Happy Halloween!

The Round Rock Fall Festival ROCKED!!!! It's a yearly event held at Old Settler's Park, by the Dell Diamond, and run by city employees. This years theme was the Jungle. Perfect! They gave a way a coloring book and crayons if you brought a can of food for the food bank...we did, so she got one. They had people dressed up as animals giving out trick-or-treat bags and 'The Jungle Book' Little Golden Books. Mia fancied the colorful bird, but she couldn't get enough of the scary tiger. They had more booths than we could hit. They were pretty easy, but gave out a prize regardless, so the little snapper made out like a bandit. Now, we haven't given Mia any candy yet, so it was interesting to see how into all the candy she was. the colorful wrappers were probably what she wanted, and she didn't like it one bit when we put it away in her bag. Mia put rings around witches hats and rings around spiders, threw bean bags, bowled, took a break on a hay ride. Mia does like those tractors. Mia is a world class cookie stacker! There was a booth were the kids had to stack cookies (Oreos...nice and flat)until they fell. Mia really surprised me, she was great, being little or not! And the girl who LOVES rocks, was a little shy about picking one out of a rock pile to she if she got an ant on the bottom. There was a Kangaroo Hop. The kids hopped until the music stopped then the kid with the plate with the drawn number won a big cookie...they all got bubbles. She even golfed! Running around like a wild zebra was fun, too. We finally found our pals Sarah and the Bell. Sarah's mother-in-law is down from Canada, so she got to enjoy watching Isabel in her little monkey costume...that Sarah MADE...with a bo-pee (belly button) and everything! We sat under the pavilion and snacked on some cookies. I'll tell you, the city of Round Rock really have this event perfected. We ran into Auntie M and little fairy, Gwen. Gwen had a little fever and wasn't feeling well. Poor sweetie. She looked really cute, though :) We were there for 1 1/2 hours then called it quits. The lines were short around 9am, but really got long. We picked up some Taco Cabana (Mia loves those quesadillas), and met Daryl back at the house for lunch. He doesn't come home for lunch very often, so it was very special seeing him in the middle of the day. Mia crashed hard. We told Dada all about our morning adventures, and we're all going next year and making it part of our family Halloween traditions.
I've added some more snaps of today:
Mia's Halloween Album

Auntie M's Spooktacular Party (very short):

Fall Festival:

This girl can party!

Happy Halloween Eve!

Mia does not know what to think of Jenny the little skunk

We had Little Gym today, and we were encouraged to wear costumes....I don't need much encouragement at all! There were only a few other kids dressed up, and I was the only Mama, but I was super cute in my bunny ears. Mia was a zebra, Jenny a little skunk, Lincoln a pirate and Kashev was a football player. Mia rather enjoyed prancing around, but didn't like when some kids tried to 'pet' the zebra :)

Sydney and Mia hanging around

Then off to a Mom's group Halloween party in Round Rock. There were oodles of kids all dressed up. A few mama's did, too. There was a Princess Leia with her little Yoda, Jodie was a devil woman and her little Cole, a pirate. Mari's Miranda was a turtle...the cutest thing ever because she's still crawling. She tried to attack Samantha the peacock, and Sam's little bro, Jack...Mickey Mouse, didn't care...he's 5 months old :) Melanie's little Damon was a super cute puppy. Mia kept saying 'Damon, Damon, Damon....puppy!' Jen's Ignacio was a little tiger, and there were ladybugs, fairies, pumpkins.... Mia had a lot of fun playing with her big kid friends. They all don't seem to care for the babies that much. We ate some yummy food and then came home for naptime. I hope Mia gets up soon, we have another party to hit at Auntie M and Gwen's pad :)

Turtle Miranda attacking Peacock Samantha!

