Monday Morning Mia

The rain has finally stopped here. We had a very wet weekend, leaving us to mostly indoor activities. Ben took Mia to the MFA to see the Hopper exhibit, and we did a little home shopping at Home Depot.

This Friday is Mia's 15 month appointment. I'm actually looking forward to seeing the doctor, just so she can see how much Mia has grown. I think she's put on a little weight since she's been eating so well and drinking so much milk, and she's definitely hit a little growth spurt. She has also turned into a virtual dance machine. If you so much as mention that she shake her booty she will oblige with glee. She continues to say more and more words. Her new favorite is "Up!" which she uses both to ask to be picked up and to tell us she's going up the stairs. She knows almost all of her body parts and loves to sing Head, shoulders, knees & toes. She points to her knees and toes during the song--it's just too fast for her to do all the other parts. Her other favorite word is ball. We got her a big purple ball over the weekend, which she petted the whole way home in the car, singing "Ball, ball, ball, ball..."

Toddlerhood is so much more fun than I thought it would be. Each day she wakes up and I wonder what new thing she'll learn. She loves to pretend in her kitchen and sing songs to her dolls in her crib. She loves to pick new books and read them, repeating the new words over and over. She is desperately trying to eat with a spoon and drink from a cup without help, and she's pretty much there if you don't mind a little mess. The skills just keep coming, each day a new one to add to the repertoire.

Someone asked me the other day if Mia is a social kid. In many ways, she really is. She does very well in her babysitting group and one-on-one with other kids. She loves to play with older kids, and seems to enjoy getting lots of attention from adults. On the other hand, she's not one for groups. If I take her to the playground, she kind of stays on the fringe or goes to the slide by herself instead of running over to other groups of kids. I suppose in most ways she's a true product of her parents--neither of us is particularly gregarious. We prefer small groups, which explains why we're more likely to host a small dinner party instead of a huge blowout. It's amazing to see the whole nature vs. nurture theory in action with Mia. She'll of course be her own person, and an incredible one at that, but in many ways she's also an extension of us and how we live our lives. It will be interesting to see how much of us we see in her as she continues to grow, and how much she'll differentiate herself from us along the way.