Night and Day....

Current mood: exhausted

Yesterday Mia was on her very best behavior. We had a WONDERFUL day together. She was in the best mood all day, no fussiness, no whining, nothing but smiles and laughter. She was extra ticklish so thats what I did most of the day, tickled her until she couldn't take it anymore (I love hearing her laugh) We played chase alot and just alot of little games. We also took her out to a few places to pick up some things at Target and Home Depot. By the end of the day I felt very happy and content, and thought to myself, "Wow we must be awesome parents to have such a happy baby, we MUST be doing something right". I put her to bed without any problems and even after checking on her in the middle of the night and finding that her jammie bottoms somehow came off! Ya, she was just laying there on her stomach with her butt in the air showing off her diaper! haha Adrian put them back on and she didn't even move and stayed asleep. Wow what a perfect day. "What will tomorrow bring?" I thought as I went to bed myself and looked forward to having another fun day with her.

Man what a night and day difference a bad night sleep can make. Mia was on a full on rampage ALL day!!! It was a complete 180 from yesterday. She was whining, crying, and at one point threw a full on tantrum that lasted at least 10 mins. She screamed and threw herself on the floor alot, took her rage out on her toys by throwing them all around (yes I was even hit by a Tootie flying by me). She was just out of control and MAD! Nothing made her happy.. not even milk! Finally Adrian took over and took her to the park to burn off some energy. Even before we could get her out the door she was throwing tantrums left and right. She was mad she couldn't climb on the glass coffee table, she was made she couldn't reach things she couldn't get... she was just MAD! Anyways, Adrian took her across the street to the park while I cooked a early dinner.

They came back about an hour later. She was carrying a big leaf and a little seed ball. She seemed pretty happy until he put her down and she blew up again. She tried to destroy the leaf and threw the seed ball on the ground. Sigh..... Adrian had said she did good at the park. The only time she got mad was when he took her away from the dirt part of the park under the jungle gym. I asked him why he did that and he said that at first she was throwing dirt in the air to watch it get blown away by the wind. Then she got some in her eye! and no she didn't get upset over this, infact she LIKED IT! She then bent down and tried to put more dirt in her eye on purpose!!! Thats when Adrian got her and moved her away and she got mad. Sigh little Mia!!! haha

Well the rest of the afternoon we spend just watching her TV shows while she rested on the couch. By dinner time she was alittle better and by bedtime she was good again (of course it was the end of the day when she decided to switch moods) I carried her to bed, rocked her a bit on the rocking chair then laid her down. She didn't fuss about being put to bed and I know she knocked out fast because I didn't hear her over the baby monitor.

Phew what a day... just goes to show me you can never predict what kind of day it will be regardless of the day before. I just hope she will be in a better mood tomorrow or else EVERYONE is going to be in trouble! haha

Week #72

Current mood: tired

Its that time again! Another week in review and there are lots to report. Hopefully I will be able to concentrate, right now Elmo is blarring on the TV... la la la la... la la la la Elmo's World!!! OH NO!!! its starting!!! haha Better get to writing while I still can!

A reality check happened this week. Mia's potty came in the mail and it really made me realize... wow my little one is growing up. Granted she is still to young to officially start potty training but I thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to her early so its not such a strange thing when the day finally comes. She seemed pretty interested in it but mainly because it had a lid that opened and closed. She loved to slam it closed and she even did it on my finger! OUCH!!! I sat her on it and right away she jumped right up, then she tried to get on it herself! She did sit on it on her own, but not before she put her foot in the bowl!!! Looks like I will have my work cut out for me once the time gets here.

She also got a new tooth this week, which brings the grand total to 12!!! Shes is getting closer and closer to finishing her set. Its so crazy to see her smile and see so many little chompers in her little mouth. It seems just like yesterday she had a cute gummy smile!

A HUGE event happened this week as well. Mia's little Cousin Sophia was finally born, 8 lbs 12oz 19 inch of pure angel! (11/23) Unfortunately we couldn't make it down to see her right away. We planned on driving down this weekend but something bad came up. Sophia was born healthy, however, after some time passed her breathing became more and more difficult for her. After only being home for a few hours she was rushed back to the hospital. She is still in the NICU right now. Our prayers and thoughts are with her and Mia's Nina and Nino. Right now they still don't know for sure what is causing it, she is getting better, but until they can really figure out the cause they won't release her. Hopefully they will finally find out what is wrong and treat her so she can come back home. Once she is better and back home we will be visiting her very soon.

This week also was Thanksgiving. Mia's second one! As tradition calls we celebrated it a day early (Wednesday) here at the house. I cooked the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn.. well everything! haha After a small disaster (I smoked up the house when the over flow of butter spilled out and burned on the bottom of the oven) everything was ready to eat.. ahead of schedule. So Mia, Adrian and I all enjoyed our little family Thanksgiving and Mia even ate my Turkey AND stuffing and liked it!!! This is shocking because she is so picky!!!

The next day we all went down to San Diego to spend Thanksgiving with the Cardoso Family (we switch between the Cardosos and Pizanos every year). It was great seeing everyone again and Mia got to see all her cousins, especially Brianna who just LOVES Mia to death!!! It was fun watching her play with all the little ones and running around. She did good, however, she refused to eat any food there unless it was ice chips. She didn't like the turkey or stuffing and only until we got home did she finally eat. Told you she was picky!! She also showed her boy cousins that she is not one to be pushed around. Out of no where she hit her big cousin Baby D! Of course I didn't condone this (shes really into hitting right now) but it showed me I definately will have my hands full when she gets older.. uh oh! haha

She is also becoming more and more clingy to me. Not sure what is bringing this on, I am not doing anything new, but whenever Adrian and I are in the same room she is always hanging around me. When I am washing dishes she is constantly pulling on my shirt trying to get my attention and when Adrian pickes her back up and takes her back to the livingroom to watch TV with him she gets down off the couch and runs right back to me. Even when we all sit on the couch together, she will only sit next to me. When I make her breakfast in the morning she hangs around the kitchen and sometimes even sits right on the floor next to me. Where ever I am, there she is, its like having my own little shadow! Once I went to the gym and Adrian was watching her and he said she just stood by the garage door with her blankey waiting for me to come back. Maybe its just a phase shes going through right now... I know she will go back to her Dada lovin' self real soon. Afterall she IS Daddy's little girl!

She is also getting better at taking naps with Daddy! She has slept with him on the guestbed twice already! WOW! Thats really amazing for Mia since she only likes to sleep alone!

Another new thing is she is loving her little Elmo Tent her Grandpa Pizano bought her awhile back. At first she didn't care about it and refused to get in it. Now out of no where she just decided she LOVES IT! She is constantly climbing in there, bringing in her toys and blankets and just hanging out. Sometimes she will peek her little head out and watch TV! Its really cute!

Well I gotta get going, little Miss Mia is done with her lunch and I need to do a few more things. See you next week!! if not sooner!

Thanksgiving 2009!!!!

Current mood: thankful

We just got back from having a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Cardoso Family. This year was the year to be in San Diego and the gathering was held at Adrian's Tia Anna's house.

We had to get there by 3 so we left a bit early to make sure we would make it, however, Mia had other plans. As you know she HATES the car and never sleeps. We barely made it to Escondido before we finally had to pull off because she was crying so much in the back. We found a isolated parking lot and let her run free for awhile to burn off some energy. She had a blast going up and down the sidewalk, picking leaves, and running in the parking lot itself. She even did something that shocked me. She would get up on the curb but would have a hard time getting back down. She would usually reach out for Daddy to help her down. Then she found a decline that allowed her to get down without having to climb down. When she realized she could use that she would always go down it to get back down! It didn't matter where on the curb she went, she would always go back to that decline to get back down all by herself! Thats my little independent girl for ya! Then it started to get late so it was time to get going. Once we got her back in the car she was ok for about 5 mins. Then she started sounding off again and was mad the whole rest of the way. She never let up! Sigh...

Eventually we made it to our destination and once we got her off the car she was happy and perky again. Everyone was happy to see her again and loved her little panda outfit I had her in. She ran around, ate some dinner rolls and played with her cousins. Of course she is still the apple of her cousin Brianna's eye. It was "Baby Mia" this and "Baby Mia" that! She was so extremely happy to see her baby cousin again, it was adorable! It was too cute to watch them play together too. At one point Mia jibber jabbered to her and Brianna got all excited and kept asking Mia to say it again because she couldn't understand her! haha She even sang a song to her and Mia danced! PRICELESS!!!! Brianna is only 4 but loves to watch over Mia. Infact at one point she came running up to me all concerned because Mia had spilled something on her dress. (I never did find out what it was since she still looked clean to me). The cousins had a great time together.

We visited with some family and had some awesome food. Mia on the other hand didn't want anything to eat though I knew she was hungry. We did manage to get her to try some stuffing and turkey but she didn't care for it to much... she is so picky! (I wonder who she gets that from??? haha) She did however LOVE ice! Thats all she wanted to eat so I had to carry a little cup of ice around with me and give her pieces here and there.

