Mila is at the age that she is very aware of what people are doing - especially Mom and Dad - and she wants to do it too - usually with Dolly. So Mommy puts Mila in her high chair to eat, and later Mila puts Dolly in her high chair to eat. Mommy gives Mila her sippy, so Mila gives Dolly her sippy too.
Sometimes she'll shout, "Mee-na!"mispronouncing her own name when she's trying to say she wants to do something herself. (That's how she pronounces her name; she doesn't pronounce the "L" yet. And, yes, she refers to herself in the 3rd person, LOL!)
Anyway, she's seen something new in the month that Emmy's been home... Mommy's been breastfeeding Emmy. She's funny - she comes and peers down at Emmy to see what she's doing. She even says, "Emmy come booboo." ("Emmy eat boob.")
So I guess it was inevitable that she see me breastfeeding Emmy today and then she tried to do it too... with Dolly.
OMG. I just about died laughing.
She just kept shoving her under shirt! "Doh come booboo!" ("Doh eat boob!") she'd say matter-of-factly, (like I said, she doesn't pronounce the "L" yet so Dolly is "Doh") as she'd continue to shove Dolly's head under her shirt... Some kids give their dolls baby bottles. Mila doesn't see bottles. She sees Mommy nursing. So she breastfeeds! Love it!!
I ran to grab the camera a snap a few shots! I even got a little bit of video...
We brought Emmy home today!! We were so excited for her to meet her big sister! We'd been away from Mila for the last couple of days and she'd been staying with Jorge's sister Blanca and my mom at our place. I was so happy to see my little girl again! I'd never been away from her overnight before and I was nervous she'd have a hard time, but she seemed to have done well.
Leading up to the birth, we'd been telling Mila about the baby and that she would soon be a big sister. We'd heard how stressful the change can be for a child to suddenly have a new baby in the house so we tried to tell her about it as much as possible. We'd gotten her a book about it in spanish, "Soy Una Hermana Mayor!" which Mia looooves and makes us read it to her over and over again. Our intention was to prepare her as much as possible for Emmy's arrival and hope for the best! And it seemed to have worked well - Mila seemed both curious and excited about her little sister. She kept looking at her and expressing concern to straighten Emmys head if it drooped to one side - so sweet! I think she thought Emmy was a doll, LOL!
The car ride home... look at those little legs!
Sleepy
Me and my Mila! How I missed her!
Mila sees Emmy as we walk in...
Look at that face!! So excited!
Mila signing that baby is sleeping.
Our new little family! :)
Here's a clip of our arrival home with Emmy. I was tearing up when Mila first saw her!
This month I can't tell you how happy I am! You've been signing "mommy"!!! The sign is tapping the side of your chin with your thumb and an open palm. You do it so well!! I am SOOOOOOO happy! Finally! You don't quite say it yet - but I'll settle for the sign at least!
Something funny you do is you'll bring me an empty back of crackers and then do the sign for "more"! So smart!
You also know how to point to different parts of your body. Whenever we ask you, "Mila, where is your nose?" You smile and put your finger up your nose! It makes us laugh so much! You know head, eyes (you poke yourself in the eye when you show this one, haha!), mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, arm (still working on this one), neck, tummy, knees and feet. You do them SO well! I'm always so impressed that you have picked up on it. It's amazing to me that although you only say a handful of words, you understand so much more than we're aware!
Your favorite song lately is the classic, "If You're Happy and You Know It". It's a great song for kids, but since it's in English and we're trying to encourage Spanish, I decided to translate it. (So now we sing, "Si eres feliz y lo sabes, aplaude! (Si eres feliz y lo sabes, zapatea! Si eres feliz y lo sabes di yupi!) Si eres feliz y los sabes, y tu cara lo demuestra, si eres feliz y lo sabes aplaude!") You love when it says, "If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet!" You know exactly when to stomp! You've even taken it further - with ANY song you will now stomp your foot! You also like to swing your hips from side-to-side - such a great dancer!! Check out your awesome dance moves from our Mommy and Me music class: (Your friend Liam is the one in the Batman shirt and cape, LOL!!)
Lately, your Daddy has decided to be bold and to let you start walking outside more. I'll be honest, I'm not crazy about this idea. I'm afraid you won't want to be in your stroller anymore and with another kid on the way, I don't know how I'd manage it! But your Daddy insists you need to explore - which I agree - I just hope that doesn't mean that you'll abandon my preferred way of transportation!
