Look what I can do

On Tuesday Mia was 6 months old. I can't believe how fast it has gone by. She's getting so big!

While we were taking pictures she decided that she was a big girl and could sit all by herself. It kinda surprised me seeing as she still hasn't rolled over. I guess she's just not in a hurry to go anywhere.

She's getting more and more playful and is just a hoot. She did this to herself one day. She is always chewing on burp cloths so they always end up in her face.

Sunday we tried green beans for the first time. She wasn't quite a fan and still isn't. She spits them out two or three times and I just keep spooning them back in. Eventually they go down.

Beach babe with teeth

So we had the wonderful opportunity to spend last week in Hawaii with my family. Everything about it was amazing. We had beautiful weather. It was in the low 80s every day. Mia was so good for the flights and was a trooper about being carted all over the place and having her schedule turned completely upside down. To top it all off, she got her first tooth in Hawaii. On President's Day we went to a Luau and they gave Mia a lei. She decided she was going to eat it so I stuck my fingers in her mouth trying to get the flowers out and she bit me. We had no idea she was teething. 2 days later it finally came through all the way and now her other bottom

tooth is starting to come in.

We really had a great time. We were there for Whale Days so we got to go to the whale parade. We went snorkeling, hiking, boating, kayaking, zip lining, went to a luau, and did all kinds of shopping and laying on the beach. My mom was so nice and watched Mia while Monty and I went kayaking, zip lining, and out to dinner one night. It was so hard to come back home to the cold weather and snow.

My brother Shawn is a great photographer and took about 1300 pictures of the trip. I haven't gotten his pictures yet so here are just a few that we took.

This is Mia at the airport while we were waiting for our luggage. She got a new stroller just for the occasion (our other one was just too big to take). She absolutely loved being outside and threw a fit on more than one occasion when it was time to go in. We were too cheap to pay the $30 each way it would have cost us to take Mia's pack-n-play and we discovered she fit very nicely in Monty's suitcase so we just turned that into her bed once we got there. I even took her sheet and puppy so it would feel a little more like home.It was really just too funny to see her sleeping in the suitcase but she didn't ever seem to mind.
We had a gorgeous view of the ocean from our condo and spent most mornings and evenings sitting on the balcony. Most days we could see the whales out jumping and blowing their spouts.
Enjoying the sun on our first day.

Our first full day we went to the whale parade and then spent the afternoon at the beach. Mia slept through most of it. Glad we decided to rent an umbrella for her. It was only $10 for the week and it made it really nice at the beach and I didn't have to slather her with sunscreen quite as much.

Nicky (my sis in-law), mom, and me in the ocean. This water was a little colder than the beach by our condo.

Monty coming in from snorkeling

The family hanging out on the beach.

Me and Mia

We went hiking at Iao State Park. It's a nice little hike that wasn't too bad. There was all kinds of tropical vegetation and a nice river with pools to cool off in. It wasn't cold we're just using a blanket to keep the sun off Mia.

Mia all ready for the beach on the day she got to go in the water. She didn't like sitting on the beach and letting the waves come up to get her but she liked being out in the ocean.

Heading out in the water. (at the warmer beach) Mia and Monty ready for fun in the sun.

Just hanging on the beach with dad.

Monty eating at the luau. Doesn't he just look so excited?

Mia very excited at the luau (with grandpa in the background...why aren't the guys excited to be there?)

We saw these glasses when we were going through some of the little shops and thought they were just too funny. She was a little crabby at times so I guess they are fitting.

When we went out on the boat Mia slept almost the whole time. I think she liked the motion of the boat.

Monty and I getting ready to head out snorkeling. We just took turns heading out since we had Mia with us. We saw tons and fish and a couple turtles. The day before when we went kayaking we saw tons of turtles. They were very friendly and kept coming close. I even touched one. I don't have any pictures from kayaking. Have to wait and get those from Shawn since he had the water proof camera.

Back from snorkeling.

One of our gorgeous Hawaiian sunsets.