She had a great time running up and down the hallway and screaming. Then Adrian's cousin Robert came by with his pregnant fiance Cherilyn. At first Mia was not to sure about him but after Robert started playing with her and running up and down the walkway and swinging her in the air she warmed up quickly. Soon she was laughing and screaming her little head off with him. She wouldn't let him put her down and when he did she quickly got upset and ran back to him for him to pick her back up. It was really cute. He will be an awesome Daddy once his little girl gets here. She played and played more with her cousins. She did good except for one time, for no reason at all she walked up her to cousin Baby D (5 months older than her) and hit him in the face!!! OH NO!!! I quickly corrected her about not hitting (her new favorite thing to do) and luckily his Mama was there to stop him from hitting her back because he was ready to (it was a cheap shot by Mia for sure! and baby D is not someone to mess around with either, I am shocked he didn't hit her back right away) He held his little fist back and his Mama reminded him of the thing every boy hates to hear "Don't you hit her, shes a girl!" So he put his hand back down and listened to his Mama and then offered Mia a piece of his orange as a piece offering. Of course Mia just walked away.. MEANIE!! Sigh.. I need to work with her on that!

Other than trying to get into the kitchen cabinets, climb the stairs, go outside, and eat the house plants she was very good and we had no incidents. The only bad thing that happen is that her favorite butterfly sippy cup was lost!!! OH NO!!! I know... I will see if I can get her another one.

After we were all stuffed and visited as much as we could, it started to get late and it was time to say goodbye and head back home. She did great on the ride home, she knocked out and didn't wake up until we were about 10 mins from the house. I fed her some dinner, got her jammies on and we watched some Gabba until I put her to bed.

Overall our Thanksgiving was great and it was so nice to see family again. Now I can finally get some rest because tomorrow will be another big day... time to drag out the Christmas decorations!!!!YAY!!!

Happy Turkey Day Everyone!!!!!

The Cardoso Family Thanksgiving!!!!

Current mood:stuffed

Happy Early Thanksgiving!!!! Its been a tradition in our family (the three of us) to celebrate Thanksgiving a day early. We do this mostly due to the fact of work schedules (since Adrian works holidays) and we never know how the actual Thankgiving Day will go since we usually spend it with extended family either in San Diego or Oxnard. So today was the big day for us we celebrated our 11th Thanksgiving together and 2nd Thanksgiving with Mia!!!

I always prepare all the food, including the Turkey while Adrian helps clean or whatever else he can do. This is my 4th Turkey so I am actually getting pretty good at it. Of course I can't cook it solo yet, I always end up calling my Dad every other min asking questions but this year at least the phonecalls became less and less! So last night I prep'd the Turkey and stuffing (My Grandma Pizano's recipe) and popped it in the oven about 10pm. I woke up about 8 and the house smelled delicious!!! The cooked Turkey smell was everywhere and it was literally sizzling in the oven. I checked on it and called my Dad for more advice. Orginally I wanted to serve it at 2pm but the Turkey had other plans. I quickly got Mia up and was almost ready to start her breakfast when I noticed the smoke. I quickly went downstairs and it was so smokey it was awful!!!!! What happened?!?!? Well this year was the biggest turkey we ever bought (16 lbs) and I think I used a bit to much butter because it started to spill over the side of the pan and burn on the bottom of the oven. Man it smelled and the smoke was literally rising from the oven! I panicked. I locked up Mia in the living room and ran around the house like a headless chicken... errr... turkey tryingt to open all the windows so that the smoke alarms wouldn't sound off. After fighting a losing battle I finally woke up Adrian and asked for some help. He had the idea of getting some of the butter out of the pan to see if it helped and once I did that the smoke got better and things were back to normal again. The only thing now was the fact the turkey was done and ready to be eaten by 11! YIKES! I still didn't have the other food cooked or even ready so there I go again running around trying to get the mashed potatoes, gravy and corn ready. The Turkey was done so early and ahead of schedule that we didn't even have time to run to the store for dinner rolls.

Adrian helped set the table and take the turkey out of the oven. That bad boy was TENDER! it was literally falling off the bone before our eyes. I busted out our traditional turkey plate and we put the pipping hot turkey on the plate. I set up the camera on the tri-pod and took some family pictures. Turns out Mia likes my stuffing!! haha I know this because that was the only way we could get her to sit still for the pictures, give her stuffing haha. After our pictures were taken we sat down to eat. Adrian carved the turkey and it literally just fell apart it was so juicy and tender. Mia liked it too and thats big because shes not very keen on eating meat or chicken. This year I have to admit was the best year for my Turkey by far. It was so tastey and yummy we all ate till we couldn't move. Ahhhhh......

Now we are all just resting. Mia and Adrian are taking a nap and I am here resting on the couch! What a wonderful Holiday! I can't wait to get seconds!

Mia loves her Grandpa!

Current mood: shocked

Today started off alittle rough. Mia woke up crying her little eyes out at 6am this morning for some unknown reason. When I got up from bed to get her she stopped so I laid back down. She woke up crying again at 7am and thats when I jumped up and went to her room. She was really upset and I couldn't figure out why. I picked her up, cuddled her on the rocking chair and after a few mins. she was back to her ol' chipper self. It was too late to put her back to bed so I figured we'd start our day a bit early.

I fed her breakfast and we watched TV together. I am very tired from not getting enough sleep lately so I mostly stayed on the couch. Soon she was off running about downstairs. She seemed in good spirits, talking, screaming and jibber jabbering to herself.

Then when I heard her giggling and making that high pitched happy scream. I thought she found something in the kitchen to play with (earlier she was playing with her M&M magnets on the fridge). Thats when she came around the corner holding the copy of the book I made as a thank you gift for my Dad. It is one of those photobooks that I designed that has tons of pictures of them together when he stayed here that month during my surgery recovery. I thought it was cute that she picked out that specific book over the other two that were sitting right next to it (her birthday and 1st year book) Then I quickly got concerned that she might distroy the book or chew on it so I had to think fast on how I would take it from her without upsetting her too much. She was so happy holding the book and had this big huge smile on her face I couldn't just rip it from her. So I took quickly took it and before she could protest I asked "look look its Grandpa!" She got all excited and got next to me. I showed her a few more pages in the book and she kept trying to close it to see the cover (The cover is a picture of her Grandpa holding her in his arms as she rests her head on his shoulder) She tried to point to it a few times with her tiny finger. She liked looking at the pictures then she wanted the book back. Uh-oh what to do?! So I figured I'd distract her by asking if she wants milk. Thats the number one and only thing you can do to distract her from something, asking if she wants milk. Usually she will zoom off to the fridge and touch it and wait for you to get there so she can take her milk sippy out. Well this time the "milk idea" didn't really work. When I took the book from her I stood up and again tried to get her to want to get milk. I walked to the kitchen table to put the book on top of it and as I was walking away from her she said "Aaammpa... aaammmpa!.... aaaampa!" (Her version of Grandpa) I was shocked and taken a back. It was the cutest thing EVER! It was the first time she said it on her own without being asked too. AWwww Mia's loves her Grandpa!!!! I turned back around and she was standing right in the livingroom next to the couch. She still didn't care about getting milk which I thought was kinda weird because shes a milk monster. I gave her a kissy and then called up my Dad to share the story with him. Of course he just melted and loved it.

I love my little pumpkin shes so cute and never seems to fail at shocking and surprising her Mama AND Grandpa! haha Thats amazin' Mia for ya!

A new Cousin AND a new Tooth!!!!

Current mood: blissful

SHE'S HERE! SHE'S HERE!!! Mia's newest cousin has finally arrived early this morning. Little Baby Sophia has officially dethroned Mia as baby of the Pizano family, and Mia couldn't be more happy. She has been under the weather for the past two days, between frequent runny noses, gagging/coughing, and being rosey cheeked and warm... however, today was the first morning she woke up completely excited and happy. I think she just knew she has a new little friend to grow up with. She has been a complete ANGEL all day with lots of laughing, playing, and smiling. My little pumpkin!!! I can't wait too see my darling little niece! We plan on going to Oxnard this Saturday as a family too welcome the newest little addition!!! I am so happy, can you tell?!?! hahaha

Also another reason to celebrate is Mia got a new tooth today!!! Thats right shes up to 12 now and getting closer and closer to becoming completely done. She still has a few more to go, like her two insicors up top and below and a few more teeth here and there but shes almost there. This one is lower right hand side next to her two middle teeth. I am so proud of her!

Wow what a great day!!!! I can't wait till Adrian and Mia wake up so we can go out and celebrate the wonderful news!!!

Shes 71 weeks now!

Current mood: cheerful

Happy Friday!!!! Here is Mia's week #71 and it started off with a bang... literally!!

Friday of last week Adrian went to Irvine for another conference so I was with Mia all day. Things seemed to go pretty well until about mid-afternoon there was a small explosion at the house. It was bigger than a loud bang but not a huge house shaking event. Mia and I both got startled by this and when I went to investigate what happened I couldn't locate the source. Then the smell came... OMG it REEKED!!!!! I started to panic, I thought maybe something had caught fire in the attic or somewhere in the house. When I couldn't get ahold of Adrian I called my Dad and he helped walk me through checking everything in the house. Finally we located the source (well we thought we did) an old burned out flourecent light fixture. I quickly threw that out and the smell lessened a bit but never fully went away. Later that night when I told Adrian about it he could smell it too. It was still there and not going away no matter how many windows we opened. After moving stuff around a bit more we finally came across the exact source of it.. it wasn't the light fixture at all but an old glass encased aquarium heater we had for our turtles. Nothing was left of it other than the handle. I still can't find out what happened the glass. Once we took that out of our house, it took about 2-3 more days for the smell to finally be completely gone. It was horrible!! haha

We had another whirlwind of a day in San Diego this past weekend too. It all started with a 9am wedding, visiting Grandma and Grandpa at their house for a bit, and ended with a babyshower. The whole day was TONS of fun and everyone enjoyed seeing Mia again. There are lots of little details about that day but its best if you review that blog because if I add it here, this blog will be HUGE! haha

Mia's Grandpa Fernando bought her a tiny little yellow flute and she LOVES IT! She is constantly walking around the house with it and she actually taught herself how to blow into it and make a sound. Once I even let her take it to bed with her and she fell asleep holding it in her hand. She loves that little flute and I enjoy watching her play it. It reminds me of when I used to play my clarinet... hmm... maybe she is following in Mama's footsteps?

I learned a BIG lesson this week... never assume ANYTHING!!!! Once when I thought she was harmlessly playing with a bag of toys it later turned out to be a small baggie holding one of the worst poopie diapers ever!!!! YUCK!!!!The diaper got loose and she took out all the poop covered wipees!!!!! EWW!!! I know, I had quit a mess to clean up after that but I have definately learned my lesson for sure!

Mia also went to the park with Daddy this week. Its one of his favorite things to do with her. He said she loves to go down the slide now and climbs up the jungle gym like a pro now. Its been alittle over a week since I took her myself, but I just need alittle more time to heal. My arms still ache if I hold her or carry her too much... and with Mia she loves to climb and get into stuff so I have to be careful.

Her moodiness has gotten a WHOLE lot better this week. Not really sure what happened last week, but I am just glad I am finally getting my happy baby back. She does still get into her moods but its not so common like before. She has even stopped hitting and saying "Ow!" as much... though if you get her mad you better watch out!! I really think it was due to teething.

Also now that we had cut back on her TV time she is really started to learn to play by herself better. She will walk around and explore, find some toys and just sit there and play with them. Sometimes she will just sit next to her make-shift toy box (a large bucket) take out some toys and just talk to them for a long time. She jibber jabbers like crazy now and is constantly talking. She has even learned how to use her toy cell phone (Adrian's old broken Sprint phone). She will open it, talk on it while holding it to her ear and just walk around talking and talking, close it and put it away. Its so cute, I just lot to watch her play now.

She is also getting better with commands and understanding. If I ask if she wants some milk she will run to the kitchen and touch the fridge. If her cup is empty, I ask her if she wants more and she will either try to lift the milk gallon from the fridge and hand it to me, or she will hand me the cup for me to refill it. Also I will say "come on lets change you diaper, where do we change you diaper at?" and she will get up from where she is, walk over the the guestroom, where her changing table is, and will touch the door for me to open it. Another thing is when its bed or nap time I will say "ok nap/bedtime lets go to bed" and she will get up and run over to the stairs and touch the baby gate for me to open it and let her climb up the stairs to her room. I can't believe how much she understands now.. its crazy!!!

With all that she is starting to try to become more independent. For example, with her milk sippy it has a tiny plastic piece on it that opens and closes. When its open the straw pops out and she can drink from it, when you close it the straw gets tucked away back inside. Well now that I ask her where the milk is she wants to do EVERYTHING herself which includes her walking to the fridge, me opening the door, her finding her closed sippy and grabbing it, opening the lid and drinking it. If I take her sippy out for her she gets mad, if I open her sippy for her she gets mad, I have to let her do it all on her own. Sigh... my little girl is growing up so fast!

I also got her interested in her little princess car she got from her Grandpa and Grandma Pizano for her birthday. At first she just liked poking the buttons and making the songs come on or opening and closing the little secret compartment. However, now she loves to ride on it!!! I put it on the floor in the kitchen and pushed her around in it for awhile. She learned how to move her legs and now she gets on and off of it on her own and just this morning started to learn to go forward on her own. She was riding it all around the island in the kitchen it was too cute!!!! She even says "Car" now when I ask her too!

I think its getting near that time for her to make the big transition to a toddler bed. Yesterday for the first time she fell asleep on the guestbed downstairs (with the help of Daddy of course) but she knocked out on that bed for over an hour before I had to almost forcefully wake her up (it was too late in the day for her to take such a long nap before bed). She was out like a light and both Adrian and I were shocked. We could literally get on and off the bed (including the cat) and she didn't budge. Poor thing was tired from a hard teething night, the night before, and a short nap in the morning. Another thing is, this morning when I went to get her up for the day I noticed her spitting in her crib. I couldn't understand why she was doing that since she only does it when shes really mad. Then she started to munch on the railing! I went over to take a closer look and to my shock she had chewed off a small section of the crib!!!! It was like a little mouse got to it!!! All the paint was gone and some wood was missing!! Holy Cow!!! I quickly stopped her and picked her up. Now I will have to buy one of those rail protectors for her crib!!! I think she is trying to tell us she is ready for a big girl bed soon!!! not sure if I am ready for that yet haha

Well thats about it for the week. Not sure what the weekend will hold. We are still waiting on her baby cousin to be born, and it could very possibly happen this weekend. If so, we will be back in Oxnard for that. Either way, this weekend or not I am sure she will be here by next week so I am sure I will have lots of stories to write about then. Till then I am going to grab some lunch and relax abit while Mia is taking a nap!

Lesson #3497 NEVER assume Anything!!!

Current mood: indescribable

I have been blogging about Mia's little adventures and stories though out her little life for a long while now. Some are amusing, some shocking, some scary, and some just funny. I thought long and hard about including this blog in her little collection and decided to go through with it. It just wouldn't be fair not too, plus one day she might read it herself and go OMG! I did that!!! haha So brace yourself, this story is not like any other... its not for the weak stomached!

This morning started off like any other regular day. I got Mia up, fed her breakfast, and afterward we started to play. Then I noticed the usual after breakfast smell... yep she went poopies! So I picked her up and took her into the room where her changing table is. She didn't put up much of a fight and so I started to change her diaper. Thats when the horror began!.... I opened up the diaper and OMG EWWWW!!!! What happened?!?! It was so slimy and smelly and it was EVERYWHERE!!!! luckily it was all contained within the diaper itself but it was still quite a job trying to keep it there while cleaning her up as best as I could. I quickly grabbed more wippes with one hand and with the other hand trying to keep her from touching anywhere near there. The diaper was so badly covered in it I couldn't roll it up as neatly as I usually can so I just fastened the straps to it loosely and quickly put it in one of those little tiny disposable plastic bags for diapers. I tied the bag shut but not with a tight knot since I normally don't need too since they go right in the trash. Well Adrian had taken the trash out the day before so I didn't have a grocery bag around where I usually put them in, so I put the baggie on the ground outside of the bedroom door to remind me to throw it in the trash outside when I was finished. Man it reeked!! I can't believe such a small little girl can pack such a powerful stinky diaper!!! After she was all cleaned up I started putting her jammies back on as quick as I could since it was so cold in the house. I didn't want her to get too cold. I picked her up and off to the livingroom we went to watch some Gabba on TV. I had forgotten about the ticking time bomb of a messy diaper sitting right there in front of the door.

We watched Gabba for awhile then Mia took off to do her usual downstairs exploration. Downstairs is pretty baby proof now so I no longer have to be right there next to her at all times. So she walked down the hallway near the guestroom. I didn't think much of it, I was sitting on the couch bundled up with one of her blankets trying to keep warm. Then I heard a bunch of rustling. Again I didn't think much of it, I figured maybe Mia for her little toy bag she puts her leggos in and was playing with it again. The rustling continued and I really didn't pay much attention to it until Mia came around the corner.....

I turned to look at her and to my utter most HORROR she was carrying that dirty, stinky, rank dirty diaper baggie and what made it worse was the poop filled diaper encased inside was GONE!!!!!!!! Somehow she managed to undo my loosely made knot and took the diaper and poop covered wippes out! I quickly jumped up and ran over to her and took the baggy away from her and the dirty wippe she was holding in the other hand. That horrid poop smell spread like a fog of funk around the family room. I ran over to where I knew the diaper was last and sure enough it was there... sitting on the ground in front of the bathroom door just staring at me.. mocking my parental skills since I didn't pay close enough attention to what Mia was doing in the first place. I carefully picked it back up and put it along with all the other poop filled wippes around it, back into their make shift biohazard baggie. Once that was contained I ran back to Mia and cleaned her hands and made sure she didn't get poop on herself. When she was all cleaned up... again.... I then got on my hands and knees to see if poop made it onto the carpet. All i found was a tiny little dot of it which I took care of and scrubbed the carpet. I then took that rank diaper and disposed of it properly... like I should have in the first place!!!

Ugh.. it was so nasty and gross. What a way to start the morning. I have learned now to never assume anything. What I think is a normal sound I should always double check because you never know what could be lurking around that dark corner... the return of another dirty diaper back for revenge!!!! AAAAH!

Toot Toot Mia loves her little Flute!

Current mood: fascinated

Mia got a cute little yellow flute from her Grandpa Santos this past weekend. To our surprise she learned how to blow into it all by herself! Now she is just crazy about her little flute. She carries it everywhere and plays her one note over and over. She often times brings it to me just so I can play it myself then soon after takes it back and blows into it trying to play like I did by wiggling her tiny fingers. Sometimes she will even sit on the couch and just play her flute and that one note over and over again.

One day I let her take the flute to bed with her. I could have sworn I heard that tiny little flute sound coming from her room off and on. Then later that night I went in to check on her she fell asleep holding the little yellow flute in her hand.

I think its really cute. Whenever she plays a note her eyes light up, her eyebrows go up and she gives the biggest smile. She is all proud of herself.

I think we got a musician on her hands!

Another whirlwind of a day in Sunny San Diego!

Current mood: exhausted

I am so TIRED!!! OMG what a fast paced fun day today was. We had two major events to attend in San Diego. One was our good friend Brad's wedding (which we never thought we'd see the day) and Adrian's cousin Robert and his soon to be wife, Cherilyn's babyshower for their first baby together.

We have been preparing ourselves for this weekend for awhile now. The wedding was at 9am in So. San Diego!!! I KNOW!!! talk about early, and the babyshower at 1 just down a ways a bit further south. So inorder to make the wedding on time we got up at 6am!!! Both Adrian and I ran around the house like headless chickens trying to get everything ready, including ourselves. When 7am hit we woke up Mia (who rarely is up at that time) and got her fed and ready. We wanted to leave the house by 7:30am but that didn't happen. No matter how much we parpared ahead of time and how much we rushed we still didn't make it out the door till after 8! Of course Mia didn't make it any easier for us, she not only took FOREVER eating her breakfast, she decided to go poopies just as we were literally leaving the house! It was a bommer too!! So that held us up for a bit. Once we got on the road though, it was clear sailing. The only thing that was bad was the sun was on Mia's side and it was rising right in her face the whole ride. She was MAD! and cried and fussed most of the way because of this. Poor thing couldn't even sleep!

We had hoped that the wedding didn't start right at 9 that that maybe they just put that so people would show up on time. Something we did with our own wedding. Well turns out it was promptly at nine and once we finally got there (9:30am) the ceremony was already over!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! We missed the most important and special part... sigh... ah well. At least we still got to be at the reception and got to see dear ol Brad and his awesome wife Nichel again. It was a very simple but beautiful wedding. It was held at the brides mother's house in the backyard which overlooks Mt. Helix and Springvally. Everyone was casually dressed so nothing formal or fancy. The decorations were soooo cute! Tiny little plastic dragonflies were everywhere including the cake. They almost looked real and their wings moved with the breeze. All the center pieces were made of fresh flowers and herbs so the whole backyard smelled of jasmine and other nice smells. There was one guitarist who played on his acustic really soft music and there was TONS of food. All catered! They served breakfast! and cooked it right in front of you. The whole place was really warm and inviting. The people were so nice too and we were taken right in as if we were family. EVERYONE fell in love with Mia... of course! She stole the show. It helped that she was the only baby there and she was being her normal cute self. She ate some fruit and some cake and of course ran around collecting leaves and just exploring. She was on very good behavior and we didn't have a single crying or fussing incident other than when she tripped and fell on the concret and bumped her head on the cemet step. She cried alittle from that but nothing to bad. For the boquet toss the bride got on the second floor balcony and threw tons of single roses down to the single women below. So everyone got a rose, including Mia who actually got two! She danced with them and everyon fell in love with that. Their photographer also fell in love with her and took tons of pictures of her as well hahah. After visiting some and having a great time it was time to go. So we said our goodbyes, Mia did her "princess wave" to everyone and we drove off to our next stop... Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We took the toll road since it was faster and Mia fell asleep within mins. Poor baby was so tired from being woken up early, crying on the way down to SD and all the running around and fun she had at the wedding. Soon we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Adrian tried to get her out of her carseat and for the first time in her life she was a limp little noodle. She didn't even wake up and just flopped around there. Trust me thats a first, Mia NEVER EVER gets that way. She is such a light sleeper. So Daddy carefully unfastened her and carried her into the house. She was still asleep on his shoulder. Then Grandma and Grandpa saw her and both were so excited to see her. She slowly woke up and soon was up and going again. Playing with puzzles, exploring their house, and just dancing up a storm, especially when Grandpa played the guitar for her. We all got to catch up a bit and it was lots of fun. Mia also got some presents from her Grandparents too!!! She got new toy magnets for the fridge (her favorite) some hair ribbons and some other neat stuff. However, the best thing came from her Grandpa Santos. He bought her a little recorder (flute). We didn't think she could play it since she doesn't know how to really blow yet (though I do see her blow on things sometimes, but not on command and we can't show her) but we gave it to her anyways. Thats when Grandpa took our his wooden flute and started to play for her. After watching him do it she put it in her mouth and and soon started to breathe into it. Her breath made it make a sound and she got all excited. Soon she was breathing into it and making her own sounds. We thought that was amazing but it wasn't until she actually got the hang of it and started actually blowing into it to make the sound!!!! We were in shock and so proud of her. She LOVES her little flute and walked all around the house blowing into it. PRICELESS!!!!!! After our visit it soon became time to go down the street a bit to the babyshower .. so off we went again...

We got there a tad bit late so everyone pretty much was already there. The house was PACKED with family and friends. It was great seeing everyone again and everyone loved seeing Mia again. Everyone couldn't believe how big she has gotten. Its true... she is HUGE for her age (not fat but tall) She is even almost up to her big cousin Baby D who is 5 months older than she is! After we said hello we served ourselves some good food and sat in the backyard. Mia had not eaten a real meal since breakfast so we fed her what we ate... pansit, lumpia, and our family favorite... Tia Gloria's famous potato salad.. YUMMY!!!! After she got her fill of that and some fruit we let her run loose in her Tia Ana's backyard. She collected tiny balls and just had a great time exploring. She was all over the place!! So Adrian and I both took turns in watching her and making sure she didn't get into any trouble. I even put her on their patio swing and she loved having me push her on that. Later she started to get tired so we took her back in the house. She played a bit on the couch and ran up and down their hallway. Eventually she finally slowed down enough to let me cuddle her on the couch which was a nice treat for me, but it didn't last long, before we knew it she was on the go again. At one point my Mama radar kicked off and I had to urgently find her for some unknown reason. Sure enough she was climbing their stairs!!! I quickly grabbed her and took her back down. The whole party was a blast though. Great food, great cake and awesome family. It was so much fun seeing everyone again and catching up. Cherilyn (the mommy-to-be) looks so beautiful with her tummy and proud Daddy Robert just beaming with happiness. It was great. They got tons of cute presents for their little girl on the way!!! Well soon it was time to head back home, Daddy was on 3 hours of sleep, I was so tired from the lack of sleep the past few days and Mia needed sleep since she only got a 5min nap in the car all day. So we said our goodbyes and on the road we went again.

We didn't even make it down the street before Mia knocked out in the car. We needed to get gas so we stopped off at a nearby gas station. Poor baby, her head was all tweaked and down so I got off the car to lay her back and fix it and to my shock she was a limp noodle again!!! I took full advantage of this and rubbed her head and cheek and covered her up with her blankey. I can NEVER do this normally, seriously this was the first time!!! So I was enjoying being able to touch her as she slept. After we gassed up we hit the road and she didn't wake up until we were about 5 mins from our home.

Once we got home she was wound up from all the rest she got in the car. I fed her some left over potato salad, some more fruit and some milk. We had Elmo on the TV and we let her watch 1 episode. When that finished I took her upstairs for bed. I let her play her flute a bit more until she came to me with that tired look in her eyes. So I got her ready for bed turned off the lights in her room, turned on her nite light and music and cuddled her on the rocking chair for a long time. After I felt she was sleepy enough I laid her down and said goodnight.

Now here I am!! PHEW!! what a day. I am really glad we could make those two very special events today.. next up? Another Oxnard trip any day now for the birth of my new bab niece!!! YAY!!! I am looking forward to that, but for right now I am going to jump into my bed and enjoy some much needed rest!!!! NIGHT NIGHT!

Solo flight, explosions, and a horrible reeking smell!

Current mood: disgusted

Like I mentioned earlier, Adrian went to Irvine for a conference all day, so I would be soloing Mia from early morning to bedtime. I was alittle nervous about this since she has been really moody lately but she decided to be an angel today and treat her Mama good. YAY!!!!

We just hung out like we always do, I did have the TV on alittle more than I usually do for the simple fact I was TIRED from having a rough night the night before. She would watch her shows for a bit, then go around and play with her toys and ended up completely WRECKING the whole downstairs. It was literally littered with tons of toys everywhere, but I let her I figured I would clean it up once she went to bed. Now that she is in bed, I am like Meh, I'll deal with it tomorrow haha!

It was really chilly and even drizzly today so the park and a walk were out of the question. So I let her run around the house as much as she liked. She rarely cried or fussed and was in a pretty good mood most of the day... then the explosion happen... no not Mia this time something else...

I was in the livingroom where the TV is. Mia came running around the corner with her slippers in her hand. She wanted me to put them on her so I was just about to sit her on the couch and put them on when we heard... BOOM!!!!! It was a loud unexpected noise. It scared Mia and she almost started to cry. I wondered what it was but figured it would probably one of her many balloons popping. After putting on her slippers I started to investigate. I walked into the kitchen and WHOA! the smell hit me. Right around the table area. I looked all over and I couldn't locate the source of the smell. It was like something had burned, like hair or dust or trash or something. I checked around the area, the balloons were all still filled with air, the light fixtures were fine but the smell was getting worse. I started to get scared of course my imagination ran wild. I thought maybe something exploded in the attic and is on fire and the house would catch on fire. I started to stress out desperately looking for the source. Finally I ended up calling Adrian but he didn't answer his phone, so I called my Dad and right away he walked me though all the things I should check out ie. the water heater, AC unit, air ducts, circut breaker, lights, ... everything. Everything checked out fine. From my description my Dad kept saying it sounded like a fluorescent light exploding. Thats when I checked out old turtle light and sure enough it REEKED there so bad! I quickly threw the lamp into the garage and washed down the wooden stand. The smell is still here and its driving me nuts! I am literally sitting here with my shirt over my nose trying to type since its worse here around the computer area.

Poor Mia, during that whole ordeal she was just running around and trying to get my attention here and there. I really didn't have the time to tend her to while I was making sure our house wasn't on fire. So when everything settled down I tried to make it up to her, thats when I realized she had gone poopies!! OH NO!!! Poor baby sat in it so long her little bootie was almost rashing up!! So I quickly gobbed tons of baby rash ointment on her and she felt better. Of course the diaper change didn't go easy. She doesn't like to get her diaper changed and while I was tending to her rash she decided to grab herself and get a handful of destine!!! Her whole hand was white!! OH NO!!! She looked at me confused and started shaking her hand trying to get the cream off! I quickly buttoned up her diaper and tries to clean off her hand the best as she could, but only after she spread it to her other hand! Sigh.... eventually I got it all off and she was good to go.

The rest of the day went pretty well. She has learned to talk on her play phone which I think it really cute. Overall the day was great other than that smell that still haunts me... YUCK! I gotta end it here the smell is literally making me sick and queasy!

70 weeks!

Current mood: exhausted

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!!! Today Mia turns 70 weeks old!!! so you know what that means... week in review is here!

This week, like all the others, has zoomed by. It was our first real week together without the help of my Dad being at the house. It was/is sad but it just means I am finally getting better and can finally take care of Mia. Though I do have some discomfort and sometimes when I push myself to much, the majority of the pain is gone. I can finally hold Mia and pick her up and really take care of her again. The only thing I still cannot do is carry her for long distances and the stairs always are trouble for me.

Speaking of stairs, that is something Mia has become a quick pro at climbing. She loves the stairs and any opprotunity to climb them, she is there. I knew that one day she might somehow get past my eagle eye or past the baby gate and climb up by herself so I showed her how to get down. She finally discovered her own unique technique and now she can do down herself. All you have to say to her is "be careful.. get on your butt" and she automatically knows what you are talking about. She is good at climbing the stairs, steps and even the jungle gym.. shes a climbing machine!

I also learned a very valuable lesson this week. Feed Mia before taking her on grocery trips. Adrian took her to WinCo earlier this week, just the two of them. He came home with not only Mia and Groceries but TONS of our food had tiny bite marks in them. She bit though 3 apples, our cheese, the grocery list and much more. Daddy told me she was constantly getting into the cart and trying to eat the food!!!! Its my fault, I should have fed her a bigger lunch!

Mia turned the big 15 months this week as well, and with that came a HUGE blog entry. I tried all day to get a good picture of her on her special day but she refuses to look at the camera and if she did she was always making a silly face... sigh. I miss my little baby who liked to smile every time I pointed the camera at her.

Moody.. moody.. MOODY! Thats been Mia's big thing this week. She has been EXTREMELY moodly lately. She fusses more than usually, cries and just throws fits. Its almost like she has lots of anger built up because she is constantly throwing and trying to break her toys all while going "OW!" She is into hitting now which I am trying to control but am having no success at. We weren't sure why the sudden mood change and it wasn't until Adrian realized... maybe shes teething! That is true. She has been so great with teething lately that we aren't even alerted through a mood change when a tooth does pop out. It has not always been this easy though, she has had a few rough patches but they were so long ago I forgot about them. Now that shes moody again, she is showing all the classic signs of teething. She is constantly biting on EVERYTHING and drooling and just her moodiness. I know that three of her teeth are about to break through any day now so I know it has to be that. Since then I have been giving her baby tylonal and orajel and its seems to have helped a bit. She is getting alittle better each day but its still a big battle.

Mia also has been getting cabin fever! We need to take her out at least once a day to the park, outside or shopping. If we don't she gets so antsy around the house and moody. So Adrian has been taking her to the park almost everyday to let her run around, play in the playground and just burn some of that extra energy. So this week I decided I felt good enough to take her myself.. alone! Since I still can't carry her long distances I just put her in the stroller and pushed her to the park. Right away as soon as she got out of the stroller she was gone. Running all over the place and right to the jungle gym. Like I mentioned before she loves to climb so up and down she went on the steps. I was alittle nervous she would fall but she did great. Then she wanted down the slide so I sat her on my lap and down we went. Over and Over and Over until my arms started to ache. Once that happened I tried to convince her to run around and collect leaves like she likes to do.... BAD IDEA! Once I took her from the playground she got upset and threw a huge fit right in front of all the other little kids and parents. Sigh.. so off to home we went. We haven't been to the park again but I did take her out on a walk yesterday around the neighborhood. She seemed to like that but once we got home and I let her out of her stroller to play in the front yard she was GONE! Running up and down the driveway all over the sidewalk and even trying to get into the street. Thats when I had to hold her back and she didn't like that. Of course once she started to fuss, into the house we went. Phew... its not easy playing with her outside, I miss the good ol leaf picking days!

We also took her to the duck pond this past week to run around and explore. All she wanted to do was to jump into the pond itself!!! We lost count on the number of times we had to intervene before she fell in. She could care less about the ducks and enjoyed climbing up and down the steps they had there. Next time I think we will just let her play on the other side of the pond far far FAR away from the water haha

Well thats about it for the week. Our busy weekend has already started. Today I am home alone with Mia all day since Daddy is in Irvine for another computer conference. Its not so bad, just trying to think of ways of keeping her happy and entertained. Tomorrow is a HUGE day, we have a wedding to go to at 9am in San Diego, a baby shower at 1 (also in SD) and we might be making a trip up to Oxnard for her baby cousin's birth. Phew... well I better get some rest.. I need it!

Trying to get back on track again

Current mood: determined

Well my month long hiatus from working out is finally coming to an end. My arms are getting better and better and though I won't be able to weight train for another few more weeks (due to my dissolving stitches) I can at least try to get back into my cardio routine.

We finally set a concrete date of when we want to start to "try" for another baby. Prior to the unfortunate miscarriage in Sept. we wanted to "try" in Dec. We planned this way back in March of this year.. however.. like life.. things always change. So now I have new goals and plans set into place that I want to achieve before I get pregnant again. In order to give myself some time to accomplish it all we have decided that January is the month to shoot for. This will give me about 8 weeks to try to lose at least 12 pounds. I want to at least be at the same weight I was when I first got pregnant with Mia. So.... I need to get back on track ASAP! because you know me, I am a fertile turtle and it doesn't take more than a sneeze to make me pregnant haha.

I was on a fast paced workout mission prior to my surgery. I was doing 7 miles almost everyday.. a mix of treadmill, stationary bike, eliptical trainer, and walking at 6am for two miles around the park. I was doing great.. the weight was shedding off and my energy level was increasing. I was eating way better and finally got a handle on portion control. All seemed great till the surgery. I thought I would be out of commission for only about a week or so, but turns out I needed alittle more time. So a month later here I am. I was terrorfied about getting on the scale again. I just knew I had gained back all that I lost prior to the surgery AND probably more. I knew if I did it would set us back even more and we wouldn't be able to "try" for another baby till Feb or March. However today I finally got the courage to face my fear and I stepped on the scale. To my shock and disbelief I actually am the same exact weight I was when I stopped working out!!! YAY!!!! I breathed in a sigh of relief and am really feeling confident that Jan. just might work out.

So when to start? Well ASAP I guess.. but yet I am still not sure my capability since I am still in the recovery process, so I need to take it slow at first. So today Mia and I took a little trip around the neighborhood for the first time.

I walked with her as she sat happily in her stroller. I took my GPS monitor with me and we ended up walking .8 miles all over the neighborhood. It was alittle chilly out so I had her bundled up and she had her blanket with her. She seemed to like the little tour and I would randomly stop and find her a big leaf to hold and tear apart. Everything seemed great. I wanted to take her to the park at the end but it was getting dark and colder and colder, so once we made it back home I let her run around in the front yard for a bit. She had a blast!!! She loved running as fast as her tiny legs could carry her right down the driveway. I was afraid she would lose her footing and tumble but she never did. The only bad thing she kept trying to do was run into the street!!!! I would block her with my body but she would always try to get past me. Eventually she got mad and just started throwing a big fit outside and threw herself on the ground. Thats when I knew our adventure was over and I just picked her up and put her back into the house to play.

Overall it was a fun adventure, and its a start for me. I am really hoping to get back on track soon, I don't have much time to spare!!

Fun at the Park isn't the same anymore thanks to Dada!

Current mood: exhausted

Phew what a day.... As you might have read, Mia has really been getting a bad case of cabin fever lately. We need to take her out to run around everyday or she just goes nuts and acts up. She has been extremely moody lately and we haven't been able to figure out why.. until now. I think she is teething pretty bad again. Last I looked she has both incisors on top coming in, along with another bottom tooth. Poor baby... so going out really helps her to become distracted with other things than the pain.

Anyways, Adrian has been taking her to the park just the two of them for awhile now. He says he lets her run around, they go down the slide together and play on the jungle gym. I was surprised by this since it wasn't to long ago that Mia hated the slide. Also, now that she has learned to climb thats ALL she wants to do. The stairs, the jungle gym, you name it.

So anyways today I decided that it was time for Mia and Mama to go to the park alone. Adrian had some things to take care of so he left the house about mid afternoon. I am still healing and can't carry her long distances yet so I used her stroller to take her to the park across the street. I figured some fresh air, leaf collecting and running around would do her good. I thought it would be a pretty easy adventure... boy was I wrong.

As soon as I put her down she collected a couple of leaves then darted to the jungle gym. Right away she was trying to climb the steps up, so I helped her up (actually I spotted her more than anything since she could climb them solo pretty well) then she wanted to climb back down so I spotted her again. Up and down, up and down she went.. I was getting tired. Then she climbed up top and started playing with the toys up there. I knew Daddy had shown her how because she knew exactly how to spin the little things. Then she played in the tunnel alittle (more like laying down in it and pretend snoring haha) and then she saw the slide. She almost went down by herself but I stopped her. I asked her if she wanted to slide down and she got the biggest smile EVER! I knew she understood what I said. So I emptied my back pocket, handed her my cell phone and sat her on my lap and down the slide we went together. I don't know how many years its been since I slid down a slide.. probably not since grammer school but she enjoyed it. I was alittle nervous that we would go to fast and fly off but we didn't. The whole thing was over in a few seconds but my arms started to hurt. I put her down near the grass area to play and she just threw a fit she wanted to climb back up the jungle gym again. I tried and tried to distract her but she was on a mission so I let her climb back up, and down the slide we went a few more times. Finally I was really starting to feel it in my arms so I put her back in the stroller. I thought if I took her to the other side of the park she might run around a bit. WRONG! As soon as I took her out of the stroller on that side she threw a huge fit and tried to climb back into the stroller. She liked me pushing her!! haha So I pushed her a bit more, trying to make it like she was riding in a racecar. I would push her fast and weave around things, she was having a blast. I started to get tired and it started to get cold so we made it back home. I could tell she didn't want to stop being pushed so we took another trip down the block to get the mail. When we got home Adrian was home and brought some food YAY! So we ate and Mia watched her Gabba and I relaxed.

Boy going to the park is not easy anymore... thanks to Daddy! I miss the days she just ran around and collected leaves!!!

Mia is now Sweet 16 months!

Current mood: tired

Yep its the 11th and you know what that means.... yes another epically long review blog but also Mia is 16 months old today!!! Wow she is almost 1.5 years now, dang how fast time is flying by. Well TONS has happened this month so I might as well jump right into it, especially since I am on a time limit.... I just put Mia down for a nap.. ACK gotta hurry...

It started off with flying pumpkins! Mia went to the pumpkin patch for the second time. This time she was old enough to walk around, explore and pick up pumpkins herself. Although she liked hitting them she really like to throw them... soon she was tossing pumpkins all over the place and all I saw were pumpkins rolling past me. It was really funny and lots of fun.

We also went to the Southern California Fair. We didn't even know it existed until we saw an advertisement on the billboard on the freeway. We couldn't pass up on fair food and fun so we went. It was located in Perris, not to far from our house, actually only about 10-15mins.. couldn't beat that. Unfortunately the weather was super cold so I had Mia bundled up like if she was going to the snow! haha I was concerned about her getting sick since she woke up with a runny nose. It never did turn into a cold so thats good. While at the fair she had lots of fun. We saw a cute doggie show and we let her run around a bit. When we got to the animal section we weren't sure how she would react since she didn't like the barn animals at the San Diego County Fair. However, this time she LOVED the animals. Especially the sheep. She not only pet them but laughed each time she touched them. She was really into them and showed no signs of being afraid.

Then a not so good thing happened. I had surgery done, that removed abnormal breast tissue from both sides. The surgery was planned but the recovery did take alot longer than expected. Actually I still feel pain now and its been almost a month! I am alot better now and can finally pick up and carry Mia. I just can't wait for the pain to be completely gone. Anyways like I mentioned before we had planned for this surgery so we asked my Dad to come down and help with Mia. Especially since I could not take care of her, I couldn't pick her up, get her in and out of her crib, change her or practically anything. Of course my Dad jumped at the chance to see Mia and take care of her and he stayed with us for almost a full 3.5 weeks!!! Only going back home a couple of times in between. It was AWESOME having my Dad here and helping and he and Mia had much needed bonding time together. So this next section of the blog will be summary about all their little adventures together.

Grandpa really did jump right into taking care of Mia. He prepared all her meals, fed her, changed her 10000 poopie diapers (for some reason she pooped more with him around then usual hahaha I think she was dong it on purpose! ) rocked her to sleep every nap and bedtime, sang to her and played with her. He really got to see the behinds the scenes look at taking care of Mia and all her little moods, good and bad. There was a day in which she was really being moody and a handful and that was the day I choose to show my Dad how cute her halloween costume (Tinkerbell) would look on her. BAD IDEA!!!! Not only was it a challenge to get her dress on it was complete chaos afterwards. She was running around crying and I had to chase her around just trying to put the final touches on it. It was definately an experience to remember. She wasn't always moody though, there were lots of good days. They went to the park ALOT, they went on leaf hunts, ran around and even made her very first ice cream man trip together. He always spoiled her with treats and surprises. He even bought her a Elmo Tent to play with, though she is still afraid to go completely inside it yet. He bought her balloons too, the type you can make balloon animals with and she LOVED them. They went on alot of solo shopping trips to the grocery store and once she even was treated to a free apple because she was so cute!! haha Playtime was a constant in the house. He was always finding new games to play with her and they often times played in her room. I could hear her tiny stomps running around upstairs and them laughing through the baby monitor. She had LOADS of fun with him here. They watched endless marathons of Elmo's World and Sesame Street. They/we even checked out a new park down the street where they had swings and a smaller jungle gym for her. Grandpa pushed her in the swing, played with the jungle gym and blew bubbles for her to pop. At home he always made sure she did her "daily exercise" by bouncing her on the bed. That was her favorite thing to do and I know she misses it since I can't do it yet due to her arms. She always screamed and laughed when he did that. She even learned a new world, she says Grandpa now.. well its more "ammm-pa" but shes trying. She was also introduced to her FAVORITE apple of all time... "Gala". She always shared these apples and pares with her Grandpa... well actually it was more like she ate the apple and he got the skin haha. Feeding time was not always easy though, we learned she needs to either have her shows on TV to watch or be entertained by singing in order for her to eat meals. When I noticed her addiction to the TV I quickly started putting an end to it. TV time has been cut significantly, however, mealtime has become more work. My Dad noticed that if she didn't have her TV she still needed to be entertained or she would refuse to eat. She would crinkle her nose, lean her head back, smack the food away or just plain spit it out. So my Dad would sing to her and what do you know she would eat. Old McDonald became the breakfast time anthem for a while haha. The only bad thing that happened was once Grandpa took his eyes off of her for a second and she took full advantage of this and climbed upstairs all by herself. When I found her she was in Adrian's room playing and getting into bags of paperwork. Thats when we realized we can't even take our eyes off of her for a min. and since then she is always attracted to the stairs. We now have a baby gate to block her. Overall Grandpa's visit was awesome and lots of fun. It was sad to see him go back home but now we have so many cherished memories of his visit. Many I have share in blogs. I can't wait for him to visit again and under better circumstances... my surgery recovery did put a big damper on things but we all got through it. I love my Daddy and Mia loves her Grandpa!!

With my surgery recovery, Adrian had to jump in and do alot more too. If my Dad was unavailable or not around he would have to do all the grunt work too. Like changing poopie diapers, feeding her and putting her to bed. He did it all with pleasure since he loves his little girl so much. He even started giving her baths solo!!!! I showed him once on Mothers Day on how to do it and he remembered. Now he gives her baths all the time and she is such an angel with him! Its not fair! She never cries when he washes her or dries her hair yet with me its always a battle... sigh .. yep she IS Daddy's little girl for sure!

They both have been spending LOTS of time together too. He often times takes her out with him to run errands with him, like grocery shopping going to BestBuy and Frys, the Post Office and just whatever he needs to do. He always comes back with stories about their little adventures together, whether she be running around like crazy, eating food out of the grocery cart, or being her loud rowdy self. I love all the stories and I love them spending some time together. They have always been going to the park together almost everyday. It helps to get her out and run around a bit to release that bottled up energy and she loves it. He tells me how they go down the slide together and she finally likes it!!! They play on the jungle gym and he just lets her run loose. I am often times at home resting during all this but I will be joining them really soon as soon as I feel better.

The MAJOR thing they did together this month was go to San Diego by themselves for the first time. Adrian took her to the MicroSoft Convention he had signed up for months prior (we thought I would be recovered enough by then to take care of Mia, but when that wasn't the case he brought her right along with him). They had lots of fun but boy he wore him out by the time they got back. The conference was an all day event so he had his work cut out for him. I packed her a lunch and she ate most of her food. He let her run around the place like crazy and she still refused to sit still. He was never able to watch a full presentation but its ok he enjoyed being with little Mia.

Mia added TWO new teeth to her collection and is up to 11 total. She added a molar and a bottom front tooth! YAY, her collection is almost complete. The last time I checked (yesterday) she has another bottom front tooth about to come in at any min. and her two top insisors are working themselves through. Once those are in her top row will be completely grown in, molars and everything!

Spending all that time with Dada something bad was bound to rub off.. and yes she said her first bad word thanks to Daddy. "Crap" haha. He had said it casually and right after she said it.. perfect.. Crrrr-aa-p! Needless to say we now watch our language around her at all times now haha

With Halloween and now Thanksgiving around the corner some old and new traditions emerged. Of course she got her clay pumpkin made (via Mama who does it every year for her until she can do it herself) but she also got to clean out her very first pumpkin.. well sorta. I prepared a small section of the house with plastic in attempts to keep the mess off of the carpet and walls. I thought for sure when she saw she could pick out pumpkin guts she would relish in the chance to throw them everywhere. I dressed her in one of my old black shirts and gave her an opened pumpkin we got from the pumpkin patch... and a spoon. To my shock she wanted NOTHING to do with the pumpkin guts infact I think she was alittle scared of them. Instead she liked hitting the pumpkin with her spoon as if it was a drum. Eventually we enticed her to put her hand inside by putting a piece of candy in the pumpkin. She did go for that idea and quickly fished it out but at least we got a few good picuters. Oh well , maybe next year she will make the mess I wanted her to make. Another new tradition I came up with, this year, is "Turkey Hands". Everyone has made a turkey out of their hand print sometime during grammer school so I figured Mia can start early. I traced her hand (which wasn't easy! Actually I ended up having to take a mold out of her hand, cut it out and trace that) and with construction paper made a cute little Turkey. I want to start this new tradition especially since we don't have many Turkey Day Decorations. It actually came out pretty good.

Mia is a dancing machine, thats all I have to say. Whenever there is music on, Mia is dancing. Even just singing to her the right song she will dance along to to it. Right now her favorite song to be sung to is "Row Row Row your boat" and the "Itsy bitsy spider" if I sing those to her she will automatically start to dance... but its only me for some reason. Daddy tried and failed at it... guess its something with the way I do it haha.

Halloween was this month as well, YAY!!! My favorite time of the year. We got Mia all dressed up cute in her Tinkerbell costume, the dress, crown, light up wings, white tights, custom made shoes I made her that had bells on them and a custom made wand I also made with bells. She looked like a DOLL!!! She was so adorable. We got hundreds of compliments on her and we just beamed with pride. We took her to the mall to show her off and to trick-or-treat and later around our neighborhood. She did really well especially around the block, though she needed some extra encouragement from Daddy to walk up to the houses, but once she was up there she never wanted to leave. We never had any incidences of her being scared other than when she was introduced to a fog machine.. once it engulfed her she ran off and fell in their grass trying to escape.. poor baby haha. She got lots of candy and yes we even let her eat some too, her favorite? Smarties!

We went to Red Robin a couple of times too and each time she got her favorite thing.. a balloon. Once the manager even came by our table and made her a napkin rose to play with. She is also becoming more interested in coloring, she loves to color and smiles so big when she gets a chance too.

I have also been giving Mia alittle more freedom around the house and outside. My Dad let me know how important it was for her to feel free especially out in the park. I was always right there next to her and she would become frusterated. We couldn't figure out why until we finally let her go as far as she wanted to (of course still within distance of us grabbing her if we needed too) To our amazment she would only go so far before she felt it was far enough and would turn around and come right back without being called too. What a big girl!! I have finally given her more space around the downstairs area as well. I no longer block her in the livingroom with a baby gate and now have that gate on the stairs only. She has full reign of downstairs and she loves it (though I do still close the guestroom and bathroom doors). She explores and has alot of fun. The only down fall is the house is becoming more cluttered with toys EVERYWHERE!!!! Sigh... but I can deal with that, as long as my little one is happy.

With her new found freedom comes the constant need to go up and down the stairs. She could go up like a pro but always needed help coming back down. Since I taught her how to go back down she is constantly trying to get on the stairs now, which is why we have the baby gate on it at all times. She has only fallen once and it was off 1 step, but that still hasn't detoured her. Another thing I noticed is since she can no longer get on the stairs she is constantly trying to climb on EVERYTHING now. Her favorite two things are my stepping stool and her puzzle box which is a mini-tote box. She loves to climb up and down them and is becoming more brave on the couch. My little daredevil Mia.

Now onto the not so fun stuff. The older Mia is getting the more and more I am started to see her temper. It doesn't take much to set her off especially if you take something away from her she isn't suppose to have. Now she is into hitting and breaking her toys during a tantrum. She will cry a little bit at first but it is quickly replaced by RAGE! she hits whatever she can, us, toys, the ground anything and says "OW!" as if to bring it pain. It is alittle worrysome for us since I know she got that rage from me and I know how bad it can get if you don't let it out. Not really sure how to stop her from doing it and its getting worse. I know we will have our hands full very soon with this. Lately everyday she has become moodier and moodier which is why we try to take her out as much as we can. I know she gets bored and when shes bored she gets frusterated and mad. I think a big part of this change comes with me limiting her TV time. I no longer allow her to become a TV Zombie and now she is finding it hard to keep herself entertained. I do play with her but its not enough... I am not sure what to do about this situation, hopefully we can find a medium very soon.

Thats about it for the month. Phew I knew this blog would be huge. They seem to get bigger and bigger with each passing month... YIKES!

SUMMARY

New things:
Throwing pumpkins, cleaning out her first pumpkin, first So. Cal Fair, liked barn animals, climb up and down stairs, Adrian solo bathed her, went to SD with Daddy by themselves, two new teeth, first bad word "Crap", Tinkerbell for Halloween, tick-or-treated around the block at night, had her first popsical from the icrecream man (Bombpop), says "OW!" out of anger, hits you, dances when sang to, more space, limited TV time, solo shopping trips with Grandpa

Weight:

Height:

Goals met from last Month?
Yay we did met every goal set from last month. She does say more words on command other than just Dada. She will say Kitty, Mama, Grandpa, Shoe, and sometimes diaper and Elmo. She is a dancing machine though she is back to swaying more than shaking her hips though she does still do that. She has also said new words, like turtle, Grandpa, shoe, diaper, Elmo, OW, and Crap haha


Goals for next month:
Saying more words on command, learn to entertain herself better, eat more variety of food

note to self... Feed Mia BEFORE Grocery Shopping

Current mood: amused

I wrote earlier on how Adrian was going to take Mia with him to run some errands while I got some much deserved rest at home. All went well with me, I caught up on some emails, rested and finished cooking dinner. Later I heard the garage door open. I went to the garage to greet them and there is where I saw an exhausted Daddy walking in with Mia who was munching on a bread roll.

I asked how things went (I knew they were going to hit the Post Office then WinCo to buy some food) he said that she was a "hand full!!!". She seemed pretty good when I looked at her. She was quietly enjoying her little snack and was running around the living room. I asked Adrian what happened and he said that she was "ok" at the shipping place, although she did want to be put down to run around and get into stuff. However, it was WinCo that caused the most trouble. I guess I didn't feed her a big enough lunch because she got into EVERYTHING in the cart and tried to eat it. He had to literally wrestle food away from her every two seconds and yes she put up a fight each time.

I found it kind of amusing as when he was telling his story. I was listening and at the same time I was putting away the food.. then I saw the evidence of his ordeal. Not 1 not 2 but 3! of our apples had a tiny bites through them, our brick of cheese looked like a mouse got to it.. she some how made it through the tough plastic and chewed up most of the top part and some cheese was missing, needless to say the bread roll she was munching on came from her demanding bread, a candy toy's wrapper was hanging off the toy (he had given her the toy in attempts to entertain her and get her to stop getting food out of the cart and eating it) even my shopping list that was written on a index card came back with chew marks and missing pieces haha

Well I guess we both learned a valuable lesson... make sure Mia is full before taking her grocery shopping again!!! haha

Uh-Oh Mia scales the stairs like a pro now

Current mood: worried

Mia learned to climb the stairs awhile back but we rarely let her run loose enough to attempt to scale them on her own.. until now!

The older she is getting the more its becoming a challenge to keep her entertained in her confined little area in the living room (which is blocked off by a baby gate). So lately I have been letting her have free reign of the whole downstairs area. I of course close the bathroom and guest bedroom doors, but she still loves to run around. It was great at first, however, she has rediscovered the stairs.

I guess its sort of my fault. With my surgery recovery I could not pick her up and carry her to bed upstairs, so instead I would let her climb them herself while I supervised. I only did this a couple of times but she got better and better at it. Then the whole Grandpa incident happened where he accidentally took his eyes off of her for literally a couple of mins. and she ended up scaling them on her own all the way to to the top. That gave her confidence BIG TIME!!! Now whenever there are stairs anywhere, ie. the duck pond, the playground, she loves to climb them. She can't however go back down and usually waits for one of us to grab her hands and help guide her down.

She is so attracted to the stairs now, I no longer use the baby gate to block her in the livingroom but instead use it on the stairs so she can't sneak up there if I am not looking. Of course she still tries too get up there which ever way she can.

So that brings me to today. I have been really nervous about her climbing the stairs I don't like it but I know despite my eagle eye she will find ways up there unsupervised eventually. What really concerned me is the fact she doesn't know how to get back down on her own. All I could keep imagining is her waiting for someone to help her, and with no one around she would attempt to climb back down them and tumble because she doesn't know how. So I decided against my best judgment and out of logical thinking rather than Mama thinking.. that I would teach her how to climb back down on her own, just in case of an incident like I mentioned earlier.

