Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 18 She's back!

We had a very normal week. Mia was feeling like her usual old self and our summer routine was back in swing. Some things we noticed this week were:

• Mia is saying "tank ou" much more often without prompting.
• She sings the "een uh" (Clean Up) song and actually cleans up while singing it.
• She loves watching/viewing pictures of herself, mommy, daddy, and friends.
• She continues to love the outdoors and is eager to help us pick weeds (or grass, or flowers...) and helps us around the house.
• The pool continues to be cool.

That's it for now. We were so busy that we hardly had any time to take pictures! So, there won't be an album for this week but wait until the next post!

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 17: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

We took Mia to the beach this weekend. She endured her longest rode trip ever to get to Strathmere, NJ just outside of Sea Isle City. We stayed at Adam's shore house with a bunch of friends. Upon our arrival, Mia was so excited to see the ocean. She kept saying, "wawa, wawa, wawa!" We settled in with all of our gear (we were just staying 2 nights but we packed to stay for 2 months!) and headed straight for the beach.

She happily walked along the beach in circles and played in the sand. The following day her fan club decided to build her the ultimate sand castle. They worked tirelessly to make sure that the castle was perfect for our little princess. While they worked, Mia sat in one place for about 2 hours and played in the sand with her buckets and shovels. After that, we headed back to the house for an afternoon nap. At that point, our little sweetie turned into a very sad, tired monster! She just so happened to be getting her molars and screamed and screamed because she was uncomfortable and so exhausted from the beach. Daddy finally worked his magic and the two took a nice, long nap.

Here is a video of her first ocean experience. Stay tuned for some fun in the sand videos!

The following day, we took Mia to Sea Isle City to eat a delicious breakfast and stroll along the boardwalk. She looked quite like a retiree from Florida with her hat and sunglasses and with all that sand and ocean around her, she was most impressed by the pebble encrusted trash cans.

Then it was time to head back home. We decided to take an alternate route home (one that should have saved us some time). But in getting lost, what should have only been a 3 1/2 hour tour, turned out to last 5 hours with 1 solid hour of screaming (those darn molars again) and then later, another 1/2 hour of crying (oh so tired!). Even though we arrived home much later than expected, defeated and exhausted, we sure did have a good time.

Way too many great pictures to post on the front page, so make sure to check out the Sand Princess's complete castle and beach experience!

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 15 & 16 Father's Day 2008

It was all about daddy this weekend. First, daddy got a beer making kit from Ms. Mia as a Father's Day present. So he and friend and neighbor, Dan, brewed two batches of beer. Daddy also had a gig in Hagerstown at the City Park. We trekked all the way up there to find a warm sunny day and some interesting things to look at. Mia enjoyed chasing the ducks (so did mommy's friend, Jess). Daddy's band sounded great and Mia liked dancing to the music. Then, we headed to the play ground and slid down several big kid slides. Oh what fun!










Father's Day was nice and relaxing. We ran a few errands to some stores and Mia was mesmerized by the car wash. She loves watching the giant sponges shake back and forth on the cars. We had a delicious meal at P.F. Chang's. Mia LOVED the chicken lettuce wraps and of course, the cucumbers (that's my girl!). Soon after was nap time and then we met up with Allen, Elaine and Owen to celebrate a dual Father's Day. We had another delicious meal (picnic-style) and swam until we were sleepy. All in all, it was a great day!

One other exciting thing was that our neighbor, Sharon, showered Mia with some handcrafted dresses... why? Just because she thinks Mia is cute! Also because her daughter is going to have a boy and since she's been making dresses for 20+ years, Mia gets to reap the benefits. Check out the Sombrero dress!

Click here and here for more pictures.

Dia de Mia Vol. 2, no.14: What the fuss?

This past week and a half brought us the trifecta of all trifectas! A bad cold turned into an ear infection. The antibiotics we had Mia on turned into an allergic reaction (she was one giant hive). Mia also doubled her tooth count from 4-8 in just a matter of days. Despite all of her physical hardships and discomfort, she was amazingly resilient and for the most part was in good spirits (outside of a few major, and perplexing to us at the time, meltdowns).

We did manage to have some fun. Mommy threw her friend, Jackie, a surprise bridal shower. The food was Mexican themed (are you surprised?) and Mia certainly enjoyed eating enchiladas and chips (even though she was overwhelmed by all the people). We had record heat this past week which warranted some trips to the pool with friends and neighbors.











"Words flowing out just like the Grand Canyon!" Never really understood this Beastie Boys lyric, but now we do, sort of. New to her vocabulary this week are the following words, of course words that we have heard come out of her mouth but not always consistently used: "eye", "tan ou" (thank you), "duh" (duck), "dahpin" (dolphin), "dahgi" (doggie), "moo-ic" (music), and "bahdie"(birdie). Mia has also been experimenting with climbing onto the couch, over the futon arms, outdoor chairs and up mommy and daddy.

Mia has decided to boycott her highchair. This boycott added some creative and interesting ways for us to get her to eat. We were going to buy a booster chair for her but later Mia and mommy reached a compromise. It turns out that she doesn't want to use her highchair tray and mommy luckily remembered that her highchair adjusted. So the chair is now just pulled up to the table. Things seem to be working out much better now.

We hope that you enjoy pool pictures because that's just about all we're going to have for the next few months! Click here and here.