it's the little things

Changing the sheets with Mia is fun, fun I say, fun! Here are some snaps of Mama's little helper:

Wheeeeeeeeere's Mia?

I can't fiiiiiiiind her!

I still can't fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

THERE SHE IS!!!!

Proud to announce that our family is growing!

After much thought and consideration, Daryl and I have a couple of new additions to our happy family. Mia's finally a big sister and she loves it already!

Introducing Lola and Mog!

Aren't they sweet? Both are goldfish. Lola is the orange fantail, and Mog is the black moor. They are so much fun to watch, they sat with us at dinner time (they ate also), and Mia was enthralled...ok, so were we! Mog tends to hang out on top and Lola, well, she's everywhere :)

We had a blast going to get them. There were dogs all over the place that Mia got to meet. She also hung out with a rat that when she saw him, she called him a mou...short for mouse. She has a mouse puppet and LOVES the book Goodnight Moon which features a young mouse that Mia always points out. Between the young mouse and the red balloon, I don't know which she loves most. She walked around the corner and encountered BIRDS!!! Blue and yellow ones...quite bright and a smidge noisy...Mia was in heaven. She kept saying 'bir bir' while signing the ASL sign for bird.

Mia the Explorer

After a busy few days, and swim class on Friday, we spent the rest of the day hanging out with each other reading books, walking down the block and playing at the park.

Mia really isn't very interested in the playscape any more. She'd much rather walk around and explore things she finds amongst the leaves. She was thrilled when she found a stick that was shaped like a boomerang. She left me sitting at the playscape, while she walked around the park...making sure I didn't come. Mia's really been into having some alone time and time to figure things out on her own, then she'll look up and give me a big smile. A smile that says she's proud of herself and maybe...wanna come over here, mama?

All of this gives me a chance to watch her and think about how much and how fast she's growing up. Take swimming for example. She can totally submerge for a few seconds. She knows when I say 'ready, go' that I'll be dunking her in. She holds her breath and is ready, willing and so happy when it happens. When she floats on her tummy, she's starting to kick and doesn't mind floating on her back for a little while. Yesterday's class was so eventful, exciting and fun.

Gonna go explore...see ya Mama!

um, I'm still exploring and you're buggin' me

Sumo girl tasting one of her finds

Messy proof of a fun day

shots, boo boos and zombies

Day 2 of the move for the Andersons and Sarah and I chipped in by watching Livie while the movers moved. We hopped over to Sarah & Isabel's pad after Mia's 15 month check-up.


On the check-up note, all is well in toddlerhood. Mia is NOT getting her second set of molars, but is still teething up a storm with the lower left canine that has reared it's pointy little head, and the the lower right, that is still just puffy and awefully painful. Apparently Mia will be hurtin till the teeth come all the way out not just erupt. Not fun! She's in the 50% (we compare %'s from her last visits to make sure she's growing properly...not a contest) for height and weight, so she's stretching taller, and 75% for the size of her noggin....does anyone know who may have a sizable head around here?... Joe? Tom? All the more room for her big brain :) Mia received 2 more shots and a finger prick to check out her iron levels. Daryl was able to meet Mia's Dr and was impressed. Mia loves her froggy stethoscope :)


After the visit, Mia and I hightailed it over to help Sarah with the kids. We figured 2 mamas vs 3 toddlers are better odds than 1 against 2. We all walked over to the park, where the girls had a fun ole time climbing and exploring. One mama of twins came over to compliment us on how we let the girls explore and try new things without being up their butts. She actually said we were inspirational :)

There were only 2 casualties today, speaking of letting them roam, Livie fell while holding a sippy cup and slightly busted her upper lip and while Mia was rock climbing, she slipped and cracked her head. We were a little disappointed that Isabel didn't have any battle wounds. She was busy making sure that she the balls that we brought were accounted for...and helping console our injured daredevils....oh, don't worry she dares to climb all over the playscape and hanging off the edge of the open areas to say 'hi'.


We headed back to Sarah's for lunch. The girls ate well and Sarah cooked us up some sweet potato fries and veggiburgers...um, very tasty, but if you're wondering what I'm doing up at this hour, those spicy black bean burgers give me the worst (painful, not smelly) gas!!! The oh, so tired girls forwent their naps and played and played and played then played some more. No naps were taken today, could you blame them with so much fun going on? So, they just ended up waling around the apartment like little zombies. Lori came by to tell us all about her moving woes and ply us with Silk chai....mmm good and maybe one other reason I'm still up :) Caffeine at 3pm, never works out in my favor.