So I let her scale the stairs and now she goes up them at lightening speed! Pretty impressive actually! Once she was at the top she wanted to go back down and she reached for me. I held her hands and guided her back down. We did this a couple of times, each time I held her lighter and lighter. Then she went back up but this time I when she reached for me I didn't grab her hands, instead I let her figure out a way to get back down on her own (of course I was below her making sure wouldn't tumble down if she fell) She stood there and thought about it a bit, then slowly got on her hands and knees and slowly tired to go down, one foot at a time. Eventually she got a pretty good technique going and she was going back down them like a pro. She was so excited and proud of herself for doing this she kept going back up and down, up and down. I thought to myself, Oh-Oh what did I do??! but still I was glad to see she knew how to go back down.

Then Daddy came by, he was getting ready to take her out to the store with him when I called to him to show what Mia could do. He came up the stairs and right away Mia goes "DADA!!!!" all excited. (Too cute!) Then she showed him how she could go down the stairs on her own (of course I would spot her to make sure she didn't fall).

We got to the bottom of the stairs and Adrian then loaded up the car with what he needed for their little trip. I was watching Mia and I sat on the steps not allowing her to go back up past 3 steps. She started to play and I warned her "be careful" she knows this command as something she needs to be aware of. She slowed down a bit but still was goofing around then it unevitable happened... yep she fell. She only went down 1 step, and fell on the floor (we have carpet) slide ways. The fall and impact scared her and she started to cry and scream. I picked her up and comforted her and of course she was ok, just a tiny rug burn spot on her shoulder from landing on the carpet. She was fine but hopefully she learned a huge lesson. I am just glad it was only one step, but still I think that baby gate to block the stairs will become a perminate fixture now haha

Mia is 69 weeks today!

Current mood: exhausted

Happy Friday Everyone! Today is a bitter sweet day. Its sad that my Dad went back home for the final time today. His work here is done, I am finally healed enough to hold and somewhat carry Mia again. I am so sad to see him to home, but I am so happy and feel so loved for all he has done for all of us these past few weeks. He will be missed dearly but I can't wait for future visits. The sweet thing is I can finally pick up Mia with no to little pain!!!! YAY! Thats HUGE!! I have not been able to hold her or carry her in almost a MONTH! its been pure torture for me since I love holding my little butterfly princess. Well with all that being said, its time to start the weekly review!

The week started with Mia cleaning out her very first pumpkin!! Well kind of... I had set up alittle area in front of the front door where the tile is so Mia could make a mess. I put up plastic and even put a gate around it so she couldn't run off with pumpkin guts and mess up the carpet or walls. When the time came and I gave the pumpkin to Mia she didn't know what to do with it! She didn't want to even touch it at all! Instead she had more fun banging it with her spoon. So I let her beat the pumpkin for awhile. I showed her the guts but she wanted nothing to do with them and when I started scraping out the guts with a spoon she got all upset! Maybe she thought I was killing the poor pumpkin! haha Eventually we finally got her to put her hand inside but only after putting a piece of candy for her to search for and get. I got alot of cute pictures of her, especially since she was wearing one of my old shirts and it was like a gown on her!

The next day was Halloween! My Favorite day of the year. This would be Mia's second Halloween and she did so good. She was dressed in her Tinkerbell costume and we trick-or-treated at the mall and for the first time, around our block. Everyone commented on how cute she looked and she really was. She was the only Tinkerbell we saw all day so she was special. She did good in the mall, she liked to run around and dance. Once she broke free from Adrian's hand and ran into a store just to dance to their music, it was too funny and cute. She did good around the block too, only it did take some encouragement from Daddy to walk up the driveways but once she was there she didn't want to leave!! haha The only time she got scared was with a fog machine. At first she seemed curious about it but as soon as it started to engulf her she took off running and eventually fell in the grass... oh no! haha She got lots of candy and goodies but her favorite of all were smarties. She even learned how to bite through the plastic and get to the candy inside. She ate so much candy that day which was a real treat for her since we NEVER let her eat candy. She was having a good time and at one point she even helped Daddy hand out candy but putting one piece of candy into everyone's bucket. Overall the day was awesome and lots of fun, I can't wait till next year.

We got to eat at Red Robin TWICE this week which was a huge treat. The first time she was treated like a princess. The waiter got her a balloon and later the manager came by and made her a rose out of her napkin. The second time we went was with my Dad and again she got a balloon and colored like crazy. She is such a good girl at the restaurants and I feel so lucky for that. The only bad thing is she doesn't like their food. We have tried almost everything on their kids menu and she hates it all. Yesterday we ordered her a pizza (for the first time) and she spit it out as soon as it hit her tongue, however, she did like the pepperoni on it haha

We also got to check out a new park down the street. Grandpa and I took Mia there and we all had tons of fun. Mia slid down the slide with a couple of new friends she met there (with Grandpa's help), ran around all over the place, found some leaves, walked around the basketball court, played with the toys on the jungle gym and chased bubbles we blew for her. The trip was lots of fun but the best part was watching Grandpa push Mia on the big girl swing. They didn't have a little kid swing there so she had to graduate to the big kid swing a bit early. She did good though and had lots of fun, so much that she didn't want to get off and when we finally had to leave of course she started to cry... oh no! haha Another thing we noticed at the park and we tested it out too, is that if you let her run free she won't leave our area completely. She will always look back and make sure we are near before she continues and if she goes to far she always comes back towards us on her own. She never just takes off, she always makes she she isn't too far from us at all times. I hope the always does this and never gets lost! haha

We all learned a valuable lesson this week too, especially Grandpa. You can never take your eyes off Mia not even for a second. Once Grandpa did and it literally wasn't long at all but she managed to climb the stairs on her own (First time) and was playing in Adrian's room when I found her! Wow I was impressed by her being able to scale the stairs but worried that it doesn't take long before she can do something like that. You always have to keep you eyes on her always. After that Grandpa really kept his eyes on her like a hawk....she never left his site again.

We also found out that Mia needs to be entertained when she eats!!! She was getting way to much TV lately so I cut it out for a couple of days. Thats when we noticed that she started to refuse to eat unless she had the TV and it had to be one of HER shows (Gabba, Elmo, etc) or she would fuss and not eat. When I realized this I really cut out her morning TV before she became to dependent on it. How did we get her to eat you ask? Well, with me I have to make eating a game. Either act like the spoon of food is something fun .ie bumblebee and then crash into her mouth. With Grandpa we found out he has to sing "O McDonald" to her before she will eat! haha Little Mia, can't be without her entertainment!!!

I have also realized and learned something BIG this week. Space! I need to start giving Mia some space to explore and have fun. I do let her run around but I am always right there with her, I never let her just take off or go more than 15 feet from me. At the park I was right on her and it wasn't until my Dad told me to let her go and explore on her own away from us (of course not too far) He reminded me how much she needs that and how its good for her to feel independent. So I did, we never let her roam to far away but just enough for her to feel alone. She LOVED it! and was so beyond happy and when she was done she always came right back to us. I have tried to incorporate this concept with the house too. I am always right there next to her all the time but now I finally give her some space. Though I am always watching her like hawk, I let her go into a room to play. I will be close but not right next to her. She seems to like the new found freedom. She plays quietly and explores things. If she gets into something she shouldn't I quickly swoop right in like a eagle and snatch it away, but thats rare and I don't always have to do that, thank goodness. She is usually pretty good. Its still hard not to be an over protective Mama though.. that is something I need to work on. I don't want to smoother little Mia.

Thats about it. Again it was a sad day that my Dad had to leave but we are so happy that he got to spend all that time with us. I can't wait for future visits. As for me I am off to get some rest, I am really tired and the couch is looking very inviting. Night Night...

I need my entertainment!!!

Current mood: accomplished

If Mia could talk thats exactly what she would say... "I need my entertainment!" We learned something these past few days... unless she is entertained by something she refuses to eat!!

I don't like Mia to watch alot of TV. Granted the shows we do expose her to are learning shows, like Gabba and Sesame Street, I still don't like the fact of her being zombafied by the TV. I usually limit the amount she watches but since my surgery I have started to become more lax and let her watch marathons of TV, as much as she wanted. The constant Elmo Worlds and Gabba started to drive EVERYONE, but Mia, up the wall!!!! Poor Grandpa, he had it the hardest. It soon got to the point where I can't stand it anymore!!! Especially since she won't let us put anything else on TV! Something needed to change.

Then we started to notice that she was slowly becoming dependant on having the TV on all the time AND having only HER shows on. She soon started to fuss during breakfast and meal time, and refused to eat unless she had HER show on! Oh-no! She would turn her head, make faces and spit out her food, however, once she saw us put on her show she would eat with no problems.

When I found this out I quickly cut out TV watching during breakfast time... at least for awhile. I did notice that she started getting alittle fussy with food because her show wasn't on but as soon as I made eating a game with her (pretending the spoon was a bee wanting to get in her mouth) she ate with no problems. The next day my Dad was here and he tried to feed her with no TV, right away she started up with the protest and refused to get her beloved cream of wheat. It wasn't until my Dad started singing "O McDonald" did she eat with no problems. When he stopped singing she stopped eating, when he started singing she started eating! She didn't care about the missing show, she just wanted to be entertained!!!! This behavior contiuned through today as well. It wasn't until my Dad started to sing did she eat. Little spoiled butt needs to be entertained before she will eat... haha little Mia!!!

Well today was a first, we never turned on the TV once throughout the entire day. Instead I let her run around the house, explore and play. She did amazenly well without the TV and had lots of fun on her own. We did play some music later but just from the surround sound speakers not the TV. I think I will start doing that more often, having a TV-Free day... it will do us all some good.