6 Months Today!

Hello Everyone!-

Mia is 6 months young today! She is 27 weeks/190 days young! What can we say other than we are eating her up every minute. We were at my mother's house this morning. We went to go get Mia on Friday night. I went last Wednesday because Giacomo left for travel for 2 nights. I worked Thursday and left her with my mother Thursday night. I came back up to Morristown and had a girls night out with some friends. It was so great. When Giacomo came home Friday, we both went down to my parents and winded up staying until Sunday! I was so happy my mother got to spend some quality time with her. When we came home from my mother's we did some things around the house and it was fairly an uneventful day. We took some cute pics of our butterball this morning at my mothers. She is holding her 6 month sign and enjoys trying to eat it as well! I have posted some pics of this.

About our Mia, let's see...she is always changing!! What can I add from my last post....she now reaches for things. She didn't do this much before. She will see something out of reach and try desperately to get those little hands around it. She will lean and do whatever she can. Of course, everything tries to make its way into her mouth. Also, when she is laying on her back, mostly when we are changing her, she pushes off with both legs and works her way on up. She is definitely moving a bit more now. Even when she is in the crib. We always put her on a pillow and she generally stayed there, but now, we find her laying completely perpendicular from the way we put her in. She says "dada" and has added we believe "baba" and "mama" to her repertoire! She loves to sit up all the time now. She gets all excited when she sees children and animals. I took her to my neighbors house in Morristown the other day. They have a 3 year old and a 5 year old. She was so excited to see them. It was amazing, like she knew they were like her. Her legs and arms were going a mile a minute and she was squealing in delight. She also did this when she saw my parents dog, Heidi. We let Heidi lick her and Mia loves it. Mia blinks when she does this and it is so cute. She reaches and loves to touch Heidi. It is so wonderful to watch her now observe and interact with everything. She seems to be starting to hold her hands up when she wants to be picked up. If I hold my hands, she responds with some complaining and her hands in the air. She is not so consistent with this, but it is definitely there. She doesn't really have stranger anxiety yet, however, when she sees somebody she doesn't know, she will gape at them for a while. It's very funny. It's obvious that she recognizes strangers now. My friend Dina came over Saturday to visit me and Mia and she did this to her. Another thing, she is getting harder to change. Diaper, clothes, whatever. She'll kick her legs and it is so hard for me to keep hold of them, she is so strong. I started her on squash today actually. She is eating 3 times a day. I give her rice cereal with a fruit in the AM and then regular rice cereal with a vegetable for lunch and dinner. I have not started meats just yet. According to my pedi, you can start meats at 6 months. I am not through introducing her to all the vegetables, so I guess when I am done with this, I'll start meats. I am in no rush at all. I want her gut to adjust well to new things. I took my time with the fruits and vegetables. I introduce a new thing and keep her on it well over the 5 days just to allow her time to get used to it. I guess I'm a bit paranoid when I think of how she was so sensitive to the formula in her early days and want to go easy on her. She has not had any trouble so far with anything, thank goodness. She loves to eat most of the time. The mouth is open ready for the next spoonful. I have her 6 month pediatrician appt. this coming Tuesday, July 1st. I am sure the doctor give me the OK with meats once she finishes the squash. I am excited to see her current height and weight. I think I mentioned before that we did not have a 5 month visit, so it's been 2 months since I have had an accurate weight and height. She is still very big, I think. So we'll see!

We are going to most likely go to Wildwood this coming weekend for 4th of July weekend. My parents may go as well. This should be nice. I'm working Thursday this week and that is it. I also may go to New Hope this coming Wednesday for a girls day. It will be me, Mia, my mom, my mother in law, my sister in law and her 2 girls. We are in the process of setting it up. I'll let you know how the day goes next post assuming we go. Looking forward to this.

Well, I guess this is all for now. We cannot believe our little peanut is getting so big and is already half a year. It's so funny, in the beginning I wanted her to get big so she would grow out of that colic phase, but now I would be happy if she stayed this age for a long time. Too bad it doesn't work that way. I am just enjoying every moment and capturing as many memories of her as I can. The camera never stops clicking. Every moment is a photo-op! I think this is all for now. If I think of anything else, I'll sign on again. I'll let you all know in my next post Mia's stats!

Hope you are all well! Just in case I do not get on here before the 4th, Happy Fourth of July!!

Oh, that's the other thing...I'm planning on taking professional pics of Mia sometime this week or next. I'll keep you posted. Even as good as my pics are, I still love professional ones. I cannot miss her 6 month birthday. It's a big one.

Talk to you soon.

Love, Mia, Giacomo and Amy :):):) xoxoxoxo

Here are some current pics of Mia from this past weekend with my parents. We put her in a little pool on the 28th. It was her first real "dip". I put her in at my mother in laws little pool, but she didn't last that long. This time, she really had a ball!!

HAPPY 6 MONTHS PEANUT! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Quick Post

We had a nice father's day and a nice time in Wildwood. We left Sunday night as planned and finished the air conditioning and came back Wednesday. Father's day was relaxing and special. Mia gave Giacomo a very special first father's day album with pictures and captions from their first 6 months together as father and daughter. He loved it. We had dinner at Nono Bellomo's house and had dessert and Grandpa Sangiovanni's and then left for Wildwood.

Mia is so damn cute! ha ha...guess I am a bit biased. She is reaching for things so much more now. She is starting to reach for things out of reach now, another milestone. She also seems to be starting to make "demands" for who she wants to hold her. My mother had her yesterday and she starting fussing and leaning in the direction of her other grandmother. When she took her, she stopped fussing. Not sure if this was a coincidence, but I think not. My parents came yesterday morning to spend the weekend at our house, which was so nice. They haven't been here to spend quality time with Mia, so I was happy about this. They came yesterday and we bbq'd. I went for a mani and pedi, lol, and Giacomo went with his parents to go look for a new car. They were successful! My parents babysat for Mia. When Giacomo came back, him and his parents came to our house for dinner. It was a spontaneous get-together, but so nice to have everyone here. Last night Giacomo and I went out in Morristown for some drinks with friend. It was nice to get out. I feel like I totally forget what it is like to go out on a Friday or Saturday anymore. Anyway, that's about it for now. Just a quick update. I'll be sure to write more soon.

Here are some recent pics. Hope you enjoy them.

The Bellomos

Whole Lot of Changing Going On!

Well, boy, did Mia make some major changes these past 2 weeks since her 5 month birthday. She is 5.5 months now and Giacomo, his parents and I, see that Mia is really getting her own personality and doing more things.

Some of it feels difficult to explain on how she has changed. She is just more animated and more coordinated. Her personality has fortified and she has little moody episodes and cranky moments that pass quickly which she really didn't have before. Her hands are quicker and reach for everything that comes in front of her. Of course she did this before, but those little hands are just quicker and overall she is just more observant and alert to every sound she hears and everything/one she sees. She holds both her feet at the same time when she is on her back. This is cute to see. She started this at about 5 months, but now has mastered it. Her babbles started to change about a week after we came back from Provincetown. She has added, "dada" to her repertoire of sounds now, and she sure likes this one. She gets very serious when singing this and repeats it over and over. She sounds like a broken record, but the cutest broken record we have ever heard :) She sits up like a pro now. We do not give her support at all now. I read to her all the time and she is intrigued by Sesame Street and the French cartoons we receive through my French channel. What else....oh, we put her in a little pool I bought for my mother in law the other day. She enjoyed it for the most part. It was the deepest water she has been in, about 1/2 a foot or more and she was fascinated by how her extremities felt moving in the water. I didn't get picture of her in it unfortunatly because I was the one holding her in it and my camera was not accessible at that moment! I'm falling behind! But, we will soon give her another dip, and I will make sure I get some good shots of her pool time.

One other thing I noticed yesteray- I gave Mia a pretzel, just to hold! I was holding her at the time. She was studying it and then I took it away. She began to cry. I don't know if she was a bit cranky and tired at the time, or she is starting to object now if something is taken away from her. This is another milestone. (one I'm not looking forward to!) I am not sure if this was a fluke or she understood that I took it away. I will see soon enough if it happens again! Also, if you leave her in a room alone, she notices right away most of the time and will fuss until she sees a familiar face near her. If she is occupied, she doesn't care and can play now independently for a while. It's so nice. It's only if she actually sees you leave does she do this. She did it to Giacomo yesterday at his mom's house. I wasn't there, but he told be about it later. I was laughing. He couldn't go outside and BBQ because she would cry when he left!

Father's Day is tomorrow and I already gave Giacomo his first father's day gift already! I have no patience! It came in the mail yesterday. I made him a photo book with all pictures of him and Mia from the time she was born until now. Most of the photos have captions under them spoken from Mia's point of view on why she loves her daddy. He was so touched, and it came out beautiful. I was qutie pleased. I wanted to get him something memorable that he could cherish forever. I am excited to show it to Mia someday too. We do not have any special plans tomorrow. My parents may come up to Morristown to visit depending on if my mother has to work or not. If she cannot, it is possible my father will come up alone and spend the day with us. I am happy about this. We will probably go to my in-laws for dinner...yada yada. It should be a very nice day. Also, tomorrow night we are heading down to Wildwood to our beach condo.

Giacomo's cousin Frank who does air conditioning is putting in central air for us. IT NEEDS IT! We are so happy to get this done. Once this is finsished, the condo really is complete. It looks great after all our hard work we put into it last year. I painted the entire thing pregnant! I think we will stay to about Tuesday or Wednesday depending on certain things. I am going too and Mia of course. I hope to find time to take her to the beach with Giacomo and his cousin.

I have been working about 2 days a week. I worked yesterday. I am still loving it. I couldn't ask for better hours and they are so flexible. I work from 9-530! What nurse could ask for better. What I like about it too is the fact that now that I have been through the emotions of giving birth and having a baby, I have a different perspective now when I am helping and talking with my new moms. I am a lactation counselor and will get my certification in lactation to be a lactation consultant if I really like it in the near future. Right now that is on the back burner for me. As soon as I get some time, I'll start studying. I am definitely not worrying about it this summer. I want to enjoy my Mia. I also take ballroom dance lessons! I have been for the past month. I forgot to mention this in my last post. I just wanted a hobby and one that I would love and BOY, do I love it. I take a lesson about 1-2x/week. Giaocmo or his mom watch Mia. I am going to be in competition in November! Yes, I am a dancing witht the stars diva! ha ha When I am there, it relaxes me and I am loving every minute of it. I plan to keep it up.

Enough about me, I guess that is about all for now with Mia. Some things I cannot put into words, but she sure has changed so much these past 2 weeks. I feel like her milestones come in spurts. She has big changes in like a week or two, then not too much, then big changes.

It is so amazing, as always, to see her grow and develop into a person. It's simply the best. The camera NEVER stops. EVERY moment seems to be a photo-op! I have so many great pics! Giacomo just backed up all my digitial pics on my hardrive to this external hardrive he bought not long ago. I feel much more relieved that this is done. It is impossible to make hardcopies of every pic. I'd be broke. At the end of the year, I am going to make an beautiful album celebrating Mia's first year of life. I have been saving pics in files weekly, from the first week she was born. It is a bit tedious, but SO WORTH IT. I can make a album of her in chronolgical order week by week and we can see how she grew every week. It should be really nice. I'll tackly that in the winter, after her 1st birthday.

One more thing, we started apples about a week ago. I feed her a fruit and her rice cereal together. I bought the rice cereal with bananas just to add some more flavor. She had bananas as her first fruit and loved them, so they are safe and why I decided to buy the flavored cereal instead of the plain this time. Most of the time she is a great eater and the mouth is open waiting for the spoon to arrive. She's a pleasure to feed.

I have her 6 month appt. On July 1st, 3 days after her 6 month birthday. I am excited to see her stats. She did not have a 5 month appt. so my last height and weight on her is from 4 months. On her 5 month birthday, I weighed myself and then weighed myself with her and she was 17 pounds! I am sure this pretty accurate. She is in 6-9 month clothes already and merging out of size 2 diapers soon to be in size 3. She fits into both actually. There is I believe a 2 pound overlap with these 2 sizes and 17 pounds fits both of them. I am finishing up the size 2's I have before I start using the 3's. I am SO happy to FINALLY be putting her in her summer outfits. It's such a pleasure to just take her out of the house w/o a blanket, and all that stuff I needed during the winter months. I got so used to that that this seems like a breeze. I love the summer!

ANYWAY, I'm going to go now. I have posted pics from this past week. Hope you enjoy them. I will try to add a cute video I took as well. Hopefully my computer will have no problems with the download. If not, I'll add it in another post. Ciao to you all and talk to you very soon with I am sure will be a lot more changes!

Pics From Mia's First Vacation in Cape Cad MA

Sitting up by herself at the beach!

Centerfold for Parenting Magazine!

Back from Massachusetts

Howdy everyone. We came back last Friday from Provincetown, MA. We had a very nice time. We relaxed and enjoyed the great shopping. Our house was very nice. My parents and Giacomo and I slept downstairs and my brother and Nick slept on the sleeper sofa upstairs. Mia actually slept in my parents bedroom. They bought a pack n play that they have which is smaller than ours and easier to transport. They loved waking up with her and I would find her in between them at 7am. It rained the last 2 days we were there, but it was still relaxing. We stayed in. I read, enjoyed Mia and my family, and ate well! The town is quaint and welcoming and the main street runs along the water. The shops were so much fun to browse and just enjoy a laid back kinda day. Mia had a great time and was such a good girl the entire trip. She did so well also on the way there and back. It took us about 7-8 hours. We stopped roughly every 2 to stretch and for a diaper change!

About our Mia. Her latest milestones are as follows, and she definitely changed this past week! :

She now sits up on her own!!!! She really started getting good at this the week we were away, about June 1st, right on her 5 month birthday. You can see by some of the pics I posted from our trip.

Just yesterday, on June 8th, she started grabbing her feet!! It's so cute. She started trying to do this about a week ago, but now she finally got coordinated and grasps them in her hands. She loves doing this. Every time I go to change her, she must grab her feet now.

Also, her babbles have started to include "baba, dada". This is a new sound for her. She has been squealing in delight and does that funny gasping sound, so when this came out of her mouth, I recognized the difference. I heard her doing it in the car this past week and she did it more today! I am repeating the dada sound a lot to her. Hopefully, she'll be a pro at it and she will surely wrap herself around her daddy's finger!

What else....I guess just generally she just has more of a personality now. She gives us those fake crocodile tears every now and then so she seems to be starting to understand how to get her way. I must be careful now! ha ha

I went to babies r us with her today and bought her a 5.oo plastic pool for our deck. I plan to fill it just a bit and now that she is sitting up pretty well, let her sit and enjoy the water. I am sure she will LOVE it. She loves her bath now, so I know this should be a hit.

Oh, that reminds me, she went to the beach for the first time when we were in Provincetown and she wore her bathing suit also for the first time! She loved it. Giacomo walked in the water while holding her, and she was mesmerized by the sparkling water and ocean sounds. It was such a great day. I have also posted pics from that day as well.

She sleeps pretty much the entire night. She goes to sleep about 8pm and gets up about 5am for some milk and then sleeps some more. It's great. Sometimes she wakes a bit sooner, but she'll have her bottle and then go back to sleep right away. So, SLOWLY but surely, we are managing to get a better nights sleep now.

I read her books all the time and she seems to enjoy this. She loves the colorful pages and listens quietly as I read. It's so great. She tries to grab the pages now and eat the book, but that's OK.

She reaches for things all the time that are reachable and now puts everything in her mouth. She is still drooling like a running faucet and I go through numerous bibs/burp cloths a day. She has not got to the stage where she cries if I take something away from her. I am not looking forward to that, so I am enjoying this while it lasts.

Think that's about it. If I forgot anything, I'll add another post! Going to try and post pics from our trip. Hope you enjoy them. My computer connection is weak at the moment. I will post those pics as soon as my connection is better! Sorry!


Ciao!