A Rose Grows in JP

When Mia was born, we received a beautiful gift--a peace rose bush to plant in our yard. When the weather warmed and the ground thawed, we lovingly planted the baby bush. Now that summer is here, the rose, much like our own Mia Rose, is in full bloom.


Mia continues to astound us. She can hold her own bottle now. Well, not without a little help, but still!


She now is very interested in her play mat. Before, it was kind of fun. But now, it's the greatest.


She's not sleeping as well as she used to. But we're not going to talk about that. Because hey, she's just too cute to mention it.

Mia at work

Well, she's graduated from the bouncy seat to the work station. It's on the shortest setting, with her toes just barely touching, but her neck is strong enough now to keep her head upright. I could have filmed her for hours doing nothing more than this, but this clip gives you an idea of what her days are filled with.

Monday Morning Mia

We're back from California, getting back on East Coast time and readjusting to the muggy and damp weather. San Francisco was great--so great that we toyed jokingly with the idea of moving there. But then we realized that we could never afford it, and even if we could, the grandparents would stage a coup and we'd never be allowed to travel anywhere ever again.

We had a wonderful trip. Although our stay in SF was brief, we discovered a new area, thanks to a great recommendation. We stayed across the street from the Ferry Building Marketplace, which is a newly developed gourmet foodies' market along the waterfront. Inside the marketplace is a cheese shop, a few chocolatiers, a wine market, meat stores, a book store, a Mexican restaurant...the list goes on. We explored the market from corner to corner, enjoying each shop more than the next. The best part, though, was Saturday morning. Outside the marketplace each weekend there is a Farmers' Market, with all organic produce, gourmet coffee, fresh cut flowers, and hot and sugary baked goods. Suffice it to say we had a DONUT MUFFIN. Who knew such greatness existed? The market overlooks the bay bridge, and we went early enough to watch the fog both roll in and burn off.



Mia turns out to be an excellent traveler. She slept the whole way to CA, and a good portion on the way back. She enjoyed her brief stays in Palo Alto and SF, although SF was more fun. It was 100 degrees in the shade in Palo Alto, too hot to really take her outdoors. She and Ben did manage to hit a few museums and galleries while I attended my meeting, but for the most part we stuck close to home.

Now that we're back home, it's back to regular life. Mia's life has been greatly enhanced, however, with the introduction of the exersaucer. It's a plastic ring that she sits in that has toys going all the way around it for her to play with. She LOVES it. We will post pics of it soon, but our camera is charing and the baby is sleeping.

The other interesting item of note is Mia's newfound interest in food and drink. All week she has been watching us as we eat, her eyes as big as saucers as we bring our forks to our mouths. She was especially intrigued by ice cream last night, reaching out to grab my spoon as I ate. This change is an indicator that maybe she's getting ready for solid foods, although I don't think she's quite ready yet. But it's time to start mashing those peas!

That's about it here. More soon!

Monday Morning Mia

One of the bloggers I like to read does a piece each Monday morning about her youngest daughter. I think it's a great idea, so I'm going to "borrow" it. I present you with the first installment of Monday Morning Mia.

Today, Mia is four months old. It's nearly impossible for me to believe how quickly the time has passed. She's a completely different person, and in such a short time. She is beginning to form a personality now--she has things she finds funny, such as feet and the sound of Ben and me imitating his cell phone's new ring tone. She has likes, such as watches and other people's fingers, and dislikes, such as wet diapers and swimming in cold water. When she wakes up in the morning, she smiles so big, it's like she's amazed that everything is exactly where she left it when she fell asleep. She has developed into quite a little sleeper. She has become very dependent on her sleep schedule--wake up at 7, back to sleep from 8 to 10. Naps again at 1 and 4, to bed at 7:30. Deviations upset her, but she bounces back. She has begun to really enjoy reading before sleeping, and she grasps the book in her drooly little hands and pretends to turn the pages. Sometimes she eats the pages, but that's ok too. She has been babbling up a storm. It's hysterical to listen to her talk to herself. She clearly has discovered her voice, and we want to encourage it.

Yesterday we put Mia in our brand new inflatable pool on the porch. She thought the water was interesting for a few minutes, but then preferred to "sit" on the edge and just dunk her feet. Our upstairs neighbor, Abraham, had much more fun. He brought cups into the pool and helped us empty the water by pouring it into the plants on our porch. He also poured the dirt from the plants into the water, but that's ok. Although we were kind of hoping that "swimming" counted as a bath.

Wednesday we are heading out on our first plane trip. It's a long flight--almost 6 hours there. Hopefully, Mia will sleep. We leave first thing in the morning, so it's almost like the flight covers her first nap and a little bit of her night sleep. I'm hoping with such an early flight that there won't be too many people to upset if she decides that plane travel is not for her.

We'll be back with pictures and updates next Monday.

Happy Father's Day

Ben is the world's best dad.
This is the indisputable truth.
Ask anyone.

How many dads would wake up, when nursing mom is up anyway, to change their girl's diaper? How many dads revel in washing diapers and baby clothes at all hours of the day and night? How many dads love to carry their girl all around the neighborhood, narrating the sights and sounds? How many dads insist on having the baby monitor next to their head at night, just in case the baby cries?

It doesn't matter how many would. Because Mia's dad does. And we love him for it.

Happy Father's Day, Ben.
We love you.

The nightly pat down

"Try not to squish me dad"

If we had ever spent a night letting her sleep in the bed with us I could understand. As it is, this is just getting chalked up to the poor wiring of a simple mind. Lately, I’ve been waking up almost every night at least once, convinced that Mia is somewhere in our bed, either wrapped up in the covers, or at risk of being sat upon by our dog.

