Mia's Firts Christmas!!

This was your first Christmas, usually we celebrate Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with your Daddy’s family, but this year Christmas Eve was only the three of us, which it was fine because Daddy was sick and wasn’t feeling good. We stay at Aunt Tracy’s house to be able to go for breakfast with the rest of the family.
On Christmas day we get up around 7:00 am and we dressed you on a really nice “ My first Christmas” outfit that we got you, it was cream with green and red colors, them we went downstairs to open presents, your first gift was from us (Daddy and Mommy) we got you the Fisher-Price Little Superstar: Sing-Along Stage. You had so much fun opening the box, it was beyond I expect it. It was so cute watching you so exacting like if you knew what was going on. Them you open Aunt Tracy’s and Aunt Jenn’s present, and after we were done we went to Garfield and spent the morning with the family. After the Christmas breakfast we head up down back to Maryland to spent the rest of the week at home, watching TV and relaxing to start a new week at work.
This is what you got for Christmas:
· Fisher-Price Fun with Friends Laugh & Learn Musical Table for Mommy and Daddy
· Clothes from and Learn & Groove Counting Maracas from Aunt Tracy and Jenn.
· Clothes and a boom box from Uncle Buster & Aunt Kelly.
· Clothes and $25.00 gift card from Grandma Linda
· Sit-to-Stand Activity Walker – Pink and a rag doll from Nina Patricia & Uncle Vinny
You had the same exiting expression for every single one of these presents.

Mia and Her Paci

This morning I got up at 6:30 am, I usually get up at 5:45 and Shaun gets up at 5:30, but since Shaun have the day off we can stay a little longer in bed cause he takes Mia to the daycare. This morning while Shaun and Mia were sleeping I started to get ready to go to work. When I came out of the bathroom and start putting my clothes on I heard Mia taping on her crib, I took the camera monitor to see what she was doing, to my surprise she was looking for her paci, she found it, put it in her mouth, she putted it backwards, she turned it around and putted right, she grabbed her blanket an cover herself. She did all this while she was sleeping. She is so sweet, I wanted to take her out of her crib and eat her up.

Mia is 9 month old

Today Mia is 9 month old, Shaun took her to her doctor’s appointment and she is 16.4 lbs and 27 inches long. The doctor said not to feed her more that 6 oz of milk since she is doing very well.
We are now allowed to give you finger food as long as is very soft. It is really exacting to start this new face in your life.
We have suddenly started seeing little tantrums from you this past week - you get very upset if someone takes what you are playing with. Hopefully this will soon pass, because its heart breaking to see you start crying and throw yourself backwards, no matter where you are. I don’t want to see you hurt!
I love this age as you become more interactive, and as you explore and hit milestones. But I also love my baby girl cuddles - some of my favorite moments are when you snuggle up and take a nap with me on the couch or you rest your head against my chest. I also love the happy wiggles when we come to wake you up in the morning and you are so excited to see us.
Mia don’t grow up too fast on me, okay? I’m trying to enjoy each and every stage and you are always my baby girl.

Mia got a cold

Mia has being sick for 4 days now, she got a cold. She is being sneezing, coughing and with running nose. She doesn’t have more fever thank God, but we are having a hard time, it has been really hard for her to suck on her bottle and she wakes up coughing in the middle of the night. It’s so sad and is heart breaking seen her like that, sometimes she look so miserable. She just wants to lie on our chest and stay there and not move. Shaun is been staying home with her for the last 3 days, he is such a good daddy, he is been waking up with me every night to feed her and clean her nose and put some saline drops on her little nose. We’ve taking turns in the middle of the night to comfort her.
We hope you get better soon. We love you!!

What Is Mia up to?

Just a little recap on what Mia is doing these days; Mia is 8 days away to be 9-month-old, yeap! 9 months.
Mia waves bye-bye and sings come. She loves to play hide and seek, one of the ways that we play with her is putting her on our bed and I go to the floor and start popping out from different sides of the bed. She love to play on the floor, but she hates tummy time. Her hair is so long that I’m able to do two Pitts tails. She still not crawling yet, she doesn’t sleep thru the night either, she still wakes up ones at night to eat and trust me if you don’t feed her you would get in big trouble.
She loves to finger paint, her favorites food still fruits, anything sweet, she like her puffs and she is really good at feeding them herself, she also like toast, when she got sick we were doing the Brat diet and we find out that she loves the toasted bread.
Her new thing is to cough, she is using this to get our attention, she started this new habit after she got the stomach virus, and she realizes that when she does that we are right looking at her to see what is happing it.
She loves her bath time and she loves to play in the water, she like when I do a waterfall with one of her toys and she learned how to splash. She also likes when I put her on Daddy’s shoulders, she start taping his head and trying to eat his hair.
She is very ticklish on her feet, she loves back and foot massages.
She is wearing size 9 month on Carte’s brand and 6-9 months in others, she is getting a little two big for her infant car seat; we need to go shopping for a new convertible one after the holiday.

IS SANTA PICTURE TIME.

We went to see Santa yesterday and it was a lot of fun. I’m really happy that we found a really looking Santa, cause I don’t like the ones with fake beard. Mia wasn’t afraid of him, she was more curious, as you can see on the pictures, she was like oh! What is this fluffy thing that you have. It was like they knew each other.We are really please of the way that the pictures came out.

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving week was kind of crazy for us, Mia got a stomach virus that lasted almost a week, because of that we decide to stay home and not to go to NJ to spend it with our families. On Thanksgiving Day we went to Boston Market to get our dinner, (we did cook however we send the food to my sister Josie’s house since we cook for 25 people we didn’t want to stay with all that food at home). It was actually a really nice dinner any for only 31 dollars and some change we got a turkey breast, stream beans, sweet potato casserole, stuffing and pumpkin pie. When we get out of the parking lot Mia got sick and start vomiting, again. Shaun had to pullover to take her out of the car seat. We went home to do laundry, bathed Mia and get comfortable and watch Harry Potter movies. Poor little baby what a first thanksgiving day. Thank God that was the end of it, after that she got better, on Friday we went out to look at a couple of stores and grab some lunch at Qdoba Mexican food, them we went home a put up the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations. Even that didn’t have the chance to spent the day with our families, we had a good time cause we spent our first Thanksgiving as a family together the three of us and that is better than any dinner in the whole world.
We are so grateful for our little angel, she makes us so happy, and she filled our lives with love and Joy. It doesn’t matter how bad was our day at work or all the problems that we have, Mia makes everything much better and she is that reason for us to rush home just to be with her, she make our love stronger, she complete us.We love you mama.

Mia got a stomach virus

Mia turned 9 month old on Wednesday and poor little one what a bad weekend she had, She got a stomach virus on Friday, when I got home from work she stared to vomit, we had to take her to nighttime pediatrics a 11:00 pm and didn’t came back until almost 1:00am on Saturday, them she got diarrhea. We took her back to her doctor on Saturday morning.
On Sunday she was a little better but on Monday she start vomiting again. We had to stop feeding you milk for 12 hours and Dad had to stay home with you, he said that you are doing much better today and you are able to keep you milk in your stomach.
I’m so very proud of you, you are such a trooper, you’ve been so good during all this. You haven’t cried and you are drinking your pedialyte (don’t know how cause it taste really bad). We are trying to follow the BRAT diet — bananas, rice, applesauce, and dry toast, but you only seen more interesting in only the toast. You still smiles and laugh at us, I can’t believe that you are always in a good mood. We need to you to get better soon mama, I hate to see you sick.

Where does the time go?

