Ladybug Baby

Trunk or Treat was last night at our church. We decorated our trunk with a disco theme. It was a lot of fun, but we kept running out of candy. I couldn't believe how many kids were there. We had about 30 cars there giving out candy, but the kids just kept coming and coming and coming. Some of the church members got some candy from missions inside the church, but it still wasn't enough. They realized that we were going to run out, so they sent someone to buy more. We barely made it to the end of the line. Mia was a big hit. She wore her little ladybug costume. Several kids from the daycare recognized her and wanted to say hello. We also saw some of Mia's teachers there with their kids. We had a great time!

Mia had her nine month appointment with Dr. Curry on Monday. She weighed 19 lb, 12 oz. and was 27 1/2 inches long. This puts her right at 50% for both, so she's average for her age. I must put in the disclaimer that I don't really believe in comparing her to those percentages, but it may help give a perspective as to her size. She got two shots but did well with them. Dr. Curry said she can have just about anything food-wise with a few exceptions as long as the bites are small. He said a good rule of thumb is that if the piece of food easily passes through your wedding band, it is small enough for a nine month old to eat. I tend to cut things smaller than that, but it's good to know. Dr. Curry was pleased with her and said that she's hitting all of her milestones right when she should. We'll go back to see him on her birthday.

Pictures from Trunk or Treat
Mia in the Disco Jeep
Mia with her friend, Reese, and Reese's dad, Scott
Now, a couple of pics from this evening.
Here is Mia while I was busy in the kitchen.
This is her 15 minutes later.
She was laughing and shaking the baby gate.
I guess she just needed to recharge her battery.

Lil Chopper

Today Mia turned 9 months old! I'm happy to report that she now has her first tooth coming in. It's just breaking through the gums, but you can see it. It is on the bottom and in the middle. She likes to lunge at things and bite them, so everybody watch your fingers from now on. At least we have a way now to pop the tops off of old soda bottles. Just get Lil Chopper. She'll get the job done! She has been chewing on anything she can find. Blankets seem to be a favorite to chew on.

Mia is crawling all over the place. I'm curious about how fast she could go on carpet because she really gets going on our wood floors. Because it's getting colder now, she usually has on pants and socks which makes for slippery progress. She's figured it out, though. She gets those little legs going and just lights on out of there. Sometimes she takes stuff with her when she crawls. If she is on a blanket or has a toy in her lap, they tend to get tangled in her legs when she takes off. There might be a blanket trailing behind her or a rattle being pushed ahead of her by her knees. She also pulls up on anything she can. When she gets home from daycare, her socks are always dirty. What happened to all of her crisp, white socks? Oh well. At least they come clean when washed.

Food news: We started Mia on mango this evening. Because it is a tropical fruit, there is an increased risk of an allergic reaction. For this reason, those fruits are not recommended until a baby is at least 8 months old. Mia wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but she ate it all. Her nine month appointment with Dr. Curry is tomorrow. My understanding is that she is old enough for baby yogurt now. If Dr. Curry gives the go-ahead for dairy, I might try mixing the mango with vanilla yogurt to tone it down a bit. We also bought her some kiwi to try. For new vegetables, we bought eggplant and parsnips. I've never heard anyone say, "Wow, I love parsnips!" However, they are on the list of Stage 2 vegetables, so we will see if she likes them. I don't think I even know what an eggplant tastes like (or parsnips for that matter). It will be a new experience for all of us. I know that it will become more difficult to get her to eat certain vegetables as she gets older unless we eat them, too. Boy, I hope we like eggplant!

I took Mia to get her nine month pictures on Saturday. She did really well except that we had an issue we haven't had before. She kept crawling toward me instead of staying how the photographer posed her. She was in a good mood, though, and took some really cute pictures. She became fast buddies with a little 5 or 6 year old boy who was also waiting to get his pictures taken. He would talk to her, and she would smile really big at him. At one point, I turned to get something from the diaper bag. In the two seconds it took for me to look back up, the boy had wrapped his arms around Mia and was trying to pick her up. He was sorely disappointed when his mother and I did not allow him to do it.

Due to Mia's ability to pull up now, Wesley lowered the mattress on her crib this evening. I must say that Mia was not too happy about it. She loved that when she stood up, she could lean over the railing. Now, she can just barely peak her head over. I was worried that she would tumble out of the crib, so I feel a lot better about her sleeping in there now.

Mia at 39 weeks (9 months old)
A multiple use item: bib and...teether?

Close-up of Mia's first tooth

Bugaboo

We spent the weekend in Oklahoma City visiting Nana and Keith. Uncle Darvey and Ruth came up there to visit also. On Saturday, we went to Nana and Keith's house to watch the OU game. OU lost, but it sure was an exciting game. Keith cooked us all hamburgers, and we had some of Nana's birthday cake. Interesting note: Mia's shirt perfectly matched the cake. It was totally unplanned which is what made it funny. Saturday night we went out to dinner and then to Bricktown. It was getting late (for Mia) and pretty cold, so Wesley and I took Mia back to the house while the others walked around and even went on a horse and carriage ride. Today, we all carved pumpkins at their house. It was a lot of fun. I've never carved a pumpkin using a stencil for a guide, but I think it turned out well. The stencil I used for Mia's pumpkin was called Bugaboo. It looks like a little baby monster. I thought it was adorable. Mia was a good girl all weekend and enjoyed all of the attention. We hope it won't be long before we go back!