Walking from the apartment to the car
Walking around the mall
You're now starting to be interested in feeding yourself. Kind of mixed emotions on this one. It's great that you want to do it, but the mess you're making can get pretty crazy. Lots for mommy to clean! You get food all over your high chair, the floor, your face, your clothes, your hair! I cringe at the thought of you feeding yourself, but I guess, how else will you learn? LOL!
After feeding (or attempted feeding!) yourself, your new favorite hobby is climbing. On everything. You love to climb on the back of the sofa and peer over the top to the other side. I'm a little nervous you'll topple over and fall back there! You'll try to climb onto the sofa, you'll try to climb the dining room chairs and even into your toy boxes! You get into everything!!
One of your favorite games, is one your daddy invented. We have these magnetized trains that link together and you'll chase them around and around, and you just laugh and laugh! You get so caught up with chasing that the train will be BEHIND you and you're still running forward. Mommy and Daddy get a kick out of playing this game!
Chasing the choo-choo!
Finally caught them!
I think G2 wants to play too! Do you see him/her popping out a little in this picture? :)
You're such a happy little girl. You love being silly. Here's a video of your adorable laugh!
Mommy and Daddy love seeing you happy. We hope you always stay that way. :)
Happy birthday to Grammy! Mila made this birthday card for you today. Hope you're doing well and we send you great big hugs! We think of you often! Much love!
As February is a short month, it's fair to say this month really flew by! This month has brought only a few, although big, new things! Most importantly, you're talking! You now say "da-da," "abua" for agua/water, "aya" for araña/spider and you even say "ya-ya!" for Tia Ñaña, which is your aunt Blanca! Your aunt Blanca taught you "araña" with a little toy spider you have - which honestly kinda creeps me out and I've been tempted to hide it - but once you started saying the word, there was just no way. And you looooooove your Tia Ñaña! She comes over and plays with you and runs around with you when Mommy and Daddy are too pooped to take another step! She's one of your favorite playmates! You say her name whenever she's here. It's so sweet to see you two!
Eating has made huge improvements this month. It's been a battle to get you to eat chunky food, but now you eat ravioli!!! And you love it! You also eat broccoli and rotini pasta (chopped up) as well. I'm so amazed!
Here's a little clip of you saying "abua" (for water) and eating ravioli:
This month you've dramatically cut back on nursing. You're now down to once day, right before we start your bedtime routine. You were nursing 4 times a day for a while, which got cut back to 2 because you fought it and didn't seem to want to nurse (there were much more interesting things to do!!) Now it's down to once a day and only for a few minutes. But honestly, if I don't remind you, you could totally go without it. I'm torn about it - a part of me feels happy to give it up - I've been doing it for so long already! The other part of me is sad to give it up. I guess it means that you're growing up... it's the last thing from your babyhood that remains. You're a toddler now! You do such big girl things. Nursing is the one thing that's just ours and makes me feel like you're still my little baby. I expected to nurse until you were a year and a half or so... I guess I felt I would have to wean you off it, and instead, I think I'm the one that needs to be weaned. You do ask for it sometimes - you've learned the sign - but I know that if you weren't reminded every night, it would soon be a distant memory. I'm willing to go as long as you are. I know it won't be for too much longer, though. I'll miss our time together... but I know we'll find another activity that we can both enjoy. :)
Now, on to the big news of the month... Sleep has always been an issue since you were a baby. You're great at staying asleep, but it's so hard to get you to fall asleep! Your Daddy and I have tried everything: you nursed to sleep for a while, then you slept on us, then you slept a bit in your swing, in the Ergo, and then finally we got you to fall asleep in your crib by rocking you to sleep. Not the best solution, but it worked.
Now been almost two weeks that we've changed how you fall asleep for your bedtime and naps. Since we'd been trying to get pregnant, we know this was one of the major things that would need to change - and soon. Up until two weeks ago, we'd rocked you to sleep. For every nap and every night at bedtime. For naps, I would usually sit on the big ol' pilates ball we have and bounce you until you fall asleep. Then I bounce an extra 5 minutes to make sure you're asleep and then I put you into bed. At bedtime, your Daddy is uncomfortable on the ball, so he'll just hold you in his arms and rock you. It used to be ok when you were little... but now you're weighing 20 pounds and getting heavier! And both Daddy and I feel it on our backs. The soreness! Most times you fall asleep within 20 minutes - which leaves me pretty sore, but it's manageable... but then there are days when your Daddy and I are switching back and forth because our arms have fallen asleep or because our backs can't take it anymore and we're sweating like crazy and you still haven't fallen asleep! We would do this at one point every single day for 3 naps a day and then again at bedtime. I think my record for rocking you has been an hour straight... ugh, painful! Quite a workout! So now that I'm pregnant with your little sibling, soon I won't be able to hold you for that long. But even that wasn't enough to motivate us - your Daddy and I have been DREADING having to put you to sleep any other way because we know how you get when we put you in the crib and you haven't fallen asleep, or if you wake up as we're putting you in - you scream bloody murder! You hate it and scream and then stand up in the crib and stomp and cry until we take you out and rock you some more. We'd tried to rub your tummy before, but you'd cry yourself into a frenzy and we knew nobody would get any sleep. So we gave up and rocked you again and until you fell asleep. We've never been comfortable with the "crying it out" method. We want you to know that we are there for you and if you're alone or scared and want us by your side, that we'll be there. Hearing you cry is breaks our heart... especially when we know all you want is comfort from us. We know that "crying it out" works for a lot of people, especially when they've tried everything, but we're willing to keep trying other methods first.
