Teacher Parents Meeting

Today we had a parent’s teacher meeting at the CDC (Child Development Center). Mia is doing very well; she likes to get her hands dirty, she love to paint and play in the sand and digs. I’m so glad that she likes to play in the sand; she will have lots of fun at the beach.
She is really independent and she likes the wonder around and explore on her own. Mia has a best friend, his name is Gavin, and they get along pretty well and hold hands.
She knows all the providers by their names, well she can’t say their names but if you ask her where is Miss Linda or where is Miss Tracy she will point at them.
Here are a few pictures that I took while she was sleeping:

Mia is 17 months old

My baby Mia – you are growing up so fast. Today you are 17 months old and I don’t know where the time is flying. You are at an age where you pick up new things every day.
You really understand everything of what we say – we need to be more careful now what we say around impressionable ears since you often try and repeat words.
You love to help around the house, you even help bring laundry to the couch and it’s great! You then throw the sock everywhere on the floor, but it’s a start. You probably say 20 words well, but I’m having trouble keeping count. Your newest one are: open, up, down and teeth. You repeat a lot of words now but I’m not sure you know them on your own, but you constantly surprise me. Also you talk a lot, usually at bed time you have a whole conversation with us before going to bed. (Video coming soon).
You know your head, eyes, ears, nose, feet, mouth, hair, hands, cheeks, chest, and my favorite – belly!!! She lifts her shirt, too cute.
You sleep well as long as you aren’t sick –you go to bed by 7-7:30 and you sleep until 6:00 am. Sometimes I still have to wake you up for the daycare.
You love to dress up and wear mommy’s jewelry; you love to carry purses, you are great at taking care of you dolls and stuffs animal, you like to play with them and daddy, but you don’t like when I tried to play with you two, you push me out of the circle, I guess is daddy’s time.
Mia loves to climb. She really loves to climb on the things she's not supposed to climb on, too. Like the coffee table.
Probably the best part of this age is that you are very loving – your hugs and kisses melt my heart – and you melt the hearts of others as you are very giving of your hugs. You give the best hugs. I hope you keep that spirit throughout your life.
I love you baby girl – you make my heart feel full of joy and happiness.
Love,
Momma

NO MORE BOTTLES

We finally broke you of your bottles, it has been 2 weeks since we stop giving you the bottles, actually when you started to go to FT. Meade they give you only sippy cups, no bottles were allowed, but we used to give you two bottles at day at home, one in the morning and one before night time. Now its 100% sippies, you have one 9 oz sippy in the morning before going to school, during the day at the CDC (Child Development center) you get milk with you breakfast at 8:00 AM; milk, juice or water at lunch and the afternoon snack at 2:30 pm and another 8-9 OZ of sippy at night before going to bed at home, you would think that is a lot of milk, but the truth is that she does not always drink it all and we are not sure how much she is drinking at school, since on the daily report they only put "some" of her milk. I have to admit that it was a little hard, even though the daycare routine helped, it was a challenge to get you to drink all the milk in your cup.
We still have the pacifier and potty training.

Tooth Paste and Potty

Ok, I know Mia is not ready for potty training yet, but every time Shaun and I go to the bathroom she is really curious of what we are doing. She wants to look down the toilet and I think she got the idea that pee-pee goes in there.
So we were talking to Kelly this past weekend and she gave us the idea of buying a potty just for her to sit while we are using the bathroom. So yesterday Shaun went to Babies R Us and got her a Disney princesses potty trainer, I think she likes it, she doesn’t do anything but at least she can sit and watch until she is ready. Shaun also got Mia a Fluoride free tooth paste, Mia loves to brush her teeth and she is really good at it. She only has 5 teeth, but she keeps asking to brush them over and over again. One of her favorite places to hang out now is the bathroom, because of the sink to brush her teeth. Daddy lets her stand on the toilet just as long as she holds on to the sink so that she can wash her hands and her teeth.

THIS PAST WEEKEND

This past weekend we went to NJ to see Shaun’s Mom; we get to meet Buster and Kelly at Tracy’s house and had lunch and caught up with them. At the beginning Mia wasn’t to thrilled and it took a little time to get friendly with them. But one thing that makes me laugh is when Mia and I were sitting at the couch next to Buster and I started playing with her, smelling her feet and telling her that she has stinky feet and she showed Buster her feet and wanted him to smell them too, it was so cute, that’s what happened when she gets comfortable. Also Aunt Kelly thought Mia how to drink out of the water bottle without using a straw.
Sometimes you just don't realize how much energy a toddler has, we couldn’t keep up with Mia; definitely Aunt Tracy’s house is not ready for a baby, yet. First Mia went to the kitchen and get the knifes, then she tried to get the cooking utensils were a scissors were, them she started to pull out the napkins and the solo cups., when she realized that we had put everything away she decided that she wanted to play with codie’s water bowl. Also she started to open the kitchen cabinets where cleaning supplies are. Then she moved to the next cabinet where the olive oil is. She was into everything in that house.

