Fun with Mia

• Mia's new words this week are good girl, car and baby. Car sounds more like "gar" and baby sounds more like "beebee". But we get her drift.
• She likes to show off her knowledge of human anatomy. When asked, she will point to her head, hair, ear, eyes, nose, mouth (she likes to stick out her tongue for that one), hands (she holds out her hand and waves), belly, legs, feet (she stomps her feet) and toes. 
• This morning Mike and I looked over to find Mia teaching her best friend (Reese) about anatomy as well. Mia was sitting in front of Reese with one finger on her own eye and another finger on Reese's eye and she was saying "eyes, eyes". 
• I'm no longer NaNa, but Mama. Mia loves to say Mama over and over. This morning Mike got up with her but I woke up because she was standing on the couch yelling down the hall "Mama! Mama!" I will call back "Mia, Mia" in between her "Mama, Mama" (Mama Mia, Mama Mia).
• Mia likes to dance, and she really likes to turn in circles. I think she likes that it makes her dizzy.
• I give her a spoon for just about every meal, sometimes she uses it, sometimes not. Sometimes she scoops up the food with the spoon, sometimes she uses her hands to put the food on the spoon. She turns the spoon over to put the food into her mouth, and most of it falls off. But she'll learn!
• She's a talker! She loves to jabber and has great conversations with herself, her toys, the dogs and anyone else who will listen.
• She also likes to climb. She will climb on anything so we really have to watch her. She likes to climb up on something, stand up and clap for herself.

First Swim Lesson

Crazy week

Last week was a very long one for us. It started off with a great Mother's Day. Mike made me a very yummy breakfast before he left for work. Then Mom and Bruce picked up Mia and me and we headed to Butler State Park to meet Missy, Paul and Cara for brunch. The girls loved the lunch and got big laughs out of each other. Afterward we went to the McDonald's playground and the girls had a blast playing in the tunnels. Granny even climbed in with them and sat in the middle. 

Later that day Mia started getting really fussy. She didn't seem like herself. She was up most of the night, and by Monday morning had a fever of 104. She spent the day with Dad and Sue and I took her to the doctor later that day. They said she had a red throat but all the other tests came back negative. It was a virus and we just needed to give her pain reliever and wait it out.

She didn't have much of an appetite the next couple days and still had a slight fever so Dad and Sue kept her. By Tuesday afternoon she was crying most of the time. She cried almost constantly the next 24 hours, but had just a low grade fever. Tuesday night she basically just took a series of naps between her cries so I called the doc for advice. They said to make another appointment in the morning. Dad and Sue went with us to the doctor where they told us she had blisters on her throat. They gave us a prescription for Tylenol with codeine to help with her pain. On Thursday she seemed a little better so she went back to daycare. Mom picked her up since I had an event after work, and my sweet girl was finally more like herself when I got to see her. 

On Friday, Mike called to say he had a fever and was achy all over, so Mia stayed the night with Brent and Carol. They took Mia to the farmer's market on Saturday and since Mike was feeling better, she came back home. We still weren't feeling 100% so we had a lazy day, just playing with our girl.

By Sunday Mia was her giggly, happy self so we went ahead and took her to her first swim lesson. It was so much fun! I really thought they would just have her splash around and get used to the water, but I quickly learned otherwise. We started off with kicks on her back, then on to her belly. We practiced floating on her back (she did not like that AT ALL!). Next came getting her face wet, and before I knew it, we were going under! She did great! She wasn't scared and when we moved to arm strokes, she was trying to put her face under on her own! The next feat was to have her hold onto the bar on the side of the pool. After some prodding she grabbed on. I let go and she held herself above the water using her arms and by pushing her feet against the wall. It was really cool to see how her survival instincts took over and she kept herself afloat. By the end of the class they had her sit on the side of the pool. We counted to three and then I pulled her in and took her under. I couldn't believe we did so much in just a half hour! I really loved spending that time with her and I can't wait to do it again next week.

Today Mike took off work and hung out with her. He took her on her first trip to the zoo. He tried to take pictures but discovered how hard that is while also trying to keep an eye on her. I've attached some pics and video of the past week.

Fun with Mia

In the midst of all our sadness these past few days, our shiny bright light has been our Mia. She is so funny and so much fun to watch! Some of the ways she has entertained us lately:

• She goes up to the outlets, sticks her fingers on the covers, looks at us and says, "No, no!"
• She covers one nostril with a finger and blows snot in and out of the other nostril (she's such a little lady!).
• She's taken to drinking her bath water out of a shaving cream cap.
• She has no "lovie" per say, but sleeps with one paci in her mouth and one in her hand. We've started throwing about 6 in her bed at night so she'll be able to find one easily when she wakes up at night.
• She is becoming possessive of the people she loves and doesn't want them to love on other kids. She shoved a little boy in her class when he came over to say hi to me, and she fussed when Bruce was holding Cara and not her.
• She still loves food and will eat just about anything except eggs and strawberries.
• She loves to wear my shoes, and Mike said she was pretending to put on eye makeup the other day, like she's seen me do.
• She is repeating words we say like crazy, even if she's never said them before. Obviously she's just mimicking the sounds, but some words she's repeated over the past two days are hey, no way, hat, hair, car, choo choo, bird, bath and hamburger (but that sounded more like bambog). 
• She's learned to blow her nose into tissues, but takes it upon herself to blow her nose into any random sheet of paper she may get her hands on.
• That child LOVES her grandparents, and gets so excited when she sees them! She kicks and claps her hands and breathes in and out excitedly. I love it!
• She also loves going to school and has the same reaction when I pull into the parking lot. The other little kids like her too and cry out "Mia" when she arrives. I think her name must be easy for them to say because they all say it. 
• When we head to school in the morning she starts to say a word I cannot figure out. It sounds kind of like "guhr". I asked her teacher this morning if they've been learning any G words and she said no, but that Mia loves playing with her baby friend Grayer. So she may be trying to say his name in the mornings when she knows we're heading to school.

Another loss

It's been quite a week and a half for us. Last week I took a positive pregnancy test. I was in the doctor's office hours later so they could draw blood and we could start taking precautions to avoid another miscarriage. I immediately started progesterone supplements and watched my diet - no caffeine, blue cheese, uncooked deli meat, etc. On Thursday I got results that said my blood work showed low hcg levels, but they reassured me they were well within the normal range. My progesterone levels looked great. On Friday they drew blood again. 

All weekend I felt great, no spotting, cramping, etc. We started getting excited and my belly started getting rounder already, just as it had done very quickly with my second pregnancy. But on Monday they called with bad news: my hcg levels had not increased and had actually decreased by one. I would miscarry. Of course I was devastated. What other precautions could I have possibly taken? Why would this happen to us again?

On Tuesday I started cramping so I stayed home from work. Last time I miscarried, it all started within hours of the cramping. However, I was home all day and didn't even have spotting. Wednesday I went to work and late that afternoon the spotting started. I went home and last night it began. Once again the pain was pretty bad, very bad lower back and abdominal pain. It continued today so I stayed home again. Things have calmed down now physically, but I am just trying to understand it. I will go tomorrow to have more blood drawn. They want to make sure my hcg levels have gone back to normal. On Tuesday I'll have an ultrasound and doc appointment. Guess we'll try to figure out what happened.

My silly girl

Fun with Mia

We've had such a great time with Mia these past few days. Here are a couple videos of her.