Just Can't Get Enough?

You've come to the right place. Here are more pictures and video of Mia:

 I'm gonna eat you!!

 He he he. Just kidding.

 What?!

 I love the camera

 Look what I get to play with

 So tired from playing in my new toy...so is daddy!

 Ok, I'm up, more playing please!

 I'm "So Beary Cute"

 I just can't stop moving!

 Ready for my after-bath massage

 This is a good place for sleeping.

 Look what Grampy and Mommy made when I spit up all over my activity mat.

 Good morning! Don't you think my robe is purr-fect?

 There can never be enough smile photos, right?

Such a happy baby. 

Mia's Big Week

Dear Fans,

I have hacked my mommy and daddy's computer to tell you about my big week from my own perspective. Shhh, don't tell them.

This was a big week for me. It was the first time I went to the zoo. We went on Labor Day because we had to go before the clouded leopards left. Daddy said we had to go because he donated like a million dollars to support them. It was busy so I was in heaven. I could look at little people, big people, animals, plants and all sorts of fun places. My first stop was the bathroom. Mommy was a little upset that she got me all dressed in an animal onesie for me to just go and poop all over it before we even got inside the zoo. Mommy then got mad at me because I tried to get off the changing table because there were so many people to look at. I couldn't help myself. After she wrangled some new clothes on me we were off to look at animals and other creatures. Mommy called these creatures 'toddlers.' Very interesting. Lots of talking and screaming coming from them and they moved around so much and got to climb and jump and fall. I'm thinking I want to be a 'toddler' one day. I really liked the aquarium and looking at the people looking at animals in the cages. I was soooo excited, I exhausted myself and couldn't stay awake any longer. We would have stayed all day but my big brother had to go school shopping. I like shopping. Lots of people and lights to look at.

This is my mad face. I don't wanna get changed!

 I calmed down.

 Me and daddy looking in the fun mirror.

 Me peeking at the wallaby.

 We're so silly :)

 My big brother, Ryan, in the hurricane simulator. He said it kind of hurt his ears. Oops. There should be a warning label or something.

 whoa, that's a big fish tank

 Daddy is showing me the animals.

 Me, Mommy and big brother, Ryan.

 Here we are again. We're leaving but we needed a picture to remember my first trip.

I stayed home with mommy the next day and played with my favorite toys. Mommy was getting all weird and teary eyed. She was packing for daycare. She called daycare and asked if she could come in soooo, in the afternoon we visited my new school. We met my teacher, Ms Nicole, and looked around my class room, checked out my crib and found out my color is going to be green. I would have preferred yellow but this boy, Braeden, got my color. Mommy cried some more. I don't know what her problem was. This place was awesome. There's an exersaucer, swing, toys, activity mat and other babies to meet! Silly mommy.

The next day we went to Nana's for lunch. I slept half the time. I do that. Good thing they didn't wake me or I would have shown them what cranky was. After, we went to Grampy's and me and mommy slept on some chairs outside. I love to fall asleep listening to boats go by and waves slopping against the beach. I was in heaven. I visited with Grampy who tells me I'm too hot to handle for too long. I don't know what he's talking about. I think he's too hot. Whatever, put me under that fan. I always want to look at that. Oh, and to see how much people love me I decided to spit up all over Grampy and Grammy's floors, pillows, bedding and maybe I got some skin. He he.

I woke up really early Thursday morning and yelled at mommy. She had the gall to change my clothes! At 5am! What was she thinking? I showed her and didn't go back to sleep after I took my sweet time eating breakfast. I tried to stay asleep for so long but I couldn't do it. I usually get out of bed around 9am, you know. Next thing I know, I'm at my day care meeting a new teacher, Ms Alla. Mommy was a blubbering mess. I didn't know Ms Alla so I was glad mommy stayed with me for awhile so I could wake up a bit and say "Hi" to the other babies.  Ms Alla stole me from mommy (according to her) and put me down to play with the other babies. I know mommy was trying to be quiet, but it was obvious it was her peeking through the hole from the other room and sniffling and blowing her nose. I showed her that I was happy by giggling. I was thinking, "Get out of here, mommy. I'm fine and I'll see you at lunch!")

Here I am, checking out my new crib even though I am really, really sleepy.

 It's cool because I can see myself in the plexiglass.

I was soo happy to see mommy came early for lunch and spent a whole 2 hours with me. We played and she talked to my teacher, Ms Nicole. I could tell mommy felt a lot better about leaving me at daycare now that she had a good chunk of time to talk to Ms Nicole. And mommy said she wanted to make me and my new friends new mobiles for our cribs because the other mobiles are way ghetto. Mommy said she was going to try to stay at work when she had 3pm open but if she couldn't help herself she would come visit. My friend Braedyn left and mommy knew it would just be me and Ms Nicole so she was able to contain herself and stayed at work. When she came to pick me up Ms Nicole and I were going on a walk. I'm trying to teach my teacher that I need to socialize and look around when I get bored of our little  room. She seems to be a quick learner so I think we'll get along just fine. When mommy gathered all my things and brought me to the car she wouldn't put me in my car seat for forever. She said she needed to run the AC, but I think she just wanted to make up for all the kissing time she had missed during the day. Man did I get a lot of kisses.

