while I sat down next to her on the floor (half hanging out of the car) rubbed her tummy and talked to her. Eventually the pushing came back and FINALLY she was able to poop. YAY!!! And boy it wasn’t pretty! Haha Anyways, I got her all cleaned up and ready to go again. Strapped her in and threw that stinky diaper out! Back on to the freeway we went and after getting alittle lost at first we FINALLY made it to the party.

As soon as we walked in we were greeted by family. All of the Pizano family members who never got to see her yet! Like Great Auntie Teri, Great Auntie Gina, and Cousins Frankie, Kote, Denise, Justin, Robert and Great Uncle Dennis not to mention family who did meet her at Baby Cousin April’s 2nd birthday in early Feb. like Cousins Tiffany (who looked absolutely glowing while pregnant (it was her baby shower) Gina-lisa, and Baby Cousin Gianna. Everyone went NUTS over her. Especially the Great Aunties! She got all kinds of compliments from “look how beautiful she is”, “she has your eyes”, “look how smart she is”, “aww how pretty” , “how cute” etc. we were beaming with pride of course and Mia was acting her inquisitive self. No smiles but staring at everyone studying every thing. She did good she didn’t cry or fuss. My Auntie Gina quickly took her and showed her off to everyone. She didn’t want to put her down so I let her hang out with her. She sat with my Auntie Teri and they both got a kick out of her. Mia warmed up quickly and showed off to everyone what a big girl she is by eating some snackies and drinking her sippy cup. Her Great Auntie Gina kept saying how beautiful she was and how wanted to keep her haha Anyways this little break from her let Adrian and I get some GOOD food and hang out and catch up with my cousins Frankie and Kote. After about 30-40 mins my Mama radar went off , sure enough Mia started getting alittle fussy. I quickly came her resuce and knew right away she wanted her lunch and was hungry. So I busted out her bumbo seat and she ate her veggies like a big girl. Then she got to meet up with her baby cousin Gia (2 weeks younger than Mia). I wasn’t sure how the meeting would go this time since last time they met up at baby cousin April’s bday party the “kick heard around the world” happened. Yes, that’s when Mia kicked Gia in the tummy and made her cry and was pulling on her. Well Mia got her come-up-ins. This time it was Gia! Who started in on Mia. She was quickly grabbing Mia, pulling her and attacking her. Poor Mia didn’t know what was going on and I got some pics of this. Eventually we had to pull them apart because Gia wouldn’t stop. I had to tell Mia “see Mia you have to be nice to people because what goes around comes around”. Eventually they made up and started baby talking to each other. After playing with some decorations and showing off her new standing skills to family she finally started to poop out. She never got any good rest the whole day since her naps were cut short and she was woken up early so she wasn’t very happy. We put her in her carseat and covered her up and despite all the noise from the party she knocked right out and was out cold for almost an hour! What a good girl. After her nap she woke up her normal perky self and went nuts playing with balloons and her toys. Then Daddy waited until I wasn’t even paying attention and before I knew it he was giving Mia a lime to taste!!!! All I heard was a bunch of laughing and I turned around and saw what was going on. He would give her a taste and she would make the cutest sour face but she would want it again and get mad when he would take it away! I got mad at first but after watching her reaction I could tell she liked it! So it was fun watching her and I even got a cute picture of her sour face haha. Both Cousin Frankie and Kote both got a huge kick out of her as well. Frankie couldn’t believe how smart she is and was shocked how she claps when you ask her too without even having to show her. Anyways after spending some more time with family it was finally time go get going. So we packed up and off we went back to my parents house. Unfortunately we did have a casuality…. We accidently forgot one of her favorite teething rings at the party .I am still bummed about that but I told Mia I would take her to babies r us tomorrow and buy her a new one.

Once we got home, Adrian and I played with Mia for a bit and she did a first! She was crawling everywhere and then pulled herself up on the coffee table. She let go with one hand (she does this all the time) but for the first time she let go with the other and just stood there! Not holding on to anything! She stood there for a good 2 seconds then blop she fell back on to her butt! Adrian and I both were shocked! She really wants to stand up unassisted. She tried standing on all her little toys by holding on to it with her hands and having her butt in the air, back legs stiff. But she just can’t get herself to stand straight up yet.

Eventually her Grandparents and two older cousins (Tracy -9 and Sarah -6) came home. (They went to a separate party… I had another cousins turn 10 from my mom’s side of the family). So all the cousins (Tracy, Sarah and Mia) all played on the ground and had a good time. Mia tuckered out fast and due to being so tired from the day she drank her bedtime bottle and went to bed at 7. I got to spend some more time with my darling little nieces (who ended up spending the night) and they even drew pictures for Mia’s room. It was really cute. It soon got late and off to bed we all went. I had a killer headache and was almost delirous tired so I welcomed the bed, even if it was hard and uncomfortable haha Phew what a day!

I wasn’t sure when she would wake up in the morning but to my shock she didn’t wake up until 7:30 the next morning! Wow its been a looooong time since she has slept that long and that heavy. So she woke up well rested and ready to go. Her cousins soon joined her and today was filled with running around and playing. Then her Great-Grandpa Pizano came over to visit just to see Mia. He was so happy to see her and was in utter shock in all the new things she did. He commented on how smart and pretty she was and was thrilled to see her stand and crawl. What a big girl. Then Daddy AGAIN decided to give her a taste of something new, he came over with a cherry sugar-free popsical. I again, being the over protective Mama wasn’t too keen about her tasting that but since it was sugar free I said it was ok. To our amazement she loved it and kept wanting more tastes. Soon her lips and tounge were all red and she was having a blast licking it. She would even try to bit it and you could feel her scrape it with her tiny teeth haha Then Daddy said, ok that’s enough… well ok maybe 1 more taste and CHOMP! Mia bit off a chunk! I freaked out but my Dad reassured me it was a tiny piece and she would be ok. We all watched intently on how she would react to that cold piece in her mouth. She made a face but kept it in her mouth, eventually she opened her mouth and you could see that tiny piece on her tounge, but like a champ she ate it and didn’t spit it out. Then she wanted more! We didn’t let her and she started to cry. Then big Cousin Tracy got the idea about giving her, her snackies and that did the trick. She was happy again… phew thanks Tracy! Anyways, we were planning on visiting my sis-in-law and baby cousin April but time just zoomed by to fast and before we knew it, it was getting really late. We were planning on leaving around 2pm and didn’t end up leaving until 6ish! So unfortunately we couldn’t make the trip to my sis-in-laws house and that leaves us to where we are right now. On the 210 freeway, in San Dimas about 2 hours from the house. She just woke up so I think I need to get going to entertain her before she gets bored.

Overall the weekend was great. It was tiring but in a good way. I can’t wait to come back in a couple of weeks for my birthday and Easter! YAY

********* Updated*********

Its now 8 oclock its dark and we are about 25mins from the house. Almost there yay! She is hanging out with her little glow worm and she is getting a kick out of it when I squeeze it and it glows and sings to her. This little thing is a life saver! Ok I am going back to play with Mia! I just had to add that because it is so cute to see her light up as her little glow worm lights up.

37 weeks old!

Current mood: chipper

All I can say is this week is the week her name was offically changed (by her Grandpa Pizano) from "Baby" Mia to "Amazin'" Mia! and with good reason too! She is 37 weeks old and never seems to stop Amazing us all in all the things she does! This week was very exciting!

The week started off strong like always. We recieved some WONDERFUL news last Friday that Mia is going to have a new baby first cousin! (Thank goodness I can finally talked about it, its been on the down low for a bit until certain family memebers were told) Thats right, my Bro and Sis-in-law are expecting their 4th! bundle of joy! We couldn't be happier for them! Maybe Mia will finally get her little boy cousin! (There is nothing but girls on the Pizano and Cardoso side right now). It is alittle sad that Mia was de-throned as "baby" of the family even before her first birthday! BUT I think she is ok with it. Especially how she shocked us all on what a big girl she is trying to be!

