Three Generations of Beauty...

Grammy, Mommy & baby Mia! They are what make our family special...

Absolute Beauty!

No words necessary...

Girl Time...

Mia always enjoys spending time with her cousin Hadley! It's amazing how sweet Hadley is with Mia. Here she is sharing the treasured School Bus with her baby cousin... So sweet!

Touchdown!

During Thanksgiving dinner, Cousin Alex taught Mia the proper 'touchdown' signal. Now Mia can be one of the boys... Mia learned so much this past week with her cousins, and I think her physical development leap frogged several months forward with all the wrestling, assisted running, and general play time! She already misses her new family...

The California Cousins!

Mia had endless fun with cousins Alec, Gavin & Hadley over Thanksgiving. We were truly amazed at the love and attention Mia's cousins showered on her... Mia had already spent time with Hadley and they were fast friends. However, you never know what to expect from 6 & 9 year old boys with a baby. Amazingly, Alec & Gavin fought over who got to spend time with Mia and were just so sweet with her... She's really lucky to have such great family. You'll notice that Gavin thought Mia needed a playmate in the tub! Gavin made me promise I wouldn't post this picture to the Internet, so here it is!! Hee hee

Aunt Ruthellen & Cousin Jesse!

A few days before Thanksgiving Mia's Great Aunt Ruthellen and cousin Jesse came over to spend some time with our little peanut. We tried to have a nice quiet dinner, but the midget wasn't having any of that!! She made sure she was the center of attention the entire time they were over. Mia really took to Jesse, and loves her Aunt Ruthellen, who has been so helpful babysitting and giving lots of love...

Peas!

Mia wanted everyone to see how well she eats her peas!!! It's so cute, she has fallen in love with frozen peas. She eats them with dinner, and several hours later we find her still chewing on the shells...

Go Bucks!

Mia got to experience her first annual Ohio State v. Michigan game, Uncle Ryan style... For those of you that don't know what that means, it means every waking moment becomes a focus on the absolute destruction of Michigan! This would be Uncle Ryan's most focused time of the year! Thankfully she had Frank, in from San Diego, and our neighbor Jason, to help keep a little calm amongst the craziness. Mia was lucky that the Buckeyes crushed the Wolverines and she only saw the upside of a weekend as monumental as this!

Aunt Cathy & Uncle Ryan also made sure Mia was well prepared for such a serious event by bringing a little Buckeye cheerleading outfit. Unbelievably cute... Uncle Ryan loved that Mia was drawn to the string of Buckeyes around his neck. I believe he's already filling out her application to attend OSU!

Mia Meets Aunt Cathy!

Thursday night Aunt Cathy & Uncle Ryan arrived from Cleveland. Mia loves her Aunt & Uncle and couldn't wait so show them her splasing skills... First thing Friday morning Mia got Aunt Cathy into the hot tub. They stayed in so long that she fell asleep on Aunt Cathy when nap time arrived! She's had loads of fun this weekend as her cousins McKenzie and Nicholas slept over on Friday night as well.

Grandpa's Gift

Mia received a gift from her Grandparents in Cleveland today. A fluffy little puppy named Titus. She loves her new toy and can't wait to meet her Grandparents. Note the similar method of grasping stuffed animals and real animals!!

Sick Baby!!

Ok, so our first family vacation didn't quite go as planned... Before we left, Mia had her next appointment with the pediatrcian. Everything went well. Clean bill of health and Mia is gaining weight quite nicely. She's up to 16.5 lbs now! Unfortunately, somewhere between the doctor's office and touching down in Denver, Mia developed a massive upper respiratory infection. It took us a while to figure it out, but by 5:00 in the morning, with no sleep, we finally realized she was sick! By night two of no sleep we were really questioning our logic for taking a family vacation... Especially when we pulled Mia into bed with us hoping to soothe her, and she frantically swung her head into Mom's face and split Mom's lip wide open! Dad & Mia decided a nice stroller ride through the hotel might be in order, even if it was the middle of the night! Thankfully we had the resort doctor visit on Saturday morning and she prescribed some medicine that helped our little angel sleep a little better on Saturday night. For obvious reasons we cut our trip short and flew home Sunday morning. There was definitely a silver lining to the whole debacle, which was seeing our little Mia arrive back home for the first time after an extended time away. It's only been about a month and a half, but it was absolutely apparent that she recognized her home and was happy to be back in her crib, safe and sound! It's funny, even with no sleep and loads of stress, we still can't stop hugging and kissing our beautiful little baby! That little girl has all the power...

