Happy Birthday Mia!!!

Wow!! I can hardly believe it, but Mia is 1 today! It has been a year of ups and downs, but she has truly made our lives complete. Here's a little walk down memory lane...

Baby Mia Isabel Graske was born Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 6:54 p.m.,weighing in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 20 inches long. She was a bit bigger than Cort and I expected, but her chubby cheeks were probably a good pound of that weight! After being induced in the morning and going through a very easy labor, I had a bit of a rough delivery, getting a bit sick along the way. This is when Mia began to show her stubborness and decided not to cooperate. Since she was being so stubborn and because heart condition, she was delivered via c-section. She didn't look a thing like we expected, so we held off naming her until the next morning. Unfortunately as I was recovering the day or two after her birth, I lost a lot of blood, so I had a blood transfusion. While it seemed scary, it helped me feel a ton better almost immediately! Like her mommy, Mia had some issues as well, she had some skin torn off the top of her head during her attempted delivery using the vaccuum, so her little head was scraped up. Because of that, the doctors expected her to become jaundice, which she did, so she spent some time under the lights to help her out. Once Mia's jaudice levels came down we were able to bring her home. It's been an adventure ever since! In one short year Mia has

Rolled over
Sat up
Crawled
Stood Up
Begun to cruise around furniture and with her push walker
Gone from a bottle to a sippy, now with regular milk!
Eaten lots of table foods, with her most favorite being grilled cheese and yogurt
Learned to play peek-a-boo, run away from mommy, and chase Zippy
Begun to talk (dad, mama, duck, cat, and a couple of other words, not always used correctly. :) )

Mia has a STRONG personality. She is very silly and will break into hysterics when you tickle her or joke around playing with her (happy of course!). She also gets frustrated very easy and will break into hysterics if she cannot get something or something is taken away (unhappy of course!). She is a loud girl who constantly wants to be on the go. She doesn't like being held for long periods of time, she rather be on the ground playing and moving around. Her newest fascination is books. As a Reading Specialist, I should be happy right? After the millionth time reading various duck and farm animal books, I'm not so sure :).

I can't wait to see what this next year brings! Here are some pictures from her first year of life if you have made it this far.