Transition

Yesterday after work, Daryl found one of his Jeep tires had a flat. He must have cleaned out his Jeep so well last time, that he left his jack at home. A jack that I couldn't find. So, Mia and I drove to pick up Dada (during rush hour, and right before dinner...but Mia was a trooper) and brought him home. He found his jack within 5 min, but he was late to pool, so he took the mama-mobile, played well, and had a great time. This morning, he took my car to work, then came home to pick us up to exchange cars. It was around 9:30. I was fresh from my shower, just starting to blow dry my hair. He hadn't told me he had a meeting to get to :) To move things along, he asked if he could get Mia dressed. Now, this is something I usually reserve for weekends or when we're just going to hang around the house. My husband has MANY lovely attributes, but styling his daughter isn't one of them.

This is Dada dressing the snapper

(I can't help feeling sorry for them, both)

The only prerequisites I had were that the outfit had to be warm, had to be easily taken off and on (we were on the way to swim class) and she had to be able to wear her 'princess' shoes with them. They're pink, satin slip-ons with beading and she'd been wearing them all morning with just her diaper. Stunning. My sweet husband picked out tights. How are those ever easy to get on and off, but they are warm. A skirt that's a little too tight, and a shirt that, well, it was ok, but it's colors were bright and the colors on the skirt were pastel. If you ever want a laugh, watch Daryl trying to wrangle Mia into a pair of tights when she doesn't want to take off her princess shoes to begin with.

Poor girl!

I dried my hair, got dressed and got our bags ready by the time he finished with her. He was sweating and she was not having a good time. It made me feel like, yes, being a mama is kinda hard, but I make it looks so damn easy some times :) He tried to get it done ASAP, while I get it down without ruffling many of her feathers.

fashion induced meltdown - sort of

Here's a little bit of the tantrum/meltdown she had after Dada had his way with her (notice that she looks up to make sure she has an audience before she continues...I've heard stories of her Dada doing the same exact thing when he was young)

Swimming was, um, different. For the last couple of days, I'd mentioned that Mia was going to swim with Miss Chantal while Mama sat on the bench to take pictures (in case she would wonder why I wasn't with her...we're transitioning her to a solo - without a mama class). Well, Mia's teacher is no longer Miss Chantal. Mia had Miss Chantal since the beginning, and I wasn't sure how she's take this transition. Her new teacher was Miss Glena. A perfectly nice and pleasant teacher, but she wasn't Miss Chantal. There are two boys in her class. One who's all for this 'swimming without my mama thing', the second who was on the fence about it all, and Mia, who shrieked and threw her head back when her Miss Glena even LOOKED at her. I sat on the deck, held Mia's hand. She was fine between turns, but hated going with her new teacher. Then tehy broke out the M&M's. Miss Glena gave them to me to dole out when she thought Mia was improving or needed the extra bait. It actually worked better when Miss Glena gave the M&M's to Mia. Miss Glena = Candy...a good equation in Mia's mind. Towards the end, Mia added laughter to her hysterics and Miss Glena called it a win. (Mia swam to Miss Glena's basket of prizes and picked out a toy zebra that when asked what it's name was, Mia answered, with a huge smile on her face, 'Glena')

After a long nap (both of us), we grabbed the stroller and walked down to the park. That's a stretch for me, so I was very proud of myself. We played for a while, but mainly enjoyed the warm sun. Mia was tired/bored on the way home, so I grabbed some pebbles before we left the park. She played with them, put them in my empty water bottle, and ended up sprinkling them down the sidewalk as we trekked home....how very Hansel & Gretel of her. If the squirrels follow us from the park, I'll know how.

I know I'm being kinda chatty tonight, maybe I didn't need that nap after all. Oh, one new thing is that Mia can hang out in her sandbox in back, and I can watch her through the window while making dinner! Mia playing outside without me. Liberation for us both! The door stays open, so she comes in to check on me often then heads back out to her beloved sandbox.