Monday Morning Mia

It's a quiet morning here at Casa BabyStoneJohnson. Mia is sound asleep, Walter is cashed out in his blue chair, and the only sound is the quiet hum of the dishwasher. We had a busy weekend, so it's nice to have an hour of silence before starting our day anew.

Our condo is on the market, at long last. We had our first open house yesterday, and it was even better attended than we could have hoped. Our realtor assured us that many of the prospective buyers seemed really interested, so all of our digits are crossed. Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny, warmish winter day, and the happy home buyers were out in droves, we hear.

Mia is completely healed from her ear infection, although it seems I have developed one myself. I cannot remember the last time I had an ear infection, and if Mia's hurt half as bad as mine does, she is one tough little trooper.

We had a near perfect weekend here in Boston. Saturday I took the morning off and made some headway on my dissertation. The pieces are finally falling into place. I have all of the data, all of the software and all of the hardware I need to begin to analyze my datasets. We have a babysitter starting Friday who seems to be a truly lovely woman. We'll be moving into our new house soon that has an office on a different floor from the rest of the hubub, so I'll be able to sneak downstairs and work. Things are looking up.

After I worked on Saturday, Ben, Mia and I went shopping for countertops for our new house. We decided on the style and material we liked, and now just have to decide if we truly NEED counters or if we can make do with what's currently there.

After shopping, we took Mia to brunch. She smiled and laughed at the waiter, and dazzled the rest of the customers with her hilarious laugh. Speaking of restaurants, Mia has suddenly turned into a champion eater. Before, she would refuse just about anything anyone put in front of her. Now, she'll at least try a bite of almost everything. We had Japanese food on Friday, and she ate miso soup, fish, rice, and chicken. At brunch she ate toast, egg, ham, salmon, bagel, canteloupe and honeydew, and grapes. I gave her a bottle of cow's milk, too, to see if she liked it, and she powered it down. It looks like she was just a bit of a late bloomer in terms of eating.

We went to Trader Joe's on Saturday evening and Mia got to ride in the front of the cart, which is her new favorite thing to do. She smiles at everyone, and loves to look around and see all of the food products. Saturday night she slept through the night--7 pm until 6 am.

She really has become a different person now. She is truly more of a toddler than a baby. She has become more active instead of passive. When she wants a book, she points to it and says "dat" or even goes over to her bookshelf, if we're in her room, pulls a book of the shelf, and brings it over to be read. She chases Walter all around the house, cracking herself up if he gives her a kiss or nuzzles her stomach. It's an amazing change that seems to practically have happened overnight, although of course that's not possible. Part of me wishes she would stay this age forever, yet at the same time I can't wait to see who she becomes.