Eight Months Old

As I pack for our second trip to the US, I am amazed that one little girl can learn so much in two months. It seems like she learns something new every day. Last time that I had an entry into this blog she was just learning how to sit up....now she has fully master it. We are now working on crawling and seems to improve everyday...mainly because once she learns something new she practices it over and over again. She can get up on her knees but hasn't quite got the moving part down yet. Maybe she will move while we are visiting the grandparents. Even though she can't crawl just yet, that doesn't stop her from rolling where she wants to go.

Another major milestone for her is that she got her first tooth. It wasn't a pretty sight to see her in pain. It wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be. Only about an hour of crying until the medication kicked it. The next morning it was as if nothing had happened. Now that she has her new tooth she enjoys using it by taking bites of animal crackers and chewing them like a big girl.

Milana has started to really learn her name and responds back when she is called. She is also a babbler and a squealer. Some squeals are at octaves I didn't think were possible.We are hoping our trip to the US will be like the first trip where we had no major upsets and she was calm and quite the whole time we were in flight.

As for our life in Germany, it has been one surprise after another. Whether it's new and exciting things we discover or all of the paper work and time took to find Milana a daycare, we know that most everything we do now is for her. As it should be.

Six Months and Growing

I can't believe my little girl is six months old already. Time has flown by. It has been wonderful to be able to stay home with her these past months and watch her grow, change and have her own little personality develop.

Milana is really coming into her own and seems to learn how to do something new every few days. She is now eating solid foods with gusto. Her favorite is spaghetti bolognese. She wouldn't be her mother's daughter if she didn't like spaghetti with red sauce. Her favorite activity now is floor time. She spends floor time either doing multiple turnovers or playing under her activity gym. She is desperately trying to learn to crawl and move on her tummy. She doesn't have it quite yet and gets frustrated easily.

We have been practicing every day with trying to sit up on her own. She does it for a few seconds on her own and gets the biggest smile on her face and then down she goes. A few seconds later she is ready to get up and do it all over again. I can't say she is not determined. Milana is also able to grasp things and is taking an interest in looking at things in detail. She is also taking a interest in our three cats. She has out grown her swing so we bought her her very first chair. She loves eating, sleeping and playing in her new pink chair.

Physically she is getting bigger and getting more blonde hair. Her eyes have stayed green for a while and I am hoping they won't change. I am amazed how fast she goes through clothes. I know she will be tall like her daddy.

Christmas and a New Year.

So here it is about 3 hours till the new year in Germany. It's been almost 3 months since I last updated this blog and Milana has changed so much. She has had some major milestones since then. She is now sleeping in her big girl bed, sleeping on her side, starting to eat some solid foods, cooing and babbling, wants to stand a lot, has fun playing swing dancer and airplane with Daddy, examining objects up close, and smiling none stop.

We had a small Christmas at home. Milana, of course, received many presents from friends and family. She was delighted to watch me open the gifts for her. Books, toys(noise makers), stuffed

animals, clothes and videos were some of the things in her loot. I received a really nice pair of brown leather boots from David. It makes me feel less Mommy like which is good...no mom jeans for me.

As for the new year, I don't have any new year's resolution. I wish for a happy and healthy family. Knock on wood, Milana hasn't has a cold yet. We hope to explore more of Europe next year and I should return to work. Until my next update, hopefully it will be sooner than 3 months.

The trip down South to Mobile

After spending almost a week in St. Louis and enjoying the relaxing family time there we took off to fly down to Mobile. As we were heading through the airport in St. Louis and going through the security screening Milana was making quite a few fans being cute and sleeping. She was actually called back for inspection after going through the metal dectector. Apparently the individual doing the checks thought she was a doll since she was sleeping. After that the flight was very easy with her sleeping the entire time. She really likes sleeping while moving whether it is in a car, plane, or by foot. Once we made it to Mobile she got to meet her Uncle Brian and then Grandma and Grandpa Presken. They were quite taken with her from the moment they saw her. She got to meet her Aunt Christy a little later at dinner down on the causeway. We tried to find a gator that is supposed to live near the restaurant but it must have been hiding. The room we spent the nights in was really nice and Milana had an entire bed to herself, so of course I made a pillow fort for her to sleep in. The next day we went shopping with the grandparents and Milana got more new clothes for when she gets bigger. Lots of cute stuff! Milana spent a lot of time hanging out with her new family members and just loving the attention. Since the weather was quite warm she got to wear a lot of her cute dresses we had bought for her in St. Louis. The next day we went over to a friend's house and met up with some high school friends for dinner. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to see them again and their families. Milana spent the whole time asleep, I think the jet lag was finally starting to get to her. On Friday we went to Christy's wedding rehersal and dinner and Milana had yet another cute dress to wear and this time Mommy and her matched! Don't they just look too cute together? Milana spent a lot of the time at the rehersal dinner being passed around and held by family and friends, again she was quite content and did not fuss at all. As long as she gets attention she is very well behaved (don't begin thinking that she is spoiled, I haven't begun to spoil her yet). On Saturday was my sister's big day and that meant another cute dress that was a gift from Grandma P. The wedding was wonderful and it was a beautiful day, but that also meant it was quite warm and Milana had to be taken inside to cool down. But that just led to her being passed around more and she just loved the extra attention she got in the pretty dress. She also got to spend some time being with her Great Grandmother Presken and Great Aunt Phyllis. I don't think she has ever met so many new people in such a short amount of time while we were in Mobile. But time drew short and before we knew it we had to board a plane heading back to St. Louis and then back to Frankfurt.