Mia got up around 2:30...well, I nudged her up. She was not a fan of that until I told her we were going to see her Auntie M and Gwen. That perked her up. Back into her beeba outfit and we were out the door. We had a blast! We saw old and new friends, and all the kids looked so cute! I was still the bunny...ears and tail (Mia loved the tail). You know, I thought me being dressed up like an animal might have confused her, but no. It was like ' of course my mama is a bunny'. It didn't faze her at all. Here's the low down on the costume situation: Auntie M was a beautiful Gypsy, Gwen was the sweetest little fairy. Stephanie's older boy, Roarke, was a cowboy, and her little Cole was a horse. Too cute! Anjalika was a devil and her little Anika was the cutest little witch, Ashley's 5 1/2 month old Michael was The Flash :) Gabriel's Kanai was a chameleon, Karen's Alaira was a ballerina, Elsa's Connor was a football player and Amy's Cassidy was a doctor.

Melissa had great snacks and the funnest activities. There was a pumpkin hunt...just like an Easter egg hunt but switch the eggs for little pumpkins. Mia LOVED finding them, and Roarke enjoyed piling them into a wagon and pulling them around. Melissa read some great Halloween books...with Mia on her lap of course. She just backs her butt up to a lap and plops down. There were trick-or-treat bags to decorate with stickers and crayons. There were oodles of balls and toys around the yard. The swing was a big hit. It really was perfect. The weather couldn't have been better, and everyone had a wonderful time.

Storytime

A little bee landed on Mia's pumpkin muffin which Mia was enthralled with. Another lesson of 'look with your eyes and don't touch'. He finally buzzed off, but Mia then thought a blueberry from her other muffin was a bee :)

Mia's little bee

Here's a link to more pics:

Mia's Halloween festivities

white girls can jump!

hi

While watering the plants out front, and waiting for Daryl to come home, Mia splashed in the water and JUMPED for the first time! She's been practicing for weeks, but today, she got it...both feet came off the ground at the same time. Well then she just couldn't stop herself. She jumped till her Dada came home, then her little legs got tired and fell on her butt a couple of times, so she handed out 'high pibes' and called it quits.

Before Daryl got home, I was making dinner and Mia really amused herself. She played with her Leap Frog drum for a while, then grabbed her butterfly book, came and sat in the kitchen and read while I finished up. She just seems so content and happy with herself lately. She really is a joy to be with. Oh, she's become way more affectionate. She climbs into our laps and just snuggles for a long time, she smiles more, and gives out plenty of kisses. Maybe she knows she's almost done with teething. She's also on antibiotics for a minor ear infection. Her pal Blake has become a lot more loving towards his Mama, Juliet lately....he's a couple of weeks older than Mia. It doesn't really matter 'why' she's a happy little camper, but I'd like to know the trigger if there is one, in case I need to pull it out of my hat of magic mama tricks :)

After dinner, we all had a great time playing around. Mia wore her spider trick-or-treat bucket as a hat, did some back bends and head stands, we all made our monster and zombie noises, then Mia and I sang some songs. Then a warm bath, some books, warm milk and off to bed with her poodle dog.

Mia tucking in her poodle dog when she was 14 months old

yay! spider!

Mia's back bends

LOVE

Mia jumps:

Mia plays:

uh oh spaghetti-o!

suckin on her baby's paci
huggin on her Rockies bear from Ita
Blake & Mia
Juliet & Blake
Hangin with the dino

With some help from her Dada, Mia walked around in my slippers. She was much more successful on the smooth surface in the kitchen. She's been VERY into shoes lately. Yesterday, she wanted to wear her pink Uggs. She had them on the entire time Joe, Melissa and Gwen were over....in the sandbox, and everything :) Since they were in Rockwall last weekend celebrating Gwen's first birthday, they missed Daryl's birthday festivities. So, we had them over for lunch. They gave Daryl an awesome set of the Lord of the Rings trilogy...in hardback :) Daryl is going to start reading them to Mia every night while she's in her bath. Melissa and I had a very nice visit while the guys talked about guy stuff and the kids played. Well, Gwen played, and Mia tried to take everything away from her. I think it may be time for another playdate, so she can work on her sharing skills.

