Ouch!!!

Ah yes. Another 'milestone' of sorts reached. Mika bit me last night!! Hard! Drew blood through my t-shirt! She and I were in the final wind-down stage of the nightly routine. Mika was mostly asleep with her head resting on my shoulder as I rocked her back and forth. She nuzzled her head into my shoulder/armpit as she often does, but this time chomped down. She caught the bit of flesh that's on the top underside of the arm, almost the in the pit. I yelped. She cried because I yelped. I realized what happened, told her that was unacceptable behavior, and put her down in her crib. Mika freaked for about 4 minutes and then was out cold. Until she woke a few hours later for a change and drink, I felt completely horrid that my baby girl had fallen asleep while upset.
I hope that this does not become a 'thing' - the whole biting incident. A few of the folks at work were recently talking about toddler behavior and the general consensus in the lunchroom was that if your child bites you, you should bite them back to show them what it is like. I don't agree with that, despite the stories I heard about how various kids were instantly cured of their biting behavior by such an action. I think Mika is still a bit young to really make that connection. Even if she isn't, I still don't want to bite her back if she bites me! There must be a better way. Any suggestions, interweb?

The weekend was too short again. I was in and out of the office on both days getting new backup hardware and software installed. But I now have an 8 tape autoloader! Woot! And real software to use instead of ntbackup! Woot woot! Daddy and Mika went and had a visit with G on Saturday while I worked. Auntie Kerry and Uncle Damon came over later to drop off Mika's Princess Bath Cape - beautiful! Mika was already asleep when they dropped in though, so no fun this time for the Kanator with her Auntie and Uncle. Sunday was a nice lazy morning, a couple of afternoon hours spent at the office, a bit of grocery and other supply (cat food) shopping, and back home. Twas too cold for much else. Meh. This minus double digit weather can go away anytime now. Leo is rising - spring should be upon us! (Thanks Daddy)

Step Right Up

When Daddy picked up Mika from daycare today, one of her teachers told him that she took 5 unassisted steps out of the blue. Mika was standing and just turned around and took 5 steps all on her wee own. We don't know if she was standing unassisted somewhere or pulled up to a cubby or table or walker or something. We also don't know if she took 5 steps *to* something or stumbled and fell. And if she fell whether it was on her butt or front. Or what may have been going on in the environment that inspired her to go for it. And on and on it goes because I want to know every tiny detail about how it happened, but can't. These are the things that are causing me no small amount of anxiety right now. I'm so proud of Mika for walking, yet feel down that these things are happening without Daddy or myself present.

In any case, yay Mika!! She's well on her way to becoming a Supreme Terror instead of just a Terror.

"First steps" milestone passed at 1yr 4 days old.

Balloon Lover

DaddyScoping
Originally uploaded by MamaT.

See the photo description for an explanation as to the title of this post.

Mika's party went off well. Mostly everyone invited showed up, a few that hadn't been too, and it seemed like people had a good time. Mika was selectively digging the attention being lavished upon her and showing off with her walker. She wouldn't let me touch her hair, but was good about letting Kerry do it for her. I guess Mika has decided that she needs 'people' now or something....she is *1* after all.
There were the inevitable cliques of people: my family, Daddy's family, and friends. Though people seemed to mingle well too, from what I could tell. G was parked in the middle and was able to catch up with everyone in turn. There seemed to be someone at her side, holding her hand, and talking with her the entire time. Yay G! Hopefully we'll be back in that party room in April for her 104th. I basically woke up on Mika's birthday, blinked, and the day was done. I barely got any photos, didn't really talk to anyone at the party, bleh. Ah well. Daddy shot some video and I prefer visits in smaller groups anyway. There were about 35-40 people in attendance, which is good because we had a 40 person capacity/limit. Special thanks to Damon, Kerry, and Nana for helping setup/teardown. Thanks to everyone for showing up! And thanks to everyone for spoiling Mika rotten with gifts. She received everything imaginable including a ruffle bottomed long sweater made by Kris (and star trek shoes! to match Saoirse! Woot!) and a princess bath cape made just for her by Kerry's neighbor Tannis. You know, for those ultimate baby diva days when OTR just will not do. The things that people can craft amaze me. And thanks to Josh and Kira for bringing Mika's new friends Ava and Evan to meet her. And most importantly, thank you Mika for giving us the best year (so far) of our lives.

Happy 1st Birthday, Mika!

woooot! We made it! Happy Birthday, my sweet little nugget of love!

Daddy was up at 4:30AM this morning giving you a bottle and a quick diaper change, then you slept in until 7! Mama was dead tired, so I let you babble in your crib while I caught 15 more minutes of sleep. Then we got up and its been happy fun playtime ever since. We let Daddy sleep until around 8:30, then you could stand no more and had to find Daddy. All morning as we played and had breakfast, it was "Dada? Dada. DADA!" until we woke him. Now its time to wind down and nap...more after the party!

Happy 52 Week Birthday, Mika!!

