We heart Tahoe!

We just returned from yet another fantastic Tahoe weekend. Fun was had by everyone - skiing for Daddy, a few hours of snowboarding for Mommy, frolicking in the snow for Brooklyn, cuddle time for Mia, another dinner out at our favorite sushi place and Luke ... well, here are a few pictures:

Picnicking with Day outside - they set up a little table in the snow after some fun snow-play time

Gambling with Paw on his slot machines

Hanging out in the snow with Brooklyn (she and Luke share a love for all things SNOW)

Luke also enjoyed another round of "cave sleeping" (sleeping in a sleeping bag on the heated floor of Day and Paw's closet), and built an awesome fort inside out of blankets, which he spent quite a lot of time in.

Mia was a star traveler. We stopped once on the way up to console her, and not at all on the ride home - she slept the entire way!

All in all, a fabulous weekend (minus the "vase incident," which I won't blog about here, but we can talk about in person ... let's just say that toddler and fancy vase do NOT go well together - thankfully the toddler "won" in this instance!).

Focused

Mia loves to watch the mobiles over her crib (which Luke convinced me to put up, and I'm so glad that I did!) and on her swing. She is so cute and really focuses in and watches for quite a while.

Looking so big...

...already :(

Talking to Grandma

Apparently, Grandma tells really fabulous stories!

Mia "talking" to Grandma (6 weeks old)

Luke "talking" to Grandma (2 & 4 weeks old)

Buddies

Luke and Linus have a love-hate relationship.

Here is one of their more loving moments:

Stylin'

I just couldn't resist ... he'll kill me one day for taking these (and worse, posting them for all of you to see).

SnuggleBug

We call Mia our little SnuggleBug ... she just LOVES to be held and snuggled. Unfortunately, she also sleeps best when being held or snuggled! I guess we should enjoy it as I'm sure that that will not always be the case!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day this year. Sweet Luke woke me up with a card and box of chocolates (which I knew he had gone to get with Daddy the day before because he promptly returned home and told me all about it - ha!). He proceeded to unwrap the See's box and dig in :). Nothing like chocolate before 8am! Now, that's Mommy's kind of boy!

What Luke was able to keep a secret was the beautiful pair of diamond hoop earrings from Daddy! I'm sure that this has more to do with the fact that Michael didn't tell Luke what they were picking up ... and not really Luke's ability to keep big secrets! I LOVE my new earrings - a perfect gift not only for Valentine's Day, but also to commemorate Mia's birth (I have a beautiful necklace from when Luke was born).

We spent the morning in bed exchanging cards, went out together for breakfast, and had a restful afternoon. That evening Mommy and Daddy were able to sneak away for a few hours to have sushi together followed by a drink at the Fairmont.

It was a perfect day ... I couldn't love my three Valentines more!

Oh, and I didn't get a picture of Luke in his V-Day shirt :( ... oh, well, I'll just make him wear it another time and take pictures then! Here are a few of Miss Mia.

Smiles (and just general cuteness)

We've been seeing "social" smiles from Mia in the past days. Today we were finally able to capture a few on camera. And, of course, Mommy just couldn't stop taking pictures, so here are a few more of Miss Mia.

The new babysitter...

Okay, maybe she's not quite ready for babysitting on her own (she might lick poor Mia to death!), but she is VERY gentle. You're such a great dog, Brooklyn!

Boy's Best Friend(s)

First Tahoe trip of 2010

We spent this past weekend in Tahoe. It was our first trip up this winter, which is a bit unusual, but since the snow arrived there I was either very pregnant or had a very new baby. It was a great weekend - Michael got in two days of skiing, Mia went two nights of 6+ hours of sleep, and Luke had his first real snow experience and LOVED it (he wasn't crazy about it last year).

Some of Luke's favorite wintertime activities included:

Catching snowflakes on his tongue

Making a snowman with Uncle Kenny (he very creatively named the snowman Frosty)

Sledding

& throwing snowballs

Mommy and Daddy also enjoyed a fabulous night out (our first since Mia arrived). We enlisted our sweet Tahoe babysitter, Emma, for some help, and we enjoyed a sushi dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant and a post-dinner drink at the new Ritz Carlton at Northstar.

And, of course, we loved having our little pink snow bear with us for her first trip to Tahoe. She was an amazing traveler and slept for the entire car ride ... both ways!

s

All in all, a wonderful trip and we are looking forward to our next visit in a few weeks!

Our 1-month old

I can hardly believe that Mia is already a month old. In some ways this makes me really sad. As much as I want to see her grow and develop into her own little person, sleep a little longer at night, and not have to feed her quite so frequently - there is also something so incredibly special about holding a tiny newborn in your arms, and I know that this is just the start of her growing up.

She had her 1-month check up this week and Dr. Dugoni thought she looked just perfect! Her stats were:
Weight: 8lbs, 13 oz (with a wet diaper on!)
Length: 20.5 inches

So, she's still pretty little, yet has grown so much in the past month. She is still wearing her newborn clothes (some of which are still too big for her), and is just finishing off her last pack of NB diapers before she moves into size 1. She still spits up after nearly every feeding (and sometimes half-way through also), but the Dr. said that her weight gain is on track so that we don't need to worry about it at this point.

This may sound crazy, but she has already rolled over! Yep - one night last week after feeding her in the middle of the night she seemed very awake, so I layed her on the bed next to me for a little "tummy time." You can imagine my surprise when she flipped over onto her back. I woke Michael up right away because I could hardly believe my own eyes - thinking maybe my sleep-deprived self was imagining things. It hasn't happened again since, but I now know that it could happen again at any time, so am super careful about where I lay her!

Mia has also brightened our days with a few first (intentional) smiles and coos this week - nothing is better!

As for sleep (which, for some reason, is what everyone tends to ask about), we are still getting 4 hour stretches at night on average. This means that I only have to get up once, usually between 3 and 4 am. She also takes at least one really good 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon.

All in all, she's a delightful baby - such a doll. Here are a few pictures of our little 1-month old: