Christmas comes early this year for Mio — because we’re going to Virginia for Christmas and can’t really bring all her Christmas presents with her to open under the tree, we’ve been opening them early and letting her play with them. Defies all the rules of Christmas gifts, right? It’s mostly because we (Dan and I, as well as both sets of grandparents) can’t wait to see her playing with her new toys!
One of her favorite new toys is the activity table that Dan’s parents got her! They brought it over last week, and she stands up next to it and plays on it all day long!
The table features a toy piano keyboard, “storybook”, phone, and laptop!
Her favorite part of it is the laptop — she loves opening and closing the lid! ::sigh:: Probably as a result of seeing her parents glued to their own computers.
Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! Mio loves the toy table!!! π
As mentioned last week in Mio’s 8-month update, our baby girl has been practicing self-feeding with finger foods! We started her out with Happy Baby’s Organic Puffs a couple weeks ago — we thought it was a healthier alternative to the Gerber Graduates Puffs, which are popular in starting babies on finger foods. They’re organic and have less sugar content than Gerber’s puffs, and apparently still taste as good! To be extra healthy, we started Mio on the greens puffs, which contains spinach, collard greens and kale, before we move onto the sweeter flavors that Happy Baby makes. She’s loved them from Day One! We used to split the puffs in half because although they’re supposed to sort of melt in the mouth, we were still worried about her choking from prematurely swallowing, but now that she’s gotten the hang of it, we give them to her whole. In the beginning, they would get stuck in the palm of her hand and half of them would never make it into her mouth. While her pincer grip is not completely perfected just yet, Mio has learned how to grasp the puff and successfully shove them into her mouth! The funny thing is that whenever we sprinkle some on her high chair tray, she somehow feels like she has to grab them all at once, so she attempts to grab them by the handful… and then when we start adding more to the tray while she’s working on getting the ones that are already in her hand into her mouth, she gets frustrated because there’s more than she can handle at once. Not sure where the “Gotta-Catch-’em-All” mentality comes from, but it’s entertaining to watch. It’s okay to take things one puff at a time, Mio….
We’ve also started introducing Japanese baby crackers to her in the past week, too. I picked them up at the local Japanese grocery, and I break them up into little pieces and hand them to her to grab and eat. They also melt in the mouth, and come in vegetable flavors that with little sugar. She has been gobbling them up, too! She definitely enjoys self-feeding with snacks more than when we feed her baby food. Recently, she tries to grab the spoon and bowl of baby food on her own and ends up making a huge mess! Trying to be little Miss Independent already….
Here’s a video of Mio eating her finger foods! (Sorry it’s a little out of focus. I’m not as good as Dan at taking footage with the DSLR….)
…and here are some photos of our messy eater:
In the past couple days, our whole family has come down with a cold. I’m feeling the sickest of the bunch, with a sore throat and head congestion. Dan has been feeling some milder symptoms in the throat, and Mio has a runny nose and is sneezing… her throat also sounds a little hoarse. I’m kicking myself for letting ourselves get sick, especially Mio (since it’s her first time getting sick), and I’m frustrated because I’m pretty certain I know the exact place and person we contracted it from this past weekend. I can’t overdose on cold medicine as I usually do to get better because I’m nursing, so I’ve just been drinking lots of fluids (tea and chicken soup) and gulping down spoonfuls of lemon juice and honey, which has been helping. I hope we all get over this soon… I hate being sick, especially during the holiday season!
Thankfully, Mio still seems pretty energetic and cheerful despite it all. Still crawling and standing up wherever she goes….
I have been a longtime fan of the seasonal holiday gingerbread that Starbucks pulls out every year during this time. It’s a ginger flavored quick bread topped with cream cheese frosting and candied orange peel. I get seduced by it every time I go to Starbucks, but this year I decided to try recreating its heavenly goodness at home, as ordering it at Starbucks every time a craving strikes can get pretty darn expensive! A quick search online turned up this recipe, which is the one I used to make this gingerbread.
Here is the result…
I didn't have candied orange peel, so I used candied ginger instead.
The loaf came out pretty good, although it was definitely more dry than the original Starbucks version that I was trying to replicate. I’m a lover of anything topped with cream cheese frosting, though, so I had no qualms with gobbling it up!
My desk is right next to Mio’s crib, and sometimes when I’m hard-pressed to get some work done and can’t give Mio 100% of my attention, I’ll put her in the crib with some toys so that she doesn’t get into any mischief. Now that she’s able to pull herself up everywhere, she’ll stand up against the side of the crib that is next to my desk, and quietly stare at me for as long as she can keep herself standing up. It’s cutest thing, but so distracting! It’s not long before I find myself saying, “Fiiiiine, I’ll play with you” and swoop her up in my arms.
It tickles me when she rests her chubby cheeks and chin on the rail.
Oh Mio, I love you and couldn’t ignore you if I tried….
Mio has been getting better and better at standing on her own every day. It’s incredible how much she’s progressed in only a week! Check out this video we took of her on Friday night, where she pulls herself up from a sitting to standing position using the Bumbo and lets go for a few seconds, balancing herself to stand up.
We’ve also started introducing Japanese baby crackers to her in the past week, too. I picked them up at the local Japanese grocery, and I break them up into little pieces and hand them to her to grab and eat. They also melt in the mouth, and come in vegetable flavors that with little sugar. She has been gobbling them up, too! She definitely enjoys self-feeding with snacks more than when we feed her baby food. Recently, she tries to grab the spoon and bowl of baby food on her own and ends up making a huge mess! Trying to be little Miss Independent already….