Well Mika, this post marks the end of your mother tracking your age in weeks. You're a year old now - time for me to track your age in months instead of weeks. Your skills are increasing daily - maybe even hourly, I don't quite know. You are bending over to pick things up without falling, pointing to the correct parts of your face when asked, say, where your nose is or eyes are, talking up a storm, going down the stairs (with assistance) as well as up, whipping around with your walker, having fewer tantrums, getting better at being around groups of people and not making strange as much, bookmarking your fave pages in Firefox on Daddy's laptop, using a trackball better than I can, and on and on it goes. It's just wild! You have not watched TV since being in daycare. I guess I was the weakest link in that chain - letting you watch star trek with me in the afternoons and such. Oh, and I'm pleased to report that we have successfully avoided McDonald's in any way, shape, or form during your first year of life. We hope to keep it this way, but that remains to be seen. Fast food for you means a jar of premade baby food.

We'll have a busy evening tonight getting ready for your party tomorrow, but we'll try to stick to your routine as much as possible so that you're well rested for your big day tomorrow.

And I need to go and get some work done so that I can see about possibly leaving early to pick up supplies so that we can minimize the disruption to your evening schedule.

Wow...52 weeks and we didn't drop her once! This parenting thing is a breeze - during the first year, anyway....

Long Tall Mika

Mika had her 12 month checkup today and it was awesome. She's in the 50th %tile for weight, 95th for height. She has an average head size. Mika impressed the doc with her fine motor skills and chattiness. I've been told to swap out the formula with whole milk. I was hoping to avoid the cows milk thing and go for a soy option instead, but the doc was quite insistent that Mika specifically have the dairy fat because she's so thin. So be it. According to the doc, Mika eats well. She laughed at my frustration over Mika refusing to eat anything but yogurt for supper at least three nights a week.

The next two days will be spent between work and the mad panic of getting things ready for Mika's birthday on Saturday. My terror of tiny town.

Update: Mika weighs 19 lbs, 3 oz. and is 38 and 3/4 inches long!

Update2: I checked again and the doc definitely told me 38 and 3/4, but I am thinking she goofed and Mika is more like 28 and 3/4 inches...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mika hasn't been crying about daycare at all this week. Tear free drop offs! Daddy forgot formula this morning and had to make a quick run back. When he returned 15 mins later, he peeked in at Mika and she was seated at a table with her little boyfriend Sam having a tea party of sorts. Sam looked up at Daddy and grinned while Mika just have him the curious "What the deuce?" look. He left. All was well. Yesterday's observance was a little less cute. At pickup time, Daddy peeked in to see two clusters of kids together while Mika sat off to the side alone and perfectly content. He said that all the kids seemed to be more or less focused on the teacher anyway. Still. Maybe it's genetic or something - the loner thing.
I had no clue that the parents of children Mika's age did the whole valentine card xchange, yet she arrived at the office to pick me up with her little yarn-handled paper bag full of valentines! It would appear that they gave Mika a green felt pen and let her go wild decorating said bag too. (I'm impressed that I didn't see a trace of marker on her person whatsoever.) On one side, it looks like maybe a rodent of some sort, but pikachu style or maybe it is, in fact, some hearts. The artist isn't willing to talk about the piece. She simply grins and shoves it in your face or raises it in the air triumphantly. In any case, it's a pleasant milestone of sorts - Mika bringing home her first arts and crafts project. Though it happened earlier than I would have expected if I had ever given any thought to it before today...:)
In talking about the whole valentine card thing to Daddy, he said he may have seen something of a list of kids' names available to parents, but paid no attention to it. I hope we haven't committed some kind of daycare faux pas, but seriously! Shouldn't she at least be able to recognize or identify or maybe even print letters of the alphabet and maybe copy names (with help, of course) before she's handing out valentine cards? Meh. Ignorance of daycare etiquette is my excuse and I'm sticking to it. GruntRantRoar.
(Yeah, I counted. She got 15 valentines!)

We're going that way

We're going that way
Originally uploaded by DaddyR.

Yay sunny weekend weather!

Happy 51 Week Birthday, Mika!

Apparently, you had a good day. There were no tears at daycare this morning and you were all smiles when you and Daddy came up to the office after work. This may have something to do with seeing Jaclyn and Katie sitting there in all their teenage glory. Jaclyn has bleached what little hair there was on her head and coloured in black leopard spots - in addition to the classic chelsea fringe. You do love your punks, Mika. You also came very close to walking on your own after we got home. You let go of one of my hands and almost released the other in your mad dash to the play area. Maybe tomorrow?
**
Mika did not seem to love meeting her Uncle Martin yesterday though. As the large imposing figure grew closer to her highchair, the look of sheer terror erupted into a mini meltdown the likes of which we have not seen in quite some time. Martin offered up his jewelry in an attempt to appease Shrieka. She took but a single cursory grab at each the necklace and bracelet in succession and resumed the freaking out. Nonetheless, we were about to maintain the nightly routine and she was asleep shortly after 6. Phew.

Overdue

Today would have been Mika's 1st Birthday had she not been 9 days late. Whee!!! A year ago today I lay beached on my bed wondering if Mika would emerge before Valentine's Day.

Bite

Have I mentioned that Mika has at least 3 teeth coming in right now? She won't let me near her mouth - I have to catch glimpses when I can. I've definitely counted 2 bottom and 1 upper.

Happy 50 Week Birthday, Mika!

Oh, little girl. It was a long night last night and we all wanted to stay in bed this morning. Alas, Mama and Daddy are working chumps, so you're already on your way to the daycare for the day. I have a feeling that we'll all collapse early tonight.