My new favorite lunch date - Mommy! 

Mommy decided on Friday that she wanted a Mommy and Mia day. That meant, instead of going on a walk in the neighborhood, we went to the zoo again. Yippeee, I got to go to the aquarium again. Since there weren't a lot of people I got to look at the big tropical fish tank for a long time. This time we also saw sharks, I saw the walrus poop right in my face, little wolves got fed. I fell asleep before the red wolves and mommy said the wolf pups were out running around. I just couldn't help myself. I was all snuggled with mommy in her carrier and it warm out and she was rhythmically walking around. Who wouldn't fall asleep? We went home for mommy to eat lunch and I got the best surprise ever! Daddy was off work early so we got to hang out. Mommy was getting jealous that I was giggling and laughing so much with daddy. He's so funny with all the funny sounds he makes and funny faces. Poor mommy, she tries, but she's just not like daddy. Auntie D and Uncle Mike came over and I showed them how I can screech like a big girl now. I think they were impressed. They should be, I'm pretty good at it.

Ready to see some animals!!!

 

So excited, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. 

 

Mommy tells me that we'll go for a boat ride with Grampy tomorrow. We've been so busy. I hope I see Nana this weekend too. I love my peeps.

Love,
           Mia

Obsessed with Poop

...and other bodily functions. This is not for the easily disgusted.

BM (before Mia), I was a bodily function-phobe. When I was little I would be disgusted at Desiree and Brittany and their tooting habits. Brittany hacking up phlegm made me want to hurl. I would leave the room if they were engaging in these activities or try to banish them from the room if it was dinner time, since I wasn't about to eat in my bedroom. I started working with kids and I re-assessed my desire to be a speech therapist when I was peed on (multiple times, ick), when I saw snot (one time this little boy had what looked like a fat slug out his nose), when kids put toys in their mouths, sneezing without covering their mouth with their elbow, general drooliness, when they ate and food was all over their face and then later crusted on, and anything else you can imagine (especially if you've had kids). Bruce would gross me out when Ryan was a toddler and had a booger he would grab it from Ryan's nose and wipe it on his pants. Ick, yuck, gag, hurl. What was he doing?!

AM (after Mia), I've been obsessed with every minute detail of her. This, of course, would include all bodily fluids and functions. Poop has been the most awesome bodily fluid/function. In the beginning I was fascinated with the meconium because it looked like tar, all thick and black and sludgy looking. I was amazed that this stuff was coming out of her for days and it had been in her body while she was in my body and was made up of the stuff my body made to help her be a healthy baby.  Little did I know I would prefer the sludge because it stayed in her diaper.

Similarly, I became fascinated with breast milk (ok, not her bodily fluid but it went into her). I thought it was amazing that I made colostrum and that it was so good for her for her first few days and that it magically changed to breast milk because, somehow, my body knew when to make the switch. Even better, I read that I produce 2 types of breastmilk in one sitting - foremilk and hindmilk. The foremilk is like having a glass of 1% milk or water with your meal, quenching baby's thirst. The foremilk is the actual meal, the meat and potatoes of breastmilk, carrying all the fat and nutrients to satiate baby's hunger. They even look different, one more watery and the other more creamy. Bizarro. Oh, and my breastmilk acts as a laxative, which explains a lot of the stories I have about Mia.

Can you imagine the things that can come out of this sweet little girl?

Ok, the big stuff ~ poop. After the meconium passed, Mia's poop looked like spicy brown mustard, all runny yellow and seedy. This stuff was amazing! It could, and did, get everywhere you can imagine. It would shoot up the back and sides of her diaper at the most inconvenient times. The last few days it's looked like apple butter. It still gets everywhere at any time. I've found this to be more dangerous as she doesn't make as much sound when this comes out.  Let's hear some stories:

Our first outing was when she was one week old and we went to Round Table for Ryan's trophy ceremony for baseball. I was sleep deprived and still trying to figure out this new mommy thing when I picked Mia up and Ryan's mom said "Uh, oh" when she saw her from behind. Of course! Mia had pooped a lot but I was prepared. I wasn't prepared to see her poop had gone all the way down into the foot of her sleeper. How did it travel to her foot in a car seat?!

