Mia's Birthday Pictures

Following are a lot of pictures from Mia's first birthday week. It starts with Mia opening and playing with her new cool circus train that she received the weekend before her birthday from our Birmingham family who came over for her (cancelled) party. After those pictures are Mia's pictures from her actual birthday...the aquarium, opening presents from Grandpops, Grandma Jan, Mommy, Daddy and Lily and eating a petit for as her birthday cake. There are several pictures of her enjoying the petit for, and let me just say, I had a hard time narrowing it down. I love pictures of kids digging into cake and getting it all over their faces!  She and Lily both love all these fun new toys Mia is receiving! 

Miscellaneous Pictures

Daddy with his two girls.

Mommy and Mia
Check out Mia's sad face. Can you see how far out she sticks that bottom lip?! And those big tears...it breaks a mom's heart!

One Year Old

I can't believe it, but yesterday was Mia's first birthday. This year has absolutely flown by. She has been such a blessing to us, and a wonderful addition to our family. We can't help but love this little girl!

While Ryan took Lily to school yesterday, Mia and I played and read books together. She is really starting to enjoy books which makes me so happy! She is such a happy girl. She laughs often, smiles a ton and is just generally happy. She went back down for her nap and slept well for about an hour. We got her up as soon as she started making noise and got her dressed. Then Ryan and I took her out to have some time, just the three of us; talk about a special treat for Mia!

First we went to J. Christopher's for brunch. Mia enjoyed eating some of her cheese toast and my breakfast potatoes. She had a great time watching the other customers too. Then we took her down to the Georgia Aquarium. She loved it! When you first walk in, you walk through a hallway that has fish tanks on both sides of it. Her eyes got so big; she just stared at it. Then we visited the other exhibits, and she seemed to enjoy all of them. Ryan and I really liked watching the scuba divers in the biggest tank, and listening to them talk about the fish and sharks around them. However, I think Mia enjoyed watching the people and walking around more than watching the fish! She had a great time wandering around. She would walk right up to someone, pat their knee and smile. Of course, she's adorable so it didn't seem like the strangers minded. We stayed for about an hour and a half, and I think Mia loved all of it. As we were leaving, we decided to buy her a little stuffed penguin because she really had fun watching the live ones jump around. We named it "Eins" which is German for "one" (Lily had received on her first birthday at the Aquarium a whale shark named "Uno" which is Spanish for one).

When we got home, Mia drank her bottle and then went down for nap. My mom had picked Lily up from school, so she was there to stay with the girls for the afternoon. When Ryan and I got home from work, we made Mia's birthday dinner: sauteed chicken, brown rice, green beans and peaches. She wasn't much of a fan of the chicken, but she loved the sides. She's enjoying getting to try lots of new foods these days. We also let her have whole milk for the first time. She took one sip of it, and immediately spit it out. I think she was expecting water in her sippy cup, and it threw her off. However, she tried it some more and seemed to enjoy it. I hope she will quickly grow to love it.

After dinner, we let her open a couple of birthday presents. I say "let her open" but she didn't want to pay too close of attention. She liked the bow from Grandma Jan and Grandpops' present, and she liked pulling the paper off a little, but she didn't quiet seem to get it yet; she did like walking around with the cards. Anyway, Grandma Jan and Grandpops gave her a beautiful sterling silver Christmas ornament (we collect Christmas ornaments) which will always commemorate her first birthday. We also gave her one of the presents from us. It's the Cedermont Kids Christmas Carols DVD. Both girls love these DVD sets, so we thought this would be a good one with the upcoming Christmas season. Bama had given her a present last weekend while she was in town (for her cancelled party); she is having so much fun with the Little People Circus Train push and ride-on toy they gave. We have a few more presents that we're saving for her to open at her rescheduled birthday party which is supposed to be tomorrow evening. I don't think she understands why she is getting these things, but I think she likes having them!

After the presents, we watched the new DVD for a couple of songs and then had birthday cake. Actually, we had Publix petit fors. Mia immediately started playing with the icing and loved it! She scooped up and ate every ounce of icing and got lots of it on her face which was adorable. I then cut up the cake part of the petit for to give her and she loved it too. She was quite upset when it was all gone! I think she'll be happy to get her cupcakes which are bigger than the petit fors at her birthday party!

