Surprise!

Here's the video of my crazy giggles from yesterday.

I had the giggles today too. Mama and Dada love it. Dada couldn't stand to stay away from me so he's going to come home EVERY night even though he had planned otherwise. Gas is cheap and the drive isn't as long as he thought. I was surprised to see him at bedtime tonight.

I had fun with Matthew today. He was a very good boy and I didn't pull his hair (not from lack of trying). Mama did a short video of us.

Mama put a pink bib on him and he was dismayed.

He didn't care what he was wearing once she gave him some bananas. The way to a boy's heart is through his tumtum.Isn't he dreamy?My version of SO BIG:Matthew's version of SO BIG:We also had a dance party during Baby Signs. Matthew danced with his blankie instead of me. I don't like to slow dance anyway.

PSA

This is a Public Service Announcement: If anyone out there is in need of an awesome car seat, then look no further than right here. Yes, that is a Britax Marathon for $42.99. They're usually at least $200. Unfortunately, Mama bought mine a while ago thinking I would grow out of my infant seat in the near future. Fooled her! Anyway, go out and buy one if you need a great car seat. There is another pattern (cows) that is slightly more expensive but also on sale at Target. With this kind of price, it's tempting to buy some and sell them on eBay.

Speaking of car seats, I'm addicted to napping in mine. I will not sleep for more than half an hour during the day unless I'm in my car seat. This makes for twice daily cruises around the neighborhood. I take a 3 hour morning nap as long as I'm in my chair. Mama tried to put me in my crib again today and I started crying right on the 30 minute mark. She can't figure out why I wake up after half an hour when I'm in my crib during the day, but I have no problems sleeping in there at night for around 10 hours. Any ideas? She's okay with the car seat nap for now. However, it's going to be interesting when we visit family and she doesn't have as much control over lights, sounds, slamming doors, creaking floors, dogs, and people during the day. Yes, I wake up very easily. Mama needs to just chill out anyway.

Dada leaves us tomorrow morning. We're going to miss him this week while he does plastic surgery. He might come home one night to visit us, but he doesn't know what his hours will be yet.

I've been laughing all day long today. Mama did a video of it and she'll share it with you all tomorrow night. She doesn't want to waste the time with Dada tonight on messing with the computer. That's why she's doing this while Dada does my bath time.

We're going to be busy with Matthew tomorrow afternoon. His mommy is taking a test while we get to play with him for a couple of hours. She's a drug dealer and needs to get certified to deal drugs in Iowa. I guess it's a weekend gig so she'll still get to come over and play during the week.

Walk Hard

Mama is cruel and took some pictures of me when I wasn't feeling well. I'm doing a lot better these days, but I still have some snot issues. Dada and Mama are glad that I'm cooperating with the nose aspirator. I was still my usual happy, smiley self throughout my sickness.
I'm getting a little bored with my exersaucer. I think I'll send it with Leif or Grandma H when they come to my birthday party in January. By then, this game will be old.I had a date with Matt on Friday. As usual, I posed while he played and ignored the camera.I also stole toys from him and pulled his hair. Poor guy! Mama is going to have be very vigilant when she watches him on Monday or I'll beat him up.I started walking a lot yesterday. Jamie caught a picture of me walking around. I think she was impressed with my skills.Matt brought a couple of toys for me to play with. Mama asked, "How big is Mina?" while I was playing with his car. I did a King Kong impression for her. Great trick, huh?I'm also enjoying climbing into, onto, and out of anything and everything.Hey, here's a picture where we're both looking at the camera, sort of. I swear Matt smiles, but it's hard to catch it on camera since he doesn't have modeling aspirations like I do.Phew, that was a close one. We were snuggled up together, but Matt rolled away really fast when he saw the camera. He doesn't want to get in trouble with my Dada for getting fresh.Dada was gone last night because he was busy so Mama did bath time with me. I like to bathe with her. She says we'll get to do that a lot next week because Dada isn't going to be home at all. He's doing a rotation with a plastic surgeon in another town. We'll miss him so we're going to do lots of fun family time this weekend.

