more pre-birthday moments

For the first time ever, we attempted to babysit with Mila in tow. This is Ivy, who is a week older than Mila.

It went much better than expected!

Here is Austin reading them a story.. they loved it until I tried to take a picture.

Mila LOVES looking out the front window while waiting for her daddy to come home from school.

Thankfully, there are only two days left and then we can enjoy a month until the fall semester starts!

Speaking of the fall semester...

I FINALLY got assigned a literature course!

It was a bit last minute so we were not able to plan our scheduled accordingly.

This means that, for the first time since Mila was born, our schedules overlap.

Daycare is a bit too expensive and not as flexible as we need but I also don't want to inconvenience any of my peers three days a week.

So, we decided to hire a nanny (a babysitter, really, but I think nanny sounds fancier).

We found a girl who is wonderful and fits everything I was looking for:

friendly, responsible, trained, CPR certified, in early education, and flexible with her schedule!

She will be watching Mila in my office on campus but also at our house sometimes so I can get work done.

I can't wait to have some time during the day to write my dissertation!

This is going to be a real life saver!

Mila is ONE!!!

I seriously cannot believe it, but Mila is now ONE!

It seems like she was just born yesterday. Yet, at the same time, I feel like I have known her my whole life.

Her actual birthday was pretty mellow:

birthday pancake for the family, swinging outside, reading books, opening presents and playing with all of her new toys, dinner out with her mama and daddy, and then a delicious strawberry cupcake.

Mila chats a bit nowadays, saying words like:

ball, hi, mama, and dada (though this is more of a "daya")

She crawls all over the place and is VERY interested in playing with the dog food.

She wants to hold it, pour it out of the bowl, eat it, feed it to the dogs, put her hand in the bowl, etc.

She gets faster with crawling every day and is getting harder to keep up with.  She cruises all over the furniture and gets into just about everything.

She is also starting to try to crawl on her feet rather than her knees.

She has more teeth than we can keep up with: four on the bottom, at least three up top, two molars, and a third molar coming in.

Mila loves: 

yogurt, cheese, crackers, peas, her baby dolls, dog food, watching her Baby Signing Time videos, dancing, getting tickled, blowing raspberries on her mama's legs, sunglasses, splashing in the bath, swinging, exploring outside, and her very most favorite thing is having Austin sneak up on her and scare her. She LOVES it and squeals with anticipation. She will also crawl to the end of the hall and wait for him to chase her. So cute.

Mila doesn't love:

getting out of the bath, when people don't share their food with her... not too much else.

We will be headed to San Diego next week for her birthday party and to celebrate with family and friends.

We will also be taking her to the zoo and the beach, which I can't wait for!

Mila's 1st Fourth of July

Happy (belated) Fourth of July!

We spent most of the day lazing about in the back yard and then later had a BBQ with some friends. 

Mila is wearing an outfit that my friend Erin generously passed down from her stylish twins 

On July 1st, Mila (finally) started crawling!!! 

I was so excited that I started crying as she pulled herself around our bedroom to get into mischief.

Her style of crawling is certainly unique:

one leg is propped up in a squat, as though she wants to stand,

and the other is tucked in and pulled along like dead weight.

She switches which leg she drags, just to mix it up.

 Fernando had a pretty good time, until the fireworks started and then he was completely terrified, as per usual.

But look at that noble steed. So handsome. So wise.

 Mila was pulling on his face.

 And then immediately felt bad and tried to make amends.

He would have none of it.

He is a man of principle. 

 It was Lulu's first Fourth with us

She had fun until people came over

then we learned that crowds make her nervous and fireworks are absolutely terrifying.

Let's focus on her good time face instead of thinking about her later torment.

 Mila LOVED (despite this face) fireworks!

She watched them the whole time, pointed, and ooh-ed as each one went off.

She then slowly fell asleep in my lap.

It was pretty cool to be up on that hill this year and reflect.

Austin and I went to watch fireworks there with friends when we had only been dating for a month or so.

Then, we watched from the same hill the next year when I was VERY pregnant and only had a few weeks left until we would meet our baby.

And this year, we watched with our precious girl in tow.

What will next year bring? It's exciting to think about!

a little blurry, but you get the idea