Colorado Kid!

It's been difficult to spend so much time at the office after getting 16 days of non-stop Mia time in China... So we decided to take a our first family trip! When Stacy worked at the Ritz we always heard how incredible the Bachelor Gulch property in Colorado is, but never made it there. So we figured this was a great weekend to get away together for a little quality family time! We arrived Thursday night and spent a little time out by the fire, as the photo attests. Mia was mesmerized by the flames for about 5 minutes, and then decided she prefered the heated indoors! Takes after her Mom...

Today was a day of total relaxation. We took a walk about the property, but mostly just played in the room and took naps together. We're planning on doing a little hiking tomorrow, as well as head into Beaver Creek for some shopping. I tried to get Mom to agree to get a Ritz babysitter so we could have a little parent time on Saturday night, but Mom was having none of it. I have to agree it could be a little strange if she woke up and a stranger was present in our place. Funny how much fun it is just to hang out in a hotel room together with no interuptions... Plus, Mom got her first nap since bringing our little girl home! To ensure Mom got quality sleep, Mia & I went for a stroller ride to tour the property. Somehow we stumbled upon the cutest pair of Baby Ugg's that miraculously found their way onto her feet!! Too cute.

Mommy & Mia...

When we checked into our hotel here in Colorado, Mommy & Mia spent a few minutes checking out the kitchen to ensure we had everything we needed to keep our little Mia plump & happy! It's been such a great getaway! Unfortunately Mia picked up a cold, so she's been a little cranky. However, just having a chance to spend a few uninterrupted days together has been really refreshing...

Sascha - Mia's Special Friend...

On Sunday we attended Mia's good friend Sascha's birthday party at the train park. Sascha is Russell & Christine's daughter, and I'm not sure I've ever seen anything as cute as her reaction to Mia! She is in love with our little girl, and it's so sweet to see a child display such affection. When we arrived at the party, Sascha screamed, "My sister is here" and ran to Mia to hug and kiss her... Throughout the party Sascha was constantly touching and kssing Mia. When Christine tried to get Sascha to go eat, she said she wanted to stay with Mia!! I've seen sweet children before, but I've never seen a child display such love and tenderness toward another child... Mia is very lucky to have Sascha as her friend. Who knows, maybe they feel some kindred Chinese connection?!

Good Morning!

We feel very lucky that our little Midget is now sleeping through the night. At least most of the time... I would say she gets a straight 10-11 hours about 2 out of every 3 nights! We'll take that... We've also figured out that it is completely our fault when she doesn't sleep through the night. We can pretty much always trace it to a missed nap, late bedtime, etc. Unfortunately, we had a pretty busy weekend, with Sascha's birthday party and all... Not to mention that it was close to 100 degrees outside!

After all the heat & excitement, Mia was awfully tired last night. So we did the only reasonable thing and threw her in her bike trailer and went on a 5 mile bike ride to Aunt Cari's! Not too smart, I know... She was whining by the time we got home. Long story short is that after much crying and waking up last night, we gave up and brought Mia into bed with us. This was the first time we've done that since our first week home. Mia went right to sleep and snuggled in with Mommy for several more hours. Thank god!! The picture above shows the love we showered upon our little girl when she woke up... We figured this might drive her back to her bed! :) In all seriousness, it was such an amazing feeling to wake up to her sweet little face and sunny disposition!

Our little Sunflower!

As always, Mia's endless patience shined through this Halloween! Several people commented that they couldn't believe she was tolerating her parents obsession with this silly little costume... Especially since it was so darn hot out! But as always, Mia was a shining little star. She was captivating her in sunflower costume as we took her to a few of the neighbors houses so we could trick or treat some candy for Dad! Our first Halloween together was absolutely perfect...

Halloween Party '07

For Halloween we had all the neighbors over for taco stew & pumpkin martinis! It was so much fun to see all the kids going nuts with sugar surging through their little veins... Can you figure out which one is our little sunflower?!