Amare' siempre

Having Mia by our side is the greatest gift. I enjoy her presence all the time, but especially on my days off from work. We get to hang out together and do what ever she wants to do. It gives me time to communicate with her in every aspect. She is 15 months now, and I can't believe how much she understands. She loves to be involved with everything I do, and it feels really good that she has such an interest. When I am cooking, she likes me to hold her so she can see what I am doing. Just the other day I was cooking something, and I was holding her, and she grabbed my ear, and let out a cute sound, so I looked at her and said what it was, then she touched my nose, then eyes, head , and hair. The best part is after she got done asking me what everything was I asked her what everything was in Spanish. I said oreja, boca, ojo, pelo, and even mano, and she knew each one of them. Mommy must be speaking in Spanish more often then I thought. Her teacher in the morning at daycare is also from Dominican Republic, so I believe that helps too. She says dada for me and for mommy, but when you say where is mommy she goes right to her. The best part is when I look at her and ask her to say momma she does say dada, so I get really close to her and say mama really slowly, and she cracks up laughing. So eventually she will get that down. We have this little game we play...basically she will mummble a whole bunch of gibber-jabber, and I will do the same back to her as if we both know what we are talking about, and she and I both crack up laughing. It's great! She love going outside, in the jogger. It's like a 3 wheel stroller but the from wheel does not move, so that you can jog with it if you want to. I think she is going to be an animal lover, because she loves to see the birds, and squirrels. She gets so excited when she gets to see them. She makes the fishy lips when you ask her "How does a fishy go". She also motions her hand when you ask how a bird goes. When I was growing up, I always wondered how it would be to have a child of my own. I was never sure how that could be except try and visualize, but I still couldn't find the answer. So now I finally know what it is to have a child, and I must say it is the best feeling in the world. Mia is such a blessing, and I will always love my baby girl.

A few new words that mia says:
agua - water
gato - cat
balloon
bubble
leche - milk
hippopotamus - just kidding

Mia is 15th months old

Dear Mia,
Today you are 15th months old and you are like a sponge, it seems like you really understand what we are saying, even though you don’t say many words. Eating is an adventure some days you eat everything - others you only want chesses and crackers. We are trying to give you a well rounded meal with a couple things we know you will eat.
You love books; we’ve progressed to where you will let me read a page or two before flipping too fast for any words. Maybe I can truly read a book to you soon. You love you card set with animals too. I think those are your two favorite indoor activities now. You favorites books are: Tails by Matthew Van Fleet. http://www.amazon.com/Tails-Matthew-Van-Fleet/dp/0152167730
Baby Einstein Discover the Day http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Discover-Lift-Flap-Sound/dp/141278655X/ref=pd_sim_b_5

We can finally say you are a true toddler since you started walking, it went from one to two steps very quickly to just walking. You don’t have your Frankenstein walk any more, is so amazing how you can just walk down the hall and turn into a room, you also starting to run too, I’m in a bit of shock about it actually.
You are still loving and happy and friendly - maybe a little shy in new situations but otherwise you seem to enjoy life fully and I hope that is a trend throughout your life.
When we ask you where your ears, nose, eyes and head are you will point to them (or pat your head). You are learning belly now; you give kisses, hugs, fives, wave bye bye and dancing when we ask you to. I've also noticed that when we give you simple commands like "go get the ball”, “press the button" “trash the garbage” or “give this to Daddy” you will respond appropriately.
You are climbing up on things like the table and the chairs of your table set that we got you at IKEA. You are not climbing on the couch yet, but its coming.
You know how to do a fish mouth and like a bird with your hand and you recognized the sound of a plane.

And one last note, this month has brought a new teeth you cutting your top left one.