Around 4pm we went home & Mia crashed for about an hour once she was snug in her own bed. Then fun with Daddy and a conversation with her Uelita on the phone, Goodnight Moon book (which she calls 'moo boo' (oh, Mia's vocabulary is through the roof says her Dr....I'm bragging a little) and then night night for the snapper.

Livie diggin the park


Rock climbing


The Snapper is out there somewhere enjoying a little moment of solitude

Old grannies

pebble fun

snack time

enjoying the Bell's fridge toy

One Box Minimum

Lori, Josh & Livie are in the process of moving to the burbs, and they came up with a fabulous way to mix packing with having one last party at their old pad:


~ From their Evite ~
c'mon over to our soon-to-be-old house to help us drink the beer in our fridge, eat some pizza, and say farewell to this old house. the moving truck will be here early thursday morning, so there's a one-box minimum....you gotta participate in helping us pack one box before you get a beer ;-p


What fun! Mia and I got there first, so we were greeted with a prize of a bottle of liquor! Daryl came a little later...as did Sarah, Erik, and the Bell, Brian & Rayo, Nicole and Will. We all helped the Andersons pack up and party. Mia had a blast feeding Will some snacks. When heavy things were being carried around, the 4 kiddos were sequestered to Livie's crib.

Baby Jail

Flash Packer, Erik

Isabel cleaning up all those darn sippy cups

Miss Marks-a-lot

checking out her pretty red, yellow, orange, blue, green and purple hands

While I was making dinner last night, Mia amused herself, and me, with her new 'washable' markers. Since she was little, she's been going to restaurants with us and lately we've been letting her play with the crayons more and more. They've been going straight into her mouth less and less.


I realized that you have to work pretty hard...press firmly in order to color with crayons. MARKERS!!! Markers are almost instant and so vibrant. So I sat her in her booster chair at the kitchen table with her markers and paper. This is what we found out:


* while intentions are to touch the paper with the end of the markers, sometimes they did travel to her mouth and elsewhere

* switching hands is more difficult that you'd think. If you're holding one in the right hand, then the left hands wants in on the fun and will always grab the part with the color soaked felt

* paper isn't the only fun thing to color

* give a cheek two strokes with a marker, and yes, Mia will look like 1/2 a cat

* surprisingly 'washable' markers are indeed washable

* Mia is an artist!

(enlarge to see the finer points of artistry)

12 Roses

Our second wedding anniversary was so lovely. I did manage to not peek. More so because I didn't want to spoil it for Daryl...THAT is love :)

I woke up yesterday, and found a single rose on the counter with a pink post-it note attached that said:

12 roses for 12 (specific) things I love about you. It's too bad I couldn't find 10,00 roses because there are easily that many reasons I love you! Happy Anniversary

Now, Daryl frequently tells me that he loves me, but I'll teasingly ask him 'what do you love about me, specifically?' So these roses had a lot of sweet meaning to them. I found 11 more roses with notes scattered throughout the house and the last one in my car. It was a romantic scavenger hunt. He's the most romantic husband, and I get him forever and always.

Mia and I picked up Daryl for lunch, and let's just say that Mia brought creative spaghetti eating to new heights! After lunch Mia and I came home, and I started making the enchilada dinner (my mom always made enchiladas for my dad on their anniversary) for my sweetie...complete with rice, beans, German choc cake and really good beer.

When Mia went to sleep, Daryl got something else for our anniversary, but this isn't and Adult rated blog!

It's 11:11pm and all's well...

...except that I can't sleep :)

Mia had a bit of a rough day today. Her molars are killing her and all she can do is walk around and moan and walk and whine and walk and fall, moan and whine. I was so distracted by Mia's unusual uncheerfullness, that we missed Lapsit and the Y. We did get a lot of snuggle time. She loves to bring me books then sits in my lap, points at various animals/objects, turns the pages while she hums to herself. I think I play the part of a warm chair in all of this, and that's just fine. We did get to go for long walks today and hit a couple of parks. Mia tried to pull herself up, but missed a bar, her hand went through and she hit her head super hard. She cried until I pointed out a ladybug. She kept on with her business after that, but frequently came back to check on her bug.

Here little ant bites are almost totally healed. I take daily walks around the property looking for ants and poo, yes, that does happen to be in the Mama job description. Oh, along with teething, Mia isn't eating much, which is to be expected, so we gave her a bottle of formula tonight to make sure all is well with her vitamins. I don't think she noticed that it wasn't her regular milk.

It's almost our anniversary! I think we've been celebrating it since Friday. Daryl has one more gift for me hiding in our guest bathroom. I'm not supposed to go in there. He has plans on taking it to work with him and bringing it back home tomorrow evening. He's asleep right now, and the bathroom is soooooooooo close. I love him so much, so I won't ruin his surprise, but for the record, I haven't even peeked and I really wanna :)

Have I mentioned how much I miss Suzy? It's only been 3 days! We usually talk every day, this is killing me. My mom finally got her phone back, so we were able to chat for the first time since she left last Sunday. It was a short call, bc it was while I was making dinner, and Daryl was trying to get some berries into the fussy baby.

Since Friday....

...Mia had her second swim class on Friday, and truly loved it. She was so ready to go and she really doesn't hold anything back. I was totally surprised when she went a little further under the water on her jump than I had expected. Andrew, the instructor, reminded me that my reaction, good or bad, really affects Mia, so I needed to stifle my nervousness for 30 min and let the little fish swim. Oh, Mia turned 15 months old. Friday afternoon I really wanted to get together with friends (Mia really wanted to play outside...always hanging out by the window, but we were still treating the ants), but Lori was closing on her house (Yay Lori, Josh & Livie!!), Isabel was teething, and Suzy was packing for Florida. *NOTE: Suzy is going to Florida to visit family for 3 weeks! How wonderful for her and Livie, but we'll really miss them. I miss them already! Suzy, when you read this, say hi to Danielle, Jennifer and your folks for me :) Hope Livie has a great time with her cousins!

When Daryl got home, we hit the Waterloo Ice House @ Parmer & Avery Ranch. It was a 50 minute wait. Did it bug us? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooope! They have a great playscape that was crawling with kids and parents that actually kept up with their kids. Because there were so many kids, Mia had a shadow the whole time, but did climb up and slide a few times. We'll be back!

Saturday was crazy fun! Daryl was on full time daddy duty while I went over to Sarah's for chai. It's always a blast hanging and chatting with these girls. Lori brought some tasty breakfast sweets & I brought my choc chip banana bread fresh from the oven. Well, after chatting the morning away and almost falling asleep with Isabel, I had to hurry home to pick up the fam and head out to Dripping Springs for their Founder's Day Festival. After we had to head back home for the stroller, we were on the road again to meet up with Dee, Tom, Laura, Joe, Melissa and Gwen. It was a perfect day. Overcast and breezy. Mia had her first taste of funnel cake and we all got to visit a little. Gwen had a little stranger anxiety, so I wasn't able to hold her. I've only held her a few times, so I sure am looking forward to snuggling up to the sweetie and getting to know her and not be such a stranger. We all walked around checking out the booths and Nana bought Mia a sweet flower/ribbon halo...for the angel of course :) and then Mia let Nana and I hold her hands while we walked a bit, then she wanted to do it all herself.

After the festival we went back to Tom and Dee's. They're really doing some amazing and fast work on the add-on to the house. Mia actually chased the bigger chickens a little and hung out with her little chick. She's getting the hang of 'gentle' pretty well. It was so nice just to sit back and relax. Mia stalked the guys until they let her play on the pool table :) Then off to home and when Mia hit her bed, she was out!

Daryl got some daddy-daughter time this morning while I went shopping. When I came home, Daryl told me that Mia got cold, went and got her jammies, took them to him, sat down and put her head down (that's how we dress her...head first). It was so sweet. Also, as Suzy warned me, it's the Daddy Show. She couldn't do anything without her Daddy for the rest of the day. I love that they were able to spend such wonderful bonding time together and are so very close. Yeah, he's a super dad..didn't fall far from the tree. Tom is so amazing with Mia, so natural and loving. She's so lucky to have such a warm and loving family.

p.s. Bart, their 19 year old cat died Saturday of old age. Bart was always so loving and friendly. On the arm of the sofa, ready to be pet. He will be missed.

Mia with Bart when she was 9 months old.

Little duck ready for a dip

Can I go out and play, Mama, pleeeeeease?

I'm gonna get you!

Mia and her shadow at Waterloo

Yes, my husband is this handsome

Gals strollin along (Mia with her 'Mia' bloomers)


First funnel cake, but surely not the last


Princess Nana

Two little teapots

Chasing the bawk bawks

ants, but not in her pants!

We had a pretty eventful day yesterday. We started at the Dr.'s office to make sure Mia didn't have an ear infection. She's only had one, but it really snuck up on us. It ends up she's teething, again. This time it's definitely her 2 yr molars! It's been a little hard on her, but then she's done with teething forever.

When we got home, Mia wanted to play in the backyard. After applying sunscreen, getting juice, water and sunglasses, we were outside! Mia checked out her sand box, then decided to say hi to our neighboring dogs through the fence. She never goes over there, but she was lucky enough to find something new to play with. A piece of poo! Niles always goes out of range and I'm able to clean it up, but not this time. In the house to wash her hands in a flash! That's when I noticed her hands had been bitten by ants. She had red splotches and white bumps. I rubbed on some stuff that works in about 5 minutes, but then you never feel the sting, itch again. It must have worked, bc Mia hasn't even noticed the bites.

poor baby




you are so not my Mama

After a loooooooooooooong nap...from 11:30 to a little after 3pm! we got ready for our visit from Amanda. Her Matt has been out of town on business in Ireland for 2 1/2 weeks, so we invited her over for dinner. We all walked down to the mailbox for a walk and some fresh air, while waiting for Daryl to get home, then we hung out and snack while Daddy grilled. Mia was a little shy of Amanda at first. Mia wrapped her arms around one of my legs and buried her head for a few seconds, then they were friends and played and laughed. The company and dinner were both great. Daryl did the honors of cleaning up the kitchen while Amanda and I gave Mia a bath. It was nice chatting and stuff, it had been a while. So, Amanda got to see how we lived with the little Snapper :) Oh, she brought the BEST brownies in the world...Sarah would have loved them, she loves brownies :)

The Grillmeister

We read stories while Mia had her milk, then brush teeth and off to bed. It's hard going to other people's homes, especially since Mia got mobile, but we realized it sure is easy to have company over.

note on the soap shark pic

I just logged on to flickr.com to add some snaps of Mia, and noticed that I had a message from someone who collects pics and stuff of 'soap' and wants to add the pic of the bar of soap that has Mia's teeth marks on it:


1 comment 4 views
Mia is a soap shark

dbz885 says:Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Soap, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

Funny, huh? http://www.flickr.com/groups/342525@N23/

Shoe Fetish

While I was hanging up some laundry in the closet this afternoon, Mia helped me by 'reorganizing' a couple of shelves worth of my shoes. I'm glad the boots are down low and the nice ones are up high :)

Lori recently blogged about her top 10 list of her fav things Livie does. I think I'll borrow that idea. Imitation is the best form of flattery, they say.

(written to Mia)

I love when:

• You look out the kitchen window on your tippy toes & look back at me ~ letting me know that you want to go out and play....it doesn't matter if it's raining, either.
• You 'help' me type while I'm emailing. Many friends & family members have read your special little footnotes.
• You love the the water to rain down on you when you're in the shower.
• You get to the front hall ASAP when 'Da' comes home, reach up and say 'Da' (pick me up now).
• You take turns. When brushing your teeth, you open up and say ahhhh and let me brush then it's 'Mia's turn' and you brush for a while...Or sucking snot out of your nose, you let me use the bulb, then you used to love to stick it in your mouth, but now you just hold it and smile until it's 'Mama's turn'. If there's anyone else at the table, you let them have a turn, too. With the toothbrush that is.
• After you've been sipping on a sippy cup that has a straw, you suck in your food really fast at meal times. You make this cute noise, and you move very fast.
• When Daddy or I'm in the shower and you're on the outside, you throw in your bath toys one by one. Thanks sweetie :)
• You reach out and gently poke our face parts...nose, mouth, eyes, ears and you especially LOVE your Daddy's eyebrows.
• Every time you wake up you love snuggling in my arms, sipping on your juice and we read book after book.
• When you settle in to sleep at night, we can hear you through the monitor. You go over all the words you know and put 'Mama' & 'Dada' in there often as well...'Mama, teta, Dada (Daddy), dah (dog), bah (ball), Da (Dada), Mama, Ni (Niles), Ta (Uelita), Mama, Ma (Max), Da, papa, bur (bird), tata (tiger), Dada....until you gently, softly fade off.

Under the weather

It's a grey day, and it's pretty fitting bc Mia woke up (at 9:45 - almost sleeping for 15 hours!) very snotty and with a low grade fever. It's rainy so we can't play outside, and we can't do anywhere bc she's sick. We're trying to make the most of it. Mia's been very snugly and we've been reading every book in the house, some twice or three times. I built a pyramid of pillows for her to attack and climb, but she'd just rather snuggle. She's usually on the go, so it's been nice.

We had an awesome time with my Mom this weekend. Daryl and I ran errands, went out for lunch and grabbed some play sand for Mia's sand box. We installed it all, watched her go up and take the sand from the box and throw it in the yard! :) Glad we got a few extra bags. She climbed up to the top of the pile and played with her shovels and buckets. She really digs transferring sand from empty yogurt container to a small clear plastic container. She only tried to eat the sand once. Once was enough, and she'd rather not have seconds thank you very much. After the sand box exploration, Daryl and I went to the Drafthouse for dinner and a movie. I LOVE when my mom is here! She's the best baby sitter!