Up until a few weeks ago, rocking you had worked in getting you to fall asleep, so we've stuck to it. BUT. Now things have changed. For 3 nights you kept waking up during the night around 2am.... and, as usual, we'd go in to rock you... and nothing. You wouldn't fall asleep. We'd be up for THREE HOURS trying to get you to go back down. Ugh!!!! After the third night, we knew we had to try something different. Your Daddy does bedtime with you and he was brave enough to make the first change. He went through the whole bedtime routine: playtime, clean up time, bath time, reading time, good night to Fort Lauderdale time, turned off the lights, turned on the noise machine and then instead of rocking her, he put you in your in the crib. Of course you cried, but he kneeled down next to you over the railing and sang to you and rubbed your back and your tummy. At first you fought it... but eventually you fell asleep. Holy moly!! We couldn't believe it! HALLELUJAH!!! The next day, you were so tired for your nap, I didn't have to try to put you down, so napping wasn't an issue and I didn't do the new method. That night though, your Daddy did it again and it wasn't so bad! You fell asleep with some tears, but with tummy rubs and to the tune of "Mila's Song" (a.k.a. "Elmo's Song" with Mila's name instead, haha). And then the next day, I did it for your nap and it worked! Only took 30 minutes! Again, there were some tears, but then you'd start playing with your socks or your burp cloth and then you'd fall asleep. We did have a few set backs where it took us longer, or where you'd cry longer, but here we are, two weeks later and you're napping and sleeping so much better. No rocking at all! And you haven't woken up during the night since!! Aaaaaand Mommy and Daddy's backs are rejoicing! What a relief!!!! This is such a breakthrough! We still cannot believe this actually working! Everyone is sleeping so much better now. Why, oh, why did we not try this sooner?!?! We're thrilled!!
What an exciting month. I can only imagine what next month will bring. Perhaps "ma-ma" is around the corner, maybe? I still can't believe you say "spider" and not "mommy" yet!!! C'mon! Show me some love too! :)
Heike invited us over today to her condo on the beach! It's been a while since we've been with Mila since it's been cold out, but now that it's warming up, I thought for sure she'd love it... and I could not have been more correct. Mila loooooved the beach! She was fascinated by the sand at first...
But after a few minutes, she discovered she was in a wide open space and just wanted to run!!!! Oh my goodness, she did not stop. I was running EVERYWHERE chasing her down! She was the only baby that would not keep still. She wanted to run to the water, to the seaweed, to chase seagulls... I was exhausted! Most of my pictures are of her little behind running away from me!
At one point, we tried getting all the babies to sit together for a group picture... Mila would sit still for milliseconds! I kept having to chase her down! That's me off in the right hand corner below!
Here are a few of the group pictures we were able to get!
So cute how they're all doing their own thing!
Here's a funny clip that Heike put together of our adventure trying to get the group shots of the nine babies, LOL! Mila is all the way to the right, and you can see me chasing her down!
Eight months already?! Where do I begin? You have grown so much!
The biggest change this month is how much you're standing! I think you'll be walking by the end of the month! I can't believe it! You stand so well and when you do it, you're so proud of yourself -- you move your little hands and wrists -- so cute! It looks like you're screwing in two lightbulbs really fast! Haha! You stand in your crib and your playpen all the time now. We even had to move the video monitor because you would stand and knock it over! But we're so proud of how well you're standing. :) You are even already trying to take small steps with assistance and you're a pro at furniture surfing, LOL! And when you're not standing/attempting to stand, you are crawling EVERYWHERE. I can hardly contain you. You just want to explore it all: the sofa, the bookshelf, the dining room chairs... I'm constantly chasing you down and bringing you back to the playmat. But you'll have none it of it - you just go back to trying to go where you're not supposed to. We're looking for a baby gate for you now... we need to keep you safe!
