Yesterday, Mia turned eight months old! Wow, it’s amazing how time moves so quickly. She’s not crawling yet, but she successfully flopped onto her belly from this sitting position.

We think she’s starting to teethe. There appears to be a little something in her front lower jaw. She seems OK with what is going on, only becoming fussy every once in a while. Also, she’s been amazing in sleeping through the night. This makes mommy and daddy very happy in the morning.

Happy eight months Mia!

This photo was taken on the morning of March 2, 2011.

Wow, Mia has already caught The Batman bug. Fighting crime at such a young age. For now, she’ll do as daddy does and be part of The Batman Family. I see her more in the role of The Huntress - Batman’s daughter in older comic books - rather than Batgirl. But she always has a choice. I have a feeling when she grows up she’ll be more of a Wonder Woman fan, like her cousin Kayla was when she was growing up. Did you hear they’re bringing back Wonder Woman to television? If that turns out to be a hit, I can see Mia in front of the TV watching the show.

This photo of Mia and mommy is from a previous set of pictures. Unfortunately, we’ve been under the weather, off-and-on the last couple of weeks. Taking any good pictures has been difficult. Hopefully, we’ll have some opportunity this week to take some newer photos.

This photo was originally taken on January 23, 2011.

Mia is still learning to crawl. She’s comfortable being on her belly on the floor. She can pivot left or right and can move ever so slowly backward. But she hasn’t grasped the skill of forward movement yet.  When that time comes, I’m sure she’ll be taking off, crawling to every conceivable corner of the house.

We have wanted to take Mia to the Monterey Bay Aquarium but hadn’t found a good weekend to do it. Fortunately, we had the last weekend of January free of any commitments. We were also very fortunate to obtain two guest passes from my sister’s co-worker who has an aquarium membership.

Asking for directions.

Since it was Mia’s first time there we tried to visit all the exhibits that she might find of interest. The first exhibit we saw was the seahorses. I’m not sure if Mia could actually make out the seahorses with her own eyes, but there were large monitors that gave a close-up view of how they looked. I’m sure she could make them out from those images.

Looking glass.

We later went into the interactive area. Farrah placed Mia on what seemed like a water bed-type pad. She really enjoys it swaying back and forth.

Bounce house like.

After our trip, we headed north to Santa Cruz to have dinner with the Trabers. Luckily, the weather on the way up to Monterey was cooperative. The drive to Santa Cruz was met with light drizzle. Luckily, there were no incidents to speak of. We spent an hour or so at the house, then headed to Riva’s for a nice seafood dinner.

All in all a good day.

Mia and the Jellyfish.

These photos were taken on January 29, 2011.

It’s a question I believe each dad asks themselves, “When do I introduce Star Wars into my kid’s life?"

Well, it all starts with a t-shirt. Farrah bought this shirt at the Gap for 58 cents! Such a bargain. In this photo, with Mia’s face, all scrunched up, it looks as if she’s tired of having her photo taken.

Now, as far as the films go, I’m talking about the original Star Wars trilogy, not the last three highly disappointing films. And in any event, you’d introduce the original trilogy first. You would not want to spoil the huge revelation in Empire Strikes Back, would you?

I’ve heard that a good age to start might be three years old. At the least, you can lay down the groundwork through storytelling. My friend BossaNova said he started telling his daughter the story of Luke, Leia, and Han around that age as well. Who knows, Mia may be able to retell the story similar to this little girl.

This photo was taken on January 20, 2011.

Mia is as playful as ever. Each day, Farrah tries to think of a way to tame all that hair. It’s difficult, but it needs to be done. Otherwise, it can look a bit scary. I’ve included two photos in this post so you can get a complete picture. I look at this series of photos and I can’t help but think, wow, future sushi chef.

Looking like a sushi chef.

“Can I have an order of the sake? My wife would like a California Roll as well.”

These photos were taken on January 23, 2011.

The lottery of birth is responsible for much of who we are. If you were not born in the country you were, what would your life be like? Would you be the same person?

IfItWereMyHome.com compares the living conditions in your country to another of your choice.  It’s interesting to see how different - and not necessarily better - your living conditions are to others, as a country. Everyone’s got problems.

Mia is all dressed up and ready to go out for a morning stroll. It was slightly cold and overcast outside on the morning of this photo, so Farrah had her all bundled up. Granted it’s not snowy weather here in sunny California. But anything below 55℉ makes you reach for a sweater.

This was Mia’s first experience with gloves as well. She was very fascinated by how they felt on her hands and how it felt interacting with other objects. She also started rubbing them together quickly, as if making sure her hands were still underneath the gloves.

This photo was taken on January 17, 2011, using the Canon s95.

Mia came home from daycare with pigtails!  Well, in the photo you can see only one, but she does have another small pigtail on the other side of her head.  She has an amazing amount of hair, but it’s in that in-between length where something proper to do is difficult.

This photo was taken on January 11, 2011, using the Canon s95 in low light mode.

There’s been speculation that Verizon will announce the availability of the iPhone on their network this coming Tuesday. It’s great news since Verizon (supposedly) has a better network. I’ve had plenty of dropped calls on my iPhone, and plenty of bad connections to the 3G network. I’d love to go to Verizon, but I don’t think I will right away.

Why?

• iPhone 5: Verizon will likely be offering the iPhone 4. While I'm lusting after a new iPhone - I'm using a slightly crippled iPhone 3GS - the iPhone 5 should be coming out in June or July. I can wait a few more months and decide then.
• The Network: I'm not sure I can give up the ability to talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time, something you can do on a 3G network but not the CDMA network which Verzion has. Is CDMA better than EDGE, which was the network the first iPhone used? If it's the same limitations, then I'm not sure I'd want to be on it.
• Convincing Others: If I move carriers, so does the rest of the family. I think everyone would be cool getting new phones. But I don't look forward to telling our parents, "Yeah, you need to get a new phone. Why? Well, because, that's why."
• Costing More: I hear that Verizon phone plans are slightly more expensive on average than AT&T's plans. I'm not sure this is true. But I'm not willing to pay more just yet.

Come June or July a decision will need to be made whether to stick with AT&T or not. I’m sure I won’t be the only one weighing whether to go to Verizon, that is of course if Verizon does announce the iPhone this coming Tuesday.

Christmas Eve was at the house as usual.  But in the early afternoon, we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa’s house to see them, take a few photos, and drop off presents.  I’m working on processing the photos to post to the photos site.

This specific photo was taken on December 24, 2010, in San Jose.