Mirei is 100 days old today! It seems fortuitous that her 100th day falls on the same day as Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day) and Cinco de Mayo! 🙂 So much to celebrate and be thankful for. We love you baby girl!
For this special day, I dressed her up in this beautiful hybrid yukata/dress that our friend Noriko-san gave us. My mom kept gushing over how cute Mirei looked in it, saying that she looked like a little Japanese girl (well, she kind of is… haha*).
The cutest part of this outfit? The huge bow on the back!
To celebrate, my mom made a delicious sashimi and tempura dinner for the whole family! We didn’t have the traditional okuizome meal, but it was delicious and I ate a lot to ensure that Mirei could enjoy the meal, too! 😉
Mirei with us parents. Mio fell asleep before we could take a photo, so it ended up just being the three of us!
Happy 100th Day, Mirei! We can’t wait to see how you’ll continue to grow.
Our family spent Saturday afternoon at the Taste of Merrifield in the Mosaic District. We love going to the Mosaic District because of the Target there as well as its various shopping offerings and delicious restaurants, so when we heard there was going to be a food festival there along with activities for children, we had to go check it out! 🙂 We’re so glad we did, because we got to enjoy a lot of good food (at pretty affordable prices!) and Mio had a lot of fun at the kids’ section, too!
I got a kick out of the name of this food truck. “Naan Stop” — very clever!
Mio enjoying a free ice pop. It was a really warm day so it was perfect!
Walking hand in hand with Mommy. ♥
Enjoying some tasty sliders from Matchbox.
They had a beer garden there, so Dan of course had to take advantage…
Dan enjoying his beer from Port City Brewing Company.
This beef concoction from Sea Pearl was AMAZING. So tender and it had a jalapeno kick!
Gourmet tacos — one beef brisket and one grilled chicken.
Mio can’t wait to dig in! She didn’t want to look up from the food.
With our tummies full, we moved onto the kids’ activities. Here we are waiting to get Mio’s face painted.
Mirei woke up but quietly waited in her stroller.
It was finally Mio’s turn!
A glittery penguin on Mio’s cheek. The lady did kind of a cruddy job IMHO…
Mio found the Lego building station and went right to work! She LOVES building blocks.
Our little builder!
Mirei and I watching Mio build away.
Mio wanted to stay there forever! We eventually had to tear her away…
Mio got to go on her first pony ride there, too! We asked her if she wanted to use the remaining tickets we had on more food or a pony ride, and she (surprisingly to us) picked the pony ride!
Dan captured some video of the pony ride!
Don’t be jelly, Mirei… You’ll eventually be able to eat delicious food and go on pony rides, too!
It was a really fun day for the whole family! We’re already looking forward to going again next year. 🙂
I’d been a little forgetful/lazy about having Mirei do tummy time compared to when Mio was a baby, but her neck has been pretty strong and stable even since birth! On Friday, I laid her on the floor with the intention of having her do some tummy time, and she surprised us by rolling over for the first time! She was on her back at first, then pretty quickly twisted her body so that she was on her side… and she stayed like that for 10-15 minutes — grunting, twisting, and kicking — until she eventually pushed herself over from her side to her tummy! I was taking a video of her just in case, but I was kind of stunned that she actually did it when she hadn’t really shown signs of trying to roll over until that day. It’s also really interesting that the age at which Mirei rolled over (3 months and 1 week, or 97 days old) is almost exactly the same as when Mio rolled over! (Mio rolled over at just over 3 months as well, at 102 days old)… as if to say, “Gotta keep up with big sister!” Well, Mirei, you successfully broke Mio’s record by a few days!
Here’s the video of the last few minutes of her trying to roll over and succeeding!
