Current mood: thankful
For anyone who has little ones running around espescially Mia's age, knows that priorities really shift in your life once they are here. One that was first to go for us was definately the house! No, no I am not talking about foreclosure... I am talking about house cleaning! I can't believe how little time there is during the day. Especially raising little Mia and though Daddy helps out as much as he can, he works over nights so he can't always be there to watch Mia so I can get stuff done. And when he is able to, washing dishes, scrubbing and cleaning are the LAST things I think about. Its more like, what am I going to fix for Mia's lunch? are her bottles clean? what am I going to fix for dinner? are her clothes washed? do I need a much needed nap? Do I need to go to babies r us for supplies? etc etc. So yes our house has suffered from it and I have been DYING to do some much needed emergency spring cleaning! (Especially since I recently found a black widow spider in the kitchen YIKES!) But how am I supposed to find time?!?!.... well thats when Grandpa Pizano comes in for the rescue.
My Dad is semi retired at the moment so he has a lot of free time available. Thank goodness he has offered to help with my battle against the messy house. He has offered to babysit Mia here at our house for the whole week, while I knock out all my spring cleaning! YAY!! So this week is going to be interesting! Hopefully I won't be stuck behind the mop and broom all week and will have a chance to visit. I am so excited about how I am FINALLY going to get the house back into shape. Its been on a downward spiral since I was PREGNANT! YIKES! I know! So he is on his way. I am sure I will write blogs about his adventures here with Mia. I think I will just add on to this one as the week progresses. As for now I am off to get things ready for him!
DAY 1:
Grandpa finally got into town late afternoon (not by choice.. but mostly due to traffic). He was so excited to see little Mia. Of course Mia did her famous "stare" at her Grandpa, but after some time she finally started to warm up alittle. She showed off her new found walking ability and stunned her Grandpa at her standing alone ability as well. You can stand her up and she can stay stood up by herself without holding on to anything for a short while now! This is something new. As I started my battle of cleaning, the two of them played in the living room. Mia was everywhere, and there was Grandpa chasing her. She even showed Grandpa how much she loves "Yo, Gabba Gabba" and went nuts while it was on.
DAY 2:
It was HOT!! and I mean HOT! So we all stayed indoors most of the day. I tackled the kitchen while Mia and Grandpa played with her toys in the living room. He got to feed her all her meals which was a nice break for me, but I still rather feed her than clean. She was on very good behavior despite all the heat. Then my dad and I decided to take a quick trip to our favorite little Mexican Market place "Cardenas" a little ways up the freeway in Perris, while Adrian watched Mia. We picked up all kinds of goodies for the house and much needed food! Its was so much fun to shop around with my Dad, it reminded me of the times when we would go grocery shopping together when I was a little kid. Once we got home I went back to cleaning while Grandpa went back to playing with Mia. Once Mia learned she can use her legs to walk (while assisted) she ALWAYS wants to do this now. She is getting pretty good at it and takes off fast now! (which is surprising to us since she barely started taking assisted steps in the first place). She gets all giggly and happy when Grandpa holds her hands and helps her walk and she walks as fast as she can, laughing all the way. It is really cute. Later in the night I bathed Mia and showed Grandpa how poofy and curly Mia's hair gets when its wet. He got a HUGE kick out of that, but really made him laugh is how I can really get her hair all poofed out when I towel dry it. He quickly ran to grab the camera after I did that. It was funny. He fed her, her bedtime bottle and after some cuddle time on the couch while watching TV she eventually went to bed. (Almost two hours late! haha)
DAY 3:
The day started off pretty warm but not nearly as HOT as it was yesterday. Grandpa wanted to take her for a walk to the nearby park but it warmed up to fast, so instead after playing, TONS of picture taking, chasing and hair pulling (Mia pulling his hair that is) we took off to Babies R Us for some supply shopping. After piling in diapers, formula, wipees, food, etc into the cart my Dad actually realized how EXPENSIVE having a little baby is (granted I am the baby of the family (29yrs) things have changed a bit since the 80s haha) After we got what we came for we decided to check out their walkers. Mia has a nice big walker but thats just it, its too big and doesn't really manuver to well. Grandpa noticed that the day before when she was trying to use it. So we wanted to see what kind of walkers they carried in store. There we found the CUTEST! little red convertible walker. I took it off the shelf and Grandpa put Mia in it to go for a test drive. After familiarizing herself alittle with horn and movement she started going all over the place. At one point she almost went into the other isle! She loved it! Then we looked at the price $100!!!! YIKES!!! what a bummer. Money is EXTREEMLY tight right now so we had to put the little car back. AWwwww.... yea I know, but at least she had some fun in it. After alittle more shopping I paid for the things we got, all $112 worth! (thats including the two coupons for a savings of $12) which is pretty average. My dad was shocked! and really understood why we just couldn't afford the car right now. However, we decided to check Walmart's supply of walkers since it was nearby to see what kind of walkers they carried. They didn't carry many and the ones they carried just didn't have the appeal the little red corvette had. Then we hit up Super Target by my house. To our shock they only carried 1 walker!! and it was just like the one she currently has...bummer. By then it was getting late and little Mia was getting sleepy and hungry (and so was I!) So we went home. I fixed some dinner while Grandpa and Mia had some more bonding/play time. She is really warming up to him now. She crawls all over him, pulls his hair, and plays with toys with him. Oh ya earlier in the day he fed her breakfast (oatmeal + bottle) and fed her lunch (sweet potatoes) and both times he really got a taste of the large amount of patiences and wipees it takes when feeding her. She loves to grab at the bowl and food and once she gets it in her tiny hands she always rubs it on her face. Yesterday I found traces of dried squash on her eye brown and eye lids haha Today all I could hear is "No meja! No no .... oh no why did you do that?!" I would ask what happened and my Dad would tell me either she grabbed the food and smeared it, blew her food out of her mouth so it went everywhere, or stuck her hand in her mouth while food was still in it and made a mess! Yea.. it was definately nice to see someone else battle with feeding Mia! haha Anyways later she went to bed and we even snuck in her room a few times to see all the crazy sleeping positions she gets in.
DAY 4:
Clean, Clean, Clean! Yep did more scrubbing, wiping, dusting and cleaning today. Let me remind you, this cleaning isn't your ordinary, put things where people can't see them- "looks good enough" type of spring cleaning. This is the type we all DREAD! the scrubbing until your hands are raw, dusting till your sneezing white powder, and floating on the clouds from all the chemicals you inhale haha but the house is finally starting to shape up and I am so happy. My Dad had another fun day with Mia, though against my will he did pitch in and help a bit with some cleaning while Mia was napping or with Adrian. But he spent most of the time with the little one. She was great and the weather was finally cooling down so we could even open the windows again. YAY! I finally knocked out the kitchen completely and after scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees I put little Mia on it to see her reaction to tile. She went NUTS! She crawled all over the place and whe her tiny knees got hurt from the hard floor she started doing this weird crawl where she was crawling with her hands and feet and had her knees straight in the air! It was too funny. She loved it till she bonked herself on the head when she tried to roll on the floor... that was no fun. Anyways, she experienced her first real black out but it didn'lt last to long, thank goodness. She did get alittle fussy towards the end of the afternoon and Grandpa finally got a taste of the dark Mia side. The whinny Mama calling Mia! haha She perked up though after we fed her some cherry applesauce, pear sauce and yogart melts. After playing around more she finally got cranky again and it was time for bed. After she went down my Dad and I both tackled her play area and now it looks so roomy and HUGE! I can't wait to see her reaction tomorrow morning when she comes into the living room and sees all the room. She will go nuts!!!
DAY 5:
Wow what a day! It was filled with more fun than cleaning haha. Due to going to bed later than usual (8:30pm) for Mia, she woke up LATE this morning. She didn't wake up till 9:45! Once she got up, Grandpa was already set and waiting for her. He fed her oatmeal (which of course she made a small mess of), and I got her dressed for the day. We started the day with a walk to the park across the street. She got to ride her first slide (with us holding her of course) and she seemed to like it. We took tons of videos and pictures. Then we walked to the Emu so Mia could show Grandpa. The Emu walked right up to her and this time so did the goats! She seemed more amused with them than before and even laughed and smiled at them. A lady feeding the Emu came over and commented on how pretty Mia was and both Grandpa and I were beaming with pride! After visiting the Emu it was time to go home. Once we got home Daddy was awake and he BBQ'ed tons of good food for us while Grandpa played with Mia in the new clean living room. I was still straightening up a bit but was pretty tired from the long walk in the sun. Mia really tries so stand up on her own now without any support from furniture or anything. She kind of does this hop on her legs trying to get the momentum so she can stand up. She can't quite get it yet but shes getting there. She is also doing that "spider" crawl more. Where she crawls on her hands and feet and doesn't let her knees touch the ground. Anyways, after a short nap she was up again and ready to play. She watched "Yo Gabba Gabba" with Grandpa then showed off her Easter dress to him. After modeling her dress she tried on her new baptism dress. She looked so adorable in it. We took some pictures then it was back to her ol' clothes again. She eventually got alittle sleepy and sat on Grandpa's lap and both watched some TV. It was a fun day. Oh, and Mia got her first "tan"! ok ok ok it wasn't a golden brown but shes not as bright white anymore. After her walk with Grandpa and I in the sun she did gain some color. She almost looks like a brand new baby! haha Another thing she started today was letting go of the furniture to stand by herself! She is getting braver and braver and is finally letting go. She falls on her butt afterwards but she really wants to stand up by herself. She is doing more of the butt bouncing too trying to get into the standing position from the floor, its really cute to watch but I can't seem to be able to capture it on video yet. Hopefully I will before she stops doing it.
DAY 6:
The day has come.. the one we all dreaded. The day Grandpa has to go back home. Noooooooo! We were all sad to see him go, and so very thankful for his visit. Of course he didn't leave without having one more big play time with Mia. He chased her, did "super baby" with her, tickled her and made her laugh. He even showed her something new.. how to put her binky in backwards!!!! Adrian and I have been trying very hard to re-introduce the binky to her so she can stop sucking her fingers. She doesn't mind it for a little while but its more of a toy to her than anything. Then Grandpa was playing with her and her binky and was biting the handle side while she tried to grab it. Soon Mia was putting the handle side in her mouth and wouldn't put it back in her mouth the right way!! Sigh... Oh Grandpa!!! haha hopefully she will use it the right way again soon haha. Then it was time to go, Mia and I walked Grandpa out to the car and waved goodbye. It was so sad, but we know he will be back for more fun again soon! We can't wait!
Overall this week has been so much fun. Granted there was TONS of unfun cleaning and straightening up to do but it was still fun. We now have more treasured memories that we will never forget. It was a wonderful week and I am glad my Dad was able to come down and spend some time with his little "bumble bee princess"