I was changing Mia when Bruce was in the garage and she pooped, shooting it across the changing table, launching itself into the air over the wipes container onto her crib, the floor and the garbage can. That's some distance! I yelled for Bruce and he thought something was terribly wrong so he ran up to find out I just wanted to share in my amazement with him. Bonus: He cleaned it up while I finished changing Mia.

I was going to give Mia a bath but on the way, I looked at her cute naked tushie in the bathroom mirror. You know where this is going, right? I watched her poop on my hand and into the sink. Mind you, she also peed all down the front of my clothes as well. Rather than get mad, I thought, "Better now than in the bath."

Mia had a blow out and I was changing her so I had her nakey and sitting on my arm so I could move some things from the changing table. You would think post-blowout would be a good time to hold her nakey. Hahaha, you would be fooled. Mia sneezed so poop shot off my arm and sprayed EVERYWHERE - wall, floor, changing table, clothes! Oh, no! Not the wainscoting! Bruce spent so much time painting that and now poop is running down the white wall and into the cracks! I'm sure my dad appreciated my frantic call "How do you scrub poop from the grooves of the wainscoting!?" Answer: toothbrush.

The photos don't do the explosion justice. Ugh. Everywhere. 

 
Just the other day I was sitting by myself, feeding Mia, when I felt warm wetness on my lap. She had made a little pooping sound but the wetness was spreading so I thought pee was escaping. I lifted her up and saw the biggest poop puddle on my lap. I started yelling for daddy, Erin or Michael. Anyone! If I stood up I was afraid of dripping poop all over the house. I needed a rag or something. Good thing Erin had given me a kitchen towel for some spit up! A cream colored one, even better. I hugged Mia to me and crouched low and slowly waddled to the changing table. Now she's on top, how do I clean her and myself without dripping poo? Aha, I hear Erin and make her watch Mia so she didn't roll off the table. Luckily I had a change of clothing. When I opened Mia's diaper, there was almost no poo inside. It was amazing, just a small line straight out the back. She needed a full wipe down since it was on her elbows and everything.

 

Just another accident while she was eating. 

Good thing there were other people around to document at least one of these blowouts. 

 

Mia's poop turned Mountain Dew green for a few days. I called the pediatrician to see if I should be concerned with her radioactive poo. No worries unless she looked sick, but I did have to watch it turn every shade of green you could imagine before it went back to yellow. I guess a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance from her not eating too well a few days before (probably from the few days we actually had heat).

Five diapers without moving from the changing table this past week! Five!! #1 Morning diaper, heavy and wet. #2 Dry diaper, but I heard lots of sounds so I was convinced it was poo and not just toots so I opened it up to find it empty and dry. That was her cue to pee all over the diaper and her pjs. #3 Just strapped her in and heard what was most definitely poo. Open up to find I was right. Waited to see if she was done by singing and playing with her. Good to go, I put a fresh diaper under her pull out the dirty one and finish wiping. #4 A warning sign midwipe caused me to pull away just in time to watch the poo exit the baby bottom. Not a pretty sight. There goes that diaper. #5 Will this one survive, folks. Why yes it did, for at least an hour.

These are just some of the poo stories. People love it and fear it when they hear her a-blowin'. She's so loud. It feels bubbly on your arm or leg, depending on how you're holding her. Her Grampy thinks she's about to lift off because she has so much force behind it. It's a constant guessing game: little sounds don't exactly correlate to little poos. Big sounds don't necessarily mean big poos. Then there's the SBD's (silent but deadly). You never heard it but get a big shock when her carseat has to be dismantled entirely so that you can wash everything covered in poo and scrub the plastic and seat belt straps from the poo.

One thing I've learned is to elevate the child when she is making these sounds so that the poo is less likely to go up the back. These days it doesn't really come out the sides unless there's no more space and it needs to go somewhere. That being said, I'm often feeding her when this occurs (remember, it's a laxative) so it comes out the back and on me. I just don't think Mia should be pooping on people other than myself. I'll take the poop-bullet.

Oh my goodness, the stories could continue. I should stop myself. But I won't.

Today she was making her usual poopy sounds and had those glossy red eyes I've come to correlate with anything going on in her diaper. When she was done she smelled like dinner rolls. Kind of nice....then I opened the diaper. Whoa baby! Into the bath for the little lady. It was just too much. Too many wipes to count. The diaper had exploded!  I changed, she bathed and changed, the changing table changed, the cloth diaper that was to protect the changing table was removed. It didn't sound like much at the time, but it was a doosie. Good thing it happened at home and not at the baby shower we were getting ready to go to!

Ok, I really should be done with the stories. It's too much. There's too many and I'm sure the stories will continue. I'm just glad that my family is as interested in this stuff as I am so they don't get annoyed (at least they don't seem that way) when I call just to tell them about bodily fluids from my precious little girl.

Guess what this face is about!!!

Feels so good when I'm done, Mommy.