Warning: This post references poop. A lot. Skip it if you’re not into reading about that sort of thing… Potty-training hasn’t gone well for us. Our Peruvian Nanny started training Nia when she turned 2 (about the time of this picture) and had good success with getting...
Tag - Nia
It’s hard to believe, but we’ll have a 2 year old in our family as of the 22nd. In order to celebrate this momentous occasion, we decided to throw the most Elmolicious Party we could dream up because if there’s one thing our little girl loves, it’s ELMO (Mommy & Daddy...
If you’ve spent any time with Nia, you know that there are 3 people/things she talks about incessantly. The first is Elle, her BFF who is only 1 month older than Nia. These two run the Malecon all day long fighting over toys and shrieking with joy over their latest discoveries. Next...
 Friends, can I tell you how fortunate I feel that my advanced little girl has decided that being 2 is not a prerequisite to displaying Terrible Twos behavior!?  Every day I am blessed to practice extreme patience as I experience meltdowns, shrieking, kicking and the occasional bite...
Nick decided to take up the guitar while we were gone for 5 weeks in Minnesota. Â Since arriving home, Nia’s been positively fascinated with it, constantly wanting to go in our room to touch it. Â We’ve had to have many discussions about not pounding on it, so now she’ll...
Well, we made it nearly 19 months before having to trim those beautiful blonde locks…. I delayed as long as I could, but her bangs were starting to cover her eyes and the stubborn kiddo refuses to wear clips for me (but she’s just fine doing it for the nanny). Â So off we went...
It’s summer here and we’ve been capitalizing on the good weather by doing lots of fun outdoorsy stuff. Â One of our adventures this week was a trip to Granja Arriero (Arriero Farm), a small farm/petting zoo an hour outside of Lima, near Pachacamac. Â Nia’s obsessed with...
It’s been non-stop Halloween around here the last few days. Â Although not my favorite holiday, I have to admit that it’s a ton more fun with a kid. Â Cuteness just becomes magnified in silly outfits! We took full advantage of the costume that Grandma and Grandpa Miller sent...
Here are the best of Nia’s 1 Year Photo Shoot! We had them done by Vanessa of Luz + Letra here in Lima. It was a fantastic experience that yielded over 100 beautiful shots of Nia! If you’re in the mood to view the entire gallery, head on over to SMUGMUG.
It’s hard to believe, but our little girl just crossed the one year mark. I’m not going to lie and say that the entire year flew by because there were days in those first 3 months that felt ENDLESS. However, time seemed to gather speed as we found our parenting groove. I’m enjoying...
Nia and I recently started going to a weekly music class in our Miraflores neighborhood. It’s a steal of a deal at $4 a session for an hour of music. Carlos, the musician, is quite versatile too. Each class he plays the Cajón (the peruvian drum box), his guitar AND his trumpet. ...
Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, I’ve been doing a ton of writing during the day for my upcoming business launch of CanceRevolution and I just don’t have the energy to do more writing at night. As a compromise, I’ll indulge you with pictures of the babe instead! Last Sunday...
My daughter is a drama queen. Â Drama queen with a CAPITAL D. Â Her intensity is unparalleled. Â She can go from dawn to dusk and has recently decided that she isn’t interested in sleeping (LUCKY US). Last night she didn’t feel like going to bed. Â We insisted and let her cry...
This video is dedicated to Auntie Emily, who has been begging and begging to see footage of Nia on the move!
These are about 10 days late – oops! Â She’s definitely starting to explore her world, as reflected in these photos.
A little something new from Ms. Nia that we have termed “Lizard Tongue”…
As I’ve mentioned before, Nia is VERY popular here. Â Almost too popular, if I’m being honest (although who am I to shy away from attention). Â This outpouring of love for her shows up in a variety of ways, most of which would make an American parent squirm. Â Today, for...
It was a wild weekend here on the home front. We are a mere one week from our international move now and for some reason (back in January) we thought it’d be a grand idea to schedule Nia’s baptism in the midst of all our shopping and packing. Chaos adds to the fun...
So, my subject wasn’t into our 6 month photo shoot. She was too distracted by the sound of all that rushing water behind her. Mistake number 2 was shooting at 3 o’clock in the afternoon in high sun. Oops . . I guess I should feel lucky that I got any shots at...
Tonight we had our first go at solid foods. Â Nia sampled both pureed Pears and a Mum Mum, which is a Rice Paper flatbread. Â Nia made a big ole mess and wasn’t too sure what she thought about it all. Â She’s nearly 6 months now, so we plan to start adding this in on a daily...
Here’s Nia doing her new favorite thing – playing with her feet! Â I found these great Lamaze “Feet Finder” rattles to make her play twice as fun…
Well, here she is in all her drooling glory! We garnered quite a few looks from the passing Business People as we went about our afternoon ‘photo shoot’ in front of an office building that had this lovely bed of tulips! I mean, how could I not shoot there...
We’ve hit the 4 month mark! Â We celebrated this milestone by retiring the first of our 3-6 month clothes that she’s already outgrown. Â Our little girl is growing steadily – she’s 14 1/2 pounds (75th percentile) and 24.5 inches (60th percentile). Â Her happy-go...
Big week in the Novak house – Nia has learned to roll at 14 weeks old! What amuses us most about this is that she has to get really agitated before she’ll start contorting her body enough to do a complete roll. The not-so-amusing part is that she hasn’t yet figured...
Since Nia and I are spending Christmas Day with Nick in DC, we celebrated early with the Miller family. Â Nia was the belle of the ball in her new Christmas dress (and by new I mean ‘new to us’ – that’s right, this Baby Gap beauty was $4 at a Garage sale)! We had a...
Friday was a big day for little Nia. Â It was her first visit to see Dr. Tonnie at Wellness Wave. Â As many of you know, I’ve been doing Network Spinal Analysis (NSA) with Tonnie for several years now. Â My work with her has helped me eliminate my chronic back pain, deal with my...
“Hey, where are we? Â Who are all these other babies? Â I’m going to be extra cute to make sure I get noticed!” “This yoga stuff is a piece of cake. Â All I have to do is lay here.” “Hey, give me back my arm! Â It wasn’t meant to twist like that...
We are in the habit of making videos for Nick each day. Â This one was so good I thought we’d share it with a wider audience!
Warning: Projectile Vomiting at min 00:25. Â Watch at your own risk…
Well, we finally got Nia’s Photo Shoot proofs back. Â Actually, they were better than I expected given how uncooperative she was. Â You can see all 16 final shots HERE. Â Would love to hear which are your favorites.
Nia got to meet her Minnesota Aunties for the first time this past weekend. Â They’re helping me take care of her while I get a hang of this parenting thing.
Auntie Emily
Auntie Beth
Auntie Jenna
Oh friends, it’s starting to become laughable how many things have not gone according to plan. Â Of course, I’m still shedding a few tears over each miss but I expect that I’ll eventually get to laughing about it, right? Pretty sure part of my problem is that I hold...
So, I’m afraid I’ve hit my max. Â With a diagnosis of Shingles yesterday, a dead car battery today and Nick going back to work on Monday it’s just not looking so optimistic for Mama Sarah. Â The Shingles particularly worries me because although it’s not painful yet...
It’s hard to believe, but Nia turns one week old today! As most parents would attest to, it’s been a complete and total blur. Nothing could have prepared me for the delusional state that results from the lack of sleep and intense hormones! We’re just taking it 1...
Lately Facebook has been abuzz with talk about an exercise class called Nia. Whenever I hear something come up again and again, I just trust it’s a sign that I’m supposed to explore it further. So that’s exactly what I did in this case. I went to the...