This past weekend we took yet another trip to Sunny San Diego for yet another little cousin's birthday party. Her big cousin Emily had her 4th birthday. We had lots of fun, she got to jump and play in her first jump for joy and she hit another pinata (and shes begining to get the hang of it, she actually holds the stick now and doesn't try to escape! haha). She didn't get any candy though but she got to show off her new crawling skills to some of her (Great) Aunties and Uncles, everyone was impressed how good she is at it especially for only being 8 months old. She even sat up for them and showed them how she likes to stand while holding something. Thats Mia, little hambone just like her Mama! After the party we checked out this nearby park (Sunset View) in the Eastlake area, by her Grandma Santo's house, to see if we want to hold her Cardoso side 1st birthday bash there. It was beautiful and even has a mini-play ground next to the gazebo. Its perfect so it was cool that we found a place for her party already. That big day will be here before we know it! After the park we stopped by her Grandma and Grandpa Santo's house for a quick visit. It is always a treat for them for her to come by and we always enjoy watching them go nuts with her. Especially Grandpa Santo's. He even bought her alittle ball to play with and she loved holding it and dropping it on the ground. It was really cute. Both big first cousins Natalia (4) and Brianna (3) were there too and as always Brianna went nuts over Mia. She always calls her "My baby! My baby Mia" Its really cute.

Thats pretty much how the weekend went. Pretty fast I think and I can hardly believe the weekend is almost upon us again! Anyways on to more shocking things.

Sunday Morning Mia woke up with a surprise for us all! She cut her first tooth!!!! I couldn't believe it! My little baby took a tiny step closer to toddler-hood!!! I don't know if its because she knows she won't be the baby of the family anymore once her baby cousin is born and she wants to act all grown up now or what! haha Anyways we were all shocked by her little chomper, but what amazed us all even more is after her morning nap she woke up with another tooth! Thats right she cut two teeth in one day! GO Mia! They are very tiny and almost un-noticable but they are definately there. Two little white teethies! So with that happening, Adrian and I took her out to Red Robin to celebrate. I know I know its more like a treat for Mama and Daddy but she got to get out too so it was fun for her. She played in her car seat while drinking water from her bottle like a big girl. Oh by the way she is FINALLY taken to water now. She actually likes it YAY! We been rotating tap water into her diet as well (I know.. YUK!) but it does have floride in it and it should be good for her teeth. I don't know how true that is, but I grew up with tap water and I didn't get my first cavity until last year! Now we brought back her sippy cup and she is finally using that alot more. She actually gets excited when she sees it and grabs it. Now I can finally now leave a sippy cup nearby her play area and she goes to it and drinks it whenever she gets thirsty.

Ok on to more amazing things. That ball that I mentioned about earlier, the one her Grandpa Fernando bought her, she loves to play with it. She chases it around and tries to get on top of it, but the real amazing thing she does with it is she likes to hit it back to you when you hit it to her. More like roll it on the ground back to you that is. At first I just thought she was hitting it to hit it but she acutally tries to roll it back to you when you roll it to her. She gets a huge kick out of it and laughs.

She also learned how to pull herself up to a standing position this week!!! She not only pulls herself up on this standing toy she has, but she does it to her octogan and couch!! This morning she even amazed me more by doing something new, she was standing and holding on to her feeding chair playing with the clips/straps when she let go with one hand turned to face me (on the couch) and turned around so she was holding on the couch and facing me! Then she decided she wanted to play with the straps/clips again and turned back around! All while standing and not falling down! WOW! She is slowly starting to learn to use her legs while standing and slowly adjusts herself while standing with tiny steps forward or back or to the side!

Later in the week it was yard work day for Daddy. It was such a nice day out I decided to take Mia outside to get some freshair in her walker. She doesn't quite understand how to go forward in it yet but she does go backwards alot! I spent alot of time readjusting her so she wouldn't back up into the dirt or bushes! haha She liked watching Daddy mow the lawn and even got a quick visit from one of our close neighbors. After playing in the grass on a sheet it was time to go inside.

We finally lowered Mia's crib too! That was not an easy task since the crib was giving us grief! to say the least. But its finally down and at its lowest setting. We were constantly finding Mia standing against something in her crib and was afriad she would take a nose dive out so down the crib went. It took her alittle time to get used to the new setting and she didn't like it much at first but shes getting used to it slowly. She still manages to hold on to the rail and stand and now shes doing a new thing. If she wakes up and gets bord with playing with her toys she starts to call either by whining or yelling "Da-da!" (yea she retired saying Mama for now.. how sad) We leave her door open a crack and she actually sits up in the crib, faces the door and watches that crack. She waits to see if you will walk by or get her. Both Adrian and I noticed that if we walk by her door to either use the restroom or go downstairs she is quick to notice and starts really getting fussy or crying until we come back and get her. That little sneaky girl, she is spying on us already! Haha

Well with her new chompers we finally officially graduated to solid snackies! We introduced them to her a couple of months back but she didn't take to them very well. So we decided to wait a bit. Now we feel she is old enough for them and she LOVES them! She is even learning how to feed herself the snacks. She picks them up with her tiny thumb and forefinger and attempts to put them in her mouth. Granted the coordination is now quite there yet, she still drops them or they get stuck to her wet drooly hand but she tries. Its nice now, if we are out and about we can give her some snackies and her sippy cup to hold her over until we can feed her a real meal. Also, the day we introduced them she did the cutest thing. Daddy is trying to teach her to associate the word "num num" with food and for the first time she repeated it while eating her snackies! I wish so much I had my camera recording it but I didn't. She was holding her snackie and Daddy said "mmmm.... num nums" and she looked at me with the cutest smile and with a puff in her mouth she said "num num num". We both got a huge kick out of that!

Speaking of cute stuff I just have to add this little story real quick. Mia woke up this morning in such a good mood. I got her up from her crib and was saying good morning to her. I brought her over to her window to say good morning to Mr. Sun while I opened her blinds (a daily morning ritual for us) then walked her over to her picture frame that holds 1 picture for every month she is. We errr more like I always count the number of months she is and tap her on the nose for the month she currently is. She gets a kick out of this, but what really melted me is after we did that I gave her a kiss on the cheek and was ready to leave the room with her when she leaned over and gave me the biggest kissy on the cheek! She hasn't done that in months to me and just like hot butter I just melted!! She was all proud of herself and kissed me again. Such a sweet girl!

Ok back to the week, yesterday we got to meet with her Pastor at her new church regarding her upcoming baptism. Everyone fell in love with her and Daddy and I were beaming with pride. She was a good girl and let us have our grown up meeting while she played in her car seat with her toys, ate snacks and drank from her sippy cup. We later took a tour of the church and she made sure to show off to her Pastor on what a big girl she was by standing up while Adrian was holding her. She smiled shyly at Pastor as if to say "Look at me I'm a big girl I can stand up" and he got a huge kick out of it. He said "Look at her, she is all proud of herself!" haha Both he and the receptionist couldn't believe how inquisitive she is and both commented on seperate times how "smart" of a baby she is. She is always checking things out and analizing her envirnoment and people. Again Adrian and I were beaming with pride. Anyways the meeting went great and her big day to be baptized will be May 17th if everything goes well... speaking of which I need to call the church to reserve that day. I will have to do that after this blog entry.

Well thats about it for the week. Tomorrow and this weekend is going to be another big adventure for us. We are off to Oxnard for my cousins babyshower. We haven't been to Oxnard since early Feb. for Mia's cousin April's 2nd birthday so its going to be a treat for us. Especially since she may finally be able to see some family memebers that she hasn't met yet. I am so excited I can't wait to show her off and show everyone how many new things shes doing. I even bought her a new summer dress for the occasion and can't wait to put on those cute little strawberry sandels again! I am sure I will write again, so see you tomorrow or Sunday!

Meeting with Mia's Pastor Scott!

Current mood: blessed

Today was a big day for little Mia. She got to meet her soon-to-be Pastor, Pastor Scott! at her new church "Good Shepard" Lutheran Church in Menifee.

Though Adrian and I were raised and baptized Catholic, we both agree that the Lutheran religion/church is a better fit for us and for any kids we might have in the future. Now with little Mia here, we have started to investigate the church more and have chosen Good Shepard to be our church. With that we decided to have Mia baptized in that church and chose my Brother and Sis-in-law to be the Godparents! YAY! They both were honored to accept our request and can't wait to be Mia's Nina and Nino.

