Sept, Oct 2010

September
Tooth #12, bottom left molar arrived the first week of September.

Making huge strides in potty training. (sarcasm) Mina sat on the potty for the first time without a diaper and farts. No pee, no poo. Just toot.

Mina discovers peacocks at the Los Angeles Arboretum. She falls instantly in love and calls them pea-ca-cocks.

Grandpoppy came for a visit. Mina had lots of fun with him. Uncle Billy came in town for work so we got to see him as well. Mina impressed Uncle Billy by eating most of his hot link sausage when we were all out to dinner at Zekes BBQ. Mina loves to eat meat.

The following week NanaSue came to visit. Mina was temperamental the whole time, maybe because she was fighting off a cold. Although she was cranky she impressed us all by saying "I love you" on a very tough no-nap day. NanaSue babysat while Mommy + Poppy went to a wedding celebration (post-elopement party). We were gone 3 1/2 hours. Mina cried 1/2 of that time. :( Poor Mina, poor NanaSue.

Mina now has an indoor slide. She really likes slides. Yes, our house looks like a playground now.


October
Coloring is something Mina enjoys quite a bit. She moved from making scratchy lines to loopy circles. On a coloring page of 2 cats she scribbled/colored inside the lines of each cat. I was kinda amazed, she really did color the cats!!

Mina's favorite animals (other than Captain Henry) are birds. She pretends to fly, begs to look at pictures of birds on the computer. Mostly peacocks, of course, but she also likes to look at ducks and geese.

Poppy went out of town for a almost an entire week. We missed him. He went to Austin, TX. Mina learned to say that, too. If I asked her where Poppy was that week, she would answer "austintexas." Toddler-speak is so much fun!!!!!! By now she's actually speaking in complete sentences. Pretty cool. She's also been very loving, hugs and kisses and I love you happens often. So often we've had to teach her to ask her friends if they want a hug or kiss first otherwise she'll almost attack them with one! Hugs are sweet, but an unexpected one can knock ya over if you're little.

Another huge stride in potty-training: Mina peed in her potty... 1 droplet of pee.

We started "outside school" at the end of October. It's a mommy-led pre pre-school that we do outdoors. Crafts and books and stuff. Mina enjoys it and so do I. It's something we organized ourselves (the other Mom's and I). Oh, and Mina can now count to 5.

Halloween was fun, of course. Mina had 3 costumes. Yes, 3. The weekend before Halloween she was a Pixie/Fairie at Descanso Gardens. The Tuesday before Halloween she was a flamingo for a little celebration at the local outdoor mall. The Friday before Halloween she was a peacock. We went to Poppy's work to trick-or-treat. Mina had a great time collecting candy and Poppy taught her to say trick-or-treat. She's not a shy as she used to be and had no problem asking strangers for treats (as long as Mommy or Poppy was right next to her). She was a peacock again on Halloween. We went to our friends house for a little party. 3 toddler girls and their parents.

Big big news!! Mina slept through the entire night in her own bed without waking up. 9pm to 6am. It was like a gift. We're still nursing to sleep and back to sleep when she wakes in the night. She sleeps in her own bed, coming into our bed sometimes in the early morning...

July, August

SO MUCH, SO FAST!! and so damn cute
Yikes... Starting with a few words here and there, then up to a few new words a day, Mina has begun to really talk. We tried to track them as they came tumbling out...



July

Mina announces when she makes a peepee. Can identify the colors red, purple, green and blue. Asks for yogurt by requesting "baby" because there is a baby on the organic plain yogurt for babies. Begins to call us by pet names: Poppy Titi and Mommy Nini. Calls herself Mimi. She starts to really play with her toy dolls/animals by wiping their butts and putting them to sleep.



The big move into The Big Girl Bed (right next to Mommy + Poppy's bed).



Words: henry, ice, happy, poppy, baby, bowl, spoon, eat, oatmeal, mommy, meow, moon (and pointed to it), who (points to owl), moo (points to cow), cold, flag, animal, pet, tea, bean, book, goat, car, cut, crow, food, shoes, socks, blueberry, popsicle, hop, cup, dirt,

Teeth #'s 8, 9 and 10. Molars - ouch. Tooth #11, front left bottom.

We went to a wedding. Mina was super cute.



August


The first week of the month Mina has a high fever for a few days followed by a rash... she got roseola. :( At the end of the month she has a tummy bug, vomit and diarrhea.