It starts with a faint suspicion with a very rational understanding that there is no reason for her to be in the bed. But it’s tough to explain away irrational fears, so I sit bolt upright, and start patting down the sheets, very gently, to see if I can find her. Maybe she crawled into the duvet cover or pillow case (no, she can’t crawl yet, I said it was irrational). Is she down by our feet? Check all around Walter for non-furry bits.

Typically after about 30 seconds I’ll wake up fully and realize she’s in her crib in another room, but it’s a slow panic until then. Knowing that it’s happened fairly regularly doesn’t seem to help dismiss the fear.

I’m thinking it has something to do with having Walter in the bed, something I know some of you out there find filthy and repulsive. All I can say is, until you’ve had a 60 lb Gund pressing himself against the back of your legs, you haven’t known a good nights sleep. As far as phobia’s go, it’s a mild annoyance, but I think it’s getting to Corrie, who on occasion has taken to helping with a timely, “she’s not here, stop patting my shoulder, go back to sleep”

Thanks Susan

We just have to post a quick thank you for the hand stiched blanket Mia received the other day. Word around the water cooler is it took almost a year of painstaking work to complete. It's beautiful, and as soon as we're comfortable with her sleeping with blankets it'll come off the wall and into her crib. Thanks again.

stroller redux

Next time we’ll know better

Our Rocking lime green stroller may not have been the best decision we’ve made so far. The front wheels stick sometimes, it’s fairly heavy so has to live in the back of the car, and the infant seat is far far too big for our girl.


She’d have to put on another 30 lbs and about a foot of length before she’ll be comfortable in there. That being said, it’s been good for what we need, but we’re considering a lighter, slimmer model. In the next month or so she’ll start to outgrow her car seat and want to sit more upright. Corrie has her dream stroller, and I’ve got some ideas as well.

Rolling over

So now that we've figured out how to post video, here is the much-vaunted proof that our child is brilliant.

laugh with sound

Ok we're going to try our first attempt at video blogging. Couldn't think of a better test video.

The great migration

We’ve noticed yet one more piece of evidence for Mia’s exceptional talent. She travels at night. It’s been previously documented that she can roll over from her stomach to back if she applies herself, but that only accounts for lateral movement. What we’re talking about here is more of a north-south trajectory.

When putting her down for the night, we’ve taken to placing her head closer to the edge of the crib. The idea was to avoid baby agoraphobia from the huge expanse of empty mattress, given her tiny body. She’s a dingy in a wide ocean in there. If she can see how close the edge is, perhaps she’ll feel more grounded. At least that was the original intention.

Going to sleep

When we come to her in the morning though, she is found to be closer to the center of the mattress, and still half asleep. Now I’ve tested the mattress with a ball bearing and didn’t find any slope that could explain this. And even on nights when she’s not swaddled, she too far away from the sides to reach out and push herself.

Waking up

Leaving us with two possibilities. She could be employing the “Flipper” method, in which repeated flops of her bound legs slowing shifts her south. Or the flying spaghetti monster might come through her window, whisk her off to a magical land for adventures and pie, only to bring her back home and put her slightly closer to the center of the crib than when she left.

So far the baby monitor has provided no evidence for either theory.

Real poo for my sham friends, and Shampoo for my real friends

"I don't want to talk about it"

Another Wednesday at home with my baby, and another raining day here in Boston. Probably for the best, we’ll do some short excursions for provisions, but otherwise have happy fun day at home playing with her toys. Actually, by popular request “Happy Fun Day” will be henceforth rebranded as “laundry and ironing day”. Would hate to give the impression that all days when I’m not home are neither happy nor fun, and in many respects, the new name is more accurate. She’s sleeping right now and Corrie is off to “the office”

Walter had a blast running in the rain this morning, particularly when he found a fresh pile of poo, thus the title of the post. I had to give him a shower before he rolled on our bed, so he’ll be pouting for the rest of the day now.

Last weekend we took Mia to her first wedding in upstate New York. Absolutely gorgeous setting and a good time was had by all. We sat at the back of the church with all the other parents, occasionally running out when our charges began to break down. My first introduction to what was previously an underground culture of dads playing with their kids outside of church. Corrie made her first sling especially for the occasion, but Mia wanted to be held instead for the most part.


Corrie and I continue to disagree in regards to reading to her, though I fear I may be defending a losing position. We both read to her when she’s calm enough but not wanting to sleep. It’s a question of material though. She’s far too young to pay attention to plot lines, and doesn’t really have the vocabulary at 15 weeks to pick up full sentences. The real benefit seems to be hearing the sound of our voice, and get used to watching the pages turn, etc. So if she isn’t really affected by the material read, and I’m struggling to inject passion into “Does a kangaroo have a mommy too?” (Thirty pages of that one sentence with a different animal each time). I have so far tended to read to her what I’m reading at that time anyway. Figure one of us should get something out of it at least. This is, I realize a losing argument, as she’s starting to get into the pictures.

She’s sleeping well for the most part these days though we have our eye on the dreaded “4 month regression” we’ve heard so much about. Apparently it’s fairly common for kids that are great sleepers to revert back to 3 hour naps once they realize where they are, which tends to happen around 4 months. We’ve got a week and a half to go to be precise, and so far no troubling signs. Further updates on that as events warrant.

For now though, if she keeps going to sleep around 8:00, we get our evenings back to be adults. Unfortunately that means we can’t leave the house, which, when the weather is nice is somewhat of a shame. Need to start having people over on weeknights more often just so we don’t spiral down into a vicious cycle of competitive backgammon every night. We had visions of family outings to get ice cream or enjoying sunsets, but given the alternative, I suppose it’s preferable to give that up.

No earth shaking epiphanies this week though. Just having fun being the same boring people. Tune in next time for more exciting adventures of the pleasantly content.