Talking

Here's a little video from the other night. Mia has been saying so many new words lately, it's so funny. Lately I've heard her say "awesome," "of course," and "oh man" plus tons of other funny things. Yesterday I was telling Brock about how she wanted a bite of ice cream cake the day before, and she heard me telling him the story. (I was trying to whisper so she didn't hear me!) All the sudden, she crouched down and put her nose almost against mine and started shouting "Bite cake! Bite cake!" because she remembered the day before! I was laughing so hard because she was so adamant, I couldn't even respond to her. So she started hitting me on the arm like "Come on, pay attention! I want a bite of cake!" She sure knows how to tell us what she wants. Today we took her to the zoo. Unfortunately we had to leave early because she threw a terrible tantrum (yes, we were the ones walking out of the zoo with the screaming toddler), but we did get to see a few things and get a couple of pictures pre-tantrum.

We are trying to teach her that she can't have everything she wants when she wants it, but she's having a hard time learning that lesson. :) We are working on the "requesting (demanding) songs in the car" problem right now. "Hey There Delilah" is still one of her favorites, and the other day she was protesting quite loudly because we weren't listening to it. She actually had her fingers in her ears as if to block out the song that was on the radio. She is one strong-willed little girl! I'm hoping this next one is slightly more laid back since I don't know what I'd do with two babies with such strong personalities! Thank goodness for all the moments when she is so sweet and loving and when she says the sweetest things - it gets me through her rough patches!

My two favorite people in the world watching Tigger & Pooh

Wonderful News!

Today I had a follow-up appointment to see whether the tear in my placenta is gone, and thankfully it has healed! I am so, so relieved and we are so thankful! They checked the baby and said he looks perfect. Below is part of the ultrasound we have on video. About a minute into it, it goes to 3D! So neat!

Here are some pictures from the ultrasound.

Mia has been loving her books lately, and here are a few pictures of her reading with Daddy, in her house, and in her chair (these are the ones I tried to upload for the other post but couldn't!)

Also, Katie got married this past weekend! Here's us before we left for the church. She looked so pretty! :)

That's all our exciting news for now! :)

Mother's Day!

I know this is a little late since Mother's Day was last weekend, but better late than never I guess! I had such a great Mother's Day. To start with, Brock brought us Qdoba breakfast burritos and Starbucks. Delicious! Then he vacuumed and dusted the house for me since I'm still having to be careful what I do. So awesome! We also got to see my family. We had such a great day. Here is a picture of my little sweet pea on Mother's Day.

Well I have been trying to upload all these cute pictures of Mia reading her books, but I'm having lots of problems uploading photos tonight. I'll try again later.

Katie gets married on Saturday, so we'll be in Northwest Indiana this weekend. Hopefully I'll have a few pictures to post from the wedding, too! Mia has her follow up appointment (from her surgery) on Monday, and then I have my ultrasound on Tuesday to check whether everything has healed itself. That's it for now, sorry for the lack of pictures... I tried! :)

New Pictures

Here are a few new pictures of Mia. The first is at our neighbor Baron's first birthday party. They were holding hands for the longest time, it was so cute! We are going to have to keep an eye on her, she definitely made the first move! This was 2 days after her surgery.

This picture was from tonight, she loves Nana's glasses!

She's still doing really well after her surgery. I think her stitches are starting to itch her a little, but she's really good about me putting her "special lotion" on there. I'm hoping they will dissolve soon so they don't bother her anymore! Also, her poor little upper lip is peeling because it stretched so much while it was swollen that the skin started pulling away. But overall she is doing great, I think she is actually enjoying the tylenol a little too much - she was asking for it the minute she woke up from her nap today and as soon as we got home tonight! Little stinker...

Our Little Recovery Patient

Mia is doing very well recovering from her surgery. Yesterday I decided to see what she would do without her arm braces (which kept her from touching her face), and she really never messed with her stitches, thank goodness! I felt like it was more dangerous to have the braces on because they made her more klutzy, and I was afraid she would fall and hit her face. She knows something is weird with her lip, but she doesn't seem to be in pain or be complaining about it. Although a lot of the swelling has gone down, her lip's still pretty swollen and is very bruised. Today Brock gave her a popsicle (we figure the cold should help with the swelling), and I thought he had given her a grape one because her lip was so purple. Nope, it was a cherry one - everything was just so bruised in there. Yesterday she was pretty mellow and so, so good. But today she was back to her feisty self! We went to a 1st birthday party for our neighbor, and she had a really good time. She sat there for the longest time holding the little boy's hand, it was the cutest thing! If I can get a picture from my neighbor, I'll post it.

Lately she has been saying "I love you" to Brock and I out of nowhere, and it just makes us melt! It is so sweet. She also counts to five now, and it is so funny! The other day I heard her in the other room saying "one, two, three, four, five!" I went in there and asked her what she just said (to make sure I was hearing correctly!), and she repeated "one, two, three, four, five!" Ok - guess I wasn't hearing things!

I have also been feeling the baby move quite a bit lately which is awesome, especially after what happened a few weeks ago. Two and a half more weeks seems like such a long time to wait for another ultrasound to make sure everything is ok, so I am so thankful for each little movement I feel.

That's all for now, I just wanted to let you know that Mia had been a great little recovery patient! Thanks again for all your prayers. :)

Mia's Surgery

Mia's surgery went well today, all things considered. Both the pre-op and post-op times were difficult for her (both times they had to give her medicine to calm down), but the surgery went well. Once the doctor got a closer look, he found the cyst was larger than we had all thought, and it went almost through to the other side of her lip (the underside). So not only did he cut her from the topside of her upper lip, he cut the underside also. She obviously has stitches in both places. The upside of the cyst being so large was that he was able to do the majority of the "removing" from the underside, and the scar on top won't be as large as we had all originally thought. Her lip is indescribably swollen right now, like someone pounded it with a bat. But I think once the swelling goes down, the healing of the incision itself won't be too bad. She has been pretty mellow today, thankfully! I think she's still experiencing some of the effects of the anesthesia. She has to wear arm braces so she doesn't touch her face, so we'll see how that goes once she's not so out of it! The doctor thought she would have to wear them for 2 weeks - hmmm. Not sure how that's all going to work! Thank you so much for checking in on us and for all your prayers. It was so nice to get notes from so many of you saying you were thinking about and praying for us. Once she doesn't look quite so beat up, I'll post some pictures. Thanks again! :)