Monday Morning Mia

Sorry for the late post--time just gets away from us sometimes.
It's a cool night here in Beantown. The windows are open in our living room and the back door is open for the dog, giving us a nice cross-breeze. The house smells of spring air and freshly ground coffee. Walter is out in his yard barking at the imaginary nuisances out there, and Mia just went down for the night. We're catching up on yesterday's Times and listening to the radio in the background.

We took Mia for Indian food for dinner, and she ate good amounts of everything. The waiters there are all madly in love with her and went out of their way to bring her a cup with a straw, extra napkins, and even extra papadum.

We're all pretty beat around here. Mia's grandparents visited this weekend while Ben went to New York to help Matt set up his new place. She really seemed to enjoy seeing them and having extra people to show off all of her new funny things. Over the weekend, she learned how to sing new songs, scrub the tub, and rock in a rocking chair.

Mia has been changing at such a rapid pace it's hard to even begin to describe the changes, let alone keep up. She really seems to understand a lot of words, even if she can't say them. For example, I asked her to bring her doll into the living room, and she went into her room and brought her doll out. I bought her a doll stroller to play with, which she seems to like. At least, she seems to like it to push around puzzle parts and her stuffed basset hound.

Right now, the biggest change is that Mia is almost fully weaned. I have been pretty ready to make that change for a while, but Mia wasn't on board with the plan. Over the last week or so, though, she has begun to gulp down huge amounts of cow milk. We're down to half a nursing a day, right before bed, and at this point it's really just for my own sake, not hers. I think she's pretty much fully done. I'm happy that it's on her terms and that she's making this jump, but even though I have been wanting to get to this point it's of course bittersweet. She's really not a baby anymore, and I'll miss the cuddling that went along with the nursing. I know she'll need us for so many things for a good long time, but nursing was the last thing that she truly needed that only I could give her. I'll miss the special time with her each day, but I'm so happy to see her off and running on her own, literally.

This picture is just a little reminder of Mia while she's still young. We should probably wash it (it's sunflower butter on the dishwasher, if you can't discern) but it's just too cute.