Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Health Updates-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I realized I have not updated on a couple medical things lately, so thought I would do it now.

The Good-Mia had a check-up with the cardiologist to check on her pulmonary stenosis. She got a great report!! Apparently her heart sounds almost normal and the stenosis will most likely completely clear up. We don't have to go back for a year!!!

The Bad-I got my blood test results back and while it is good I don't have gestational diabetes, apparently the antibody screen came up positive again. I didn't ask many questions last time since we were thinking it was lab error since the last test had come up negative, but I have an appointment next Tuesday and you can be sure I will be clarifying and trying to get more info to understand this better. I know it is not anything of great concern at this point since they are not overly worried about it, but it of course worries me. :)

The Ugly-(Warning-stop reading if you have a weak stomach!!) Both Mia and I have had disgusting puking experiences in the car in the last week or two. First, Mia threw up on the car ride to the cardiologist. She managed to mainly get her shirt and not much else, so I cleaned her up and we proceeded on our way to the doctor. In my defense, she was a happy, smiley child afterwards so I figured she ate something bad. Then on the way home, it started again, this time worse, and all over her and the carseat. The grossness of it then made me get sick-lovely. Then this past weekend I was really uncomfortable and think the baby probably moved. Sunday night I felt gross and miserable, but was feeling better Monday morning until the car ride to work. I was almost to school when without warning I started puking all over. I will leave it at the fact that I had red juice for breakfast and both myself and the car required a bit of clean-up. Fun times!!

On another note, I will be an aunt later today!!! Jen is having her baby girl today!!!

Monday, April 28, 2008

Bike Trailer-Take 2

I don't think I ever posted these pictures last year (I don't know why, they are probably the funniest pictures I have of Mia!), but we had tried to put Mia in Cort's bike trailer and she was just not having it! As you can see from the pictures below, it was not an enjoyable event for her. I think what irritated her more than anything was the helmet. She below...


You have to click and enlarge this one to get the full effect

We decided to give it another shot this year and we actually stuck both Ava and Aidan in Ian's bike trailer and have them take them on a ride to the park. Things went much smoother this year. Don't these two look so funny?

Sunday, April 27, 2008

20 Months!

I don't know how or quite when it happened, but I have lost my baby! I don't necessarily see it every day in person, but when I sit and look at recent pictures I have taken of Mia, she doesn't look like a baby any more, she looks like a little girl. It is both sad and exciting at the same time. I still call her my baby, but that will have to change soon! This month Mia will be 20 months old-only 4 short months away from 2!!!! When people say time flies with kids, they are not kidding. Mia is so much fun these days, as well as frustrating at times as we are approaching those "terrible twos."

So what is Mia doing these days? Since this blog is serving somewhat as Mia's baby book, I will detail it here. Well, Mia has been very verbal lately. She is like a little parrot and will repeat words very well. She has a book from Grandma called First 100 Words and she is great at pointing and naming so many of the words like shoes, socks, duck, fish, ball, plane, boat, book, bear, cheese, apple, keys, tv, frog, tree, hat, cat, dog, bunny, pig, cow, sheep, chicken, monkey, and bird. It almost seems like she has new words every day. She loves to make her animal sounds and thinks it is so funny when you ask her to do it. She has a great roar! A new favorite sound of hers is "choo choo" for the sound a train makes. She also talks a lot of gibberish that we DON'T understand. :) She is getting better at saying names like Ava, Aidan, Noah (no-no), Grandma, Gigi, Papa, etc.

One of Mia's new obsessions since it has been nicer is the outdoors. She is very interested in bugs, bunnies and birds. If you tell her there is a bunny or a bird in the yard she goes running for the sliding glass door. When we are outside she will point out any bird that flies by and was so excited to recently see a real live ladybug. We have been reading our ladybug books constantly since. :) Leaves are also very fascinating to Mia and she will collect and bring many of them to you.

The frustrating part of having a toddler comes with the "no, no no!" we hear, in addition to "no, mama!" and "no, mine!" We also get the body arching and kicking when we try to carry Mia away from something she doesn't want to stop, or the running away when she doesn't want to do something or have her diaper changed. Normally if we redirect it stops quickly, but it is not my favorite part of having a toddler!

Mia had been going through a very bad stage with her eating where she was barely eating anything at all and had been really picky, but the last couple days she has really picked up her eating again and I am praying it sticks! The pediatrician assured me that it is normal for this age to be picky and maybe even eat only one good meal a day, but it was frustrating at times to see Mia eat so little when she used to be more of a hearty eater. She also finishes quickly, so keeping her at the dinner table tends to be a challenge at times. We've been working on some tough love, but the screaming through dinner at times isn't always so fun!

Some other random tidbits...Mia still is missing quite a few teeth. She has about 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom and 4 back molars, but is missing her i-teeth and some of her other side teeth. I swear she is the world's slowest teether! Mia is slowly learning to count objects and can count things up to 3, although she needs some prompting. We were stuck on the number 2 forever and she would just repeat that over and over. :) Mia is obsessed with phones. She will pretend anything with numbers is a phone-a remote, calculator, you name it. In other exciting news, Mia finally has enough hair to wear in either a ponytail or pigtails. I waited 20 long months for that day to come!!!! :) Well, that's about it for now, here is an assortment of random 2 month pictures....
She looks sweet and innocent doesn't she???


Caught in the act! Trying to stand on the ottoman (check out the pigtail) Some random pics showcasing the lovely pigtail and Mia's many expressions



The fish-face again
The blink
The cheesy smile
A normal smile Leaves!

A different perspective The end! (Mia had fallen asleep on the floor with Cort)

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Quick Playdate with Erica

Today Mia had a quick playdate with Erica. Jimmy and Venessa wanted to get a picture of Erica with Jimmy's grandma, so they stopped by. After taking a couple pictures, Mia and Erica played together for a little while. Mia even shared a toy or two with Erica. :)

Miss Erica

Playing the piano together

Mia giving Erica a kiss-poor Erica! :)


Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Aidan and Ava

The other day Sarah asked if I could do a couple black and white pics of Aidan and Ava so she could update some frames in their house. I actually took these in my garage of all places (heard you get good indirect light in there and I have to say it is true!) with the background stand again and a black blanket. These were taken with a new lens I got that I treated myself to with some birthday money got from my mom a couple months ago-thanks mom! Here are a couple of the favorites...




Monday, April 21, 2008

Weekend Fun

For the first weekend in awhile, we were not traveling anywhere and had no major plans. It was nice to be lazy and not have an agenda! Sunday was a beautiful day, so to cap it off we went to the Arboretum with a bucket of chicken to have a dinner picnic with Sarah and Ian, and then to just walk around for awhile. It was a nice way to finish of the weekend.

Can you believe it??? Are those genuine smiles I see on Mia's face?

Getting ready to run down a big hill with Cort
And she's off!
The Graskes The other Graskes

Saturday, April 19, 2008

St. Louis Picture Party

Last weekend when we were in St. Louis, Lisa had asked me if I could take some 1-year pictures of Lucas. We had plans to take them outside, but unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating and it was rainy and cold. I had brought my new background stand that Cort had got me for my birthday (so I don't have to rig up my blankets over tables, etc. anymore!), so we decided to try that out instead. All the kids were looking pretty darn cute that day, so I snapped a couple of everyone.

Here is Lucas, the big 1-year old!


Big-Sister AddisonAddison and Lucas

Kristin and Mike's Tyler-
he was by far the easiest-he is younger so he hasn't learn to run away from the black box of torure :)




Julie and Charlie's Carter and Logan