Carroll Family Update

Hi Everyone!!

Guess what time it is? haha...

Our baby girl Mia is getting big! She turned 7 months old on Valentine's Day…already! Mia loves sitting up and playing with her toys and is getting closer to crawling. She loves rocking back and forth on her knees and doing baby pushups while her butt is in the air and while being on her tippy toes. She'll bring her knees in a bit but that's it. Kind of hard to describe but it's the cutest.

Mia also does 360s on her belly and moves around pretty well by crawling on her tummy. She even crawled backwards in the beginning of Feb. but doesn't do that too often. She also learned to kind of sit up from a crawling position or when she is on her belly which she did today! It was pretty cool to see. Josh and I give her another month until she's crawling then comes the baby proofing. We're already putting up blankets around our coffee table and trying to keep her away from the stereo system. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when she's walking! I think I can wait for that!

Vocal wise, Miss Mia is off the charts. She loves doing fake coughs and ehh ehh ehh. As of Feb. 18th, Mia has been saying "Da Da"! We even got to record it on Josh's cell phone and sent it out to our families. Josh was happy to hear her say that, but I told him she didn't mean it literally..haha! It was so cute hearing her say that although she probably doesn't know what it means yet. She also loves chatting to herself and saying babababa. Just today(Feb. 26th), she mocked me when I said Da Da! We just can't get enough of it!

On Feb. 15, we took Mia to get her weight checked at the doctor's office. She gained 1LB 4oz in one month which was a record for her. Her weight then was 14lbs 12oz and probably is around 15lbs now. Her cute chubby thighs are proof that my baby's growing. She is also roughly 27 inches long or a bit longer. Mia is still my little froggy.

Feeding wise, Mia is doing very well with the baby food. She had no problems with any of the veggies we gave her and really loves fruit. We started her with her first fruit, bananas, on Feb. 15th and proceeded in giving her applesauce, peaches and just started pears a couple days ago. She loves them all although the peaches and peas made her give a yucky face. She likes them now though..I think it was just the intial shock of how tarty they were.

Formula wise, we've been giving Mia formula after I feed her so she can get some extra calories/day. I usually give her about 2oz after I feed her and as soon as she sees the bottle, she gets all excited for more milk although she won't go back on me. Usually at night, I'll feed her and then give her more from a bottle b/c she gets all fussy like she wants more. She'll take anywhere from 3oz-6oz in the bottle. She definitely knows how to eat and knows what the bottle is for. She even started doing the "milk" sign for us right around Valentine's Day. We were pretty excited to see her squeeze her little hand in and out. Gotta love these little milestones!

Mia also love sippy cups and just as of today is actually sipping out of the ones my mom got her. She used to chew on the spout and still does, but now she knows that when she sips, she gets something in return!

In the sleep category, Mia does very well….we really can not complain. She however won't sleep the 10 hours like she typically does when we put her down at 8pm-ish. Instead, she's been sleeping until 5-5:30am! Ahhh! She started doing that on Feb. 16th and I'm not sure why. She wet herself then and then a few mornings after that b/c she'd sleep with her butt in the air and as a result, would wet herself. So maybe she got used to getting up from that…who knows. So I try to put her to sleep around 7:30 since she's been getting up earlier, but generally it's closer to 8pm.

Mia's naps are great too and have been very consistent. I'll put her down for her naps around 2-3 hours after getting up. Sometimes it's sooner if I see that she's getting cranky. She usually takes about 1 1/2-2 hour naps, 3x/day which gives me time to do my school work (still have about another 1 1/2 until I get credentialed to teach). She'll sometimes cry off and on for a bit and will fall asleep on her tummy. Oh yeah, she's only a tummy sleeper now. She loves it! I am soooo happy she naps as well as she does. I think that may change when my brother comes this weekend and when my in-laws come around St. Patty's Day. She may be too excited to nap…I hope not!

As for me and Josh, we really are enjoying parenthood. Josh loves his real job but most importantly loves being a dad. He enjoys coming home from work and spending time with his little girl. He loves daddy time as much as I love mommy time.

I LOVE, absolutely love my job of being a stay-at-home mom. I can't imagine missing out on all these little things that Mia does daily. I am really lucky to be able to be with her all the time. We feel so lucky to have such a perfect little angel in our life. I don't know what we did without her? She is a dream come true and I'm sure it only gets better.

We really hope you enjoy our updates. I know my emails are a bit long and you're probably like "Oh great..another novel!" so I'm trying to condense them as much as I can, so bear with me. :)

We've also updated our albums online so take a peek when you can under the link named Carroll Pictures. Once there, go under 2006 and check out the following albums: Mommy and Me, Playtime with Mommy and Daddy, Back yard, and Mia's first foods.

Until next time…

Cathy, Josh and Mia