Never too young for a boyfriend!

Our awesome neighbors, Jeff and Diana, had their first baby in August. There little boy, Ty, is just 5 weeks younger than Mia. They had their first "playdate" a few weeks ago when we had them over for our traditional conference brunch. It was so fun watching the two babies start to interact a little. Mia was getting fresh the whole time trying to hold his hand!

Isn't it cute, they are five weeks apart and almost the same size! We hope that These two get to grow up together but we have to convince Jeff and Diana to live here forever... Hmm, maybe if I keep inviting them over for dinner it will give them a reason to never move away!

3 Months Old

Mia is 3 months old and finally starting to respond to us with smiles on demand. I still have to try pretty hard but she has the cutest smile when she finally lets one out! Mia is babbling a ton and loves to sit up and stand (with help of course). She is sleeping really well at night but will still only take a 45 minute nap at a time unless I am holding her or if we are in a moving car. I tend to plan my errands around when she needs to fall asleep since I know she will sleep well in the car! We love our little munchkin so much!

All dressed up for church

I have been so bad about blogging lately and realized I have such a great pictures and memories I want to share. These are pictures of Mia her first Sunday back at church after the hospital stay. This is by far one of my favorite dresses I have for her. Isn't she such a doll? Oh how I love this little girl! These pictures were taken when she was 7 weeks old - what a cutie!

Trying really hard to smile

Mia is not a smiler - at all. I try so hard to make her smile everyday and usually I get a few small ones. She's not unhappy or anything, she just doesn't smile much. I read in a book that this is actually not something to worry about, it just means she is always content - sure I'll take that. Her neurologist was asking me last week at her appointment if she is smiling yet, I told her not much. They worry if the baby doesn't smile at all but since Mia smiles some, there is nothing to worry about. As I told her doctor this, she picked Mia up and started talking to her, within seconds she turns her around to show me some big beautiful smiles! Little stinker!

So, a few weeks ago Mia was having a grand time smiling in her bouncy seat so I grabbed the camera. I tried desperately to get her to continue but she wouldn't. These were the best I got:

We sure love our little Mia... I know I complain about her a lot but really my only complaint is that she will not nap during the day in her bed. I am finally just trying to accept it and move on - she takes great naps in her carseat when we are out or in the Baby Bjorn. So, that is where she is taking many of her naps. It saves my sanity a little to just let her do it, eventually she will have to learn to nap in her bed, we will get there.

She also has a milk protein allergy so I have had to cut out all dairy from my diet. It has been hard... but it won't last forever and eventually I will be able to eat cheese and sour cream again, even if it takes a few months!

Cousins!

We love living so close to cousins (wish the rest of the cousins lived here :( ). Meredith's and my kids have so much fun together - they are so imaginative and can play and be happy for hours on end. Zac is particularly enamored with Caroline right now, he loves Kate of course but he is always asking if Caroline can come over - it is so sweet because she is so cute with him! Anyway, a few weeks ago they came over to go swimming but a storm quickly rolled in and we decided that swimming was not the best idea with a lightening storm. So the kids did what they do best together - played dress up. They had some pretty great costumes!

Zac as the go-go boot wearing Chicken Little

Caroline as the fire woman

Lindsay dressed as I'm not sure what and Kate as Tinkerbell

Brynley as the Superman cape wearing Princess

And Hayden as the Coyote's Hockey player sporting rain boots and a Superman cape

I love watching these kids learn and grow together - we are crossing our fingers that they decide to move even closer to us - like bike riding distance, that would be awesome!

Oh the joys of a 2 year old boy

Yep - that's our Zac! We can pretty much count on him looking like this after every meal, especially if he has a captive audience in his biog brother or sister. They think he is quite funny, I think he is quite messy. This instance however, he was by himself "eating" his cupcake when I come in to the kitchen to see his face covered. He literally was just wiping frosting with his hand all over his face - nice. Ranch dressing is another favorite face mask of his!

Zac just loves to color - on EVERYTHING! A favorite coloring spot (besides the back patio or outside wall of the house) would be the computer monitor. on 2 occasions he has taken a ball point pen or a pencil to the computer monitor while I sit nursing a baby in the other room. He also enjoys coloring on the tile or carpet or ottoman - you know, any surface besides paper of course! If Zac sees anyone writing or coloring he immediately is yelling that he wants to color too, it is super cute!

I love this little guy so much, he gives the best kisses and the sweetest hugs ever. If he or someone else toots, he immediately says, "Monster!" with a growling voice. This is because we would always call him a tooty monster and for some reason he picked up on the monster part!

Even though he almost floods the bathroom on a daily basis and does a great job of dumping all of the toys in the playroom, I cannot imagine a day without this sweet little guy. He is truly a joy and I am lucky to be his mom.