What Mia is up to now...

Well, let's see now:  Mia has lived outside of the womb exactly the same amount as she did
when she was inside. In two days, she will be nine months old!!!  I am absolutely amazed each day by the new things she picks up, physically and mentally.  

N and I have a concert this coming Friday.  So far it has proved to be very challenging (not to mention interesting) to rehearse with M around.  Originally, we could put her in the same room, and she would be self entertained for a while.  Just within the last few weeks, she has been crawling around, rapidly.  We would put her in one end of the room, and by the time we reach the development (no pun intended) section of the first movement, she's scooted herself all the way across the room to my feet, and pulls on my leg to be picked up.  It's very funny, but not very productive to the rehearsals.  We tried asking our neighber Emilia to look after her for an hour the other day while we rehearse, after 15 minutes, the door bell rang and we could hear Mia wailing from inside the house.  Emilia came to drop her off, apologizing profusely (as we should to her), and saying how "this" has never happened to her before, and maybe she will do it again when Mia is a little older.  So that makes it two neighbors so far who will think twice before taking Mia in next time....(sigh)

One other interesting 'development' is sitting.  M has been sitting for a long time now, but for some reason, she now really enjoys 'sitting' in bed, especially at night when it's time to go to sleep.  She will roll around and sits herself up repeatedly, and as an aknowledgement of her
accomplishment, she then applauds herself.  It's really, really cute, but again, not conducive to sleeping.  

What Mia really excels at is eating.  She's a great eater.  She will eat everything and anything anyone gives her and she seems to truly enjoy it.  We are very happy about this :)  At the moment, we give her 3 meals (her size), one giant bottle before she goes to bed, and I still nurse her throughout the day (about three times).   

The girl's got rhythm, and taste.  She will dance (ON CUE!)  to one of the CPE Bach sonatas I am preparing for Friday's concert.  She recognizes the tune and will only dance to this particular movement, she even recognizes it when I sing it to her, and will also dance to the sung version, it's really amazing :)  When she dances, she looks at me and smiles with an acknowledgement of the tune, we never tried to teach it to her, she just started doing it one day while I was practicing.  
And my sweet daughter is an unconditional lover.   I will find her clapping for me under the piano after I play a piece, or when I sneeze.  

Anyway, just wanted to update you guys from afar, hope this finds everybody smiling, we miss you.