Our fabulous pumpkins
Uncle Darvey's pumpkin
Daddy's pumpkin
Mia's pumpkin (carved by Mommy)
Keith's pumpkin
Nana's pumpkin
Mia at 38 weeks old (8 1/2 months)

Pumpkin Patch

Every October the Kessler United Methodist Church does a fundraiser for the Kessler School called the Pumpkin Patch. The church has a huge lawn, and they scatter tons of pumpkins all over it that are for sale. They also have activities for the kids such as pony rides, a petting zoo, a bounce house, face painting, and other games. For parents, there are tents set up by local vendors for services and merchandise as well as food. The only thing we bought was a box of chocolate chip cookies from the Kessler Cookie Company. We have had them before, and they are so yummy! Mia liked inspecting the big, orange pumpkins. She thought they were fascinating. She also loves to people watch, so she had a great time. It was pretty cool outside. We had her bundled in a thick sweater, so that we could walk to the church. It was kind of hard for her to move in, though, so we took it off for awhile so she could play in the pumpkins. After we got back home, Daddy pushed her around a little bit in her favorite set of wheels. She loves that she can now do that while standing.

Our most exciting news this week is that Mia is crawling! We've been waiting for this time with anticipation, but as soon as she started crawling, I began imagining all of the ways she can hurt herself. We're working on baby-proofing everything. I'm sure she'll still manage to get into stuff being the curious little creature she is! I'll get some video posted of it soon, I hope. Mia has also been experimenting with the sippy cup. I gave it to her for the first time yesterday with some formula in it. She played with it for awhile but didn't really know what it was for. Then, she started chewing and sucking on the spout. She yanked it out of her mouth and looked at me with a shocked expression and milk running down her chin. I could tell she was thinking, "Holy cow, there's milk in there, Mama!" It was funny. I've also started giving her banana-flavored cereal puffs this week. This is the first finger food that we've tried. Normally, everything goes straight to her mouth. Oddly enough, she just plays with the cereal. She mashes it in her little fist until it gets gummy. Then, she swings her arm wildly trying to make it come off but to no avail. She starts squealing like she's saying, "Get it off! Get it off!" She'll eat the cereal if I personally put it in her mouth, though. She likes it. She just hasn't made the connection that she can eat it by herself if she puts it in her mouth.

Mia at 37 weeks (8 1/2 months)

National Night Out

Grammy wins the final charade. The movie was A Little Princess. It doesn't matter how old I get. I still love that movie. Also, Grammy wins the charades game with 3 correct guesses. Good job, Grammy! Yesterday Wesley, Mia, and I walked to Stone Park for National Night Out. The idea of it is that neighborhoods organize a get-together, and policeman who patrol that neighborhood stop by and say hello while neighbors visit. The hope is that by putting faces on the officers of your neighborhood, you would be more likely to bring problems to their attention. It's basically to promote crime watch in the neighborhood. It's also a time for neighbors to meet and mingle. The clouds kept threatening rain, so there weren't as many people there as I had expected. It was fun, though, and we met several of our neighbors. We signed up for the neighborhood newsletter and hope to start attending events within the neighborhood. The first Friday of each month is when most of our neighbors in the Kings Highway neighborhood get together. Each month it's at a different neighbor's house. I'm excited at the prospect of getting to know them better. Community spirit is one of the things I love about Oak Cliff. It's been raining since yesterday afternoon, so today was fairly uneventful. Mia and I played inside quite a bit. Here are a few pictures of our weekend.

Mia at 36 weeks (8 months old)

Last Charade of the Week

Well, I guess our charade from yesterday was too hard. I thought it was fairly easy. The movie is In Her Shoes. Tonight's charade is a kid's movie (not a cartoon). I've always loved this movie, and I've seen it a thousand times it seems. Gotta go. Both the Dallas Stars and the OU Sooners are playing tonight. We're flipping back and forth between the games. Doesn't little Mia look cute perched on her throne?

In this movie, Sara Crewe attends an all girls school when her father leaves to serve in WWI. When her father goes missing and is presumed dead, his assets are seized by the government, and Sara must become a servant at the boarding school in order to stay there.

Sixth Charade

Grammy won last night's charade! The picture of Mia and I was for the movie Mamma Mia! Mia has had the camera in her face all week it seems. She also had fall pictures at daycare yesterday. It's second nature for her now to look up and grin for the camera. She's a smiley baby.

Wearing Mommy's high heels, Mia is acting out this flick in which Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette play sisters.

Thursday Charade

Our winner today is Uncle Darvey again! Last night's charade was of the movie Click. That picture was fairly easy to take because Mia loves the remote control. She plays with it whenever she can get ahold of it. We try to limit that because she's constantly changing the channel or turning the volume way up.

This movie is a musical of ABBA tunes whose title is comprised of the names of the two people in this picture.