I met with the Pastor and the Church clerk Ruth about a month ago to get a feel for the church and to get information about baptism. They were extreemly welcoming and were "honored" that we picked that church to have our daughter baptized in. The next step was to set up a meeting with the godparents and Adrian and I. Since my bro and sis live 2.5 hours away they really couldn't make it down physically to the meeting. Especially with the fact my bro got a new job. So the church made it so they could tele-conference in. Pretty cool huh?

So today was the big meeting day. We packed up Mia and off to the church we went. We were greeted with open arms (literally) by Pastor Scott and both himself and the receptionist Ruth commented on how adorable Mia was. We sat down in his office and had alittle meeting while Mia hung out in her car seat with her sippy cup, snackies and toys. She did great considering the meeting took awhile. The Pastor got to talk to my bro and sis on the phone and spend some time with us talking about the church and baptism. He answered all our questions and was really down to earth. Adrian and I are both very pleased with the whole experience. We even got to take a tour of the church and see where Mia will be baptized. One of the things I really liked was, unlike all the Catholic Baptisms I have attended, when Mia gets baptized it will only be HER no other babies. So it will be HER special day with her own special mass. How cool is that! I am really excited. They only hold baptizms the first and third Sunday of the month and since Easter is next month they recommended to get it done in May. We are looking at possibly the third Sunday in May (17th). I still have to touch bases with my family to make sure thats a good date for them as well.

I am all excited. I can't wait to bring God into little Mia's life and I can't wait to see her all pretty in her white little gown when she gets baptized. Infact I think I will go shopping online right now!!! haha

Mia had new snackies today!

Current mood: pleased

Mia is growing up so fast that we are forgetting just how old she is sometimes. We introduced her first solid snacks about a month or so ago and she didn't react to them to well. Infact she made such horrible faces when we put them in her mouth we decided to give her alittle more time before introducing more solid snacks for her.

I have been doing her daily feeding routine so much now that I hardly think about it anymore. Between her oatmeal, rice cereal, baby food, water and formula I totally forgot about snacks! Shes going on 9 months now and now that she has to tiny chompers I remembered about her snacks.

So off to the store Daddy went today to pick up some stuff. I asked him to buy Mia some finger foods so we can try them out again and see if she likes them now. He came back with TONS and I mean TONS of different snackies! He bought more graduate puffs, some wheels, biter cookies, and two different flavors of yogart melts! WOW! I thought I was the only one who over does it with buying Mia stuff haha.

Anyways after she woke from her nap we set up her little feeding chair and laid out all the different types of foods. She did good, when we placed them in her mouth to eat she knew right away to munch on them and she didn't make a single "yuk" face. We let her hold a apple wheel and let her feed herself with it and before we knew it she ate a whole wheel! Those things are BIG too! We were so proud of her. I gave her a biter cookie but she just made a huge mess with it.. and to be honest it kind of grossed me out to see soggy food all over the place. (I know I know I need to get over that, especially now with having a baby but still I always had this thing about soggy food YUK!) So needless to say I think we will hold off on the biters for now. The wheel is just as good and she seems to really like that. She munched her yogart melts and downed her banana puffs like a big girl. She knows how to pick them up with her thumb and forefinger but the coordination to getting them in her mouth may take her a bit more practice. She keeps dropping them or those tiny things stick her to wet fingers and wont go in her mouth. Haha She will get it though, I am proud of her anyways. Afterwards she downed some water in her sippy cup and was off to play again.

Speaking of sippy cup she is drinking from it alot better now. Infact I always have one laying around her play area for her to go to when she is thirsty, and she does. She will crawl to her cup, take a few drinks then go off playing again. Wow what a big girl!

I am so proud of my little mama, she is growing to fast!

Down goes Mia's Crib

Current mood: sleepy

If you have seen the Mia crib pictures you will know that her crib needed to be lowered a LOOOONG time ago. Finding time and getting to it was definately not easy but after I kept finding her standing every morning in the crib I finally got on Daddy's case about lowering it and he finally did.

Mia skipped the whole middle notch and went straight to the final notch. It seems so low now but she didn't seem to notice much. I like it this way because it is lower to the ground and since I am a shrimp (5'0) it makes things easier for me. YAY!

Lowering it was definately not an easy task. Her crib is built in such a way it sure doesn't make it simple for you to lower it. Infact I had to help Adrian, since my hands are smaller than his, just to get the "L" wrench to fit! It took us almost 30mins to get it all done, and poor Mia was jailed up in her octogan getting impatient and wanting her bath and to go to bed. Poor thing haha. But its all lowered and I am going to take some pics of it tomorrow after I clean her room a bit. We had to empty her crib out and all her millions of toys are all over the place at the moment hehe.

She also got to play outside in the front yard today. Daddy had to mow the lawn and do some yard work. It was such a nice day so I brought out her walker and let her play while getting some much needed fresh air. Our neighbor (one of the original people who moved into the block with us when our houses were built and the only nice neighbor we have and like) came over to visit once he saw Mia. He came over once when she was a baby newborn and hadn't seen her since then. (He works in Orange Co. so hes hardly home) He commented on how cute she was and she just did her famous stare. She never smiles or laughs with strangers and if she does its really RARE. She just likes to study new people and stare, so thats what she did. It wasn't until he went home did she perk up and start yelling and playing again. Sigh.. Mia so anti-social! haha She is getting better at moving her walker around, but at the moment only really goes backwards! Later I laid down a sheet and let her play in the grass. She was semi-amused by it and eventually just wanted to go back inside.

Mia got her First TOOTH!!!!

Current mood: shocked

I know I can't believe it either!!! My little girl grew a brand new chomper!

She has been teething forever it seems like (around the 2-3rd month to be exact), but she never grew anything above the gumline. I started to get worried the older she got she still didn't have any teeth! Everyone elses kids seemed to have popped out their first tooth months younger than Mia. I couldn't understand why she never did. I mean she droolings so much, always itching her gums, teethes on everything and anything, and there are always red bumps here and there but nothing. Till today!!!

Actually last week I noticed that in the middle lower part of her gums, there were these two indentations of teeth! I mean you could see the shape of the tiny teeth but they were still under the gum. (She won't let you look at it because she covers it with her tounge but she lets you feel them). I got all excieted, maybe within the next couple of months we will have some teethies finally. Then yesterday while sitting in the back of the car with her, while we were driving out to San Diego, she was saying "Da-da" alot. When she says Da-da she does it in a way it shows the bottom of her gums. So I decided to look at her teething gums to see if there was any progress. I could see the teeth indenations more now and it finally started to bump up towards the top of the gums!! I tried to take a couple of pictures but she kept closing her mouth when the camera flashed. Then I forgot about it, but still found it a bit odd that she was sticking her fingers in her mouth ALOT more than usual... hmm...

Then this morning I fed her and was playing with her. I decided to check her gums again and lightly rubbed them and I felt a rough sharp pokey thing!!! OMG! I sat up and tried to look, but again she wouldn't let me. She would stick her tounge out or move her head or just won't let you look. So I did the next best thing (I didn't want to pin her down and force her of course) I started to make her laugh and sure enough there was a tiny little white thing poking out!!! I quickly grabbed Mia and gave her a kiss and congradulated her. She was her normal happy self! I was surprised she never got a fever, never fussed or cried so I think we got lucky with that one. Then again there were nights here and there where we had to rub that baby orajel on her gums so she could sleep. I dunno. Anyways I later put her down for a nap and spread the news to the family. Daddy is so happy and proud too and can't wait till she wakes up from her nap so he can see himself!

Thats my little girl! Growing up so fast! I am sure going to miss that gummy smile but I am so exciting she is transitioning into a new phase. Score one for Mia Girl!

Whoops I almost forgot to add which tooth it was. Well if you face her and picture two middle teeth on the bottom, its the one on the left. The right one is close too so I think it should be popping soon too, but the left one is the first one.

*******UPDATE*******


I am in shock, Mia just woke up from her nap with another new tooth!!!!! Thats right, shes the proud owner of TWO teeth now! The one next to the first one just poked through! Now she has two little chompers in the middle lower part of her gums!

Daddy was the one who discovered it. After I finishsed writing the previous blog she woke up from her nap a little while later. I brought her down to show Daddy her new tooth. She wouldn't show it so he put his finger to feel for it and she bit down! OUCH! Brand new teeth and she already is using them to bite Daddy! haha He picked her up and made he laugh and said "Hey there is another one in there!!" I said, "No way!" he made her laugh more and sure enough I saw her other new brand new tooth poking out! Thats #2! Wow I am shocked! Go Mia! Now she LOVES her teething rings more than ever! haha So much for having her teethe on carrots and jicama anymore, with those new chompers shes bound to bite through them and choke. Guess she just has to wait to pop out a few more teeth before she can have those treats again! Haha

Well I gotta go, its lunch time for Mia and see her put those new teeth to work!

****Up-Update**********

All I can say is that I am just amazed. I don't know if its because her first tooth errr... TEETH came in but shes been on the move with other new things today! I just got off the phone with her Grandpa Pizano telling him all the new things (3rd phone call so far today! haha) and he said "I am no longer calling her Baby Mia she is Amazing Mia!" haha Well here are the two new things that just happened since my last blog entry....

Grandpa Santos bought her a toy bouncing ball yesterday. She loved playing with it and even learned to hold on to it. (its probably the size of a small watermelon). So today I decided to play with it with her. She was crawling around so she was on all fours and I sat down near her. I rolled the ball to her and she hit it so it rolled back to me. I rolled it to her again and she hit it back to me!! She kept doing this over and over! Each time I cheered her on she got all excited and rolled it back! Then she decided to do her other new thing....

She crawled away from the ball and to her toy her Grandparents Pizano bought her for X-mas. Its a tall thing with toys on the bottom, middle and top. She loves to be stood up so she could play with the toys on the top. She has been practicing and trying to stand up on her own to reach those toys but she just couldn't get herself all the way up to the standing position. Until now! Like I said, she crawled away from the ball and to her toy and just like nothing she grabbed the top and pulled herself up into the standing position all by herself! I was in shock and celebrated with her! I have never seen her pull herself up all the way to a standing position from a crawl before! She did once but she was already sitting on me, but this time she was alone on the floor. She did pull herself into a standing position a week or so ago in her crib but I didn't see how she did it and she hasn't done it since. So I was really suprised to see her pull herself up! Way to go Mia!

Wow its only 4:30 and she is down for her second nap for the day. I wonder what other amazing things she will do today! Go Amazing Mia!

Mia's big day in San Diego!

Current mood: exhausted

Wow what another big day in Sunny San Diego! Today was her big cousin Emily's 4th birthday. So off to San Diego we went again.

She did great in the car, she played a bit but finally knocked out about 10 mins from the party. She was out like a light because she stayed asleep even after getting her off the car.. that was a first. We were greeted in the drive way by Cousin Robert who had never had a chance to meet her yet and right away he commented on how cute she was. She was sleeping quietly in her car seat and only really woke up after Great Grandma and Great Auntie Teri came over to see her. After a short visit it was off to the party we all went.

She did great at the party. We stayed outside most of the time and the weather was pretty nice. She got to hit her second pinata and she actually held the stick this time. I think she is finally getting the hang of it alittle bit because she didn't lose interest as fast and she liked watching all the kids hit it. She didn't get any candy this time but did get a goodie bag. YAY! She later ate her lunch in her bumbo seat (man that little seat sure does come in handy when she needs to eat on the fly) on the dinning room table and after spitting all her squash all over me she scarfed down her Hawaiian Delight.

We spent alot of time visiting and having fun. Then Daddy wanted to show her the Jump for Joy and got in it with her. It was her very first time in one and she loved it! Once she got her balance she started jumping on her butt and making Daddy bounce her. It was really cute. Then her big Cousin Baby D (1 years old) decided to join her. They bounced together and he followed her as she crawled around. At one point they even started talking baby talk to each other. It was so adorable and I was able to catch it on video.

She was a very good baby at the party and soon it was time to go. We wanted to stop by her Grandma and Grandpa Santo's house before heading back home so we drove there. The whole Cardoso family live in the Eastlake area which is nice because it didn't take more than 5 mins to get to their house. Oh wait, before we got there we decided to check out a park nearby (Sunset View). We heard it was a nice little park and we were thinking of having her 1st birthday there. After taking a quick walk around we decided it would be PERFECT! It has a giant covered gazeboo, and next to it there is a mini playground for the kiddies and tons of grassy area for running around. We are going to see what we need to do to reserve that spot for her Big Birthday Bash!

Anyways after the park we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Her cousins Natalia and Brianna where there to spend the night so they all got to play together. Grandpa Fernando bought each of them a big ball and Mia decided she liked Natalia's ball and wanted to play with that one instead of her own. She would hold on to it and would throw it down screaming and laughing. It was really cute. So after eating some oatmeal and a bottle it was time to go home. We were all tired so we cut the visit alittle shorter than usual.

After we left her grandparent's house she knocked out in the car in less than 10 mins! Poor baby she was exausted since she didn't really get any naps in today. She didn't wake up again until about few blocks from home. Daddy brought her inside the house, I changed her diaper and took her upstairs to bed, and she knocked right out.

Phew what a day! I am so beat, which is why this blog is alittle shorter than usual but I can barely keep my eyes open. Overall it was a great day with tons of fun!

36 weeks old!

Current mood: amused

Well here we are, once again for another weekly blog entry. Time is still not letting up and every week seems to be picking up speed! Mia is growing and changing by leeps and bounds and she always leaves Mama in the dust haha.

This week started off alittle bumpy to say the least. And for once, it was in no fault or action of Mia. Last Friday, during the night, I was going downstairs to grab a snack when I fell. Yea, I fell down the first part of our stairs. I am ok! I hit the back of my head and my back and butt. I didn't write about it in last Friday's blog because I wanted to make sure I was really ok before I wrote about it. Well here I am and yes I am perfectly fine other than a big ugly bruise on my butt and sore elbow haha I can live with that. My biggest concern when it happened was, not if I had a concusion or fractured elbow but if I was hurt how was I going to take care of Mia?! That really made me realize that I have really grown into motherhood when my first concerns were not about me but if I would be ok to care for Mia! Wow, talk about a revelation. Well things worked out and other than being achey and sore I was still able to run around with Mia and do all the normal things. Phew.. talk about close call. I am much more careful down the stairs now and take the same precautions I always do when I take Mia up and down them, even if I am alone.

Ok enough with all that now on to some fun stuff. Mia celebrated her first St. Patrick's day and even got to wear some home-made shamrock dingle balls for pictures! haha No she didn't get green milk but she had green beans! Haha

The big event that happened this week though, was she graduated to sitting in the shopping cart like a big girl now! At first I wasn't sure if she was really ready. I didn't want to see her fall through the leg holes, or fall over, or slide around while taking a sharp corner. None of this of course happened.... haha it was just my over protective Mothering kicking in again. Anyways, due to no other options I had to graduate her when I took her shopping this week at babies r us to stalk up on baby supplies. There was no room for her car seat in the basket and I couldn't take her stroller so into the front of the basket she went. To my surprised she LOVED it! She liked being able to look around and interact with the different people in the store. Especially babies and kids. I took her little toy cat for comfort and she held on to it the whole time. The only time she threw it aside was when she grabbed a dress she wanted me to buy her for Easter. It is the cutest little pink puffy flower dress ever! I liked it alot too and her grabbing it just sealed the deal on buying it.

Adrian and I took her out shopping again yesterday. We hit the dollar store to check out their Easter things and to get ideas for her soon up coming birthday party. At first, since we were only supposed to be there a short time, Daddy wanted to hold her instead of getting a cart. I was ok with that. I guess I was taking alittle longer than planned because before I knew it, here comes Daddy pushing Mia in a shopping cart! It was a small little cart and she looked like a giant baby in it! haha But she had a good time. We even treated her good behavior and got her a stuffed animal toy. She got to pick it out too. It was between a stuffed rhino or a stuffed warthog. I have to admit the rhino was cuter but the warthog was definately unique. I showed her both and made her choose the one she wanted. She grabbed the rhino at first then threw it aside and grabbed the warthog and squeezed it! She held on to that little thing the whole time in the store. Daddy even found her another toy. A little cat that vibrated when you pulled its tail. We could only buy one toy so I took her warthog and mixed it up with the cat in front of Mia. Then I held them both out to see which one she wanted and right away she went for that little warthog again! haha So we bought it for her along with some other stuff. We then went next door to Cardenas Market to pick up a little more groceries. We switched Mia into a bigger cart and while still holding on to that warthog we did some more shopping. After we got what we needed we went back home, warthog and all.

This week has definately started to heat up. I am sad to see winter go because summers here in this area are aweful! So hot! We got a small sample reminder of it this week when it warmed up. Mia started sleeping in onesies instead of her jammies at night because it got so warm upstairs. Soon we will have to move her crib out of her room upstairs and back into the guest room downstairs for night time. She used to sleep in that room in her bassinette when she was a baby newborn because upstairs just gets and stays to hot at night. We are really barely making ends meet so using the AC is outta the question right now, so gotta do what you gotta do to stay cool. Anyways, on that note she is starting to drink more water now. She used to reject it alot but now, due to the heat I think, she is getting thirsty enough not to care anymore and drinks it with no problem. I also realize I should have a back up bottle in the car for days we are out and about like yesterday (when its hot and hot in the car) so we can pour some of our cool water (from our water bottle) into the her bottle and have her drink that. We wouldn't want to get her all dehyrated while we are all refreshed!

Lets see what else..... well she is still testing us with tiny Mia tantrums. She now ALWAYS throws big fits when we lay her down on her changing table to be changed. She just explodes into a ball of anger and rage! She will give the meanest dirtiest look with her eyes and cry like if you just dropped her a100 feet! also can't forget the fact she kicks her feet wildly and even tries to kick you! This has been happening for a few weeks now but just this week she started to take it to another level. She just gets flat out angry when you put her down to change her and now clinches her fists and just yells, not cries, but angerly yells "ARRGGH!" and gives you the dirty looks. I have no idea what brought this all on but I take it as an opprotunity to practice my "Mama look". You know the one... the type your mom gives you that makes you shut right up, put whatever you got back, cower in fear, and just be good stare. I am getting good at it too. So when I put her down on the changing table and she blows up I just stare at her with that look, unimpressed, and unintimidated. And just like that when she knows I mean business she calms right down and stops the crying. Only then will I resume changing her or give her a toy to play with while I change her. I am trying to reinforce her to realize that crying won't get you your way and once your good only then will you get rewarded. It seems to be working, but don't get me wrong, I am no a pro yet and it does backfire sometimes haha. Adrian on the other hand is Mr. Nice Daddy, he never lets her cry and if she throws a fit on the changing table he is quick to pick her right up and comfort her and says its ok we don't need to change your diaper right now! . NOOO!!!! ARRGH! haha I am constantly telling him not to do that but he says he can't stand to see her cry and he feels bad. I tell him shes just testing us and if you show her she can't get away with that, she will stop and be happy again. I even made him put her back down on the changing table, and I gave her that "Mama look" and she stopped and started playing. I go "see!" but Adrian still says he wants to rescue her and not make her cry. SIGH!!! haha ah well.

Oh another thing that happened this week, Mia has never had diaper rash ever in her short little lifespan. I am trying extra hard to make sure she never gets it, or at least not while on my watch. I change her diapers constantly and always putting butt cream on her. However, dispite all my efforts she started to get a little irritated in her bootie buns. It wasn't full on diaper rash but I felt if it let it go it could become that! So thanks to the advice to her soon to be Nina, Lauren (my sis in law aka my mothering advice guru) I used her secret recipe. Instead of just putting A & D on her butt like I always do, I topped it off with Destine cream. With that combo BAM all the redness and irriated was completely gone by the next diaper change! Whoohoo! Score one for the new Mama! (Thanks Auntie Lauren!)

Well thats about it for the week. We were supposed to take her to the mall to get her picture taken with the Easter bunny but I think we are going to postpone that till next week. The mall who takes the better pictures has the bunny coming later in the month so I think we will wait and go there instead. Especially since we have to go shopping for her little cousin Emily's birthday party tomorrow in San Diego and already Mama and Daddy are tired! haha Well I am sure I will have a story to tell tomorrow after the party! So I end it here, see you tomorrow!

Mia's First St. Patty's Day & Goes Shopping!!!!

Current mood: adventurous

Yesterday was Mia's first St. Patrick's Day. I know, I know we aren't Irish but I love Shamrocks anyways. We have been alittle tight on money lately so I wasn't able to buy her any St. Patty's day things (Especially when Easter around the corner) so instead, I dressed her up in the only green top she had (a hand me down from Cousin April! thank you!) her green bib, and I found her giant Green Bow! I took some pictures but really felt something was missing... yep she had no shamrocks! So I ran off to Walgreens hoping to find something with a Shamrock on it on Clearance but unfortunately they had nothing. Sigh... I wasn't going to have Mia without a Shamrock so I went home, found a picture of one and printed it out. I cut two of them out and taped it to her little bumble bee antenas from Halloween, and ta-da! Shamrock dingle balls! I took some pictures of her with them and she liked them. Though she kept trying to touch them in all the pictures she left them on. At one point she thought it was a game, because everytime she touched them I would quickly said "no no no" and move her hand away, she of course busted up laughing and did it again! Haha Little Mia Girl!

On a new subject, she was a big girl today!!! She did another first time thing. We went shopping at Babies R Us and sat in the cart like a big girl! Right in the front! Heres what happened, and why. Adrian was still sleeping and we really needed to stock up on baby supplies. I knew Babies R Us stalk up their inventory on Wednesday so off to the store we went, bright and early. With all the stuff on the shopping list, I knew there was no way I would be able to push her stroller and a cart, and we needed so much that I couldn't put her car seat in the basket sooo she graduated to sitting in the big kid part of the cart!!! I wasn't sure how she would act to it, especially since she wasn't to keen when we put her in the big girl part of the stroller, but she did great! Infact she got a kick out of it! She loved looking at all the people, and especially babies. She would smile at everyone and talk and babble. She was holding her little kitty for comfort the whole time, but she seemed to really enjoy herself. She even picked out her Easter Dress!!!! I went down the dress isle and was browsing when I came across a cute little poofy pink dress. I liked it alot but it was $24! I did have a 15% coupon but still I wasn't sure so I put it back. Then Mia let go of her kitty! and reached over and started to grab a dress! I looked and it was the same kind of dress I just put back! She never tried to grab anything the whole time we were at the store, so I took it as she liked it and wanted it. So I bought it for her! hehe So after spending a wopping $200! (all on necessities.. the diapers and formula alone were $130!) we were off to go back home again.

Phew what an adventure. We both had tons of fun and I can't wait to take her shopping again!

Week # 35!

Current mood: tired

I can't believe I almost forgot to write her "Friday" blog today! I know I know, bad Mama! I just got swept up with things that I even forgot today was even Friday.

Well now that I remembered I can go on about the new things, milestones, and visits she had this week!

The week started off good. We went to San Diego for her cousin's 1st birthday so she got to see her Cardoso family again. Always a treat. She got to see her Grandparents Santos and their cute kitties. I wrote about all this a few times now so I won't go too much into it. So as you know she hit her first Pinata and licked her first candies.

She is starting to stand so much better now. And thats ALL she seems to want to do now. If you try to put her on her butt she will scream and cry. She can't stand by herself just yet but she tries too. She will hold on to the edge of her baby jail/octogon, couch, toys or anything and she will slowly lift one hand, balancing herself with the other. I have even seen her try to let go of that hand to but she starts to fall and quickly grabs on to anything she was holding on to. But the HUGE thing that happened this week is she pulled herself all the way up to the standing position all by herself! Thats right, I found her standing in her crib one morning while holding on to the side. I have no idea how she did it, since she hasn't done it again, but today I did see her try alittle.