You're eating more solids now too. You're such a big girl! Foods you've tried include: banana, rice cereal, peas, carrots, avocado, prunes, applesauce, pears and sweet potato. You loved rice cereal, avocado and sweet potato from the start, you've grown to like banana, peas and pears, but prunes and carrots are a big NO! The jury's still out on applesauce.
You nurse all day, but at lunch you eat about two tablespoons of solids and then you nurse some more. We try to add a bit more each week, but at the same time we try not to go too fast since it seems to get you a bit constipated. :/ I know, I know, I'm sharing too much info... but you don't mind, right? :)
Along with eating, you're also biting! Ugh...it's awful. You don't do it too often, but when you do -- WOWEEEE it hurts! I think you might even be teething again, but not sure.
You are also showing to be the most curious little girl... everything that is not a toy is what you want to play with. If you have 20 toys in front of you and you see the camera, or the remote, or the phone, or even my shoes -- THAT is what you want. You want everything you can't have! You have to grab everything and it goes straight to your mouth. Honestly, it drives me a bit crazy! I'm can't take my eyes off you for a second!
Here's the perfect example... you have a ton of toys in front of you, but what you want to chew on is the strap from the stroller. I've given up trying to get you to play with your toys... if you want the strap, you can have it. And while you're at it, go ahead, put your feet up and make yourself comfortable. Nice life! LOL!
You new favorite thing to do is that you love to swat at everything, so any spinning toy is your new thing. You have an alphabet wheel that we call "The Wheel of Fortune" that you love to spin and spin and then you stare at it.... and then you slowly lean in and put your tongue on the spinning wheel - HILARIOUS! I've been trying to catch you on camera doing it, but you don't do it very often and when you do, I don't have the camera handy. But it cracks me up!
You're also discovering mirrors. I'm not sure if you realize that you're looking at yourself, but I do see that you look at me in the mirror and then you look back at me and laugh... as if to wonder, "If Mommy is over there... how is Mommy over here?" Haha! And you have a bunch of toys that have mirrors on them and you love to look at yourself and then put your tongue on the mirror. So funny!
And in case I haven't mentioned it or you haven't noticed in your pictures, your tongue is always out. Always. It's permanently out. I love it, although it means you slobber all over me all day long. Daddy likes to call them kisses. At night time during your bedtime routine, Daddy will read you your mirror book and on one page there's a frog or a mouse or a sun, and on the facing page there is a mirror. Whenever he turns the mirror to you so you can see yourself, you lean in with your tongue out and put your face up to the mirror, and "kiss" the mirror. You do this for every page, every night!! It's soooooooooooooo cute! I die laughing every time I watch you do this. :)
And speaking of sleep, you nap so much better now! You do an awesome 1-2 hour nap in the morning, an hour nap in the afternoon, and then a half hour in the early evening. (Just the last few months, you would only do three 30-minute naps! What a difference!) I'm usually nursing you by 10pm and then you'll nurse to sleep or I'll rock you to sleep and you're in bed by 10:30pm. You wake up 2 times, sometimes 3 times a night. But your day routine is sooo much better than it has been. I'm able to get so much done in the mornings! Yay! Slowly but surely!
Now, onto things that are not so cute... (which aren't too many because you really make almost anything cute!) your separation anxiety is clear now. I can barely run to the bathroom without you protesting! You're not so easily passed on to other people and you always want me to hold you. It's so sweet, but at the same time it's exhausting when I can barely take a shower or make some dinner! When Daddy's home though, he does a great job of keeping you entertained, so I usually wait to do things after he's home or while you're taking a nap.
You're also very wriggly. You squirm during all diaper changes. So much so, that I'm actually using the belt from the changing pad to strap you in. And to think I scoffed at it when we bought it: "Who actually uses that?" I thought. Now I understand! If you're not strapped in, you will literally attempt to crawl away from me in the middle of a diaper change - diaper or no diaper! And poopoo or no poopoo!!! ACK!
So that's what was going on in your 8th month. Now we're onto the 9th... I honestly can't believe how big you've gotten in such a short amount of time. It seems like yesterday you were just born and now we're just a few months away from... your first birthday! Eeek! I'm already starting to think of what fun things we can do, because -- I hate to say it: I know it will be here before we know it!
I love you my chunky little monkey Milaroni Macaroni!
