Mia Being Mia

I described earlier how Mia likes to sit on Riley when she crawls. I happened to catch it on video. Aunt Amber really wants to see it, so here it is!

New Beds

A few weeks ago, I received a video baby monitor. It's awesome, by the way! While the kids were supposed to be napping, I saw Ethan crawl under his crib. He was crying and kicking his legs. When I looked closer, I saw that the crib and metal box spring had fallen on him. He did something to the bottom of the crib. He wasn't hurt but I think it scared him quite a bit. Since then, he's been sleeping on his crib mattress on the floor. I had been looking for twin beds for them for quite some time. I found some I really liked but didn't want to spend the kind of money they were asking. I finally found some cute white twin beds online that can be converted to bunk beds later on. I would have liked to have gotten a different color, but Mike really wanted white. Why did I even ask his opinion? :)

They finally arrived yesterday. We're still waiting on the mattresses to get here. Hopefully, they'll be here on Tuesday. We moved Mia's crib into Riley's room and put their beds together. Ethan and Mia look SO little in their new beds. I'm still contemplating getting some kind of guard rail. Most of them don't work with bunk beds though, so I'm going to have to search for some.

Helping Dad with Riley's new crib (Mia's old crib.)

Always the little observer.

Jumping on their crib mattresses.

Mia causing mischief.

Uncle Mark came over and helped us put their beds together. It would have taken Mike and me forever. Thanks, Mark!

We all crammed in their room. It was nice and cozy!

Riley helped out and chewed on all the wood dowels.

Just checking to make sure that bed is square!

Mia thought no one was watching and decided to get into the baby wipes.

Riley got right in there and "helped" out too. It took a couple of hours from start to finish. Not too bad! Foofa was helping out as well.

Ethan was pretty excited to sleep in his new bed. I can't wait for the mattresses to arrive! We piled blankets and pillows around their crib mattresses. No one fell off!

Her new bed. She was mad because she wanted to stay up and watch "Monsters Inc.", which is their favorite movie.

11 Months Old!

One month closer to the big 0-1. Riley has been crawling all over the place. It's neat to see her "chase" after things. Her chubby little legs move so fast. The down side is that she follows me everywhere! There's no escaping her. She has starting cruising along the furniture. My guess is that she'll be walking in a month or so.

Her three main words are "mama", "dada", and "baba". She now says "mama" more than "dada". She loves to eat. Her favorite foods are: graham crackers, ritz crackers, Lil Crunchies, Yogurt Melts, anything sweet, bananas. She will no longer eat bland foods. Some of her Gerber baby meals go to waste because she will only take a couple of bites. She takes 3-4 bottles per day. She usually takes 6 ounces at a time. Riley is still nursing when she's tired. I'm hoping to cut her off at the 1-year mark. We'll see how that goes. When she wants to do it, she's very persistent. She arches her back until she's "in position" and whines.

She's still kind of inconsistent as far as her sleeping. She will take a good 1-2 hour nap in the mid-morning. She likes to take a little cat nap in the evening and is usually sleeping by 10:00pm and up for the day by 8am. Sometimes she sleeps through the night and sometimes she doesn't. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she crawls to the end of her crib, stands up, and stares at the door, waiting for us to come in. She's a handful!

She still loves to watch Ethan and Mia. She follows them to see what they're doing. Ethan has been kind of rough with her lately. He pushes her for no reason, so I really have to keep my eye on them. Ethan has been to time-out almost daily for that. Mia still has a love/hate relationship with Riley. She'll give her a kiss and scratch her in the same 5 minutes! Riley gets jealous if Ethan and Mia are sitting on my lap. If she sees one of them on my lap, she will either pull hair or hit whoever is on my lap. Her temper is really starting to come out. Sometimes it makes me laugh and sometimes not so much! She's got the screaming and arching of the back down pat!

Relaxing on the floor.

Just chillin'.

The scratches are courtesy of Mia.

I was trying to get a picture of them in their pajamas. 2 out of 3 looking isn't bad!

She pulls herself up on everything. She has now figured out how to get back down. Before, she'd cry until we came and helped her down. Notice Ethan "cleaning" in the background. He likes to take a washcloth and wipe down everything!

Something to Make you Smile...

Sledding

Grandpa and Grandma Schmidt have a nice little hill right outside their back door. We decided to take Ethan and Mia sledding. Ethan loved it, Mia hated it! Ethan went down the hill quite a few times. Mia went down twice and she had had enough!

Getting ready. She didn't know what was in store.

Happy to be going anywhere!

Ahhh...cute smile.

You mean your son doesn't go sledding with a doll? He took it on every single ride down the hill.

She wanted out and she hadn't even gone down the hill.

Forcing Mia to get into the sled. She wasn't happy about it!

On the count of three...

Ethan wants to go down again.

Not letting go of Grandma's leg for anything.

Go Ride 'Em Cowboy

I'll start off by saying that Mike aboslutely hates this horse. He wants to get rid of it extremely bad. Ethan absolutely loves it! My grandparents found it on the side of the road (they go dumpster diving) and decided to give it to Ethan and Mia. Its neck is broken and everytime he rides it, he falls off of it. I find it funny (he's never hurt himself) but it makes Mike want to get rid of it that much more. I finally caught it on camera. Enjoy!

Artistic Little Boogers

Ethan and Mia got ahold of some crayons. They colored on 5 different walls, the fireplace mantle, their dressers, and my kitchen cupboard. Grrrr!