Just your average Saturday

Buzz Lightyear reads to Mia

Mia's fashion decisions go unmonitored

A Mia update

Again, it's been far too long and I have way too much to say about Mia at 16 (nearly 17 - where does the time go? - months).

Wow - she has SUCH a personality ... and by that I mean that she's a little Miss Sassy Pants. Yikes! I'm sort of starting to really worry about what she'll be like as a pre-teen. Crazy! She just knows what she wants and is not happy to settle. Perhaps this trait will serve her well one day - I hope so. For now, however, it makes life a lot more difficult for the rest of us! A few examples of things that Mia does NOT like:

• changing her diaper (um, sort of a necessity). This typically elicits a full out screaming, sometimes pulling my hair and scratching my face, kicking and rolling all over the floor fit


• putting on or changing clothes (similar reaction to aforementioned diaper change)


• getting in car when she doesn't feel like going "bye bye" (again, usually accompanied by a full out, blood curdling scream, arching of the back, flailing of the arms, fit)


• being picked up or having her hand held in a parking lot or other dangerous place for a one year old to be roaming alone (similar reaction as above, often including throwing self on the ground/pavement)


• having Luke take back a toy of his that she has previously "stolen"


• sitting in her highchair too long ...and by "too long" I mean more than 30 seconds after she has determined that she is finished (this results in throwing of food and yelling)


• going upstairs when she knows it is bed or naptime

And the list could go on and on. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us. It seems that her tantrums have ramped up in recent weeks, so I am trying to be sure that she sees and begins to understand that that type of behavior will not alter what is about to happen.

All that aside, there are certainly times (most of the time) when Mia is a happy little girl. She loves to climb, play with Luke's toys (tools are a current favorite all around), feed her baby dolls, dance, splash in the tubby, be outside, and be read to. She is so happy to bring one book after another to us right now, plop down in our lap, and have us read ...and read....and read, which I LOVE. She also loves to "read" her books to herself (super cute!). Her favorite people: Daddy, Luke, and Paw.



Despite her little tantrums leading up to nap and bedtime, once she resigns herself to what is happening she is a complete snuggler. She loves to lay her head on my shoulder, twist my hair with one of her hands, and fall asleep while I rock. I don't think that there is anything better than having a sleeping baby on your chest.

According to our bathroom scale, Mia is between 20 and 21 pounds. She fits well into 12-18 month clothes now, is still wearing her medium size cloth diapers (or size 3 when in disposables), and her feet are now comfortably fitting into size 4s. Her 1 year molars are nearly all in now - the last one on the bottom left has been working its way up for the past few days, bringing the total count for teeth to 12.

Mia continues to be a pretty good eater, but she definitely goes through spurts when she doesn't eat much ... but I know that she'll make up for it later. In terms of sleeping she is ready for bed between 7:00 and 7:30 each night and typically sleeps for about 12 hours. She also takes a good afternoon nap for between 2.5 and 3 hours.



Vocabulary has not made any huge changes since I last posted. I think she's added a few more words, and she is certainly communicating better overall. She is using more hand gestures and putting them together with words to convey her wants/needs. One word that she has most definitely added to her repertoire in recent weeks: "no, no, no, no, no" (it is never just one "no"). What I do know is that her comprehension of what we talk about or ask her to do has increased significantly in recent weeks. She is now completely able to follow directions (when she feels like it, of course!).



Oh, Mia, we just adore you. There are no words for all of the ways that you light up our lives. What a sparkly little girl you are ... and how lucky we are to have you as part of us.

Reading

Too cute...

Luke actually knows the words to this book pretty well, so "reading" it to Mia was no problem. Goes to show how many times we've read it!

I'm pretty sure that there is an almost identical picture to this of my brother and I - I'll have to get it from my mom and I'll post it here, just for fun. So check back

28 month update

Wow! The past two months with Luke have brought about so many amazing changes. He is such a little boy and so very sweet. Some of his most recent accomplishments:

1) PUZZLES are one of his most favorite things right now. He LOVES his 24-piece Thomas floor puzzle, and can put it together entirely on his own within a few minutes. He also has a fire truck floor puzzle which he can very nearly complete on his own.

2) Learning the ALPHABET. He has been singing his ABCs for a few months now, but just in recent weeks we have noticed that he is able to match a letter name to its shape. He loves using the alphabet game on his computer, and calling out the sponge letters in the bathtub as he puts them on the wall. He is also able to identify his name now and verbally spell it out. Pretty amazing how much he is learning every minute of every day!

Letter naming in the tub

3) Sleeping in his BIG BOY BED. He took to his new bed with no problems at all. In fact, I think that he is actually sleeping better, and seems just thrilled with it.

Sleeping well with our "other" little boy - Linus, who apparently thinks he deserves a big boy bed as well!

4) Saying goodbye to the PACIFIER. Yep, it's gone! We had been talking about how big boys don't need "binks" for a while now (and I was nervous about the possibility of some sleepless nights), but finally last week I took them away and told him that they had gone to the babies who need them. He whined a little bit on the first day, and we had one incident about 3 days in when he woke up from nap crying for it, but that's about it. I do notice that sometimes it seems to take him a little extra time to settle down into sleep, but I'm sure that as the days go on, he will learn to soothe himself to sleep quickly without it. Yay!

First night with no pacifier

5) Sitting in a BOOSTER! I ordered Luke a booster seat that came just this week. He was getting too big for his highchair and his legs and feet would often get stuck when getting in and out. Despite all of Luke's eating issues, he really, truly loved sitting in his highchair. However, he surprised me again when he very happily and easily transitioned to the booster. We made a big deal of it and even went to the store together to pick out some special place mats (his choices: a monkey face and a frog). He seems happy with his new spot at the family dinner table - and we love having him there. For the time being, the highchair went up into storage at my parents' - that way it is not an option to go back to for Luke, and it makes room in our house for the baby swing which will be back very shortly!

6) READING to us! Luke has several of his books memorized and now enjoys reading some of them to us. The one that he knows best and is his favorite right now is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle. Luke loved this book several months ago, but was reintroduced to it at school and now we read it nearly every day.

7) Using the POTTY. Okay, despite an effort over the weekend that Michael was out of town a few weeks back, Luke is not officially potty trained. I was hoping that we could get it done that weekend, but after a few days Luke decided that he was NOT going to cooperate. He ended up screaming, arching his back, and simply refusing to even sit on the potty. So, we are taking a break and will revisit again in the coming month or so. What I have noticed since our initial attempt is that he has the ability to be trained during the day and that he is starting to show some interest again (this morning in fact, he woke up and immediately came to get me so that I could help him use the potty). He also has his eye on a package of Thomas underwear that he knows we are going back to get once he is using the potty ... we'll keep you updated!

8) TALKING about everything, and in full and complete sentences. I know that over the past year I have made mention of Luke's increasing ability to converse, but now I feel that it has really hit a peak. I hear him say new things all the time - things that he didn't learn from me (which is a little strange, but I should get used to it). I love listening and talking with him - it's really amazing how much is in that brain of his!

9) Staying HEALTHY. Knock on wood, Luke has been pretty healthy for a long stretch now. He did get an ear infection back in September, but thanks to the tubes, did not suffer any from it. We had a 6-month re-check on his ears this month with the ENT specialist and he said both looked really good. Both eardrums healed nicely after the surgery. One tube (in the left ear that had the infection a few months ago) will not be in much longer, as it is very anterior, but the other is still in place. We just have to hope now that his anatomy has changed enough so that if his left ear is infected again this year, the fluid will be able to drain on its own.

10) SINGING songs. Luke can now sing, hum, and "la-la-la" a bunch of songs. It amazes us that he not only knows the melodies, but also nearly all of the words. Some of his favorite songs right now include: the ABCs, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Let's Go Fly a Kite, I See the Moon, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Old Macdonald had a Farm (which he also sings when we go to McDonalds!). He also has informed me that he likes the song Bubbly by Colbie Caillat, and can identify it after just the first few notes ... "Ooh, Mommy, I like this song!"

Doing some late night reading....

...to prepare for my new role.


The picture is a bit blurry, but you can see the title. The funny thing is, we hadn't even read that book together yet - he just randomly picked it out. In fact, most nights when I go in to check on Luke he has a number of books in his bed. I guess the few books that we read together everynight before I tuck him in just haven't been cutting it!

Bedtime routines

We are pretty good about following a very regular bedtime routine for Luke. So much so that when he puts his animals to bed, he follows the same routine (without the bath, since Mommy says no baths for the animals!).

Here's Luke reading to them...

...and tucking them into bed (and, of course, they each get several kisses!)

So cute!!!