Mia's 1st Birthday Party

I have been meaning to post pictures from Mia's birthday party, but there are just so many!! So here are some of the many. I have to say they are not the best, and I forgot to take pictures of a lot of stuff since I was so busy. Mia's party was a rubber ducky theme. There were rubber duckies everywhere, ducky sandwiches, ducky Jello, duck punch, etc., etc. :) We had hoped the weather would cooperate, but it chose not to. It was cold and rainy, so unfortunately we were all stuck in the house. It was still a great (and crazy) time! Mia enjoyed being around all her friends and received so many nice gifts. She is one spoiled little girl!!

Decorations

Mia's Cake (this took a LONG time to decorate)

The cupcake tree

Kids' drinks

1 is Just Ducky!

Venessa and Erica

Lisa and Addison

Lisa and Erica

Addison meeting Erica

The Majerskys and the twins

Logan

Venessa and me with the girls

The birthday girl!!

Opening gifts

Mia sitting on her new chair from Pam

Mia's first purse

Kissing Minnie

Yummy!

The scramble after the pinata broke

Grandma and Mia

The favor bags

Auntie Pam and Mia

Jen and Noah

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.

2 Days and Counting...

2 more days and my baby will be One!! I cannot believe it. Here are a couple more I took at the same time as my last posting. My goal was to get a 1-year "standing" picture of Mia. Unfortunately, I didn't end up getting a lot with the chair because after about 5 clicks, Mia and the chair tipped over. After that Mia refused to go anywhere near it. Who knew picture-taking could be so dangerous? I have to thank Andy and Shannon again for taking me to Hidden Lakes. It is my new favorite place to take pictures.

A New Favorite

Little Mia on the Prairie

Have You Missed Me?

So, have you missed me? I have been a BAD blogger lately. After a pretty laid-back summer, things are kicking back into high gear. I have been working on Mia's 2 birthday parties (more on her first one later), trying to find a babysitter for when I go back (we will make our final decision next week), and getting my things settled at my new school (wow is my new room small!). Life has been a little crazy!! Anyhow, I finally have a chance to sit down and check my email and upload some pictures. I will share some recent ones...

First off, Mia's family party was yesterday. My mom was kind enough to let us use her house to host it. It was a nice, relaxed time, and Mia got lots of new fun stuff that she has been having a ball playing with. We had a rubby ducky theme, but I will save some of the decor pictures for next week after her "friend" party.

Some of the food

Noah crawling around

Mia playing with a new toy

Ava

Opening Gifts (do you see Mia reaching for her piano?)

Mia's ducky hat from her great-grandparents

Noah and Cort
Noah and Mia sharing

Playing with more new toys

Aidan and Papa enjoying a cupcake

Mia LOVED her first taste of cupcake

And these were just a couple from home after the party:

I love how cute she looks with her little tongue sticking out

Playing the piano

Here are some funny pictures from the other day. We put Mia in her small pool on the deck, and just put her in a swim diaper. After she was done, she crawled out of the pool and then around the deck. She then wanted to get down from the deck, so I put her in the grass. I was suprised she would want to get down because as I have mentioned before, she hates the grass! But she was on a mission and wanted to get to her swingset, so she was determined to crawl across the yard, even if she hated it every step of the way.

Almost there!

And finally-success!And one final picture. This was last week. Cort joined us at parent-infant class, so he got the chance to take Mia swimming in the pool. Sadly, we had our last class on Friday becasue I have a school meeting on the final day, next Friday. We had a great time this summer though-thanks Mom!!!

Not My Family This Time

I do have some new pictures of Mia, but I haven't even uploaded them yet. I have been so busy with getting Mia's birthday parties ready (her family one is this weekend), finding a babysitter for when school starts, and just the general craziness of life. I am sad to say that Mia has her first ear infection and is on antibiotics for the first time. She has been snotty for about a week, but it has recently turned green (sorry for too much information!). On top of it, she has been HARD to put down to sleep lately. She normally is super-easy, so when I called the Dr. and mentioned that, they suspected an ear infection and had us come in. Sure enough that is what it is. Good thing is that she is in general good spirits, just a little clingy and whiny. I'm hoping she's better for the weekend which I bet she will be.

Anyways, Andy and Shannon asked if I would take family pictures for them, and they would do some for us in return (they also have a D40). We were originally going to do them in their yard, but then Andy suggested Hidden Lakes in Bolingbrook. I am so glad he did! It was so scenic that I think I will take Mia back there for pictures some time. Anyway, here are some of their pictures.

Kane County Cougars Game and the Zoo Again

Wednesday night Cort and I brought Mia to a Kane County Cougars game along with his brother, dad, and Aidan. My grandparents had given us free tickets that they had received. Although it was HOT, we had a nice time relaxing on the grass.

Cort and Mia

Mia attacking my pizza (look at how flushed she is and her crazy, sweaty hair!)

Mia sitting in her tinkerbell camp chair (Thanks Mike and Nic!)

Today we went to the zoo with Jen, Mike, and Noah. Mike knows a vet who works at the animal hospital and she was nice enough to hook us up with a tour of the hospital. While we were there, they were doing a procedure on a bird called a Cassowary, which was incredibly large. It was very cool to see the bird up so close (sedated of course!) It was another hot day and Mia fell asleep as soon as we started driving home.

Mike and Noah

Mia and a caterpillar friend

Noah and Mia at the petting zoo

The baby polar bear