Mia's First Real Food...

Well, we finally figured out that part of the reason Mia is not sleeping very long is because she is 8 months old and has no real food in her diet, other than bottles... She gets hungry in a hurry. So this weekend Mom introduced a new food: rice cereal with apple sauce! Mmmmm mmmm. That's good stuff! Or at least Mia thinks so...

Tubby Time!

I'm happy to announce that with a little a widsom & experience gleened from Nancy, Mia now loves her baths! Nancy was kind enough to have a baby bathtub waiting for us when we returned. Now Mia is all cozy in the tub and thinks it's a wonderful new place to play! Thanks Nanc.

Meeting Aunt Cari

It's pretty clear that Mia has Aunt Cari wrapped around her finger. Self admittedly, Aunt Cari isn't much of a baby person... It only took about 15 seconds of Mia in her arms for Aunt Cari & cousin McKenzie to begin offering to babysit and spend time with little Mia. She's so tiny and cute that she's irresistible.

Mia's Aunt Cari & cousins McKenzie & Nicholas have been so helpful this weekend. They not only entertained Mia long enough for us to finally unpack, but helped Stacy at the grocery store as well... Without their help, this weekend would have been much more difficult than it already was.

First Night in Hell... (Part 2)

Those of you who are not yet parents, please don't be too frightened by the following text. Those of you who are parents, please don't laugh too hard at us...

Oh my god, why did NOBODY tell us that our lives would turn into this!!!! We've been home for over 48 hours and have slept maybe a combined 6 hours, between the two of us!! That beautiful little baby of ours has decided that 45 minute naps are more than enough, and then it's back to play time... I'm fairly certain our home has somehow been magically transported to a far away land where nobody sleeps and parents are completely controlled by little people who smile and warm your heart, while slowly killing you...

All joking aside, this has been a very difficult weekend. Unfortunately, the change in time zone's has really hurt us, especially little Mia. At about 2:00 am on Saturday morning Mia decided that 2 hours was enough sleep, and it was time to play. Stacy and I spent the rest of the night trying to soothe her back to sleep, meeting failure at every turn. With little to no sleep on Saturday, we introduced Mia to Nancy & her kids, Skip & Jen, Aunt Cari, Uncle Perry & cousins McKenzie & Nicholas.

Saturday night we hoped that Mia would be tired enough at this point to sleep through the night... Boy were we wrong! I finally got to sleep at about 2:30 am. At 4:30 am I was awoken by the sound of both Mia & Mommy crying. Apparently little Mia had fallen down while playing and Mommy was convinced that Mia needed to go the hospital. I think it's sufficient to say that Mommy was not operating on all cylinders at this point... For those of you lucky enough to know Stacy, you know well her ability to give beyond the point of most mortals. Stacy has been loving & caring for little Mia all weekend as if she was getting 12 hours sleep per night. It was at this point that I put Mommy to bed and took over the duties of entertaining Mia. At about 5:30 am I gave up and put her in bed with us. The above photo is evidence of the carnage that was once our marital bed!! I'm confident that tonight we will see imrovement...

First Night in Crib... (Part 1)

By the time we got home from the airport, well after midnight, Mia was fast asleep. So we crept into her new room and laid her down in her crib. How peaceful and quiet our first night together at home would be... Hint: the preceding line may not be entirely true, as evidenced by the 'Part 1' in the title!

Mia's 1st Plane Ride!

This picture was taken several moments before the largest melt down of young Mia's short life! Our final day in China went well. We made it to the US Consulate and received Mia's Chinese passport, along with her American Visa. (As she cleared Customs in the U.S. she automatically became a U.S. citizen!!) However, that ordeal coupled with a long van ride to the airport and a 3 hour wait to board the plane was a little too much for our precious Mia. By the time we got settled on the plane it was after her bed time and feeding time. A hulacious meltdown ensued... What started as a mere cry, quickly melded into the shriek of a teradactyl. The screams and tears were more than Mom could handle, and soon enough both Mommy & Mia were crying... Thankfully she settled down after about 15 minutes and was fast asleep shortly after take off. The rest of the 14 hour flight went smoothly. Not much sleep for Mom & Dad, but Mia didn't seem to mind!

Kurt & Susan greeted us at the airport with their kids, Alex & Parker. It was so nice coming through security and having close friends waiting to greet us! Our neighbors Nancy & Skip came over shortly after our arrival home to meet the now sleeping Mia. They greeted us with balloons, flowers & welcome home cards! We're lucky to have such great friends in our lives...