Another new thing she finally learned how to do is sit on her butt all by herself from the crawling position. She used to try so hard but she never seemed to be able to get herself to sit up. Now she sits up like a pro! She even pulls herself up now and sits on her feet!

Just today she also took her first steps! No no no not walking yet, but she moved her feet in that motion. For Mia thats a big deal since she rarely ever moves her feet while standing. They are always stiff. However, today (while I was cooking and out of the room, and Adrian was watching her) she moved her two feet. Adrian quickly called out to me to come see but I missed it =( He said he put her in her octogon standing up while she held on to the side. Her legs were kind of farther back than usual and thats when she moved one foot closer to the side of the octogan, then the other! Daddy was all excieted and so was I, I just wish I got to see it. I am sure she will do it again. I am just shocked how fast shes picking things up like that. She just started standing not too long ago and now shes moving her feet in a walking way! I think she will start walking in a couple of months for sure, at her pace.

Lets see what else... well her and Daddy got to spend some quality time together this week as well. Just hanging out and playing. She is also saying "da-da" alot more and actually says it more than Ma-ma anymore. Which is sad for me but makes Adrian ultra happy haha. I don't mind though, she still says Mama once in awhile, I guess its his turn now.

She also turned 8 months old this month! She is creeping closer to those double didgets and even her 1year birthday! YIKES Mia slow down!!!Well thats about it for the week. It sure flew by fast! Not sure of our plans this weekend but I am sure we will find something fun to do, with Mia that isn't hard to do.

I found Mia standing in her crib today!!!!!

Current mood: shocked

I know! I can't believe it either!!! Just a few days ago I found her sitting up by herself in her crib and today I find her standing!!!! Oh my goodness Mia slow down!!!

She has been trying and trying to pull herself up to a stand position for awhile now, probably about a week or so if not less, but she never seemed to be able to get up past being able to pull herself up and sit on her feet. I have been watching her practice and practice everyday in her little "octogon/baby jail". She puts her tiny fngers through the holds and tries so hard to pull herself all the way up. She gets close but still hasn't gotten it yet.

So as you can probably guess how shocked I was to find her standing in her crib this morning!!!! Heres how it happened...

I woke up this morning to her being unsually happier than normal. She was screaming, babblings and cooing really loud. So loud it woke up Adrian who never wakes up for anything! So I got up and walked to her room. To my shock she was standing up and holding on to the side of her crib!!! I have no idea how she did it. I quickly ran downstairs and grabbed the camera and took a picture before she could see me. I thought once she saw me she would fall, but she didn't. So I took more pics of her. There she stood all proud of herself. She even held on to the side of the crib with one hand! That scared me so I made her put her hand back. Eventually she fell back into the sitting position and just crawled around. She had no interest in revealing to her Mama just how she managed to get standing because she wouldn't do it again. Haha

I just had to write about her big accomplishment today. We are definately lowering the crib now, I don't want to wake up tomorrow and find her on the floor!

Shes 8 Months Old Today!!!!!!

Current mood: Happy

Thats right! My little butterfly princess turned 8 Months today! She is getting closer and closer to that big "01". I can't wait... no wait, I can.. she is growing up so fast its getting harder to keep track of time! It seems like everyday she starts doing something new and stops doing something old. I even find myself reminising about her little baby new born days and can't believe shes already almost standing by herself!

Well I guess I should get started on her summary of the month. It started off pretty good, as always. She learned some new things, I learned some new things. One of them being NEVER EVER leave the house without one of her warm fuzzy blankets. I learned this lesson the hard way when Adrian and I went to the Roadhouse restaurant to celebrate early Valentines Day, with Mia. Her pink fuzzy lady bug blankey was dirty and I didn't have time to wash it so I brought along another white blankey she has. Granted it wasn't as soft as her pink one but I figured, heck its a blankey it shouldn't make a difference. Boy was I wrong! She fussed and figited the whole time. She wanted to take a cat nap but since she didn't have her normal blankey she couldn't. Adrian and I both paid dearly for our error in judgement. Now we make sure no matter where we go, no matter how warm it is outside, she always has to have her warm fuzzy blankey. We even made a special trip to Babies R Us just to buy a back up one incase her pink or green one were dirty. Haha

Mia also got to celebrate her very first Valentines Day! Granted she is still to young to enjoy chocolates and candy hearts, she still had a good time with the little fuzzy bear Daddy bought her and drooling on the Winnie The Pooh v-day bib I got her.

She also made a couple of San Diego trips this month. Both times she got to visit her Grandpa and Grandma Santos and their sweet kitties while down there. She also has a blast when she visits her grandparents because they spoil her rotten. Grandpa Fernando is always showing her new musical things ie. guitar, flutes and drums and she always gets a kick out of playing them too. They introduced "Yanni" to her and she loves those DVDs. She is always mesmorized by the lights, sounds, and music of Yanni. We even got to borrow Grandma and Grandpa's Yanni DVD and she loved watching it at home too! She even fell asleep on Daddy which is so rare now days. She was also given TONS of clothes from when Grandma went on a shopping spree for her! She has a whole new wardrobe now and all 18 months so she can actually fit in them and not have to squeeze in to her current smaller 9-12 month clothes. YAY! Anyways, The first time we made it down to San Diego was for her Great Uncle Carlos' 60th Birthday party. That was alot of fun. The family got to see her again and she got to show off her new crawling techniques. (At that time it was still the army man aka camando crawl). The second trip to San Diego was for her baby cousin Daniel Jr.'s 1st birthday party. That was TONS of fun, she not only got to hit her first Pinata but she tasted her first candy too! (Thanks to Daddy). Just as I feared she loves candy just like her Mama.... uh-oh!

She had a few "firsts" this month but the HUGE one was her ability to finally get crawling down pad and learning to pull herself up! She rarely does the "camado" crawl anymore and actually FINALLY uses her knees under her. She doesn't quiet get the whole speed thing yet since she is still alittle slow at it (thank goodness for us!) but she definately has the hang of it. We also found it amusing that once she felt she nailed crawling she quickly graduated to wanting to stand up. Before, if you tried to stand her up she would just thinking it was "jumpy jumpy time" and try to jump rather than stand straight up. Those days are over now, and you can't even get to jump anymore. Now she stiffens her little legs and makes you stand her up. If you go to put her down she stiffens again and refuses to let you make her sit down, if you force her... better watch out cuz the wrath of Mia will be upon you! Now she can hold on to the couch or other tall things and balance herself against it so she can stand up. She loves doing this and just recently she has been actually trying to pull herself up from the sitting position. She has managed to make it to where she sits on her feet but doesn't quiet have the stregnth to pull herself all the way up yet. But shes definately getting there. Also, along with all of these new things she has finally learned how to sit herself up now. YAY! She has been trying and trying for so long and finally got the hang of it just recently. Infact, last night when I went to check on her about 5am (I heard her playing in her crib) she was sitting right there on her butt in the middle of the crib trying to tear apart her crib bumber haha.

Oh and a side note, she also graduated to stage 3 diapers!

Some other new things she started doing this month was her famous "Mia War Cry" or "Indian" as we call it. Daddy taught her how to put her hand over her month and move it away and back real fast while making a noise. Kind of like a Indian War Cry. Now she does it on her own. She first used a fist to punch herself in the mouth, but now she has evolved to just putting a fist in her mouth and moving her head back and forth. It still makes similar sounds and she loves doing it. You can do it to her too, just lighly pat her mouth and she will automatically make the noise. Sometimes she will reach out and grab you hand and put it to her mouth for you to do it to her.

She also learned how to clap! Another one of Daddy's teachings (hes so good at that stuff). Once you show her by doing it youself, she will copy you and do it. She is slowing starting to recognize the command "clap clap clap" because she will do it sometimes with just saying that alone.

That takes me into her mimicking ability. She is really starting to mimick you. If you do the "indian" thing she will do it, if you clap she will too, if you say "ta" she will repeat it. Granted she will only do all of this when SHE wants to. I can't seem to get her to do it for an audience yet but I do have video of it. As for commands she is slowly learning them too. She gives kissies when you ask and if you say "do ababbaba" she will do her little "indian" thing.

A couple of other new things is, she is finally using her "big girl toy" Grandpa and Grandma Pizano gave her for xmas. Its a toy for toddlers where you can stand against it and play with tops on top and in the middle it has a spiral thing that let you put balls into it and watch them spiral down. Again, Daddy taught her how to place a ball in the spiral part and watch it go down. I was truely amazed when I saw her do it all by herself for the first time. Now she rarely does it since she rather just stand up and play with the toys on top. Haha

Also she no longer uses her car seat in her stroller. We went to WinCo once and let her sit in it like a big girl. I don't think she cared for it much since she seemed scared and uncomfrotable. Plus she couldn't lay down with her blankey and take a nap. We haven't taken her out in her stroller since because lately we've been really lazy. When we go to do a quick grocery stop we just leave her in the car seat and put her in the basket! she seems to be ok with it. Haha

We also got her a walker. Its really cute, almost like a little car. Right away she learned to toot the horn and she loves playing with the toys on it. However, she doesn't quiet get the concept of moving her legs in a walking motion yet so she just stays put. She loves to stand up so she loves being in it. Just recently she started moving alittle.. but backwards! haha I think once she links movement with leg movement she will get the hang of it.

She has also discovered her shadow. If shes playing and crawling around on the floor and notices her shadow on the wall, she will go straight for it. She tries to touch it and even lick it! EW! I always have to get her away from the wall for that reason haha.

She doesn't like smiling for the camera anymore either. I am so sad about this because I used to love taking all those dimply smiley pictures of her. She used to automatically smile when you showed her the camera but she doesn't anymore. I don't know if its because we have a new camera or what. She doesn't like to sit still for pictures either so getting month update pics of her is proving to be harder and harder. Sigh... little Mia!

She also has started to refuse to ever be put on her back. She dispises it now. If you try to lay her down for bed and lay her on her back .. WATCH OUT! cuz your in for a ear full. So now at night I have to put her in the crib in the crawling position, then give her the blankey and she will find her own place in her crib to get comfy and fall asleep. She never sleeps on her back anymore, shes either face planted into the crib with her butt in the air, or on her side smooshed against the side of the crib. Yep, shes a crazy sleeper now.

She also went to the park this month for the first time with her Mama and Daddy! It is right across the street so it was easy to get to and easy to get home, which was a good thing too because she was having a bad day and just wanted to go home! Haha

On to food things. She started eating desserts for the first time this month. Hawaiian Delight (her favorite) and Banana Yogart, both in stage two. She only gets her dessert once a day and after she finishes eating her stage 2 veggies. Speaking of which, her old favorite, carrots, have slowly started becoming her least favorite. I don't know why this happened, she used to love them. Now its a struggle to keep her attention long enough to eat them (something she doesn't do with her sweet potatoes or squash) She also munched on her first baby carrot, not to eat but to teeth on and she seems to like it. Esepcially when its cold. Also she likes Jicama too! She munches on that like crazy and I really think thats her favorite.

Shes really getting into music too! Especially if a toy makes music, she loves to play with it. This is also true with TV shows and commericals. If it has music in it it quickly gets her attention and she has to stare at it and rock her body like shes dancing haha. Her favorite show is "Yo, Gabba Gabba" (thanks to baby Cousin April) but unfortunately it rarely comes on tv but when it does she becomes glued to the TV. She loves the puppets the most. Whenever she starts getting alittle fussy Adrian will bring up the "Yo, Gabba Gabba" website or a youtube of the show and she will settle right down and watch it. Oh ya and she likes Armin Van Buren like her Daddy haha her favorite song is, "Love you more"

Ok now on to the not so fun stuff. She is learning how to "test" us now and is constantly doing. She no longer wants to be alone and if she catches you walking away from her, even for a short distance she screams in protest and demands you come back and sit with her. Now that we realized she is just testing us we don't give in as much. She has also learned how to whine and of course her favorite word to use while whing is "Mama". So of course when she does this I want to go pick her up but have to restrain myself not to. We did have a few extreemly fussy days too. Not really sure what brought those on but she is getting better now. She was also starting to rekindle her old baby new born bad nights again! She would scream and cry when we put her down for bed and just cry and cry until one of us went in there and picked her up. However, once we stopped catering to her (of course after we knew she was ok) she stopped doing this and is back to her ol self of going to sleep when put in bed. Phew...

The worse thing that unfortunately happened this month, is she had her first real big fall. I still feel bad for this but Thank GOD she was ok and didn't get hurt. It is when she fell off my bed during bathtime. I turned away literally for less than a min. and less than 2 feet away and she decided to roll over and fall off the bed. THUMP! she went and she cried so hard. Poor little one, but she landed on all fours so she didn't hit her head, sprane her arms or hurt her legs. We were very fortunate. I no longer leave her out of my sight for even a second. When I get her bath stuff ready I sit her down right besides me while I prepare her bath, and carry her everywhere. Before I used to just put tons of pillows on either side of her while I got her ready but she never stays on her back anymore so I stopped doing this and just take her with me.

Overall the month has been fun and full of new things. I still can't get over how big she is getting and how much she is changing and learning. I love my little one and can't wait to see what next month brings! YAY Easter is around the corner and I can't wait to see her crawl after her Easter eggs!

Summary:

Feedings: She has a pretty good daily routine with food now. She wakes up around 9 and eats a big bowl of banana oatmeal with 4 oz of formula after, for lunch she eats a stage 2 veggie with a stage 2 dessert or pear, for mid evening snack med. to large bowl of mixed fruit rice cereal sometimes with alittle water afterwards, dinnger she gets a 8oz bottle of formula and if she wakes up during the night/early morning she gets another 8oz of formula! Thats my girl! Big eater!

New Things: She went to the park with her Mama and Daddy for the first time, first Valentines Day, mimicking more, teething on carrots and jicama, learning to stand up straight, crawl with her knees, throw little balls, put a ball in her spiral toy, clap, war cry, hit her first pinata, tasted her first candy, eating desserts, pulled herself up, sleeping on her face and side, used a walker, chases shadow, listens to Yanni, Armin Van Buren, and other music, fell off the bed for the first time, using her big girl seat in her stroller, and stage 3 diapers.

Weight: About 17 lbs per the bathroom scale

Goals met from last month? Yep yep yep she met every goal set from last month. She now crawls with her knees tucked under, she sits up on her own, she can pull herself up (almost to a full standing position from the crawl position), she does use her sippy cup alittle more, and she stands pretty good (of course aided)

Goals for next month: Learn to balance herself while standing alone, learn to drink more water (she doesn't like water much), learn to start stepping, move in her walker

Daddy and Mia time, plus Mia sits on her own!

Current mood: happy

If you read my previous blog you can see what a wild and fun day we had together yesterday. Unfortunately, I was still really tired today and simply had no more energy left in me to watch the baby all day. That is when Daddy came to the rescue!! I laid down for a short nap, which turned into a loooong nap haha while Adrian watched the little one downstairs.

She took a small hour nap on Daddy which was a huge treat for him since he misses her sleeping on him so much. While she was knocked out, Adrian was watching TV and eventually got tired himself so he nodded off. He woke to her squirming alittle and she started grabbing his chin. The grabbing soon turned into pinching (another famous Mia thing) and he moved his chin away, his eyes still closed. Then she started to gentally push his chin to wake him up and said "Da-Da". This melted his heart and of course he woke up and played with her more. (How cute huh?!) They played and played. He let her do the jumpy game on him and just had a good time together. Great Daddy daughter bonding time.

Then she decided to go poopies! Oh-No! With Mama sleeping upstairs it was Daddy's turn to battle the dirty diaper. Of course Mia didn't want to make it easy for him and decided to repeat what she did to me the night before, thats right, as Adrian was in mid-diaper change she decided to go peepee's all over! Oh no!! He couldn't catch it in time and she ended up getting a early wardrobe change! haha After she was all cleaned up it was time to wake up Mama!I was knocked out in bed and was woken up to a little Baby being laid down next to me! Her little voice woke me up and we played a bit then all three of us went downstairs to spend the rest of the day together.