Where does the time go? Mia is almost 8 months old.
Here are some updates on how Mia is doing, she still not crawling yet, but we think she is getting there, even that she doesn’t like tummy time she is moving a lot, when she is her crib she always end it side ways, how does she get like that I have not idea.
She leans forward to get her toys and roll over form back to tummy, she likes to jump and also she likes to be up, if you hold her arms she will stay up for a while.
Yesterday Daddy was making chili for a fundraiser at the DOIM (were he works) and she was so in the thinks that he was doing we think that she is going to like to cook.
She loves to eat our faces, she pull or hair and start sucking our face.
She is getting better at eating her cookies (Gerber Biter Biscuits) she seems to like them a lot.
Mia is so good in the nursery. She is usually the only baby that doesn't cry. I am so blessed! Usually the providers tell us that there are taking Mia home with them cause she is such a sweet baby.
She just watches everything going on around her. It's so much fun to see her in there with the other babies! She's a little social butterfly too! She's never met a stranger she didn't like!
She smiles at anyone who pays attention to her and squeals with delight! People are always stopping to comment on our "happy baby." We are more in love with her everyday!

Halloween

In my last post I told you that Mia was Tinkerbelle for Halloween, but actually on Halloween day OCT. 31st she wore her Babies 1st Halloween outfit, I thought it was going to be too uncomfortable to be wearing those wings all day and too cold for her. I did bring it to the day care just in case, but she did not wear it.The daycare had a parade around the building and the big kids walked around it all dressed up.They did take the babies out for a little bit. We didn’t go trick or treating cause Mia is too small for that and we didn’t need more candy in the house and we didn’t have any kids coming to our house anyway, like every year we end it up taking the candies to work. Overall Halloween was a regular day for us.

RennFest, Pumpkin Picking and Photo shoot

Yes, all that in one weekend.
On Saturday we got all ready to go to the renaissance festival in Crownsville Maryland, it was a little cold weather, usually we don’t wait until the last weekend of the festival, but since we were in DR on vacation we have not choice, there were a lot of people, I like it better when there is not that many people, you have more chance to walk freely. Overall we had a good day we walked around, ate some turkey legs, cheesecake in a stick, watch some shows and take some pictures. We only stayed for around 4 hours; we didn’t want Mia to get sick.
On Sunday we took Mia for her first photo shoot at picture people, it was a lot of fun and a lot of work, we have 3 different outfits for her and trust me, try to change a 7-month-old baby it’s a lot of work. We dressed her a Tinkerbelle, in a pumpkin onesies and also with a beautiful pink dress that she used for Patricia’s weeding. After that we got lunch and them we went to Queen Anne Farm in Mitchellville, MD. We want to take Mia for more pictures (poor baby) in the pumpkin patch picking our first pumpkin for Halloween as a family. We were there for about two hours.
Here are a couples of pictures, enjoy!!!

Mia's Firts trip to Dominican Republic

We just came back from our first trip to DR with Mia, and I can say that she was a perfect little traveler; she did really well on the plane. She was EASY to travel with. We just took turns bouncing her and keeping her asleep.
It was a 3 ½ hours flight, she slept for about an hour as soon as we got in the plane before we took off, so that worked well then she woke up and we feed her and change her diaper and cloth and she fall asleep again.
When we got to Puerto Plata we had to go through customs and immigration and get a tourist card for Shaun and Mia. As soon we walk out we saw Francis, Nicole and Rafa they were waiting for us and Francis got Mia a Hello Kitty balloon. We loaded up on and made about a two hours journey from the airport to Santiago.
When we got to Santiago everybody was so happy and exacting to see Mia. It was a lot of fun to finally get to show her off to the rest of the family!
On Friday we head up to Puerto Plata for the wedding, we had a really nice time and during our stay at the hotel Mia started to consistently sleep through the night! Little did I know that was all about to change once we when back to my parent’s house.
I don’t know it was because of the AC in the room or because of the water (ocean and pool) that she got so tired that she needed to sleep so much, but whatever the reason was it was heaven to had a nice and relaxing couples of nights. With the cleaning bottles part it was a little uncomfortable, we didn’t have a microwave or stove to sterilize them, so we had to use gallons of water to clean her nipples and bottles. The hotel was really nice, the food was good, but the best part was watching Mia for the first time in the water, she loved it (both the pool and the ocean) even the sand, we are so blessed to have such a good baby.Here are a couple of pictures of Mia, enjoy!!!

We are all packed!!!!!

Two more days and we will be in DR, we can’t wait, we are so exiting. We are all packed, well almost. I still have to pack a couple of personal stuffs, but for the most we are ready to go. We got our bathing suits, sunscreen, sunglasses and have of course Mia’s milk and dippers.
Yesterday we spend most of the day packing our suitcases trying to put together what we really need, since we are only allowed one suitcase per person and only 50 pounds… I’m still wondering…. were I’m going to put that 5 pounds of chocolate candies that we bought at BJ’s?
We had a productive day, however Mia got a running nose and in the middle of the night she couldn’t breath, she woke up 3 time, poor little one. Shaun and I took turns to comfort her and try to clean her little nose and put some saline nose drops so she can breath better and this morning she was all smile, she was still sneezing though, she is such a good girl. Unfortunately Daddy couldn’t stay with her cause he needed to take the CRV for oil change and I had to drop her off at the day care, but he is picking her up earlier.
Hopefully she will get better for our trip on Wednesday.
It will be a couple of weeks before we can write on the blog, but when we do we will have lots of things and pictures to share.

MIA IS 6 MONTH OLD!!!

A lot has happened over the weekend. First Mia turned 6 months old (wao! where the time goes). I truly can't believe my baby is 6 months old now! Sometimes I look at her half expecting her to still be a tiny little newborn and then I'm blown away with how different she looks! She is going through such a cute phase right now. She is very social and flirts with everyone. Mia is my joy! I love this child so much!
Also she had her doctor’s appointment, she got all her vaccinations plus a flu shot. My poor little pumpkin cried so much. Mia is getting bigger and bigger she is 14.9 pounds and 22 inches long. (For reference that puts her in the 75 percentile in height, and 25 in weight.) Doctor said that she is growing beautifully.
We tried to feed her chicken on Saturday, but unfortunately she doesn’t like it. She puked all her milk after one spoon of it. So I guess we are holding the meat for a while.
Also on Sunday we took her to piercing Pagoda to get her ears pierced, she looked so cute. she cried for about 3 minutes and after that I let her lick my Ice cream cone as a reward for being such a good baby.
Mia is in that phase interested in things like necklaces, cell phones, TV remote controls, and water bottles to the coolest and most expensive baby toys. Why do we think we need all the cool toys for our kids when trash is just as entertaining! It's almost like baby's prefer to have things they know aren't for them!!
Mia talks to herself as she is waking up, instead of crying when he wakes up, she lies there and called daddy (dada) and start clapping. She is such a good baby.

I DON'T LIKE TURKEY

I hope everybody had a nice weekend, here was really hot on Sunday, I would say extremely hot to be September. I just want to take a few minutes to update you on what Mia has been up to these days.
Well on Saturday we tried to feed Mia turkey and turkey gravy from beechnuts baby food, that didn’t go to good, she didn’t like it at all, she was making faces and it looked that she was going to choke, she only had two spoons and she refused to open her mouth to eat it, so we had to switch to one of her favorites, pears. I also think she believes she is too big to breastfeed anymore, she doesn’t like to latch on unless it is 3 in the morning, she is giving me a hard time to breastfeed her and I have to rely on the bottles, she doesn’t have a problem eating from the bottles it doesn’t matter if it’s breast milk or formula, her problem is to latch to my nipple, we think it has to be because of her gums, she has been teething for about two months, but I still don’t see signs of a tooth coming, she has all the symptoms, but nothing yet.
On Saturday afternoon we went to the Outlets around 1 hour from our house. We had a good time and we got a couple of things that we needed for our trip in October. When we were walking around the outlets we got into Rocky Mountains Ice cream store and of course we had to go in and try the ice cream. At the store they had this huge bear, which Mia found amazing and she wanted to eat him, it was so hilarious. We all got ice cream cones and Mia kept trying to reach for Patricia’s so I have to let her try it, well Mia has a sweet tooth like her Mother...she loves the vanilla bean ice cream, I let her licked it twice but she definitely wanted more. Too bad that we all had full hands otherwise we would have taken a picture.
Mia has been playing patty cake (tortilla de manteca) for a while now and she call her daddy more clearly, we are trying to teach her how to wave bye-bye, but still she doesn’t do it. We are still working on her to roll over from her tummy to her back and nothing of crawling, who knows maybe she's going to start walking before crawling.