Mia usually wakes up after a good night sleep, very happy and content. Today was not an exception. I think one of the best ways to wake up in the morning is by listening to Mia's little groans that turn into her sweet little voice. She likes to wake up nice and slow, play a bit, then she calls for me or Dada when she's ready. This morning she kept saying 'uh oh spaghetti-o'. She got that from my mom last week. Ita says 'uh-oh spaghetti-o', Nana says 'woo who' and Paw Paw still says 'YES'. It was so cute listening to her this morning, I had to get it on video so you could hear her talking. She was saying it a bunch, until I actually found the camera and started recording, so I think I only got her saying it once...you have to really listen :)

We met up with some friends at an awesome new-to us park this morning. The park had a huge Little Tykes playscape, that was just PERFECT for the kids. It's not too far away, I think it may be our new favorite. I hung out with the mamas, and one daddy. Carrie, a new mama to the group brought her husband ( I forgot his name0 and their 5 1/2 month old son. They just moved down from Vermont. Juliet and Amy were the other 2 mamas. We were hoping Cheng Chen and Melissa would be there, but Phoebe was sick and Melissa had other plans. Mia played well with Blake and Livie, she hardly noticed the baby, but did give him a little stuffed Halloween dog that Juliet had given Mia. Juliet brought little Halloween bags for the kids :)

Slippers:

uh oh spaghetti-o:

how cool is this?

I received the following message yesterday:


From:
EebeesAdventures [videos (10) favorites (0) friends (2)]

Sent: October 27, 2007
Subject: eebee on YouTube
Message:

As the creator of eebee's adventures, I just wanted to let you know how engaged I was watching your clips of Mia engaging with the "adventures."

I also wanted to let you know that we've recently launched an eebee channel on YouTube, www.youtube.com/eebeesadventures. I'd be delighted if you'd subscribe as well as post your eebee videos on the channel.Thanks. Welcome to the "famileebee!"

Best,
Stephen T. Gass
president
every baby company, inc.

I've joined their channel on youtube, but I'm still trying to figure out how to upload out videos of Mia and eebee to the channel.

Here are some of videos of Mia & eebee that we've previously posted:

Matt's Halloween Birthday Party

Lil red riding hood & her big bad wolf

Last night, our friend, Aimee, came over to Snapper-sit, so Daryl and I could go to Matt Young's Halloween costume birthday party. It was super fun and we all had a great time.

Here's the low down on the costumes:

I was Little Red Riding Hood and Daryl was my Big Bad Wolf...he wore a cool wolf mask licking his lips.

Amanda was a Geisha and her Matt (birthday boy) was the karate kid...or some martial arts guy...he complemented his girl.

Shane was a cowboy complete with a horse, and his Krista was a fabulous flapper

Diane was Kat von D from the TV show LA Ink...she drew her own tats, and they were amazing. She ended up giving me a very Mom/heart one on my arm. Her Marquis came as a Wii controller. He made it himself, and it was fabulous!

Gary was a Breathalyzer machine, and Loren didn't dress up :(

Adam was the Devil and Matt Miller was a Reaver from the TV show Firefly and movie Serenity (both show and movie were great...check 'em out)

BJ & his girl, Kayla, were, well... I'm not sure. But, they were in Renaissance fighter and his girl costumes.

Matt and Amanda had TONS of food. Chicken fajitas, gucamole, chips & dip, mac-n-cheese, jalepeno poppers and 7-layer dip They asked for our recipies for the poppers and dip a while back and have been making them ever since :) It's quite flattering. Matt's birthday cake was a yummy cake from the Cheesecake Factory.

