Hello again from our new internet local,
Last week, Mia completed her 6th near cross country round trip in a little more than her first year of life. That means three things: 1.) For a year where I vowed to cut back on travel, we've traveled waaaay too much, 2.) we didn't post last week, so this is a combined issue, and 3.) many of you will recognize these pictures as you saw them taken.
So Mia got to see her Abuelita and is happy to report that Abi is leaving the hospital (after a 3 week tour) and will be home on Tuesday. That was one heckuva errand running session Margie and Frank! Next time use the internet. Besides reminding us of life's fragility and the importance of family, this ordeal gave us a new inside joke that we're sure will be around and still funny for years to come. Let's just say that if Margie is "Buttercup", the role of "Farmboy" is to be played by Frank, not Margie's male nurse.
In passing the one year threshhold of her life, Mia has seemingly opened the floodgates on her development. The new things that have happened and been discovered over the past two weeks are probably too numerous to mention here and definitely too numerous to remember in one sitting. But.... (deep breath)... as we report every week she is moving faster than ever and climbing much more proficiently. Her signing has become a truly efficient means of communication. She tells us with gusto and accuracy that she is hungry, wants milk, wants more, is tired. She has even developed a little head nod that we think means "thank you". And her verbal skills are coming along as well. She can call a banana by its name (minus the "b"). In fact she made Mommy buy some in the store yesterday by pointing them out. She calls to the "dog"s and even knows Ulla's name, and says "woof" when she's a dog or even hears the word. And... a great moment for Mommy, she now calls out to her as "Mama". It's hard to explain here, but the difference in accuracy and frequency of her words and signs since say, two weeks ago, is pretty incredible. Oh yeah, and she makes herself laugh all the time now.
Happenings: As you can see, before we hopped on a plane, Mia fully enjoyed ripping into her first Easter Basket!
We already mentioned we took a plane ride -- it was to Arizona. We saw a bunch of family and friends and Mia even took in her first Spring training game. Besides the view from some primo seats under a beautiful cloudless sky, thanks to Uncle Bob and his Brewer's connection, Mia got to
tour the locker room and actually shook hands with
Craig Counsell (of the 2001 World Champion Diamondbacks) and
Prince Fielder (potential future Hall of Famer).
Mia's choppers are coming in nicely and her love of food has only grown. Just don't let it be bland and she'll eat it. She especially like biting into full sized sandwiches.
Discoveries in dirt and volume: Thanks to some nice weather and her new skills in locomotion, Mia found that dirt is incredibly interesting and fun. She also figured out how to work a volume knob and agrees with Daddy that music sounds better when the knob is turned clockwise.
Enjoy the pics this week. To see outtakes and bloopers, click
here (and
here).
Love, Mia, Marlo, Brad, Ulla, and Cleo
PS: For those of you without much experience, the underlined words are links to more info. Click on them and see where it takes you! And there's a video up there in case you missed it -- check it out.
PPS: Obviously we're still working on formatting issues and updating older stuff. Thanks for your patience and we hope you enjoy what we have so far.
Walking around in my Easter Dress
Taking a ride with Abi
Easter in AZ
Photo shoot with Cousins Emma and Anna
Spring Training game pics with Grandma and Daddy
Playing with friend Morgaine (daughter of friends Chip and Kathy)
Cuddling w/ my toys
Back home with Ulla
to the cul-de-sac to race around. Owen appeared to be the next Evel Knievel while Mia mostly just watched him zip around her. Nevertheless, they both had a great time together.