Mia Graduated

Mia started to go to room B on Monday September 8th, she graduated from room A, which is from 6 week old to 6 month old babies.
She passed all her test (multi-sensory: sensory visual/auditory, gross motor/ fine motor, cognitive, language, social, kinesthetic, visual motor integration and self esteem). Yes, a baby has to be evaluated on all these.
We still have to work on her to roll from her belly to her back.
Mia is eating a lot more baby food; she actually eats very well, no very messy. Last night she had 4-½ oz of milk and all of her sweet potatoes (she loves sweet potatoes) before going to bed.
We are going to try meat this weekend; we are going to start with chicken and then turkey.
Last weekend we got her her first bathing suit, it is a two pieces bikini, I haven’t tried it on her yet, but I can’t wait to see her with it on. Don’t worry I’ll take pictures for the blog. We also got her a seahorse-floating device, so she can use it on the pool and at the beach on our vacation in Dominican Republic.

Mia's First Word

This is incredible, we think that Mia is going to start talking soon, yesterday at the day care she started to say Da……….Da. Ms. Beverly told Shaun when he picked her up in the afternoon and when he got home he payed attention of what she was mumbling and she did say Da………..Da again. When I got home around 5:45 PM he told me and I couldn’t believe it, however as much as I tried to listen she didn't say it for me. But this morning when she woke up I put her in bed with me she said Da…………Da.
I’m so proud of my little one, she is so smart. Even at the daycare they say that she is really advanced for her age, usually babies start to say the first word after the 7th months and Mia is only 5 ½ months old.
I really would like her to say Momma or mommy first, but I can live with that :)

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

For Labor Day weekend we went to NJ to celebrate Patricia’s Bridal shower at my cousins Paola’s house. We drove up on Saturday morning to NJ and stayed at Tracy and Jenn’s place. We had a great time, Tracy gave us with a BBQ lunch and aunt Josie came over to see Ms Mia.
Mia got her first personalized sippy cup (purple and pink) from aunt Tracy and aunt Jenn, it is unbelievable how Mia gets along with them since she only sees them once or twice a month. Mia giggles, laughs and enjoys her time with them.
For the first time in 5 ½ months Mia payed attention to Cody (Tracy's dog), she just realized that he exists, she kept looking at him the whole time.
On Sunday we went to the farmer's market for a nice walk, the weather was so nice, then we headed up to Bayonne for the party.
Finally Mia had the chance to meet the Genao family (my mother’s side), she did so well, everybody was holding her and she was so friendly to everyone. The luau/ bridal shower went very well, everybody had a good time. Mia got her first pair of earrings from uncle Raphy (Rubies and diamonds) now we have to get her ears pierced.

Mia is five months old

Mia is changing so much! I think back to just a few weeks ago and it amazes me how much she has changed even since then! It's so much fun, but sometimes very sad because those innocent, sweet times are gone.
She is still on a crazy sleeping schedule, but we hope that will change soon, she still wakes up once or twice at night to eat and goes right back to sleep. However she learned how to go to sleep on her on, we put her on her bassinet gives her the pacifier and her little giraffe (stuffed animal) and after 5 minutes she is a sleep.

She also sat up by herself for about 10 minutes while playing with her toys while I stood at a distance watching her, but I made sure that there was a Boppy-type pillow behind her to break her fall. Also in the last couple of weeks she has really started to squeal. It is this high, loud happy scream, it is so funny and now she is doing it at the daycare while the others babies are sleeping. Mia is just a happy baby in general.
She still hates tummy time- who knows if she will ever learn to crawl :)

She also loves reading time, when reading a book, she tries to scratch it, and it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard to me when she does it! It makes turning the pages very difficult!
Also when she gets excited that flaps hers arms up and down and squeals! It's so cute! Often the legs go with the arms. She touches and looks at her hands and feet a lot; I’m waiting for the moment that she is going to start to put her feet in her mouth. She wants to bounce or jump all the time. I think that may be the reason behind the constant leg kicking. If you stand her up, more than likely she will try to jump.

Also over the weekend Mia had her first apples and we think she likes them.

Mia laughing and showing she is hungry

BUT I WANT TO SIT UP

When we go to lay Mia down, she instantly demands to sit up, and she tries with all her might to do it. She can sometimes balance on her own, and other times plops over...it so cute. she love story time! When we read to here she kicks her legs like she is trying to run somewhere...she gets so excited! She love it when you gobble at her neck...she strts giggling so much :)

Eating solids!!!!

Mia has begun eating solids. The first thing she ate was rice cereal. At first she made the face like "eww what are you giving me" to oh ok, this is defferent then the milk I have been given the past 4.5 months. We don't think she really likes the cereal, but we'll keep trying. We have to give her something for 3 days in a row, and then we can try something else. So Mia has tried green peas, , carrots, peaches, pears, and sweet potatos. She loved the peaches, pears, and sweet potatos. Oh my goodness, she gulped those down so quickly, I thought she was in a race :)

Your firts 4th of July Celebration.

For the 4th of July weekend we got you a beautiful outfit, you look so cute in it, it wasn’t a patriotic one, but it had the red, white and blue, with the little hat and the cutest sandals ever. We took you to FT. Meade for the celebration and you had a great time, it was the first time that we took you out to a park.
You were all smile and you were talking a storm that is one of the things that I like about you, you talk so much (sometimes I wondering when you are going to say your first word and what is going to be).
We stay there for a couple of hours, we had lunch and walk around. I was a little worry about the sun and I admit, I was a little paranoid that you were going to get sunburn, so We try to be on the shade must of the time. Unfortunately we forgot to bring a blanket or the camping chairs and we had to seat on the grass.
We decorated your stroller for the occasion and took lots of pictures of you. Since you are so little we couldn’t go in any of he rides.

First Day at the daycare 06/30

My little baby today was your first day at the daycare, it was a hectic morning, and Mommy and Daddy were going all over the house trying to get all your stuffs together. Mommy was feeling a little anxious trying to pump that last ½ oz of milk to complete your bottle, while daddy was getting you dress. You seen a little suspicious that something was going on and you didn’t want to smile for the camera when Mommy was trying to take the pictures for your first day at the daycare. As always you fall a sleep on our way there, but when we got there you woke up and start looking around. We stayed with you for about 20 minutes trying to see you reaction with the providers, but you was fine when the held you and you even smile at one of them. It was hard to leave you there and I feel a little guilty that I can’t stay home with you. But I know you will be fine and you going to make lots of friends and that this is going to help you with your social skills. When I call around 2 ½ hours later I spoke to miss Linda and she said that you were fine, that you took a couple of naps, you had your bottle and at that moment you were sleeping. They were waiting for you to wake up and feed you your second bottle and they will go to read you a book. She said that you were a little fuzzy and cried a little but you were really good for your fist day. The second time that I called I spoke with miss Amy and she told me that you were fine, a little gassy, but your were playing fine. Daddy is picking you around 4:30 and I can wait to see you.

Mia slept through the night last night

Last night 06.25.08 Mia went to bed around 7:30 pm and for the first time in 14 weeks she slept for 8 full hours straight. I don't know if she will continue doing this or if it is just a one-time thing for now, but I needed that night of full rest so much! I was thrilled to wake up at 4 am and realize that she slept for so long. I attribute it to following the bed routing that Shaun and I have implemented, we bathe her by 7:30, then I feed her and put her down for the night by about 8:00. Almost immediately after starting this she stopped waking up every 2-3 hours at night and started sleeping until 2:30am! It was wonderful having a pretty predictable schedule at night. She would wake up again around 4:00 am for another feeding and them at 5:30 am and we would start our day. I really think it was because of the feeding schedule and bedtime routine that she was able to establish her own sleeping schedule.
Let’s hope that this will continue.

Mia (First time with formula)

Dear Mia,
Today 06.25.2008 we started giving you formula. For the last couple of weeks I’ve being trying to express as much breast milk as I could, but with the stress of being at work and taking breaks to do it, it was hard to fulfill your demands. Also we were trying to figure out how much milk you were drinking, since we never measured how much milk you needed when I was home with you. You are 3 month and 6 days old and you are now drinking 3.5 oz every two hours. So I called your doctor and he told me to give you Enfamil Lipil, it’s supposed to be the closest formula to breast milk. Daddy said that at first when he tried to give you the formula you rejected it, maybe because we also changed your bottles nipples to stage #2 (3 to 6 month). So he gave you breast milk instead, then for you next feeding he changed the bottle nipple to the old one, he said that it took you a little time but at the end you drank it. Apparently you digested well since you didn’t have any bad reaction to it. If this works it’ll be so much easier for us to take you out and to take you to the day care. I’ll continue pumping everyday as much as I can so you can keep having Mommy’s milk.

3 Months Old

My dear baby,
Today you are 3 months old and finally you have taken your pacifier. Daddy has been working hard on getting you into it. For a few weeks now you have been sleeping at least one 5-6 hour stretch each night with only two middle of the night feedings and then back to sleep for a few more hours. It's not so bad. And I get through the day just fine without feeling a need to take a nap!
Every morning when we wake up, Daddy put cartoons for you while he eats breakfast and you seem to really enjoy them. It's a great routine! You also are very interested in this new little duck toy that we got for you at target, it is blue and makes music when you press it’s belly, legs and arms. You love to stare at it and want to put it in your mouth.

1st day without you.

My little Angel,
Yesterday was my first day not being with you all day and I can’t tell you how much I missed you, I kept looking at your pictures on my desk, your beautiful smile, you beautiful blue eyes and your long eyelashes. We have been so blessed to have you; I can’t believe that you are going to be 3 months!!!
It feels like it was yesterday since I had you for the first time in my arms, so small, so beautiful and now you look so grown up. You have your own attitude, you talk and smile a lot. I love the way you talk to Eddie when you are in daddy’s car, how much you like the seiling fan in our room and the letter A of your name hanging on the wall over the changing table.
I just want you to know that I love you with all my heart and you are always going to be mi muñeca.

Love,
Mommy.

Mia Alana

Ever since Mia was born (19 March 2008, 2:59pm) especially the day she was placed on the delivery table, she was so alert! She was not even crying, and when I began speaking to her she looked in the direction of my voice and began staring in awe. The day Mia came home with Karina and I was a very special. It was so special because we began our new lives together. You get to continue the life you had but tack on a new life with you, and an even more complete family. All the books and magazines that you can read can be very useful, especially for the "what if's" and the "why's". With that said, Mia began doing everything before the scheduled time of when she was supposed to start doing those things. Things like lifting her head, following you when you move in any direction. At about 2.5 months we were up in our room and Mia was sitting on Karina's knees, and she was blowing kisses at Mia. Right after that Mia began to blow kisses right back at Karina. It wasn't exactly the same way, probably due to her mouth muslces not working the same, but she was definitley trying! It was so cute! Other things that we have discovered for things like really bad crying can be remedied by the sound of running water. When she tired and starts fussing, we had no idea what do to, so we just tried rocking and singing to her. It eventually worked, but it took a while. Well one day I stubled across doing slight bounces back and forth to each side to the sound of singing songs...my songs are limited, but anyting works. Songs like "Mary had a little lamb", "This old man", "I've been working on the railroad", and all the christmas songs I know. Karina does the same thing with all the songs she knows (el ratoncito Miguel, Mambru se fue a la guerra, dona semana, la pajara pinta, etc). It calms her down and she eventually falls asleep!!! Oh and OMG, when we began to give her baths in those plastic tubs you can buy from Baby's R Us, are terrible for infants or at least for Mia. It made Mia so cold, because the air made her skin cold, and it would cause her to go balistically crying. So Karina and I did some research and found the perfect bath to keep her warm and comfortable while bathing her. This is the link to the bath...it really is much better, until of course she gets big enough for the plastic one.. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2574102.