Farm in the Zoo

Mom took Mia to the Farm in the Zoo at Lincoln Park last week since she is so loving farm animals lately. She LOVED it and did not want to leave the cows (especially since they kept mooing at her).

17 months

That snuck up on me - Mia turned 17 months last Tuesday! What has she been up to:

• She is obsessed with Old McDonald Had a Farm - she will sing 'eieio' every time she sees a horse, cow, sheep or pig. She points to them appropriately when given a specific animal name- she loves farm animals!
• She gives full arm around the waist hugs now - so cute!
• she had her toes painted for the first time last week and was so excited - she kept pointing to them saying "tooes" and "ohh ohh"
• She loves her dogs, hugs them and climbs on the couch to cuddle them and pet them...screams "dog dog" when they want to go out or come in or when she sees any dog!
  
• LOVES water, enjoys her tot swim and when we ask her if she wants to take a bath, she will immediately go upstairs and gets upset if her bath isn't right away
• Still would prefer to use her hands versus her fork and spoon - but we are working on that
• LOVES pillows - I made her a body pillow for her reading corner and she just loves it...as does she love her blanket and pillow she sleeps with
• Starting to put puzzle pieces back to their matching picture
• Starting to step up right when going up stairs or small steps -- oh boy!
• Claps and says "yahhhhhh" whenever a song is finished (like when Dad sings the ABC's to her)
• Identifies family and friends in photos...I am sure there is more but that is a good list for now
  

It's been a fun month - growing so fast, she gets more cuddly as she gets older and we love it!

Boston

Mia and I had a great visit to South Boston and Connecticut! We stayed with mom's best friend from college, Sara and her family. Mia finally met Owen (5) and Lizzie (3) and loved them both immediately. Sara kept us busy; Thursday we went on a Swan Boat ride and to Frog Pond and went out for Ice Cream6; Friday we drove to CT and had a great visit with Aunt Anna, Kathryn and David - we had lunch on the green, walked and played at a park and had a great visit, on the way home we stopped at Quinnipiac and had dinner at an old hang out, Aunt Chilada's; Saturday we drove out to have a mini college reunion with our old roommates Stacy and Amy and their little ones - it was so great to catch up with the girls and have our little ones play together, later that night Sara and mommy went out to L Street Tavern (where good will hunting was filmed) and to the Playwright. Sunday we spent the day at Faneuil Hall and walked around and shopped, went on a Horse and Carriage ride, went on a carousel ride and played in a neat fountain, Monday we spent the morning at Castle Island before catching our plane home! Mia did great on her first plane trip. Going we had the entire row to ourselves which was great, coming home the flight was packed but we sat next to a nice college student. We are happy to be home but really enjoyed visiting all our old (and new) friends.

secord lake

Dad's sisters rented a house on Secord Lake in Gladwin, MI. Mia liked visiting with Pop pop Cap and dad's side of the family. We were able to take Grandma Victoria out of the nursing home and bring her to the lake for the afternoon. We also celebrated Mia's cousin Christopher's 2nd birthday. Here are some photos from the weekend.

funny girl

top photo: Mia wanting to stay outside everytime we come home. So I let her play a bit before we head in.

bottom photo: Mia trying out all the big girl beds at Ikea. She did this on her own, it was super cute. She kept cuddling up to the pillows and quilts.

Someone in our house has learned how to flush the toliet...pretty funny. Also a new habit is to empty the pantry of food (someone even dumped a box of Quinoa on the floor - that was fun to clean up). Mia refuses to eat with her spoon and fork still but is getting really good at drinking out of a real cup.

Fourth of July

We had a great fourth of July weekend at our summer house in Michigan. Mia fell asleep each time we took her on a pontoon boat ride. She slept right through all the fireworks and m-80's blowing off all around the area! Bosco and Charlie were pretty scared and hid out most evenings. We had a huge BBQ on Saturday and did manage some pool time on Friday (of course Saturday was cloudy and a little chilly). Mia had a blast playing with Grammy, Papo, Uncle Brian and Uncle Kelly. She loved watching the parade go by. It was a great weekend, very relaxing and lots of fun!

kids museum

Due to this cold weather (where is summer?) we had to skip pool time today...instead we finally made it over to the Kids Museum in Frankfort. What a great museum! Tons of hands on stuff for the kiddos - a music corner filled with lots of noisy thing, books, puppet theater, bean and rock tables, building blocks, a Tot area for peanuts under 2 (which Mia loved) reptiles to look at, art center, play doh, shapes, a giantic magnetic toy, trains...it was great! We will be back to visit lots more! She loved it!!

Mia playing a bongo, making friends in the book area, laughing at herself in the mirror