Highs and Lows...

Highs: Mia's walking!!! She's been taking a few steps here and there, but about 3 days ago, she started to take 10 steps. She's been walking across the room and down the hallway, but she still prefers to crawl. She'll only walk around when she's happy and full.

Lows: Mia's allergic to milk and peanuts and possibly eggs. I just couldn't help but cry on the way home from the doctors office. I know that this is not a life threatening diagnosis and that this is just another thing we'll have to adjust to, but I was just sad for Mia and overwhelmed. I've had students in the past who have had severe peanut allergies and it felt like it affected every aspect of their life. They couldn't participate in classroom birthday parties when parents brought cupcakes in, they couldn't go eat at certain restaurants...I know Mia will have to one day deal with issues surrounding her cleft and I just didn't want there to be another thing for her to deal with.

These will be the things that will make her stronger. She'll have to learn to be more vocal and learn how to one day answer questions about her food allergies and her cleft to those around her. We want to raise her to be someone who is strong, stands up for herself, and knows that she is amazingly unique, wonderful, adored, and beautiful!

There is a chance that she may grow out of these allergies which is something we are desperately praying for. In the mean time I will have to adjust my cooking and baking and find Mia a super cool lunchbox to take her food around in. =) If you have any yummy dairy free, nut free recipes, please feel free to send them our way!

Happy 11 months, Baby Mia!!!

Well, I guess she's not a baby anymore! She's 11 months old today!! Some times I find myself becoming a little bit sad about the fact that she's growing up so fast and becoming so independent. Jeremy and I talk constantly about the fact that our love for her just grows and grows everyday. Everyday her beautiful and humorous personality shines and we can't help but smile and laugh all throughout the day.



















Here are some new and exciting things about this amazing little girl:
-Stands all by herself and has been taking 1-2 steps here an there.
-LOVES her stuffed animals...she smothers them with her kisses!
-Her favorite activity is taking things out: taking daddy's socks out of his sock drawer, taking ALL 100 ziplock bags out of the box, taking all the books out of the basket. She does know how to put things back yet. We clearly know where she's been in the house by the piles she leaves.
-Starting to vocalize words. She bangs her highchair table and yells "MO!MO!MO!" when she obviously wants more food.
-Loves to sit on the counter and brush her teeth!
-LOVES to read books. She'll pull a book towards me and backwards park her cute little behind into my nap so that I can read her the SAME book over and over again.
-Loves looking at pictures of animals. I think we're going to have to get her a dog. She LOVES animals and she squeals whenever she sees one.

There are many more quirky things she does, but we can't believe how fast she's growing and how amazing she is!