Snot Bubbles

Yep, I'm sick. Mama isn't happy about it either. We went to the mall play area on Thursday and a little girl crawled over to me and coughed about an inch from my face. She proceeded to try to put her snot-covered hands into my mouth. Luckily, Mama intercepted that attempt, but it was too late and the snot blowing child had spread her nasty germs to me. The mother told Mama, "Don't worry about it. She's been on antibiotics for three weeks." With the size of the snot bubbles that kid was blowing, I'm not so sure the meds were working. On Friday, I started getting stuffy (as Mama noticed when she was doing the video of my stairway acrobatics). On Saturday, I started coughing a little. By Sunday I was all stuffed up and I've been blowing the dreaded snot bubbles since yesterday. I really hate getting my nose cleaned out. Plus, Mama won't take me anywhere fun because she doesn't want me to be Typhoid Mina. The part that truly sucks, is that my friend Vanessa was born last week (Gavin's little sister) and I won't get to meet her until I'm all better. Newborns can't be exposed to yucky germs. I hope I get better fast. Mama has been getting me to nurse to try to heal me, but it's pretty yucky trying to suck with my nose plugged. Ick.

Mama is going to get baby fever really bad when she meets Vanessa in person. She's absolutely beautiful and little!

I love books these days. I like to play with books at the library and in my room at home. Mama is trying to get Grandpa H to make a book holder like the one in this picture for me. I made a friend at the library on Friday. She read me a book.I bit Mama. She wasn't pleased.

Mama loves this shirt that Grandma D bought me. She accidentally coordinated us so Dada took a picture.

We were way too busy this weekend having fun family time to take pictures or videos. Sorry about that! Plus, I've been taking three hour morning naps for the last week. Mama has given in and lets me take my naps in my car seat and it's heavenly. It really feels better to sleep on an incline with my congestion. I'm sleeping well at night too, even though I get up before 6am most days. That's all subject to change though! Babies have to keep their parents guessing.

The Amazing Mina

Yep, Mama really keeps a close eye on me. That's supposed to be sarcastic. Babies can be facetious you know. In case you're wondering what other incident she was referencing, I dove off the changing table and landed in a garbage container head first with my legs kicking in the air this morning. I didn't even have a scratch on me but Mama has decided to change me on the floor from now on. It'll be amazing if I make it to kindergarten at this rate!

ETA: Here's the direct link in case the second movie doesn't show up.

Happy Girl

I'm having a wonderful day today. I've been talking to Mama constantly and even smiling at the camera. Mama took a picture of me getting ready to eat lunch. I ate some avocado yogurt, green beans, chicken, and pears. Yummy! I had seconds of everything you see pictured.Since Mama voted ahead, we had time to go to the park this afternoon. I loved the swing and wearing short sleeves and no socks.

Euclid got bored and told us it was time to go after a while.

Mama has had the TV on today because she's interested in the election. Go out and vote if you haven't already!

Fun Times

Before anything else, Mama insists she needs to share some old pictures with you. Here's my cousin Leif. He enjoys my doorway jumper and I let him play with it all he wants. This picture was taken a couple of weekends ago when we visited family. He's gaining on me!

Hailey needed some love and I was happy to oblige her. I had a date with Matthew on Friday night. He came over before trick or treating. I dressed up in one of my new outfits so that he could admire me.

Unfortunately he doesn't like the way I play. His mommy helped him out, but she won't always be there to protect him. I was just trying to toughen him up. Plus, his hair is really fun to pull.

We were fascinated by Matthew's mommy, but refused to smile for the camera.We had a wonderful weekend. We didn't travel anywhere so we got to spend a lot of time together as a family. Dada didn't have to work either. He made Mama leave for a couple of hours on Saturday so he could have alone time with me. Later on I supervised him while he raked and mowed the lawn. Mama worked on my ABC photo book in the afternoon on Sunday. D is for duck.

It was great fun having all of those ducks in my bed! I'm getting better at walking every day. I still take 5-6 steps at a time, but I'm very sturdy. I just have to be holding something in order to keep my balance. Super Pickle really worked well.

Dada snuggled me up once I walked to him.
I'm not adjusting well to the time change so Mama was up early today with nothing to do. She decided to vote early and got a flu shot too. Everyone admired me in line even though I was sleepy.

I didn't get to see Dada today so that was a little disappointing, but Mama had fun with me. I ate my weight in green beans and blueberries and then I had to have a bath. She took a bath with me and we stayed in the water until it was cold and we were all wrinkled.