Mia drives: the car, me crazy...

places to go

Yesterday was a little more than tough. We had a rough night again. Mia is teething. Her last two molars are coming out and making the gums around them swollen and painful. So, we were up for Motrin and Orajel. That lead to a bit of a cranky morning. Now, I'm not used to Mia waking up at night or being cranky the next day, so I was pretty cranky myself. We did have swim class as a nice diversion, though. Mia's doing well, siting on the wall and jumping into the water and swimming to me. She keeps her head facing up instead of down, so she drinks more water than she should.

Mia does NOT like babysitting

We had a group playdate at Auntie M & Gwen's, but it wasn't for another 1 1/2 hours. I didn't want Mia to be worn out and cranky for the playdate, so we had lunch in the car and watched some Little Bear. The playdate was fun and informative. Melissa had some yummy snacks. About 1 1/2 into it, Mia was showing signs of sleepiness, so we said our good-byes.

Mia will NOT share her Eebee...

After a nice long nap and playtime (Mia helped me clean out my car by 'driving' the car with the help of her snake) with Mama, my friend Jillian (the birthday girl) came over with her little baby, Kayli. Daryl, Mia and I babysat Kayli so her parents could go celebrate her mama's birthday childfree. This was the FIRST time Kayli had been left with someone other than her parents! We needed her to be bump and tear free for the birthday girl's return :)

...or her Dada

Mia:

would NOT share her Eebee doll...understandable

would NOT share her Mama or Dada...kind of understandable

wanted to eat Kayli's food, use her spoon, and drink from her sippy

finally warmed up to Kayli the last 10 minutes

Kayli:

Wasn't really interested in Mia's Eebee doll or her parents

Wasn't thrilled about being carried by Mia's Mama or Dada (brave girl very interested in the fireplace, metal dining table and all areas made of tile)

Loved playing with Mia's purple ball and weird big eyeball from the MegaBloks set

Just wanted nothing more than her woobie blanket and to suck on her thumb

Kayli relaxin with her woobie

It was a fabulous experience for us all..Mia would probably not think so. Mia doesn't really get possessive when other kids are around Daryl and I, and she usually shares very well. But this time, Kayli's mama or daddy weren't around, and I don't think Mia liked that. This kind of gave us an insight what having a second child may be like.

Oh, Mia says weendow for window. It's the cutest ever. Also, canama for camera.

Video of Mia and her lifejacket (yes, in the living room) Mia says 'I do it' and 'help you'. You can barely make it out, but she said those two things later with her Dada when she wanted to 'do it'and to 'help' him help her. She also kept asking for the boat :)

dibe = drive, butt = buttons, nake = snake

where did the day go?

where did the day go? Ask Mia that, and she'll start looking around the room for it :)

Mia and I shared a shower this morning, and she looked so cute in a big, fluffy towel I had to grab my camera. It was a full house at Music Together class this morning, songs this week were very up beat and had different tempos...things that rile kids up. There were kids running everywhere and in every direction. Mia was pretty overstimulated, especially the last 15 minutes. After class, I talked with out instructor, Jephta, to see if any of the other classes she teaches are smaller. Nope. She's pretty popular. After next week, we're changing tunes again, and she said they'd be a little more mellow. Where did the chants go? After class, we grabbed some take-out and headed for Daddy's office. We also brought along some cookies. I was in the mood to bake last night, but I just can't have the cookies around the house! Everyone at the office got to deal with them :) Lunch with Dada, then off to nap. We woke up in time to hop over to a playdate (I brought some cookies ...must get them out of the house!) at Lachelle, Danny & Austin's house. We'd never met them, and I was a little nervous, because they are a little older. Danny just turned 4. The boys were great and we had a wonderful time. Auntie M and Gwen were there. Gwen was all wet from playing with her new sippy cup. She was pretty happy about it. I meet some new mama's, too. It was just a very nice playdate where chat flowed easily and the kids had fun. Lachelle had an inflatable jumper set up in their backyard. Mia was hesitant about jumping with the crazy rough n tumble boys, but had a lovely time standing/jumping with her 15 month old pal, Lucy. Their swing set wasn't the common wooden one, it was the metal kind with a tandem swing, 2 big kid swings, a slide and a hangy thing that resembled rings. Mia enjoyed the tandem swing, right up until she was joined by her friend Sarah. Not into the tandem thing. Mia then requested to be put on the big kid swing! I warned her about holding on tight so she wouldn't get an owie. She was on long enough for me to get a pic, but then she wanted off, off, off! After 2 hours of fun, we were ready to go. We still had some unfinished business at the library, so off we went. Mia really enjoys running. It's her new thing. As soon as she hits a sidewalk, off she goes :) So, she ran into the library, played with beads, snuggled on the sofa and listened to her mama read a couple of books. We paid our $1.50 fine, checked out another 8 books and took off towards home to meet up with Daddy, who got home early...a little after 5, but that's way early for him.

Fabulous...

What a fabulous mood Mia was in today! From the moment she woke up...(she usually introduces me to things in her room....window, Niles, cup, cow, turtle, book, cat...) until she went to sleep. She was so playful this evening. Running around and rough housing with her Dada and me. We tickled and played and hung her upside down. She smiled and laughed and hugged and kissed and snuggled :)

On our drive to Little Gym this morning, we sung with our Music Together CD. She was having a great ole time in the backseat clapping, tapping her knees and singing away. We had a great time with our friends at LG, but it sure was crowded today. I think there were many makeups being made up or something. It was crazy full and stuffy because the AC was set for a smaller class. Half way through, Mia went up to the window, looked outside, banged on the glass saying 'out, out'. One of her little friends tried to escape through the lobby. A few of us are rethinking the LG thing. We're going to try out Capital Gymnastics next week to see if it's a better fit for the next session.

After class, Mia and Murphy checked out the multitude of crickets (some squished, some not) outside. Then we hung out in Petco for a while. The rabbit was especially lively today. We then ran an errand for GCS. It's fun going to different areas. I'd never been to this industrial section of Austin before and it was rather interesting. We then drove up to a park, and when I turned around to help Mia get out of her car seat, there she was rubbing her eyes. Home, James.When she woke up...slowly and softly saying 'my Dada, Mama, Niles, my Dada' over and over contentedly, I couldn't resist going up there. She introduced me to various objects in the room, we read some books and headed downstairs for a snack. Oh, library books were due Friday, so off to the library we went. We found 6 more great board books, and Mia played with a couple of kids at the computer. We had to put the found books on hold because my card was safe at home (fresh from being laundered and sitting on the dryer...must remember to empty pockets)...no card, no books. So, on to the park. This is a park super close to our house, but we'd never been...it's been pretty hot! We had it all to ourselves. Mia played with pebbles (she 'swam' in them, too), her shovels and pail, then warmed up to the playscape. She kept looking up at me and saying 'happy'. We sure were!

Pull up a park bench and watch Mia play

Mia's Singing Debut

Meela sings a tune

We started off today with a playdate at Andrea & Colton's place. It was a music makers playdate where the kids were encouraged to explore their voices with the fun of a Karaoke machine :) Mia picked up the mic, and after getting her police hat on, was ready to wail. The machine was set to echo, so it made for interesting sounds. Mia enjoyed saying 'hello'. Everyone brought some favorite music so we could take turns and maybe learn some new songs. Mia and I brought our Music Together CD and played 'The Earth is Our Mother'. Another hit was Meela's 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'. After that, the musical instruments came out, the kids snacked and played, and the mamas snacked and chatted.

Mia, Ryleigh & Colton hanging out

Storytime

After a relaxing car ride over to Auntie M & Gwen's place, we hung out there for another playdate. Yes, we are social flutterbys. Cheng Chen brought some yummy noodles, and Mia kept going between my plate with the noodles and Auntie M's plate with a blueberry muffin. We met 2 new moms and their little ones. Mia really had fun with Gwen's new spider puppet book and relaxed a bit on Gwen's bunny chair. After being there for an hour or so, Mia started getting a little frustrated with little Lucy (naptime, Mia?) so we said our good-byes until next time.

Live & Mia, the lounge lizard

MC Mia

On the road again...

We packed up the car, dropped off Niles at his hotel and hit the road for Port O'Connor, Texas! It was great leaving on Thursday because there was hardly anyone else on the road. We stopped off in Lockhart for dinner. While in Lockhart, we usually have BBQ, but we decided to live wild and dine at Mr. Taco. The food was surprisingly wonderful, and Mia had a great time dancing with the mariachi's. We stopped again in Victoria for some soymilk (for my chai) and a good leg stretch. Mia talked me into a Little Bear DVD. Ok all she did was point at it and say 'a bear' which means Little Bear. Even though we didn't get to the house until 11pm, Mia was in great spirits due to, of course, Little Bear :)
Friday morning Tom and Daryl took off on the boat in search of big fish. Dee, Mia and I headed for the beach. Now, this was Mia's very FIRST beach experience, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I must say that the beach is lovely. Soft sand, smallish waves and the shallows (water only up to my knees...and PERFECT for Mia) go out for over 100 yards. While I was setting up camp, Nana tried coaxing Mia into the water. Mia just wasn't sure at all. When Nana asked her where the water was, Mia threw up her hands and gleefully yelled 'EVERYHWERE!!!'. Mia finally go their toes wet and loved it. She had a fun time walking the few feet between Nana and her Mama. She was so proud when she would make it to the other side. She did have to overcome the slight slope, mystical moving sand under her feet and little waves hitting her from the front and the back. She now has a frame of reference for seagulls (she saw pelicans last time), waves, shells and the beach. Nana had a phone meeting so she took the car for a little bit to get a better reception. While she was gone, Mia and I filled up 3 buckets with sand and made quite a sand castle topped off with a feather. Mia enjoyed sitting in the hole we made while digging. We had a snack and reapplied sunblock. When Nana came back we played for a little bit longer then went back home for showers and lunch. Mia ate soooooo much and took a looooong nap. I was able to get a little bit of work done then Daryl and Tom called to see if I wanted to be picked up to go out fishing. What a question! I was out the door before the phone disconnected :) It was a beautiful day on the water. Calm with a nice little breeze. I caught a hardhead (not a good eating fish so we just throw them back) the first time I threw my line out. I ended up getting my line tangled into a birds nest (a big knot so we usually just cut the line) so I had to switch rods. As soon as I threw that one out, I hooked something BIG. One problem. My reel was stuck! It just wouldn't turn!!!! Daryl grabbed the WD-40 and I ended up having to reel that fish in 1/2 turn at a time!!! Well, I caught myself a 26" Spanish Mackerel. Yay me :) Tom and I finished up the day catching shark after shark, but poor Daryl didn't get one bite! Oh, his bait kept getting stolen, but didn't have a fish to show for it. Tom got tired of catching fish, and I was about to reel in my last shark, when Tom told me to give my rod to Daryl and let him reel it in. Daryl was adamant about not wanting any one's 'pity fish'. He was cute. Saturday morning the guys went out again, but didn't catch anything. While they were gone, Nana, Mia and I hit the beach again. It was strangely calm. Not a wave and the water was so clear we could see our feet and hermit crabs!!!! There were oodles of hermit crabs. Mia wasn't too impressed, but I played with them for a while :) Mia swam a little and played in the sand a little. Oh, before we went out there, Mia log rolled down the bottom half of the stairs. She wasn't hurt, just a little scared, so everything after that added insult to injury. The poor thing stepped on a shell. It didn't cut her, but hurt a little. Then when we got home, she scratched the side of her face a little. She gave up and went down for a nap. She woke up in a great mood! :) Paw Paw, Dada and Mama watched the Red River Shootout while Mia hung out on the porch with her Nana and Memaw. Mia enjoys throwing Lego's into the cooler, off the porch and onto Memaws car. She was loving on Daryl's grandpa's beanie baby bear, and all of a sudden threw him off the balcony! Nana asked her if he flew. Mia said 'no'.
A new thing Mia does is saying she's 'pretty' when she'd all ready. Mia held her Nana's face in her hands and said 'pretty'. It just about melted Nana's heart. Mia wagged her tongue all weekend. Her lips got a little salty in the water. She does like to pucker up for some of my Burt's Bees lip balm :) Mia also had a great time playing with her new flashlight. Nana taught her how to hold it under her chin...soooo spooky...and say Boo! After the UT game, we all headed out to the boat so Mia could get some fishin' in :) We walked down, and Mia got all excited. She had her new little backpack on. She calls it her 'pack pack'. It had her little Barbie fishing rod and sunglasses in there. Her Daddy put a real hook and some bait on there and helped her cast from the end of the boat. Paw Paw ended up salting her line by putting a little live croaker (we use them for bait) on the end and secretly dropped it in the water. Mia, with a little help from her Dada, reeled in her very first fish!!!! She LOVED it, but would NOT touch it. She asked her Paw Paw for a boat ride, and Paw Paw always says yes. We tooled around a bit, and Mia was in heaven. Since we were there since Thursday night, it really did feel like a little vacation. Mia played with Nana, Paw Paw and Memaw so much, I was able to relax and watch our baby in action. This morning we said our I love yous, gave out all our good bye hugs & kisses and headed home. We had a Mexican meal in Cuero at Don Bravo's that I can definitely say was not the best tasting, but is sure was shiny (a little on the greasy side) :) Mia and I shared a cone from Dairy Queen... a treat I'll only indulge in on road trips. We're home, Mia is napping (that was way earlier...it takes a lot of work and time putting all the pics, videos and blog stuff together), I'm doing laundry and Daryl just picked up Niles from his hotel. We're home.

click here for more snaps of our wild weekend in POC

Beach Bunny

Crabs

First Fish & Second Boat Ride

Mia danced to mariachi music while in her chair. Ran around silly...with her tongue hanging out, played with her new flashlight an Mia danced to mariachi music while in her chair. Ran around silly...with her tongue hanging out, played with her new flashlight and wanted more and more of my ice cream

Rough Night ~ Happy Day

I know it's after midnight, but I haven't been to bed yet, so I'm going to refer to Wednesday as 'today'.

Mia had a rough night last night...well, we ALL had a rough night last night. Mia kept waking up and crying 'mama' in the most pitiful voice ever. We tried milk, rocking in the rocker, singing...all the usual stuff, but she kept waking up. I finally asked her where her boo-boo was and she pointed to the back upper left part in her mouth (it's awesome that she can let me know what hurts. It takes a lot of guess work out of being a mama) Ah ha! Teething!! A little dab of Orajel and some Motrin was all she needed. We just aren't used to those rough nights, but she only needs her last two molars and then she's DONE with teething FOREVER!!! What's interesting is that after a chat with Sarah about how our girls acted rather uncharacteristically last night, we agreed that both the girls are up to teething....the full moon was last week...we checked :)

The Snapper slept in til 9 then we had to skedaddle over to Heartsong for our Music Together class. We missed last week due to illness, so we had a pleasant surprise...new songs! I love the Native American chants. They take me to another place. Mia had fun spinning in circles, tapping her thighs and singing 'ba ba ba', playing with the rhythm sticks(we've moved on from the shaker eggs) and all the musical instruments. After class we had a birthday party to go to :)

Phoebe is two!! We joined Nathan, Cheng and friends in celebrating Phoebe's second birthday. Mia loved the balloons, swimming pools, their bow-legged dog (I can NEVER remember his name!), the sandbox and playing with her pals Blake and Livie. There were several other kids there, too, but Mia kept close with her friends. I enjoyed hanging out and chatting, the Mexican food, and watching the kids have a great time devouring their cupcakes. The icing was piled high on Mia's, so Juliet bravely scooped it off and added it to the top of hers :)

After a much needed nap, we went over to Lisa's house so Mia could play with her friend, Samantha...and her little brother, Jack. Mia played peek-a-boo with baby Jack (4 months old), and later helped Samantha out with her sippy cup. Oh, I must say that during the first two events of the day Mia didn't push or hit, but it didn't last long at Samantha's. Samantha had a little bit of a hard time sharing some of her toys...understandable, so there was a little pushing and shoving by both girls. Lisa and I scored it pretty even.

Mia helping out a friend in need of juice

I'm so glad we have a glass-top dinning table...Mia gets sooooo messy! After a wonderful dinner (and Mia asking for cake...which we don't have)with Daddy, we sat down in the living room to go through Mia's loot bag from the party. She does NOT like the horn or the kaleidoscope. She digs the ball and Play-Doh. She called the dolphin a penguin and watched while her Daddy played with her top. Niles and Mia both loved the bubbles, and I loved how much time it took to go though everything and how much Mia (and Daddy and Niles)had fun :) It was a super day, and now I should go to bed...after a busy morning tomorrow, we're heading to the coast to meet up with Nana, Paw Paw, Memaw and hopefully some big fish!

Post-dinner silliness

Livie & Mia hangin' out by the pool

Mia & Blake playing in the sand Cupcakes!!
Mia enjoys a cupcake
Juliet enjoys a cupcake with a double shot of frosting

Happy Birthday, Phoebe!

Lessons in behavior modification & positive reinforcement

Daryl and I really don't have any complaints in regards to Mia. Until now. Lately, she's taken to pushing and hitting other kids. They are usually younger and in 'her' space. If they're too close, she pushes them. If she can't push, then she smacks them on top of their head. Daryl and I have been doing a lot of reading (primarily Dr. Sears) and soul searching, and we've come up with a plan.

• when with other moms and kids, let the moms know what's going on. It'll help prepare them in case something happens, and lets them know that I'm aware of the problem and am working with Mia about it
• Praise Mia when she's gentle and plays nicely
• if she pushes, show her how to touch gently
• if she hits, remove her from the situation and explain that hitting hurts & if she does it again, we'll leave
• if she hits again, we're gone. We just leave, and I briefly explain why while we're leaving

So, Monday morning we went to a playdate at Lisa and Keri's. I told the moms what had been happening, and it really opened up a dialog on discipline and just being generally open about issues we're facing. Mia played well, but then hit, I followed the plan, but she hit again, so we left. It was stressful for me, but this is something that we feel that if we address consistently, that it will soon be a non-issue.

Fun before we 'left the building'

Later that afternoon, Mia and I took Niles to his Dr. He was in need of his rabies vaccine and his yearly checkup. Well, our poor schnauzer has hookworms and fleas. He got his shot, medicine for the hookworms, and a pill to kill all the fleas and Frontline for the ongoing flea maintenance. Mia had a great time playing with the other dogs in the waiting room, but didn't like being in the exam room until she realized it was Niles that was going to be checked out by the Doc, not her :)

Fancy girl with her scarf

Today we went to Little Gym. We had a great time. We had to miss all our classes last week due to our colds. Mia hit a kid once, I took her outside in the lobby area, sat her down and explained the no hitting and being gentle thing. I also told her that if she did it again, we'd leave. All of this is in a serious but not ugly tone. We went back in, and Mia was wonderful for the rest of the class. We then went to the office and had lunch with Daddy. It's so nice seeing him in the middle of the day. Mia and I went to the park and played for a while before heading back home for a nap. I totally forgot we had a big group playdate at the Arboretum at noon, so we missed it.

Mia & her pal, Blake

After Mia's nap, we went over to our friends, Juliet & Blake's new house. It's so beautiful. They've only moved in boxes, the furniture is being moved this weekend, so Mia and Blake had a lot of room to run around. She has hard wood floors, so the kids really enjoyed hearing their footsteps while running around. Mia and Blake hung out on his new picnic table. They really do play together so very well. I think Mia just thinks she can push the little kids around. When we got home, Daryl was already grilling up some chicken fajitas. Mmmmmm

Mia & Blake enjoying his table