Our Little Puppy

Sorry for the lack of posts! We have been busy moving into our new house, starting speech therapy for Mia, and with Jeremy studying for his boards! Here are some pictures from the halloween weekend. Our little Mia loved dressing up and carried her plastic pumpkin pail for about 3 days after Halloween. She would gather rocks, toys, and even her shoes to put into the pumpkin!

Happy 1st Birthday, Baby Girl!!

My baby is one! This post is a little delayed because we were in Virginia visiting family for a few weeks and Jeremy just started his new job. Life has been eventful in the Chou household!
Here are some pictures from Mia's birthday party and some recent pictures of our big girl walking!

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!

My Baby...The light of my life!!

I wake up to this beautiful baby every morning! I love every moment of being her mommy. I can't believe that she's 10 months old tomorrow and we're planning her first birthday already! Here are some new and amazing things about Mia:

-She LOVES that pink blankey. Even when I take her out of her crib in the morning, she reaches for her blankey and carries it around for the first 20 minutes of the day. It's the first thing she looks for when I lay her down for a nap or for the night.
-She has an amazingly bright and happy personality. She only whines when she is hungry or tired...Just like mommy.
-Her new favorite foods: Lentils, whole wheat orzo, sweet potato and blueberry pancakes with applesauce spread on it...She still LOVES avocado and picks out all the avocado pieces on her plate.
-She loves to play hide and seek and follow me around the house looking for me.
-She LOVES music & dancing especially Justin Bieber, hip hop music, and gospel music.
-Knows exactly where in my purse I keep her snack cup. If I put my purse on the ground, she rummages until she finds her cup!
-Crawls and cruises EVERYWHERE! We call her spider man!
-Can stand without holding on to anything for about 20 seconds!!!
-Loves to clap and imitate us.
-Such a chatterbox: she babbles and talks ALL day long.
-Has separation anxiety at times.
-Ate half an ant at church one day.
-Becomes more and more beautiful every day!

9 month stats!

Isn't she the cutest thing alive??!! We went in for our 9 month appointment today and I was so excited because I thought we didn't have to do any shots, but forgetful mommy forgot to schedule her booster shots after her last flu shots so she had to get those today. She was not happy about it. She also got her first eye exam. They put wires on her (ok...I totally forget the medical word. I'm the worst doctor's wife!) and then put a patch on one eye and they made her look at a screen that flashed different pictures. The nurse said that most kids cry, but Mia just danced to the music the whole time. She's got some serious rhythm!

Here are her stats and things she likes to do now...I'm so sad that she's growing up so fast!
-Weight: 18 pounds 12 ounces (50th Percentile)
-Height: 28.5 inches (82nd percentile)
-Head circumference: 17.1 (36th percentile) still small just like her daddy's head =)

-Dashes around the whole house crawling!
-Stands up and pulls up on EVERYTHING! She had pulled herself up using the trashcan and was digging through the trash today while I was unloading the laundry.
-Starting to push her car walker around
-LOVES playing with the springy things behind doors
-Babbles all day and all night (yes, she's been waking up in the middle of the night to babble and stand in her crib)
-DANCES to all music especially things with a beat. At music class the teacher put on "all the single ladies" and she was not only moving her body, but dipping her shoulders from side to side! She definitely does not get that rhythm thing from her parents.
-When we take away something she's playing because she's not supposed to have it or if we move her somewhere, she sits and collapses her whole body and throws a mini tantrum.
-Eats everything!! She's tooo quick and has the best fine motor skills. Here are some of the non edible things we know that she's consumed (we watch her like a hawk and vacuum constantly, but she's too quick!) dustballs, sand, grass, leaves, a piece of green onion that fell on the floor when I was cooking (her breath smelled like onion!), pieces of paper and receipts, lint, pieces of tissues.
-loves to laugh, smile.
-sings along with music (she just goes ahhhhhhhhhhh)
-Bangs on her high chair tray if I don't give her more food or if i'm preparing it too slowly.

My little baby is growing up too fast!

Eating sand and Shamu

We got back from our mini-vacation to Orlando, FL about 2 weeks. I can't believe how well Mia did on the 14 hour round trip adventure. She slept, ate, played with her toys, sucked on her toes and did a great job in the car. She slept amazingly during the trip and we had a blast!

Seaworld, lobster buffet, Cocoa Beach, Beard Papa's cream puffs, dinner and church with friends...What a restful family vacation. Here are some of our favorite pictures.