Then on Sunday I was trying to feed her lunch when she started to go to Codie’s bowl, again and Shaun tried to move her away and sat her down, she thought that he was playing and she started to jump and BOOM she goes forward and hit her head on the kitchen floor, she was crying, tears, bugers. Thank God it wasn’t that bad, nothing that a little ice and Tylenol couldn't cure.
After all the commotion we went over to Josie’s house to have lunch with her and with Keith's Family and of course she went strait to the kitchen for the vitamins, Tylenol, etc.
Also she had to get everything on the coffee table which was all glass, She also tried to eat candle wax, nice.
Overall we had a nice, but not so quiet weekend.
I just have to say, we are glad to be home.

Mia 16 months old

Now you are fully walking – and exploring and climbing and all the toddler activities that go with it – you have been picking up words fast over the last month, you can say avion (plane), mas (more), apple (you call apple to every fruit that is round oranges, peaches), mine, hot . You can also meow like a cat, you can ruff ruff like a dog.
You truly understand much of what we say, which makes is all the more frustrating when you knowingly do something to oppose it. Our biggest battle with you these days is while eating – you like to throw food that you aren’t interested in or sometimes just anything even if you would eat it – onto the ground. You find great delight in it. You also like to climb on your chair and start moving back and forth while you are standing on it. And even though we say no, and will give you time out if you do it again – you still do it. You know you aren’t supposed to – you look at us, make sure we are watching. It’s hard not to laugh at your persistence and your expressions – but we try to be consistent with you. Maybe it’ll sink in and you’ll move on to something else.
You try to copy a lot of what we say; you try to make all the noises that you hear, you recognized the sounds of the plane, motorcycles.
You eat well most of the time – but if you see bread or crackers you try to get those ahead of everything else, you love carbs (bread, pasta, potatoes). You still have your toddler days though when you just won’t try what is on your plate…. daddy is better at getting you to try things – he has the better patience of the two of us.
You biggest accomplish is that you climbed on the dishwasher door, where did you get the idea from? Who knows.
You also love your babies dolls, you take care of them like your babies, you feed them and change them, I think you copy this from Nina Patricia and Aiden.
You are so much fun and every day you amazed me.
I love you baby girl.

4th of July weekend

We had a nice and busy weekend! Thursday we took Mia for her 15 month doctor’s appointment and she wasn’t very happy when we walked in the office. She kept pointing a the front door like "ok we can leave now", but the crying didn’t start until we got called to one of the patient rooms for the check up. As soon as the doctor’s assistant walked in with the thermometer she started crying, but it got even worse when the Doctor walked in the room. Unfortunately for Mia, she got a vaccine shot. Mia is doing great, she is in the 43 percentile in height and 15 percentile in weight. As the doctor said she is going to be taller than mommy and skinnier than daddy.
Friday we had the day off, so it was cleaning day!!! (don’t you love to clean on your days off) actually we didn’t start to clean until Mia’s afternoon nap around 12:30. It took us about 4 hours to clean all 3 floors (basement, 1st and 2nd floor) after cleaning we took Mia outside on our patio for a water day, we got her a water sprinkler at target. I really wanted to get her a toy looking one, but we couldn’t find one, so we got her this regular $2.00 one. Who said that toddlers need expensive toys? This $2.00 sprinklers was a hit. Mia had so much fun with it, and she didn’t want to go back in the house. We took the chance to try her new water shoes, they worked perfectly, they held her feet and were not slippery.
On Saturday, 4th of July we went out in the morning to do some errands so went to FT. Meade in the afternoon. At this point Mia was not feeling well because she is teething, her fifth tooth is cutting and she had a really bad running nose. So we didn’t go to Ft. Meade until after 4:30 pm. When we got there she got so exited, she had a great time, and she ran on the grass through the people, we chased her around, she danced to the band that was playing, we got in the choo-choo train (she wasn’t to thrilled about that one, she didn’t cry, but she wasn’t to happy). Around 7:40 we headed home and Shaun lit some sparklers, Mia liked them, then we decide to go out to the parking lot to light the others fireworks, there were small but really nice, I don’t think Mia would agree with me, she didn’t like them and kept saying no to daddy.
Sunday we stayed home all day, except for Shaun, since our grill died, he went to Lowe’s to get a new one (you can’t end a 4th of July weekend without a BBQ).
I hope you had a great weekend. I’ll post some pictures later.

Karina