Well later in the evening I was playing with her in her little octogan/baby jail. She was crawling around and playing with toys when all of a sudden, just like nothing, she sat up and sat down all by herself from the crawling position! I gasped! and quickly called to Adrian to see! What a big girl! She was all proud of herself. Go Mia!!!!

Well I just had to write about those cute little things that happened today. As for me it is bedtime.. I am still sooo very tired. I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

Party at Baby D's!!!!

Current mood: exhausted

I finally found time to write this blog. We got home later than expected and I was so wiped out from the busy day I had barely enough energy to get Mia all set up in bed and for myself to crawl into bed. Now she is down for a nap and I can write about her big day yesterday in San Diego!

Yesterday was her baby cousin, Daniel Jr's 1st birthday party. So we got up extra early to get ready for the big day in San Diego. She was great on the ride there. She was more talkative than normal and entertained both of us by her random shrieks and screams. It was really cute. Eventually she fell asleep and didn't wake up until we were in Eastlake.

When we got to the party we were shocked by the enormous BASH that was already going on at Tia Gloria's house. So many friends and family came out to celebrate Baby D's big day. There was music blasting, and good food at every corner. Not to mention the famous Tacqueto! Yummy! Everyone was happy to see Baby Mia again as she made her appearance all bright eyed and bushy tailed since she was all rested up. I wasn't sure how she would react to all the people, being outside, and loud music but she didn't mind one bit. She, of course, did her famous "Mia Stare" at everyone and refused to smile or even play.

Eventually though as time wore on she warmed up a bit (dispite the chilly day!) and played alittle bit. For the most part, however, she stayed quiet.. but never once cried. Good Girl!

The party was a blast, we got to visit and catch up with everyone. Especially Cousin Oscar, Cynthia, and Carina. Then when it was Pinata time, Daddy made sure Mia had a front row seat to the action. I was there taking pictures with my camera when to my shock and disapproval I saw Daddy giving Mia her first taste of candy!!!! *GASP* He had a Baby Ruth and let her lick the caramel to taste it. To our amazement she loved it! She wanted another lick and Daddy had to eat it so she wouldn't grab it out of his hands like she was trying to do. I wasn't to happy at first but like Adrian said "It was just a little taste" so I was ok with it. Just then Mia started searching for that candy. She pulled Adrian's hand to her and inspected it trying to find out where it went and when she couldn't find it (cuz he ate it) she ended up just licking his hand! Haha

Anyways, we watched all the little ones take a crack at that Pinata. I wanted Mia to have a turn at her first pinata so I let her Tia's know that she wanted a crack at it and that Daddy would help. So soon after Baby D took his own little pot shots at the Pinata it was Mia's turn! With me beaming with pride and excitment, I took pictures, while Daddy and Mia took center stage in front of everyone. The stick was to big for her to hold so Daddy helped her hold it and hit the Pinata. I think Daddy and Mama were more into the whole thing than her because she soon lost interested and wanted nothing to do with the Stick or Pinata. She soon refused to let Daddy hold her hand anymore and just sat down. Ah well... then Daddy picked her up and told her "Give the Pinata a Kissy" and walked her over to it, Mia of course didn't want to and just shoved the Pinata away from her. Haha Ah well, at least I got a cute video and pictures to cherish of her first Pinata.

Soon after Mia's turn a few more little ones bashed it and after awhile it was evident that the Pinta would not break apart... and we would end up being there forever! Daniel Sr. finally gave the word of just shaking it apart and throwing the candy out. OMG when that happened a mob of little fingers and bodies rushed into the raining pile of candy and screams of excitment could be heard all the way down the street! haha Of course Daddy didn't want Mia to miss out, or maybe he just wanted candy, but he went in there with her and got her a candy. A little Reeses Pieces. Mia came out of the mob holding her little trophy in her hand. She then started munching the wrapper trying to get the treat inside. When Daddy attempted to take it away she help her hand high above her head and away from him. She wasn't going to let anyone take her candy away. We let her munch the wrapper a bit more then had to almost forcefully take it away from her. Eventually she gave in and let her little prize candy go.

It was getting late and I knew, especially how she acted towards the Reeses Pieces she must be hungry. So I busted out her baby food of Squash and Hawaiian Delight and Baby D let her use his high chair. After she was all fed and cleaned up it was more party time. It started to get more and more chilly outside, so I bundled her up in her favorite pink fuzzy blankey. She didn't want to sleep and tried to bust out of it so she could tear up more table cloth. I would have brought her inside the house but there was so many people there was actually no room! haha Eventually it was cake time and Baby D all smiles and having blast was sung Happy Birthday and cake was served. It was soooo good. Mia even got to taste her second candy, a little apple flavored tootsie roll. I let her lick that a couple of times and she liked that too! Oh no, we have a candy lover on our hands!

As it began to get colder Adrian and I decided it was time to say goodbye. Plus, we were planning on visiting Grandma and Grandpa Santos at their house afterwards. So Mia said her goodbyes and got her goodie bag and of course a little green balloon. In her grab bag she got the cutest little fuzzy lamb which she loves! She won't let it go and hold its all the time.

Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I wasn't sure how she would act especially since she didn't have a good nap earlier before we left, and was really tired from the party. But as soon as she saw Grandma and Grandpa she lite right up. She really enjoyed the kitties (Simba and Tigger) and screamed everytime the walked up to her. She showed off her new crawling ability but she refused to do any of her little famous Mia things. Like her war cry, giving kissies or clapping. Grandpa Fernando played music for her and she even got to play his gutair again. One of the highlights of Mia's little visit is the cardboard box we put her in. She loved that box and the kitties would jump in there with her! They are the two nicest well behaved kitties I have ever met!

Then Grandpa put some Yanni on TV and to Mama and Daddy's amazement she fell asleep in his arms! She never sleeps in anybody's arms, not even ours! and what is more shocking than that, she didn't even need her blankey or to suck her two fingers! She was so comfy and happy. Grandpa even passed her on to Grandma and she didn't even wake up. Grandma got to hold her while a little kitty was cuddling her feet. So she took her little 30 min cat nap and woke up all refreshed and ready to go. She played more with Grandpa and soon it was dinner time. I got her banana oatmeal ready and she ate it all like a big girl, not to mention a 4oz bottle afterwards.

We spent more time just hanging out and visiting and soon it started to get late. Adrian and I both were really tired from the busy day and still had that long drive ahead of us. So I got Mia all ready for the trip home. She had her jammies on and I was just putting on a fresh diaper when she decided she wasn't ready to leave. Just then she decided the only way to keep her there was to do something drastic so she waited to just the split second when I removed her old diaper and was just about to put the new one on when she decided to go pee pees all over her jammies!!! I quickly tried to catch it all with the new diaper but she still managed to leave a tiny spot on her jammies. Sigh.. MIA!! haha I didn't pack second pair of jammies since I didn't even think we would be in San Diego long enough for her to even use the jammies I did pack. I didn't want to put the clothes she wore earlier back on so I ended up washing her pee pee jammies as Grandma held her in nothing but a diaper wrapped up in her pink fuzzy blanket. She was all happy since she kept playing, screaming and pulling Grandma and Grandpa's hair! haha So while we waited for her jammies to dry we visited more. Grandpa showed us all the cute little tricks the kitties do like playing fetch, soccor, and jumping in the air. Finally her jammies were all ready and we bundled her up and packed up. After our goodbyes we were finally on our way home. She knocked out fast and Adrian and I munched on her candy to keep us awake. We got home about 11pm and I quickly got her ready for bed. I gave her a bedtime bottle, and she was already falling asleep just drinking it. I put her in bed and she went down like a rock, no fuss at all. I was debating if I should write my blog then but I was already doozing off on the couch. So I just went to bed and decided to write about her big adventure in SD in the morning. So here I am! I am still really tired and probably gunna take a nap after this if Mia stays asleep. Time changed today so we lost an hour.. that sure doesn't help things either! Haha

Overall yesterday was a blast. I am always excited to take Mia out esepcially if its somewhere with family. I can't wait till the next party.. oh wait thats right her other little Cousin Emily's birthday is in a couple of weeks. Looks like we are going back to San Diego again! haha