I played Guitar Hero for the first time! While I was on 'easy' and Amanda was on 'expert' and she kicked my but, I had a blast playing, and may want to get one for Christmas :)....or go over there and play.

me and the Wii

some of the guys

my new tat

a lesson in lip gloss

the gals

some other guys

guitar heroines

Dinner & Dancing at The Oasis

wanting to wear her Mama's dancin' shoes

When Daryl and I first started dating...just over 3 1/2 years ago, we had a double date with Tom and Dee at The Oasis. The Eggmen were playing and we had a good 'ole time. Tonight, the Eggmen were at the Oasis, so we all took advantage of the wonderful weather and met out there for dinner, but this time we had a Snapper along, too!

hangin' with her Nana

Mia was hungry so she was mellow. After her quesadilla, she was ready to cut a rug! She had a great time spinning and stomping her feet. The whole atmosphere was so different, but she really took to it. The only time she sat in her highchair was when the band was on break. She was everywhere, saying hi to everyone, and just having a blast. She danced a little with her Paw Paw, Nana, Dada and Me, but when she could...she was out there doing her thing all by herself.

Dancin' with her Dada

There was this little boy, Nathaniel, who enjoyed dancing just as much as Mia, and he really wanted to dance with her. He kept going up to her with a big smile on his face, and his hands out to her...DENIED! She wouldn't have anything to do with him, but after a few tries, he wore her down and they danced, hand in hand for a few seconds then she was off on her own again. He was born Jan 1st...19 days before Mia. It was too cute to watch.

Snapper cuttin a rug with her Paw Paw

Our camera ran out of juice right after we got there, so I didn't get many shots or much video, but Dee and Tom got a lot, and will be sharing when they can. They are off to Europe tomorrow and have to get up at 5:30am, so I'm sure getting the pics and footage to me isn't way up there on their list. I will post their stuff as soon as I get it :)

taking a break

We all had such a lovely time. The weather was as perfect as the sunset. I only wish they played some slower songs so I could get a slow dance in with my husband ;)

When we got there, it was nice and calm, but towards the end, there wasn't any room on the dance floor!

Thirsty girl after all that fun!

The sound on the video is horrible, but the music in person was perfect:

Then & Now

Isn't amazing what a difference one year makes?

Then

Now

Our Snapper the fish

taking Eebee for a stroller ride

Miss Chantal, Mia swim instructor wasn't in class today, and for some reason Mia did not like the sub. I thought she was really awesome letting me know that she'd stay away from Mia, so she'd be comfy, but that she'd still keep an eye on her. We went through the different stations. Mia sure can 'monkey walk'...shuffling her hands to go across the wall. Mia also really enjoyed jumping in and swimming. I think my frog and starfish hats were hits.

Getting ready for the day with her Ita

Then we lunched and shopped. Now, the Snapper and her Ita (another name change. Guelita will now be known as 'Ita'... that's what Mia calls her) are taking their siestas and I must get to work.

the swimmer has left the building

Mia got some new super cute green clogs that she calls boots. The girl likes her shoes.
Green shoes:

Swim class (Warning: It's mighty long):

Together at Music Together

Mia, Guelita and I had a fun time at Music Together this morning. Mom had never been, so it was awesome that she got to see what it was all the fuss was about. I love how Mia will back her butt up so she can plop on a lap. Normally it's my lap, today it was Guelita's and sometimes it's whichever mama is closest.

We had new songs this week that were a lot more mellow than the ones of the last two weeks. The class was a little smaller, also...both the music and smaller class made for a time the felt tailor made for Mia. She was Guelita's partner for a song, they shared maracas, Guelita watched Mia dance and spin, Mia relaxed in Guelita's arms during the lullaby. It all really was very sweet.

Whole Foods was our next stop. Mia had a salmon patty with mashed potatoes. I had the turkey meatloaf with potatoes gratin w/ goat cheese (yummy), and Mom had the spinach and some soup. We picnicked out on the benches outside and ate with the birds. Mia, well we all were in great spirits. After lunch, we hopped down to Babies R Us for new safety latches for our stove knobs, and ended up buying some new colorful building blocks, a stroller for Mia's babies...(Eebee has been the only one allowed a ride), some tights, long sleeved onesies, pants and I think that's it. It was fun to watch Mia run around, and I only lost sight of her a couple of times. It reminded me of when I was younger and would hide IN the racks of clothes. :)

Dancing with Mama

spinning fun

Lullaby

Mia up close and personal

Yay!!!

all done

Music Together:

She sings a little: