Josh has loved Mia since before she was born. He used to daydream about her and imagine all the fun he was going to have teaching her to ride a bike, tie her shoes, cook and swim. Since she's been around, the love he so blatantly feels for her manifests, not only in the words he speaks to her (constantly reminding her how much he loves her), but also in his daily interactions with her. He has a relentless drive to do things that will put a smile on her face and is totally committed to ensuring her safety and comfort. Mia's Daddy loves her more than he can even begin to articulate. A stressful day, a sleepless night, a rainy Saturday morning... none of it impedes the joy he clearly feels when he sees little Mia. And she is equally as elated by his presence. She shudders with happiness when he enters the room and cannot contain her excitement when he peek-a-boos around a door with bright, happy eyes. They are best friends. And they have found each other.
April began with, yep, you guessed it...more parties. Mia was a lovely little Easter Baby at the beginning of the month and got to visit all her family after egg dying and cookie decorating. She loved banging the Easter eggs together and especially loved the little white bunny from her Auntie Gina.
April had a few sunny days, but most were visited by that typical Oregon drizzle. Mia came down with her second ear infection and spent the first part of the month fighting those symptoms. It is torture for us to see her uncomfortable. Fortunately, it only lasted about a week and she bounced back pretty quickly. It's amazing how happy she remains, despite temperature spikes and a nose that was running like a faucet.
Mia has walking toys to help her move around, but she prefers to push her little white chair, which is decked out with tennis balls to ease the pushing (a dad invention). She still loves keys and phones (hmmm...do I sense a bit of foreshadowing??), but her favorite toys are currently her books. She will happily thumb through her board books for extended periods of time and seems to love every one she's read (with the exception of the truck book, which she WILL NOT even give the time of day). When nap time arrives, if Mia isn't ready to go right to sleep, often she'll sit in her crib with a book and read to herself until she's ready to shut her eyes.
It's nearly impossible to take Mia anywhere without being stopped by folks who want to play with her. She flirts with her toothy grin and her long lashes--I'm always surprised by the people who want to talk with her. Last week, the checker at Fred's called over his buddy to "check out how cute this baby is, dude!" I think she likes the attention. She just seems happy to be out and about, experiencing the world and enjoying the people in it.
Mia is so close to walking. She's taking more risks with standing unsupported and she maneuvers around the house easily with her white chair. We guess she has a couple more weeks of supported practice in her before she'll need her running shoes.
Mia is eating almost everything we give her. She still hates green beans, but loves toast, beans and rice, tortellini, avocado, kiwi, melon, mango, salad, strawberries, chicken, pickles, eggs, yogurt, squash, and of course...CHEESE. That girl would eat cheese and nothing else if she had her way. And I'm not kidding about the green beans. I gave her some and she almost started to cry. No green beans.
April started out fun, but continued on with the daily grind of working for the weekend. April is notoriously long for teachers because it signals the beginning of the slide to Summer vacation. And there's still SO much to do before then in the classroom that it would be in bad taste to begin counting the days at that point. Nonetheless, I must admit that I'm looking forward more this year than ever before to the end of the school year.
We continue to enjoy the time we have with babyMia more everyday and Josh and I are in total agreement that she is the coolest person we've ever meant.