We took lots of great pictures during the day's adventures, but unfortunately, our computer is having some problems uploading pictures right now. I hope to be able to resolve this issue this weekend so I can get them uploaded soon. I want you to see how adorable she is these days!

Lily Cleans

On Sunday, Lily ran out of the living room while we were playing. I assumed she was going to her room to get some toys or maybe to use the bathroom. She came back several minutes later and handed me something: a huge wad of very wet paper. I looked at it and asked Lily "what is this?" She sweetly replied "I cleaned the potty Mommy." I really wasn't sure what to do...thank her for her efforts at keeping her potty clean or describe to her just how disgusting the potty is and she should let me clean it. I think I said "Oh!" We walked back to her bathroom, and I asked her to show me what she had done. Apparently, she took out about a dozen wipes, dunked them in potty water (which I am just hoping was not used), wiped the seat, wiped the lid, took down the basket on top of the potty, wiped the top, replaced the basket and then brought the used wipes to me. She was so proud of herself, especially because she put the basket on the floor, wiped the top and then replaced the basket. I decided to thank her for helping me keep things clean, and I reminded her that I will happily help her clean the potty in the future; just let me know. Then we washed our hands REALLY well and went about our day.

Not the Party We Imagined

We were supposed to have our family birthday party for Mia today. We had the food ordered, cupcakes made, presents wrapped, house cleaned...it was going to be fun. Unfortunately, Mia had other plans.

She started running a low fever and coughing yesterday. We decided to keep an eye on her. However, she didn't sleep well last night and this morning, she just didn't look or act like herself. While Ryan took Lily to her friend Peyton's birthday party, I called our pediatrician's after-hours line. They connected me with a nurse from Children's Hospital who walked me through lots of questions. She concluded that we didn't need to go to the ER, but it would be a good idea to go to an immediate care facility. Her fever is slightly higher today than yesterday, she has a runny nose and sounds like a little old smoker man when she coughs. Liz and I took her up to the Childrens Immediate Care on Barrett Parkway. Ryan and I decided to cancel the party once we realized we needed her to be seen by a doctor.

We only had to wait about 25 minutes to be seen first by a nurse and then a doctor immediately afterwards. The nurse took her temperature (100.8), weighed her (21 lb, 3 oz) and took her oxygen level (99 - fyi, 93-100 is normal). Her heart rate was a little high, but she said that was normal with a fever. Oh, we had given her Tylenol before leaving, and I am certain that brought her temperature down to the 100.8; she was burning up before we left (we couldn't get a good read with our thermometer).

The doctor then examined her and decided she is in the beginning stages of RSV, and she has an ear infection. He prescribed an antibiotic for the infection and an inhaler for the RSV; we'll see how giving her an inhaler goes. He also said to alternate between Tylenol and Motrin to keep the fever under control. Thankfully we caught this early because RSV can lead to hospitalization. She is resting now, and we hope she will get better very quickly. The party will go on another day!

Gulf Shores Trip

What a great long weekend! Our family went to Beach Club in Gulf Shores with the Henderson family. We always have so much fun together, and a weekend getaway is always nice. The Hendersons left at bedtime Wednesday night, and we left about 2 AM Thursday morning. We had a pretty good ride down; both girls slept well until we exited the interstate around 6 AM (CST so 7 AM "our" time). We got to the condo about an hour later, and Parker and Jill were awake and ready to greet us. Lily was so excited to see them! We unpacked our stuff and then Brian and Macey came out. Ryan went to lay down and rest for awhile since he had been up driving for awhile, and Mia took a nap too. We really just took it easy the rest of the day. After the kids went to bed we watched Jim Gaffigan's new stand-up act; he's hilarious!

On Friday, I stayed in the condo while Mia napped and everyone else went to the pool which you know Lily loves. After lunch, it was nap time and then Ryan, Lily, Brian, Jill and Parker went to the beach for awhile. They had a great time playing, finding seashells and building sand castles. Mia and Macey napped which meant I had the chance to relax and read magazines - yea! Once they came back up, we all got ready and went to The Hangout for dinner. One of the coolest things about this restaurant is they have a HUGE sand pit for the kids to play in while we wait for dinner. Lily and Parker had a great time playing in this while Ryan and Brian watched. Jill and I enjoyed getting to talk with one another while Mia and Macey enjoyed hearing the band play. It was a pretty good cover band playing; Mia sat in her seat clapping, laughing and watching them. An older lady at the table next to us came over at one point and told me how much she as enjoying watching Mia watch the band; her son was the lead singer/guitarist, and it made her happy to see how much she liked the music. We then enjoyed a delicious and fun dinner together.

Saturday was another beautiful day. Lily, Jill, Parker, Brian and I played out on the beach most of the morning while Ryan stayed in with the napping girls. It was so fun watching Parker and Lily have fun together. They played soccer together, helped Brian fly our Nemo kite, ran around and just had fun. Lily also enjoyed burying my feet in the sand, collecting more shells and helping me build sand castles for all her princess friends. While the kids napped that afternoon, Brian and I relaxed on the beach, and then Ryan joined us a little while later. Once the kids woke up from their naps, we all got ready and went to Tacky Jack's for dinner and to watch the AL/LSU game. One of the nicest things about going to Gulf Shores this time of year is how uncrowded everything is; we were the only people in the restaurant for quiet awhile! It was another nice dinner and then it was time for bed.

The Hendersons pretty much got up and headed out Sunday morning, but we hung around a little longer; we wanted to time part of our trip with the girls' afternoon nap time. We actually left just before lunch, so we could stop at Milo's; this was definitely a treat for Ryan. After lunch we walked around the outlet mall for a couple of hours. I find it very hard to resist Carter's! We hit the road, and both girls slept well until Montgomery which is about half-way home. We stopped there for dinner and let the girls run around a bit. Mia was pretty unhappy the rest of the ride home, and we think she was just unhappy to be back in the car seat. She would go in and out of sleep, but cry when she was awake. Lily did great though. We got home about 8:30, so Mia immediately went to bed. We unpacked the rest of our stuff and then put Lily down about 9:30. We put our stuff up and then went to bed too; it's amazing how riding in a car can be so tiring!

This was a wonderful trip, and I am so thankful we had the opportunity to go. It was great to get away from the house, and just relax with our friends and kids at the beach. I hope we can make this an annual trip!

 Ready with her tools

 Lily and Macey...beach beauties!

Lily's Class

Last week, the directors at the Mommy Morning Out program asked us if we minded if they moved Lily up a classroom level. Because her birthday falls in October, she misses the date cut-off by just a few weeks so she was in the "older 2's" classroom which had kids who turn 3 before December 31 in it. The directors said they thought Lily would do well in the class with other 3-year-olds, so we agreed to let her move up. This past Monday was her first day in the new room, and she did great. She was so excited telling me about her new class. She probably asked me 5 times that night "Do you know what classroom I go to today?" I would respond "which one?" and she would excitedly say "Ms Jodi's classroom!" One time I even said "Ms Jodi's class!" and she said "No Mommy, not Ms Jodi's class. It's Ms Jodi's classroom." Sorry, my mistake. They made a scarecrow that she told Ryan all about, and she is simply having a blast there. She can't wait to go back tomorrow. She even told both of us this morning "I get to go to school tomorrow." I love seeing her this excited!

On a related note, we discovered that some of her friends from last year are in this class. She specifically mentioned she was glad to see a little boy named Caleb. I will never forget last year Lily telling us about her classmates; she got a serious look on her face and said Caleb "is very, very, very nice." He better still be nice to her!

Generous Lily

Lily, Mia and I were eating breakfast together this morning while Ryan was at Bible study. I decided to get Lily's help with a decision. I love the organization Samaritans Purse. Every Fall they send their gift catalog which shows some of their major projects that help people around the world. As Mia munched happily away on Cheerios, Lily sat down next to me. I told her how we are so fortunate to have so many nice things like our house, our toys and our food, but not everyone has these nice things. We were going to pick some things in this catalog to send to kids around the world to help them. She looked through the whole catalog, noticed what all the pictures were and picked two projects to give to: milk for children and little chicks for a family. I wasn't surprised by these items knowing how much Lily loves milk and animals though I was a little surprised she didn't pick the books for children. Of course, she has no idea the cost of these items or their value to others. For only $4, milk can be given to a child for a week, and for $14, a dozen chicks are given to a family that will produce hundreds of eggs for them to eat, share or sell. It's truly amazing to me how something so small can help so much. Lily was so excited about picking gifts to give to others. I hope this generous spirit will continue to grow.

Halloween Fun

We had a wonderful Halloween and hope you did too! Saturday morning Ryan and Lily went with Chris and Peyton to Chuck E Cheese for a few hours. They had a blast playing together and collecting tickets. Lily was able to buy a necklace, ring, twirly straw and lollipop with the tickets she won; talk about exciting! I stayed home while Mia took her nap then she and I went to Toys R Us to get a little Christmas shopping done. She was very content to look around at everything and eat her Cheerios. She didn't grab for toys, and she smiled at everyone; it was an enjoyable trip. We both got home for the girls' naps, and we took naps too; I love it when that happens. We had planned on going to a local church's Trunk or Treating Festival, but it was rainy when nap time was over. Since the girls had already worn their costumes several times and don't really understand trick or treating yet, we decided to just go out for a little family dinner instead. We went to Little Azio's which everyone loves. When we got home, we just enjoyed playing together and having fun as a family. It was a pretty low-key day, but it was wonderful!

The pumpkins the girls decorated at school.

Lily and Mia in the adorable Halloween outfits Grandma Jan and Grandpops bought for them. It was a perfect day to wear them since it was too rainy for trick or treating in their costumes.
Boo Mia!
Lily's shirt is right; she is definitely "Too Cute To Spook."
Sweet kisses!

Boo at the Zoo

We decided to take advantage of our new Zoo Atlanta membership and take the girls to Boo at the Zoo Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun! The kids all dress up in their Halloween costumes, so we took our two little Minnie Mice (who were so adorable; see the post below this for pictures). Everything was decorated in a cute way for Halloween; they weren't trying to scare anyone which I appreciated. We had a great time seeing all the costumes and watching all the animals. Mia stayed awake the whole time, and she enjoyed looking around. The gorillas came and sat up against the glass wall, and Mia loved being that close to them. It was also fun to watch the lionnesses who were having fun. Two of them were playing chase; man they're fast! Another one lay staring at something for a few minutes and then pounced; that was pretty cool to see. I think Lily's favorite part was all the little stands set up around the zoo that was handing out candy. She received two suckers and loved it! It was such a fun outing!

After the zoo we stopped by Meme's so she could see the girls all dressed up. Randy and Georgia were there too, so it was fun to visit with them. I always have fun visiting with all three of them. Lily of course immediately asked for crackers; she knows that Meme has the ones she likes! Meme was really glad to see the girls; we have been so careful around her for the last few months as she has been in chemo. With a weakened immune system, we didn't want to get the girls' germs around her (Mia seems to have a perpetually runny nose). However, Meme has finished all of her treatments, and we received word yesterday that the cancer is officially gone; she's in remission! What a blessing!

Halloween Sneak Peak

Last Saturday we took the girls to "Boo at the Zoo." All the kids dress up in their Halloween costumes. Here are some pictures of our girls as Minnie Mouse and Mini Minnie Mouse.

Mia wasn't really sure what to think about her costume.

She talked up a storm about it!
Lily LOVES her costume!

Lily is really getting into dress-up now, so she had a ball dressed up as Minnie.

Fun times

A few fun pictures.

Lily having fun on her little keyboard.

Mia loved playing in the jumpy!
Talking away!Peyton and Lily were very sweet to jump carefully near Mia. She had a blast playing with them.

Recent Pictures

Here are some miscellaneous pictures taken around the house over the last few weeks.

I love these big blue eyes!

Lily dancing in the outfit of her choice: white socks, a pink tutu and a new Thanksgiving bib that was actually a gift for Mia but Lily wanted to try it out first. The girl loves to dance! Our sweet Mia walks all over the place these days. Lily showing off her new Sleeping Beauty nightgown. We actually told her it was a dress she could play in, so she doesn't know it's a nightgown. Lily moves so much during her sleep that I think it would become really tangled and wake her up.

Sweet baby girl after bath time.

Busted!

But guys, this is my new favorite activity. Let me just bring some of it with me, okay?

Lily had a blast putting all the random shoes, socks and toys that were laying on the living room floor onto Daddy. Maybe this will be a reminder for all of us to take our shoes to our rooms!

Over the last couple of weeks, Mia has finally mastered picking up food and putting it in her mouth! For a couple of months she would pick it up and hand it to you to feed her, but she refused to put it in her own mouth. Meal time is so much easier now!

Lily is so proud of her new monkey slippers.

Aren't they cute?!

Mom, Lily, Mia and I took Mama Lottie to lunch at Steak and Shake for her birthday. We had a great time. Mama Lottie kept my brother and me when we were really young. She is almost like another grandmother to us. She still calls me "her baby."

What a fun lunch!

Don't you just love this face?

The Lizard

This morning, Liz was helping Lily get ready while I got Mia ready. Lily proceeded to tell her a story about a little lizard that was playing on her umbrella and how it scratched her finger. She went into a lot of detail with this story. Now, Lily has a great imagination, but this seemed a little odd. Liz brought her into me, and Lily told me the same story. To be honest, I didn't pay much attention because Mia is a squirmy little thing on the changing table, and I thought Lily had seen a little lizard through the window on the deck. Thankfully, Liz was paying closer attention. She asked Lily to show her where the lizard was. A minute later I hear "Allison, she's right!" Sure enough, in the girls' playroom near the toy kitchen (just a few toys down from the umbrella Lily mentioned) was a lizard that was probably about 3 or 4 inches long. GROSS!!!

Liz and I just stared at it for a minute not really sure what to do. Liz then grabbed a towel from the kitchen, and I got one of Lily's smaller storage boxes. We stared at it some more trying to figure out what to do next. We decided we would trap it under the storage box until Ryan came home from getting his hair cut, and he could take it back outside. Lily sat on the back of the couch ("so I can watch better" in her words) while Mia walked around behind us thankfully oblivious to the lizard. Liz swatted at the little guy so he would run towards my storage box trap. Funny thing though...lizards are really fast! He ran right past us both (I'm sure the yelping and jumping around frightened him pretty good) and under the couch. Great, now what? Liz thought to get the broom and push him out which seemed like a great idea but he ran out the front of the couch instead of the side where I was. I tried to chase him a few steps across the room but again, lizards are really fast (and we have a ton of toys in there). He made it behind the chair. We moved the chair and he was standing against the wall (with his color having changed which was kind of cool). So, what did we do?

We stared at him again. We realized that if we watched him, he didn't move; this is a little freaky because that means he was watching us too. Liz decided she would be brave (seriously, I would never have volunteered for this) and pick up lizard with her towel. I went and unlocked the door so she could take him outside. "I'll keep the girls out of the way." We were just about to do this when we decided maybe Ryan's hair cut was almost over and he could come back and do this. We called and our hero came and saved the day. He was able to use the towel to trap the lizard into the storage box and take him outside. Yea for Ryan!!!

By the way, Lily does appear to have a very tiny scratch on her finger, but I'm honestly not sure if it's from this lizard; I think he would have left more damage than that. But, we put antibiotic cream and a Hello Kitty band-aid on it to help it heal. What a way to start the morning!

Especially Thankful

Each night before we say our prayers, I ask Lily if she is especially thankful for anything that day. I'm trying to teach her that prayers are not just memorized and recited but a way of talking to God and thanking Him for our blessings. This is how our conversation went today:

Me: Is there anything you are especially thankful for today?
Lily: No.
Me: Are you especially thankful for your new friend Nin (a new friend at her school)?
Lily: No.
Me: Are you especially thankful for Ms. Danielle (her teacher)?
Lily: No. I am extra thankful that Bama came home today.
Me: That is definitely something to be thankful for. We love it when Bama comes home don't we?
Lily: Yeah!

I thought it was so sweet that Lily was "extra thankful" that Bama had made it safely to our house today. I think you all know, but Ryan's mom (aka Bama) comes over from Birmingham every Wednesday evening and keeps the girls all day on Thursdays and Fridays. This is awesome for many, many reasons, but mostly because this allows the girls to develop a wonderful relationship with Bama that they will always treasure.

Ryan and I feel "extra thankful" for both of our moms. Not only does Ryan's mom keep the girls on Thursday and Fridays, but my mom keeps them on Monday and Wednesday after school (plus all day on Tuesday during tax season). I absolutely love that Lily and Mia get to spend so much time playing and bonding with two of their grandmothers; they are both amazing women, and we truly appreciate all that they give to help us with our girls.