Mia @ 20 Months, ABCs and 123s

Only three more days until Christmas. Though Papa has been busy traveling for work and Mama has been up late at night doing her contract work, we are all really enjoying this Christmas. Mia is having so much fun seeing holiday decorations, giving and receiving presents, watching the tree get lit nightly, and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. She still asks daily for us to light the Advent Candles because she wants "more Happy Birthday". We have now gone two nights in a row to see the out-of-control lights at Tangerine Way in Sunnyvale. Mia LOVES the listening to the music and watching the light show. It's definitely worth the trip and way more fun to watch in the warm car than up close and personal. You don't quite get the same flavor without the music, so tune in to 104.1 and stay in the car. Bring hot cocoa and a snack. It's so much fun and for charity. Mia did get out to give her donation to Second Harvest.

Milestones
At 20 months old and roughly 25 pounds (Mia turned 20 months on Thursday, December 20th) Mia has become quite verbal and can string her thoughts together into three words. Since we took Aunty Yoo Lee's advice of singing the alphabet song when we brush Mia's teeth, she has managed to learn her ABCs. Mia can get up to E without a mistake, then needs some help to get to fill in the other letters. She says, K, P, T, and Y with gusto. Another of her latest tricks is counting food pieces on her high chair tray and distributing them into the cup holders, but the counting would probably get a "D" because she goes out of order. You will likely hear the following, "one, two, five, two, three". Papa hopes she learns how to correctly count soon because he's very good with numbers and would be disappointed if she turned out like Mama when it comes to numbers. We are not quite sure where she picked up the counting, we sometimes count when going up the stairs or swing her her walking. Perhaps I have Sesame Street to thank for this?

Mia also likes to pretend to blow out candles and make cakes with Play-Doh. She sticks a crayon or paint brush on her "cake" and starts singing.

Mia has started eating a little meat, whether knowingly or now, we're thrilled except when it comes to changing her diaper! Very STINKY!

After being sick for a while and having Mama sleep on the floor by Mia's crib until she was out (Mama fell asleep by Mia's bed on a few occasions), Mama tried to give this up without success. Little Miss Mia is quite good at tugging at Mama's heartstrings. Papa is back on night duty now that he's home and much to Mama's chagrin, he can put her down and leave the room. No drama ensues!

Mia is getting harder and harder to "trick" or "sway" when it comes to having to stop an activity or leave a fun place like Pottery Barn Kids or a friend's house. She always, says no and resists when we try to put a jacket on or pick her up. Eventually she will leave if we play the Mama and/or Papa is leaving card, but I am waiting for the day when she throws a mega tantrum. I used to say, I'm glad that ain't my kid or my kid won't be like that, but those words come back to bite one in the butt. So if you don't have a kid yet, bite your tongue.

Santa Bears Candy
We decided to make sure Santa Claus was as real to Mia as the true Christmas story, so along with the learning about Christ's humble birth, we have stockings hung with care, cookies and cocoa for Santa, and of course carrots for the reindeer.

After a few less than enthusiastic encounters with jolly old St. Nick, Mia finally realized that the bearded white man would give her can-ne or candy, so sat on his lap without a fuss today and we got a few good shots of her with Shen Dan Gong Gong (Santa in Mandarin). Her reward was that we actually let her suck on the candy cane for a few minutes before it conveniently fell into pieces on the mall floor.

Mia told Santa she wants a baby stroller (I planted the idea) and that she would be in LA visiting Grandma and her uncles and aunt and Watson so that he would know where to find her.

Here's a pic of Mia with Santa, taken at the very unpopular Vallco Mall aka Cupertino Square. No wait and cheaper than other places! Whoo Hoo!

Christmas Picture Outtakes

This year, we're a bit behind on our annual photo card. Don't be surprised if yours arrives after Christmas! We thought we were doing well when we took a bunch of shots the day after Thanksgiving, but trying to get a dog and toddler to look and smile for the camera proved to be a major challenge. We thought taking some pictures after Mia's nap would be perfect, but she was not in a smiley mood.

Here's the best one we took that day.



While on our trip to Seattle, we had grand plans to take some pictures of Mia with Santa and around town, but none of the ones I took were "photo card worthy", plus Kona was not included. Since Kona is my first "child", I wanted Kona to be part of our annual Christmas card. Then Mia got sick and was not looking her cute self with her Roseola rash. It's just a card that people throw away right? But, it is the one print that gets sent to friends and family a year and I wanted to put some thought into it. I also wanted the card to represent Mia's moods, so hard to do that with a regular old digital camera. Toddlers and dogs don't hold their poses well. So, last weekend Papa took a few of Mia and Kona in their Christmas outfits. Here are some of the ones we did not use, but I thought were funny.

Mea Culpa Shot-looks like they are both getting a lecture.



Whachoo Talkin' Bout Willis?-this reference shows my age, but looks like Mia and Kona are confused about something.

Back to Her Old Self

Last week we took a little jaunt to Seattle. The above is a pic of Mia at Seattle Center eyeing Mama's Starbucks Coffee. I much prefer Peets Coffee, but when in Rome...

Papa had a business trip and we decided to tag along for the ride. Mia eagerly anticipated her trip. We told her we were going on an airplane to Seattle. Then we would list all the friends she would see. Eventually we could have a conversation of sorts with Mia about our upcoming trip. They went like this:

Mama/Papa: We're going on an airplane. Where are we going?
Mia: Se-a-tul
Mama/Papa: Who are we going to see?
Mia: Poppy
Mama/Papa: Who else?
Mia: Maddie
Mama/Papa: And...
Mia: Baby AJ
and on and on and on.

We had a great time in Seattle. Mia got to spend lots of quality time with her friends, visited her old hood and haunts, saw the holiday sights, took in a museum (children's museum) and mainly had a ball everywhere she went. Thank you to everyone who made the time to hang out, host us, and play with us. It was great to see everyone at church too! When we came home, Mia asked for "more Seattle."

The very next day, Mia developed a high fever. She had a low grade fever the day we left Seattle, but it went up to 104.9 the next day and we were so worried. We thought it was a UTI, but turned out to be a Roseola. We spent most of the rest of the week holed up at home with a clingy and cranky creature, but she is finally back to her old spunky toddler self.

Advent = Happy Birthday to Mia

Being the first Sunday of Advent, we began our family tradition of lighting an Advent candle on our Nativity Set after dinner. We read from our Advent devotional, sang Away in a Manger and lit the purple candle. Then it was time for Mia to go to bed and we told her she could blow out the candle. She tried, but couldn't quite extinguish it with her breath. Once we blew out the candle, she said, "Happy Birthday". Of course, she is right, we are anticipating the birth of Christ, but we thought it was pretty funny.

Another silly thing that happened this week that I have to share is Mia was trying to put lotion on herself one day. She found a little bottle of hotel lotion in the bathroom drawers while I showered. But she was pretending to put the lotion over her clothes. So I told her in Mandarin that lotion was for her pi fu, but she didn't know that word. But she does know a similar sounding word: pi gu which means butt or bottom. You can guess what transpired next, she started to put the lotion on her butt and then mine. I was laughing so hard.

Care to share silly things your kiddos have done?