WE HAVE A WALKER

Unfortunately I haven’t gotten great video of it yet, but she is really starting to walk more and more. Let’s see - two weeks ago she finally took about 8 steps without help. She was standing quite a bit, getting herself to standing and walking a tiny bit.
Well she is walking with some Frankenstein arms, but I think she will manage this whole thing soon. She walked for the first time at the daycare on Friday and Miss Tracy told Shaun that she was walking doing her miss congeniality walk like “look at me” kind of walk. It’s amazing how much better she is getting. So far she still wants us to hold her and caring her every where, I don’t think she realized what she is doing J
Our lives will never be the same now - chaos will ensue with our true toddling toddler.
Love,
Mommy.

Thunders and Lightning

Yesterday afternoon started to rain pretty bad, there was lots of thunders and lightning. Mia was not happy about it, she was actually really scared of the thunders, she spend the whole evening in our laps/ arms until stop raining. it was so cute to see her jump everytime she heard them.

Memorial Day Weekend 09

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday we took Mia for a bike ride to the Baltimore and Annapolis trail, after 1.5 miles we stop at the playground to go on the swings them we ride back. In the afternoon we went to Shaun’s friends Chris for a BBQ, they have a moon bounce, swings and other games for the kids. Mia has a great time with the others kids and playing in the grass.
On Sunday we went to the National Zoo in DC, we had a great time Mia got so exited when she so the bear, some of the animal she couldn’t see cause they were kind of far and I think she can focus that well to actually see the animals when there is so many trees, rocks, etc. we walk the zoo for about 3 hours and after lunch we decide to go back because it was getting too busy.
On Monday we went shopping and spent the afternoon at home and have a great BBQ that Shaun made for us.
We had a great time and looking forward a this weekend because Aunt Tracy and Grandma Linda are coming.

14 Months Old

Today you are fourteen months old. You are a sponge right now, absorbing everything around you so it’s really enjoyable to help you along the way.
You still love your morning and evening bottles - love them. Hold them like they are your baby, We want it to break it before we go back and see Dr. Youn for the 15 month appointment, but we’ll see, I really don’t want you to stop drinking your milk, during the day you are all zippy cups and you are a pro using the straw. Right now not even considering breaking the paci habit - though you mainly only have them at night/naps unless you are extremely cranky.
You love your babies and your stuffed animals, and really any toy can substitute. You hug them and pat them and mother them before tossing them aside. There is not one toy that has stood out yet as your favorite, you still love them all for minutes at a time before moving on to another. Another thing is you love to dance, every time that you hear music or we told you to dance you are right on it.
You love the outside and pointing to everything you see. You give the best kisses and you blow kisses as well. You still don’t want to walk alone more than a couple steps, but you cruise and turbo crawl with the best of them (and can walk just fine holding onto one of our hands so I think you are just too stubborn to let go).
They say it just keeps getting better, and I can truly say I am loving how fast you learn things and how much more you can interact with us. It doesn’t mean I didn’t think the baby stage was wonderful - I loved the baby stage, having my head lying against yours and that baby smell. But it’s also exciting to see you becoming a true toddler and developing your personality which appears to be fairly independent and strong willed. Don’t know where you get that from… ;) But you are loving and happy and friendly as well, things I hope stay with you always.
I love you baby girl. I am looking forward to a great summer.
Love,
Mommy.

Mother's Day

For Sunday May 10 Mother’s day we stared the day going for breakfast at Friendly’s after breakfast we took Mia to the Clark’s Elioak Farm in Ellicott City, they have a petting zoo, a fairy tale forest and a enchanted forest pine tree maze. We has such a great time, Mia enjoyed all the figures from the enchanted Forest (the old women in a shoe, the 3 bears house, the 3 pigs house, Alice in wonderland, sleeping beauty, etc) the slides and all the animals at the farm, they have goats, sheep, donkeys, pigs, cows, ponies, turkeys, ducks, chickens, bunnies. It was the first time at the farm for all of us and it was more that I was expecting. It took about two hours to do all the displays and see all the animals. We also took a hayride around the farm.
After that we went out to lunch and to Patricia’s house to see Aiden and we ended the day with a great BBQ that daddy make for us.
It was a great day and a perfect mother’s day.

Thank you Shaun and Mia for make that they so special, I hope you had as much fun as I had.

Love,
Mommy