Vietnamese (Chinese) New Year, throw up, a passport, and poop-lots of poop

This week's updates are coming to you filtered. I will not gross anyone out too bad, but life around the Filhart house has been very...ahem...eventful. That's it, eventful.

First of all, I finally got Mia's hair into a rubberband. It was difficult because her hair is so fine and she is a little squirmer. It looked horrible, but its a start. I don't think she really cares either way.

On to Chinese/Vietnamese New Years. Since we couldn't make it to Vietnam to spend the holiday with Dave's family, we went to Mekong Plaza to celebrate and try and win a Toyota Camry. Say what? We ended up eating Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) at Unphogettable (yes, that's the real restaurant name), and then wading through the million people to find a spot to hear the big raffle results. uggh. So we wait for about an hour, all the while listening to classic Vietnamese jams performed by local vietnamese bands and burning up because there are about 10,000 too many people crammed in this place. The big moment arrives, and they spend 30 minutes talking about how the raffle will end up working, and then announce that two more fashion shows and performances will take place before they do the raffle. I was annoyed, but I didn't have to even open my mouth because everyone started booing and yelling at the organizers. I just looked at Dave and thought "I'm glad Mia doesn't understand Vietnamese yet" because I was sure there was plenty of "potty words" being thrown around. The raffle finally happened, AND WE didn't WIN. We didn't even buy raffle tickets, we put four in that our friends gave to us. We would have felt bad if we had won.

Mia wore a traditional boy's outfit for the New Year pictures. That's about right. She's going to get back at me one day.


Here is Mia before her "Let me see how much I can throw up and poop" week. I think she got sick from Unphogettable.
I have never seen, smelled, and touched sooooo much poop in my whole life. Huggies suck. Our trash doubled this week, and I've done laundry 3 times (when I usually only do it once a week). Poor thing. So we thought to cheer her up, we'd go get her passport picture taken.


Dave is working tirelessly on med school applications, and I'll tell ya...we'll get in where we can get in, when we can get in. We are willing to even go abroad to get this show on the road. So Mimi was a big girl and got her picture taken and went to the post office to finish her passport application and get that mailed off. She is ready for travel internationale at the ripe age of 11 months.
I'm pretty sure that cheered her up because she hasn't pooped since.

This Week's Updates

Mia is pulling up and cruising around everything. She could care less about all of her toys because she's more interested in crawling to the ottoman to walk around it for hours. She has also decided to change her nap schedule yet again. This change is not that bad because she's been playing around in her bed for like oh...an hour to an hour and a half. Is that bad? She doesn't cry, she just walks around, talks, and looks around. How do we know this you ask? We kind of set up the web cam one day and watched her on the laptop out in the family room. It was hilarious. Ooooo-she is just delicious.
Some exciting Mia "first's": Laughing at a story with me, cruising, waving "bye-bye," getting into everything, crawling on her hands, and reacting to "little piggies." I'm working on her first word being "mama," naming parts of the face, and baby sign language. She's not really buying any of those whatsoever...
On to Dave news. He is a stud. He has been studying extra hard for his big MCAT test next Saturday. It will be a big relief to be able to make some decisions and continue this crazy thing we call life. He keeps me laughing, and honestly, he doesn't need me to teach him any lessons because he manages to keep himself in check. He has "flashes of brilliance" (as he puts it), but he is usually humbled immediately to keep him from becoming too arrogant. I love him.
I am still going for my half marathon the end of February in Dallas. I definitely can say that ANYONE can become a runner. I am up to 4 miles each weekly workout and 6-7 for a long run on Saturdays. It's really fun and I'm feeling great. I have no desire to ever do a full marathon, but I am excited to do this half marathon. Things are plugging along-I just can't believe Mia is almost a year old! LIFE IS GOOD!!!

Got your year supply?

Dave came home tonight with 2 bottles of squirt, a movie, and a box of oreo cakesters. I have been dieting since the beginning of December, so these indulgences are a little out of the question for me. After I politely declined, he said, "But I want you to be happy-I can see the hunger in your eyes." Ah-whaaa? To which I replied: "I am not starving. I could go months off of my own fat storage and be fine...wait!!! I have my own year supply...I am a WALKING year supply." I never looked at chubbiness this way before...

Out of Control

Yesterday at church Mia was NUTS. Our church changed to 2-5 pm...yes, right in the middle of nap time, so this will be interesting. During Sunday School, Mia was crawling, pulling, sucking, clawing, licking, and twisting anything and everything. Dave leans over to me and whispers "I think Mia has entered a new phase." To which I replied "Out of control?" To which Dave replied "Whoa...that's out of control!!!!" Meaning my breath. I could not stop laughing...okay okay, so if you can't laugh at yourself, you're not livin', you know what I'm saying? Thank you speariment gum for being my emergency friend.

A future in...

Did we mention Mia loves to dance? I think she's a natural for sure...

Goodbye to our Jen!

We love our gym. It is less than a mile away, and the child watch is the cleanest, friendliest place ever. One of our favorite girls, Jen decided to move back to California...and oh how we will miss her! She loved Mia and was so kind and fun to us. Good luck in California Jen!!

Christmas in Arizona 2008

We spent Mia's first Christmas at home in Arizona this year. We made sure to continue some of our family traditions like making perogies and corn chowder...

Perogies are a Ukranian dish that Dave ate a lot on his mission in Canada. Becky's Nana Wendt made the best corn chowder ever, and has been a family favorite for years.

Aunt Heather, Shaman, and Justin along with Kerstin, Matt, and their kids came from Texas to visit. We loved going to the Mesa Temple Lights and spending quality time with them and making memories. It was so fun to be so close and see each other whenever we wanted.

Mimi is our little dancer. Any time there is music on, she is all smiles and wiggles. We got a few last minute shots Christmas Eve in front of the tree getting ready for Santa to visit...

And of course, Mia had to have her good night bath before Santa came. She is the cutest little little ever. We love her to BITS!!!