Mia's First Haircut

Mommy's going to cut my lock in the middle...it's too long!

Mommy, No! That's my long lock!

Hey, that wasn't so bad...and now I can see without that lock in my eyes! Thanks Mommy!

Here's my lock!

Baby Legs!

When we visited the Santa Barbara Sturms, there daughter had leg warmers and I couldn't resist, so I got Mia some the other day and here's a picture of her oh so cute baby legs!

We are back to 19 pounds! Yay! Please continue to pray for Mia's weight gain and head growth, we just know that God can shape her head perfectly, if that's His desire, without surgery. We continue to be so pleased at her progress, so thank you for always praying!

Mia appears to have survived her immunization without any seizures or fever for that matter, we are grateful, thank you for praying for her! She did manage to catch a little cold though, maybe her body was fighting the immunization and forgot about other germs? We're praying for a quick recovery from that. Her appetite has greatly diminished since the shot, so I wasn't surprised when I weighed her this morning and she's dipped back down to 18 pounds 15 ounces. :( So pray that her appetite would pick up and she'd regain that weight back...we just work so hard for those ounces that we don't like to lose any...(most people would love that problem huh?!)

Mia learned how to wave bye bye the other day, the Italian way, she's so smart! We'll have to get it on video because I just can't explain it. And another cute thing she does is kiss her toys, we'll ask her to kiss Junior Asparagus and she'll bring him to her lips. She loves giving kisses by the way, we exploit those as much as we can. We know that will change one day!

And we've started putting toys on the couch for her to play with, she doesn't pull up yet, but she is getting so much better at standing, we know it will happen soon (although Grandma Cheri did witness Mia pulling up from sitting to her little table twice), we just haven't seen it yet. ;) Figures Mia would show off for her Grandma, huh?!

So far Mia hasn't had any reactions to her shot, Thank You Lord! Please continue to pray that she wouldn't get a fever in the next couple of days and that she'd also not get any seizures.

She's been hovering around 19 pounds 3 ounces, so that makes me think that last month was a growth spurt for her, but we'll take the weight gain however it comes!

Please continue to pray for her head shape, both Brad and I continue to see it improve, pray specifically that the front would come forward and that the ridge would go away completely.

Still no crawling or walking, but we continue to see her getting stronger and look forward to the day she'll be moving and grooving. :)

Pray for Mia today, she got another immunization this morning. One of the ones she got is known for potentially causing seizures. Usually if it happens it will be within 1-3 days from when she got the shot. Please pray she wouldn't have any adverse reactions. I will keep you updated on how she does.

Since you've been gone

Mommy, while you were out, Daddy fed me lunch. He kept saying "eat it or wear it". I think you can see which one I chose. Hurry home! Love, Mia

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Dearest Daddy,

I love you sooooooo much. You are the best Daddy ever! I wanted you to know how much I love you on your birthday and every day. I love how you always make me laugh, you say funny things and that's great. I actually like the pickles (hiccups), don't tell Mommy because she doesn't like it when you give them to me, but it's ok with me, you can keep doing that...I only get them when I laugh real hard and I love it when you make me laugh! I wore this shirt today because it's true, you are the handsomest Daddy ever! I hope you have a great birthday...and I hope I get lots of head kisses.

Love,
Your Sweet Pea,
Mia

Mia wants to taste daddy's granola bar!

"Hey, these things on my feet aren't so bad..."
It has taken awhile for Mia to get used to shoes...she would cry horribly when I tried to put shoes on her, now though she'll tolerate it and is learning that they aren't so bad.

Mia got her helmet adjusted today and we are very excited that her head keeps growing, praise God! We had a safe trip there and back, the pass over the mountains was completely clear, so it was smooth sailing the entire way. I'm very excited that we don't have any more LA doctor visits this month!

Mia also put on some more weight, she's now 19 pounds 3 ounces, we continue to pray for weight gain because we know that's going to help her head continue to grow. Mia also started to say "Bah Bah Bah" again, which we feel is a direct answer to prayer, please continue to pray for more sounds and words.

Mia's First Vacation

This weekend we went to Santa Barbara on vacation. This was Mia's first vacation. Oh, we've been away from home before and spent the night at other places also, but never for fun, it's always for a doctor's visit. So, this was fun for us.

About 4 months ago, I was searching on the web for Mia Sturm, just to see what was out there and another blog showed up with another Mia Sturm...you can imagine my awe (what a great choice for a name!)...and the family lived in California...Santa Barbara at that. Well, I sent them a message and we started talking...there was no relation, but we found out they were believers also and they started praying for our Mia! About a week ago, Chrystal left me a comment and asked if we wanted to come stay at their home while they went away for the weekend...and that's what happened, we went to stay at the Santa Barbara Sturm's home!

It was such a nice time, we walked down by the beach on the wharf one day, Mia loved having me help her chase the birds. If it was an animal, she was excited. There were some dogs on the wharf and she couldn't get enough of them. We spent yesterday going to Reality Church (the Santa Barbara Sturm's church) and then we went to the zoo in the afternoon. That was alot of fun also, Mia loved the Lemurs and the Penguins and the Giraffes...Daddy loved the Capybara, although he wouldn't turn around and only showed us his bum. And then last night we got to finally meet the family we were staying with. Mia and Mia face to face, it was really cute. Their Mia is actually short for Mianna, but it was neat to say Mia and have them both look at you! We had such a nice visit with them that evening, it was like hanging out with old friends, thank you Santa Barbara Sturms!!!! We had a great time!

Before we left this morning, we got some pictures of the two Mia's. And then we were off, but not before we had a yummy pancake breakfast on the beach! By the time we were driving home it was raining over the grapevine and there was so much snow on top, it was neat. We were glad to be home and safe...

Pray for us tomorrow, I am supposed to take Mia to LA to get her helmet adjusted. We'll see how the weather is though, I won't be going if the grapevine is closed or it doesn't look promising.

More Vacation Pictures

19 pounds 1 ounce, woohoo!

Mia continues to do real well. She just started a very rudimentary scooch. She can only go an inch at a time, but it does get her to toys that are out of reach in front of her. She'll get real frustrated though, but we make her work at it, we know this is just one step closer to crawling.

My mom said to put her on the tile floor and see what happens...she doesn't like being on the tile, it's so cold and hard, but she can push up on her arms and move backwards. She doesn't use her legs, but she does get places! Even if it is in the backwards direction. It's definitely helping with her arm strength!

Please continue to pray for her to crawl and walk! One of these days I'll post some pictures, but we are in waiting of a cardreader, so we haven't put the pictures from the camera onto the computer yet...soon though!

Shadow or No Shadow?

Can you believe that it is already February! Wow, that is amazing. It's hard to believe that about 2 months ago Mia had heart surgery...aside from the scar, you wouldn't know it had happened that short bit of time ago. It's amazing how the body can heal so quickly!

Mia continues to put on weight...yesterday she topped in at 18 pounds 12 ounces...that's 1 pounds 12 ounces just for the month of January, Praise God! 20 pounds, here we come.

Today we were blessed to visit the Prime Timers at our church, it is a group of believers who are at the grandparent age, some might even be great grandparents. :) So, we brought Mia to visit them today and it was neat to share with them and for them to see the little girl they are so faithful to pray for! It was such an encouraging time and we are truly grateful for each of them!