Words: cold, hot, cracker, box, teeth, cheese, "abcd", toes, water, faucet, have its.... At this point we can't seem to catch them and journal them fast enough. She's talking. A lot. :)




Now she strings words together... the first being "happy bowl strawberry". The following week she recounts her day for Poppy "eat Esme house. apple. cookie." Mina-speak is adorable. "Purple ducks" could mean either polka dots or porcupine.

Mina is also becoming more independent and adventuresome... She slid down the slide by herself this month while playing with Poppy at her favorite park, Big Turtle Park. She has started to ask to go to this park in a combo sign language/word sort of way. Big slurp park. (slurp = sign for turtle)



She can identify and say most of the colors now as well as the letters A, B and C.

May, June 2010

May

May began with a visit to the pediatrician for Mina's 15 month well-baby visit. She is still in the 85th - 90th percentiles for her height, weight and head circumference. She had a DTaP vaccine and was feverish for about 5 days afterwards. Not sure if it was related to the vax since she had a slight fever of 100 when we were at the office. In retrospect we probably should have waited to do the vaccine, but we thought the fever was just teething-related and very minor.



Mina has begun to experience frustration. She either has trouble doing things by herself, or she doesn't want to do something we want her to do. This frustration usually escalates into a tantrum. Luckily she is starting to speak up. Words are coming out... interesting ones, too. Soup, scissors and broccoli.
Gram came for a visit. Mina had a wonderful time with her. We think Gram had fun, too.



The petting zoo at our local farmers market is a favorite past time for Little Miss Mina. She was a bit nervous at first, but quickly became comfortable with all the little animals. Oh, it's a small animal petting zoo. So cute!


Lots of time socializing with friends at Descanso Gardens, Mothersong and random parks.

June
Lots of words! Butt, pee-pee, baby, down, apple, bye-bye, strawberry, sock, please, Poppy, purple, foot, up, octopus, cookie. Her sign language vocabulary has grown as well. So exciting!!
Mina has started to tell us when she has a wet diaper!
Tooth #7, bottom right in front.
Chest cold that lasted almost an entire week. :(

March, April 2010

More...
More willful, more emotional, more social and more teeth!!



Mina's personality is emerging, she's quite a thoughtful and nurturing girl. She loves to kiss, hug and feed others, her friends as well as Mommy and Poppy. A silly sense of humor is developing, too! She is still fairly quiet, but a few words come out now and then. We expect her to start really talking some time soon.



Her appetite for solid food has increased. She absolutely loves broccoli, yogurt and strawberries and has been known to enjoy a pickle or vinegary cucumber. :)



March:

Mina really started to come out of her shell this month, enjoying herself and participating more at the library story hour as well as at Mothersong, our two regular organized activities. She's made a few new friends, too.



Some pretty big emotional outbursts this month pave the way for tantrums. Lots of babbling and experimenting with words as well as a surge in sign language!



For Vernal Equinox we planted some seeds in our garden. Mina enjoys watering her garden daily and watching the sprouts emerge. Visiting her backyard Fairy Garden is one of her favorite things to do. We spend quite a bit of time at Descanso Gardens. Mina loves to smell flowers and herbs (she pinches leaves to smell them) and look at the koi in the ponds.



April:

The month began with Mina's first official tantrum and a sudden fear of the bathtub. The tantrums are almost cliche - flat on her tummy pushing backwards while kicking her feet and, of course, screaming. Luckily they are not frequent. The bathtub fear was a surprising bummer, but Mina is slowly getting over her fear and learning to love bathtime again. Although baths are a challenge, washing hands is not. Mina loves washing her hands!!



NanaSue was here with us for a week and Mina loved having the extra attention. Although she was teething and not feeling her best, Mina had a fun Easter hunting for eggs that Poppy hid in her Fairy Garden. She had a blast one day playing with the hose in the Fairy Garden with Mommy and NanaSue.



Two teeth emerged this month, #'s 5 & 6 (top front). Teething sucks. :(



Mina likes to sit in a chair like a grown up. She also likes to climb all over stuff like a monkey. And have tea parties with her new tea set and play dress up (such a girl). Reading is still fun. So is her play kitchen.



Mina went to her first wedding... a traditional Hindu Indian wedding. She had fun looking at all the pretty outfits and enjoying curry samosa sandwiches!



