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