Mia in her little Hawaiian outfit grandma got her with her lei from the luau. Shawn took a really good picture of the 3 of us with our leis at the luau but I'll have to wait for that pic too.

While the rest of us went zip lining Mia hung out with grandma. She just chilled on the trunk of the car for a bit enjoying the sun.

The zip lining crew. Monty, Shawn, Me, Dad, Nicky, and Steve.Monty coming down a zip lineIt was so much fun. The course was a series of 5 zip lines, each one longer and faster than the last. By the time we got to the last one the clouds had rolled in and it was drizzling rain. Because we were up on one of the volcanoes, we were in the clouds. On the last zip line most of the time you couldn't see the landing from where you started and we would just watch people disappear into the clouds. Off I go!

So I guess when I gets Shawn's pictures I'll have to do a Hawaii part 2 post because he has more pictures than we did and he has some really good pictures. It was a wonderful vacation and I can't wait to go back. Monty said some day we can.

Food, Feet, and Other Adventures

So last Monday we took on the adventure of rice cereal. It did not go over well and I admit I was ready to throw in the towel and try again in a few weeks. She got good at doing raspberries with her lips while her mouth was full of cereal and I was getting tired of wearing it and washing my glasses. Luckily yesterday a light bulb seemed to turn on and we have now had 2 days of successful cereal eating.
Here is the before picture of the first cereal attempt
She definitely didn't know what to think of it.

I don't think any was swallowed that night. It just kept running back out.

And our end result. A very mad very sticky girl. I'm so glad it got better. We can now even clean up with just a wash cloth and not a bath.

The day before our cereal adventure Mia found her feet. (At least it was the first time we noticed her grabbing on to her feet.) She loves playing with her feet now and has figured out how to take her socks off.

Sometimes she even gets her foot in her mouth.

We also pulled her exer-saucer out this week. She can just barely reach the bottom of it and today kept kicking so she was throwing herself around in her little seat. She's still a little small for it but she likes it for short periods of time.
Tummy time has been the evil word at our house. Mia hates it and starts screaming so we aren't big fans of it and probably don't put her on her tummy as much as she should be. Things are getting better though. Sometimes we can get 3 or 4 minutes now before she's screaming.

I'm hoping if I can get her to spend a little more time on her belly she might roll over finally.

This is just a random picture that I thought was just way too cute. I figured it was a good one to put in for her cousin Lucy.

Crazy she's already 5 months old!

Finally it's girlie

So it may have taken me 4 1/2 months, but Mia's room finally looks like a girl lives in it. When we first started setting up a baby's room, we made it very gender neutral. I was having a hard time deciding what to do because I couldn't come up with anything I liked that matched the bedding we had. Lucky for me my wonderful neighbor told me about the super clearance on baby bedding at Target so I was able to replace the bedding for only $12.50! We went with flowers and butterflies. I figured it's girlie but not baby so it can grow with her for awhile. I also love the ribbon board so I can keep all kinds of pictures up in her room and change them as often I I want.

I got the idea for this frame from Michael McLean's song "From God's Arms to My Arms to Yours." It's a song about an adoption and I thought it was just so fitting. Mia's birth mom was so nice to help us in doing this.

Her cute new bedding with all her bed time friends.

This wall will still be rearranged a bit. I want to get a picture of the Bountiful Temple to put on this wall. That is the temple we are having Mia sealed to us in so it will be her temple.

This is one of those little growth charts. Because I did all the decorating by myself to surprise Monty when he came home from work, it's not at the exact right height. It's about 1/2 inch to low but I figured that was close enough. Hopefully Mia will be standing good by her first birthday so we can mark how tall she is.

We had a few warmer days (it hit low 40s for a high) and we were tired of being cooped up in the house so we decided to bundle up and go for a walk. It was really rather nice being outside and getting some fresh air. Mia seemed to enjoy it too.

This was how I found Mia the other day when we were getting ready for church. She loves to chew on fabric (particularly burp cloths). I had laid her down to change her diaper when I realized the wipes were in the other room. When I came back to her room, she was happily chewing away at the sheet she was laying on.

Getting cuter by the day!