All in all Little Miss Mina is doing great and keeping us on our toes. We couldn't be happier (or more exhausted).

Jan, Feb 2010

Stable on her feet now, Mina walks everywhere she can. It's a mixed blessing. We've been venturing out more often visiting local parks and playgrounds. Mina loves to look at the big girls, especially ones that are really girly with pigtails or fancy outfits. She's still pretty shy, but has a few friends her own age that she's comfortable with. In January we started going to a music/singalong group called Mothersong. Some days Mina is social and really enjoys herself, other days it's a bit overwhelming and she clings to Mommy. The unfortunate part of being out and more social is that Mina is exposed to cooties from the other kids. She had a little cold in January, mostly just a runny nose and some sneezing.


January 2010

Mina is still a good reader and will now point to and say "cat" when she sees one in a book! Funny, about cats - Mina will wave hello to Mommy, Poppy or any cat. That's it.



Front tooth #2 made it's long-anticipated appearance this month. So cute. A few days after that Mina took the initiative, grabbed a baby spoon and started feeding herself while we were all eating dinner. While she prefers to eat off of Mommy or Poppy's plate, she has ordered her own entree while dining out... steamed brown rice!

Mina feeds herself! from Greg Wiatroski on Vimeo.

Mina's First Birthday

To celebrate this momentous occasion we took a mini-vacation to Disneyland, staying overnight at The Grand Californian. (Mommy & Poppy love this hotel) We arrived at The Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon, checked into the hotel and then headed towards the park. By the time we got to Main Street it was dark and beautifully lit up. Mina loved it. We got her Micky Mouse ears and a light up balloon. It's a Small World was the first ride we went on and she seemed to enjoy it, but the next ride was her favorite. The Carousel! After that we went on The Pirates of the Caribbean and Mina dozed off.



The next morning, Mina's official Birthday, we had brunch at Storytellers Cafe in the hotel. There were characters at the restaurant, Dale (of Chip and Dale) along with a lion and gorilla (who's names I don't know). Mina was scared at first because the gorilla sort of took her by surprise, but in the end she was entertained by them and even touched the lion's nose. Mina's birthday cake was a vegan cupcake sweetened with agave. She didn't eat any of it herself but had fun feeding it to Mommy and Poppy. After brunch we headed back to the park, played in Toon Town and then went on the Haunted Mansion. While walking around trying to decide what to do next Mina fell asleep. So we left.



February 2010

12 month Well-Baby visit was good. All is well. Mina got a DTaP vaccine.

Height - 30.5" 90th percentile
Weight - 23.1 lbs. 85th percentile
Head - ? 80th percentile (oopsie, forgot to write it in my journal)

Valentine's Day we spent at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It was nice but really crowded. We walked around Long Beach and had lunch at George's Greek Tavern on Pine St. Mina wowed our waitress and ate tons of pita bread. Mina has really developed a fondness for bread, her favorite being Armenian bread from our local breakfast spot Foxy's.



Luckily Mina's getting better at eating food, although she still nurses quite a bit. We've decided to continue breastfeeding until she's 2, as recommended by the World Health Organization.



Being outdoors makes Mina very happy, and even though it's been a wet winter here in SoCal she has still been able to spend lots of time outside. Our backyard is uphill with terraces and steps. She loves to walk up the steps (assisted by Mommy or Poppy) and check things out. There are lavender and rosemary bushes along with succulents and beautiful trees and vines. Mommy taught Mina how to pinch the lavender leaves to release the lovely scent, but of course Mina pinches the leaves of any plant to see if it smells. We took Mina to Descanso Gardens for a Fairy Tour, which was magical and fun.



Mina now takes regular walks in the neighborhood... walking herself while holding hands with Mommy and/or Poppy. She's really good at holding hands, hopefully that will last for a long time. What hopefully won't last is her obsession with closing doors! Oh, and sign language is coming along. She uses the sign for "light" herself and understands many of the signs that we use when communicating with her. Speaking of communication, Mina has been letting us know when she needs a diaper change. It's truly remarkable. She will either fidget and touch her diaper or actually get either the changing pad or the wipes to let us know she needs to be changed! She is also quite helpful around the house. When mommy sweeps up, Mina likes to get in on the action...



Finally, our darling daughter can also tell people how old she is by holding up her finger. Yes... it looks like she's pointing at something, but it's actually one finger meaning the number one. Really. She's quite consistent. :)