It was a wonderful trip and we look forward to doing it again next year. Until then Grandparents B and P will have to make do with seeing Milana grow through photos and Skype.

Milana's first trip to meet Grandpa and Grandma Benscoter

Milana is about to embark on her very first trip over seas to the US. She is going to meet both sets of grandparents and other relatives. She had to endure a 12 hour plane ride. She did extremely well. We were so lucky. No major fussy moments until we reached our final destination of St. Louis, Missouri. Here we are on the plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

Our first stop was to St. Louis Missouri to visit her Grandpa and Grandma Benscoter. Milana was very excited to meet them. Here she is with Grandma B. holding her for the first time. Milana seems so cozy with her. Grandma got really attached to her.

Now it was Grandpa's turn to hold and meet Milana. I think he's telling her about the big fish that got away. Her sideways tongue makes me think he's telling her a whopper of a story.

Milana had presents waiting for her at Granny and Grampy B's.

She received some cute sandals from her Great Aunt Charlotte.

Mommy also bought her a cute rocker hat that she immediately had to ham it up for the camera and play her air guitar.

While in St. Louis we decided to take a little adventure to the St. Louis botanical gardens. Milana enjoyed sleeping and being carried around in her front pack. Mommy and daddy each took a turn.

Our next adventure in the US will take us to Mobile, Alabama where Milana will get to meet the Presken Grandparents for the first time.

Two shots, a wine fest, and a polka dot dress.

Milana received her first two needle shots. Her little squeal was heartbreaking but she seem be over it five minutes later. I think it was worse for us to watch than it was for her to get the shots. In the picture to the right you can see the little band aids on her legs from the shots. She is still a good eater and has grown and gained some weight. She now weighs 8.7 lbs and is 20.5 inches long. Now that she has her beginner shots, she can travel to the US next week to meet her grandparents for the first time.

We also decided to take a trip to a wine festival in Bad Durkheim, Germany. Since Milana was getting out of the house, she got to wear her new pink polka dot dress. Milana was content and slept the whole time we pushed her in new stroller. This allowed mommy and daddy to shop

for wine, drink some wine, have bratwurst and spatzel for lunch, and a amaretto crepe for dessert. It then decided to rain and we headed for home. Here are some before (with mommy) and after (with daddy) photos of our adventure.

Milana has learned something new. I don't know if it is her first word but when she is excited or wants something she makes a noise that sounds like she is saying "hey". She has done the quite often. If she keeps it up that will be her first word at almost 2 months old.

Chuga, chuga, chuga,....Poo, Poo

Chuga, chuga, chuga in goes the milk and out comes...well you get the idea from the title. Like a little digestive train, Milana spends most of her days perfecting this art. She does have other favorite activities like sleeping on daddy's chest, bath time, mommy's back scratches and swinging in her swing to keep her occupied.

Today we thought we would give her a change in her routine and take her on a shopping trip to Ikea, lunch and the grocery store. Like any girl going out on the town, she had put on a cute outfit. Here she is excited to wear her new outfit.

Mommy and daddy had figure out how we were going to carry her around in the store. We decided to try the baby front pack. Here daddy is modeling it with her in it.

She did very well in her baby front pack in Ikea and she slept the whole time. Our trip was going good so far, so on to lunch at an American icon McDonald's. She didn't get a happy meal but she sure got a lot of attention. At the table next to us was two older women and they couldn't stop talking about her. They wanted to know all about her. They kept saying "sehr suss" which means "very sweet" in German. She sure can take over a room. After we said our goodbyes to the nice ladies, it was off to the grocery store.

It was in the grocery that she started to wake up and get hungry. So while David pushed the cart and fed her at the same time, I grabbed the groceries from the shelves. All in all it was really kind of fun and not as much of a hassle as I thought it would be. Our four hour excursion was a success. Our trip out put my mind at ease since in a month we will be going over to the US on a twelve hour flight to visit family. After today, I think she will do good on the flight. On Monday we have a new adventure, our first set of shots! Stay tuned to see what happens...