She left Sunday and took her little Max with her. Mia crawled around looking for her 'Ta' (short for Abuelita) and 'Ma' ( well, that's Max). Daryl, Mia and I spent the evening out in the backyard. Mia played around and Daryl sparked up the grill. It really is nice to sit back and watch your family enjoying life.

Oh, Mia has been diligently trying to walk from one surface to another. Going from the patio to the grass can be tricky :) Blustering wind doesn't help, either.

It's my shovel!

Not so tasty sand

out goes the sand!

gotta little fish on our hands!

Mia had her first swimming class yesterday, and she took to it like a little duck. The swim school was fabulous! The saline pool is warmed to 90 degrees and no chemicals :) We got there a little early, so she was plastered to the waiting room glass ready to go and giving her Abuelita and me horrible looks as to say, 'why are you keeping me from such fun?!?!?'. When it was her turn, we went in with 5 other mama/baby pairs (6 is the limit) and was introduced to her instructor, Andrew. He really has a way with kids and adults. The class is set up into stations where we practice different skills. Jumping in (Mia LOVED!), free play...to get their bearings in the water without you holding them, laying on her belly on a flat float to get the sensation of floating on your belly without being held, the ring grab...toss different colored rings on steps so the babes could retrieve them, at their comfort level, move to a deeper step. There were songs, jet boats, slides.... Mia really enjoyed it and wasn't nervous at all. We've signed up for the rest of this class and the whole summer session! Yay Mia!

Then we all went by and said hi to Daddy, Unca Joe, Nik, Doreen and Adam. Mia said 'bye bye Da Da' it melted Daryl's heart. :)

Lora and Liam came over to drop off Mia's party goodie bag that we'd forgotten the day before and we had a wonderful little impromptu playdateJUST what I needed :) Liam and Mia really do play well together, and Lora is such a lovely friend.

Back at home, Mia napped for about 1 hour then was like on crack for the rest of the afternoon/evening. She didn't take her second nap and I was having a rough afternoon in general, so when Abuelita came back from getting her hair done, I got outta there :) I walked to the mailbox, checked out some catalogs on a park bench and chatted on the phone for a while. Then on the way home, I ran into Joseph and Ranger, two of my 8 yr old buddies down the block. They were playing catch, and asked if I wanted to play. I was all over that! They got me a glove and we tossed the baseball around for almost an hour...I did remember to call Daryl to let him know where I was :) I kept saying, 'ok, 3 more balls then I have to go home'. Their rule was that if the ball was dropped within those 3 throws, we'd have to start all over again....I left when it got dark :)

When I got home, Mia had already had her dinner and asleep in bed. Daryl is fierce!! We all sat around, chatted and watched a chick flick...again, Daryl rocks!

Today marks 3 years from the day we met so, we're on our way to a hike and picnic at Lake Georgetown...our first date :) My mom is here to spend the morning with her little girl...Mia's in the best hands, and Daryl and I are FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Let me go swimming already!

Kicking on their bellies

preparing to jump

Having tons of fun singing songs

in her rocket boat-kicking

sliding goodbye

Happy Birthday Liam!!!

Mia's friend, Liam, turned one today and we got to help celebrate! After a makeup class at the Little Gym, we headed on over to rock the party :)

Speaking of rockin, Lora got a sassy new haircut! She went from ponytail mom to a hot mama...it's all spikey and piecey like a rock star! Great short cut for summer. Ok, enough about the hair. Ohhhhhh they had a bubble machine. The kids really dug it and Mia did too, but she was right in the flow and pretty much got her hair washed :)

Yummy snacks, tasty cupcakes and such fabulous friends to hang out with. The kids were playful but mellow, oh, except for Samuel. He got hit in the head a couple of times, and it add insult to injury...he had just come from getting his 15 month shots. Poor sweetie. Mia insisted on walking around and showing all the mamas that she was holding a frog in her mouth. I think this was the most fun she's had with so many kids. I talked to my Mom about it and she thinks it's because standing and walking around puts her at a higher level and she may not feel like such a victim. Anyway, she was very confident today and had so much fun.
My Mom is driving up here right now! Isn't that exciting? Mia is napping to prepare for the Abuelita and her Max.

Mia (frog in mouth) & Lauren

Mama & Mia

Rockin' Mama Lora & Birthday Boy Liam

Keitha & her Samuel

Yay buuuuuuuubbles!


Kaylee & her Mama Lauren

Kaylee, Ana, Kanai, Mia & Liam