We’re so proud of you, sweetheart! ♥
I feel like compared to my experiences with Mio, the second time around, my baby’s growth seems so much faster. It can probably be attributed to the fact that I’m taking care of two kids at once and therefore am a lot busier and can’t really fully immerse myself in enjoying Mirei’s baby days. Milestones creep up faster, and while with Mio I would (sometimes impatiently) wait and look forward to them, with Mirei they sneak themselves in before I know it and I find myself thinking, “Wait, she’s already able to do that?” The pace at which Mirei is reaching milestones has thusfar been pretty similar to Mio, but it just feels so much faster! It’s of course a joy to see her growing well and able to do more, but it’s bittersweet because I feel like she’s growing up too fast and I haven’t been able to take pause and enjoy her babyhood as much as I did with my first child. It’s yet another reminder to really appreciate and savor every day I have with my little girls.
Mirei went to her latest wellness exam on April 24, the day before she turned 3 months old. I wanted to get her in for an exam at closer to 2 months, but because we had gone in to check on a cough at around a month old (which turned out to be nothing to worry about) and I wanted to get Mio and Mirei both scheduled at the same time, the appointment getting booked a lot further down… so it became more like a 3 month old wellness exam. Oh well! The pediatrician said it’s fine, and that we should come in at around 5 months next time instead of the usual 4 months — they seem pretty relaxed about the timing and assured me that the scheduling doesn’t have to be too strict!
The following are Mirei’s latest growth measurements.
Mirei weighed in at 15 lbs 8 oz, which puts her in the 93rd growth percentile based on weight-for-age.
She measured 24.5 inches long, putting her in the 88th percentile for height-for-age.
Mirei’s head size was 16.75 inches, which is in the 99th growth percentile based on head circumference-for-age.
As you can see, she’s really bulked up since the last time we saw the pediatrician, doubling her birth weight. Again, the doctor said she’s “perfect†in her continuing growth, though we never had any doubts that she was healthy! I thought Mio had been a really chubby baby, but Mirei seems to be even a little heavier/chunkier than Mio was at this age.
The tough part about these early doctor’s visits is that they are usually accompanied by immunization shots, and this checkup was no exception. Mirei got four vaccines, one of which was orally given while the other three were administered as shots injected into her thighs. It’s always hard to watch your child crying in pain from the shots, but it’s all for the sake of keeping them healthy and protected. Here’s a video my sister took of Mirei getting her immunizations. (Sidenote: I noticed while watching the video back that one of Mirei’s bandaids had transferred to a really unfortunate location on my shirt! lol. I’m kind of horrified that I had spent the rest of the day unknowingly walking around with that in public…)
Poor baby is tired and teary-eyed from all the crying…
To make up for that sad video, here’s some cute footage of her smiling a few days later!
I’m so behind on blog updates! Mio and Mirei both went in for their wellness exams last week for 3 years old and 3 months old, respectively. They both checked out as healthy and growing within the normal range, but I wanted to post up their growth stats before too much time passed!
Here are the latest measurements in Mio’s growth…
Mio weighed exactly 33 lbs, putting her in the 70th growth percentile based on weight-for-age.
For height, she measured 36.75 inches long, putting her at 23rd percentile for height-for-age. (I’ve been noticing that she’s definitely on the shorter side among her peers. Maybe she has her Mama’s height…)
Mio’s head size was just short of 20 inches at 19.75 inches, which is in the 87th growth percentile based on head circumference-for-age.
During Mio’s appointment, the nurse and doctor asked her a bunch of questions, pointing to things in the room and asking her to identify them (to check on her vocabulary), and asked her to perform some physical tasks such as balancing on one leg and jumping up and down. She was able to complete everything with flying colors!
I know I keep saying this, but Mio is so sweet and fun right now. She can entertain herself for long periods of time playing blocks and working on puzzles, shows such creativity in the things that she builds, and I find her singing to herself a lot lately, too. I’m in awe of all things she’s now able to do! She is also becoming much more interactive and playful with her peers and talks about her friends a lot.
Mio built an “Elephant!”
“Ice cream cone!”
Gal pals Mio & Aubrianna
A new video of her singing the Japanese tulip song:
