A girl & her jewelry

I'm sure you've read about and seen many pictures of Mia's little pal, Blake. Well, they've always played well together. Mostly parallel play, but they've always been conscious of what the other one was up to. Yesterday, Juliet (Blake's' Mama) and I met up at Robinson Park with the kids for some fun. The toddler playscape is made by Lil Tikes, so it's all this hollow plastic. There's this little door under a platform that the kids love to go through. Well, Blake accidentally closed the door on Mia's fingers. Now, the door and jamb aren't flush...there's a lot of space between, so Mia's fingers weren't squished too bad, but she was surprised and looked at Blake in horror. How could such a good friend do such a thing?!?! Mia wailed and whimpered in my arms, and Blake came over to make sure she was ok. She wanted NOTHING to do with him! The rest of the time was spent by Mia playing with rocks, and Blake doing the same a few feet from her. He'd look over at her a lot with a concerned face, and she didn't give him the time of day.

Mia, Gigi & Blake play

This morning, Mia and I went over to Juliet & Blake's to hang out for a bit. He was thrilled when she walked in the door, and she just went straight by him to his toys. She's very comfy there, and she knows were all his good toys are, so she made her rounds with Blake close behind her. :) A little while later Sarah and Gwyneth came over to pick up some new diapers, and they hung out for a while as well. Gigi (Gwyneth) just turned one, and is a very social and mobile toddler. She went up to Blake and started playing with him. When Mia saw what was happening, she went over and started playing too! A little jealous? The three played well together...they always do.

Blake & Mia made up :)

Then Juliet ( Mia calls her Jet) gave Mia her Christmas gift from Blake. It was a sweet little bracelet like when she had her first summer (it's way too small now). Mia loved it and wanted it put on her on the spot. For the rest of the day, she would walk around with her arm slightly elevated....maybe to make sure it wouldn't fall off. Blake had his black bracelet on, so they matched...Mia's has pink and brown beads, but they're the same style. They are friends again. Jewelry is always the way to go after a tiff :) Mia's first piece of jewelry from a boy!!!

Mia (bracelet & arm elevated) & Blake very interested in what Jet is sewing (Mia's new over night doubler)

Blake with his arm and bracelet elevated, too :)

Mia & I are very much butterflies that are indeed social!

Monday night my sweet husband took wonderful care of our little snapper while I went out to Stephanie's house for an Other Mother (a playgroup) re-gifting party. About 20 moms showed up and we had a blast eating, drinking and chatting.

We all played a fun game where we rotated gifts (that we had around the house...a chance to re-new & re-gift) around to each other based on the book Hand Hand Fingers Thumb (one of my all time favorites...Mia's, too). When the word 'hand' was read, we passed our gift to the right. When the word 'monkey' was read, we passed to the left. It was a riot. I brought a set of 6 shot glasses (Allison, a pregnant mama, got them!) and ended up with a very nice blue-ish green-ish bowl and some lavender soap. Dawn liked the soap, which was a bit too strong for me, so I gave it to her. Juliet LOVED the bowl. It matches her kitchen/living room perfectly. In exchange for the bowl, Juliet gave me the 1 hour sitting time with photographer/friend/mama Bonnie!!!! She won it last week at the Kid's Holiday Party. It was Juliet's idea, and I wasn't going to say no!!!! Andrea T had a good time walking around with icing with icing on her teeth chatting away with other mamas...on purpose. She's a blast! Stephanie, Andrea, Juliet and I got carried away with my camera and took loads of pics....some with an empty wine bottle with the name 'Mommy's Time Out' on the bottle. What's funny is that I only had one glass of champagne, but let some crazy mamas get together, and it gets silly :) This morning, Juliet & Blake hosted a playdate for another playgroup we belong to. My neighbor Jillian (Kayli's mama) started the group a while back. Stephanie and her boys were there, Sonia and her twins, Liesl and her Andrew (we met them at Phoebe's birthday party). I met Martha and her Bethany for the first time. They were great. We all had a great time. Juliet made yummy quesadillas with pureed squash hidden in the cheese ala Deceptively Delicious. All the kids played well together. Aiden & Ava (Sonia's twins) got into it a bit, but everyone was alright in the end.

We have swim lessons and maybe a park playdate tomorrow. I have a wine/recipe exchange party with some mamas tomorrow night, and Mia and I are going bowling...or is it roller skating on Friday. We sure are social :)

Mama's little helper

Mia helped me make some salt dough ornaments. She helped stir, roll the dough out, she pressed her cute little hand print in some, and picked out the cookie cutters we used...she favored the Christmas tree.

She really was a big help, and it was so sweet teaching her and then watching her use the rolling pin that I used as a child. While growing up, we always had so much fun while cooking and baking. We'd sing and dance the Charleston while waiting for yummy things to come out of the oven. My mom gave her rolling pin to me a few years back, and I just love using it with my own daughter.

on the paper, please

Mia's been coloring up a storm lately. She has her own art shelf in the laundry room that she goes to, points and says 'color, color, color, peas (please), color, color, color, peas...' until I get the colors and paper down. Now, if she does this and I say 'later', then she'll drop it and we'll finish what we were up to, and get back to the colors when we can. Once she's liberated her colors and paper from the shelf, we'll sit on the floor and color. If I get up and she still would rather I still color with her, then she'll say 'you. color. peas.' Now, the rules about coloring are that she has to only color on the paper and when she's done, she cleans up.
Well, last week, she drew on the dishwasher. Which, I realize, can double as a dry erase board...the color came right off. Yesterday, she colored on the fridge...with her favorite brown color. I asked her if we color on the fridge. She said no. I asked her if we color on paper. She said yes. I gave her a clean damp sponge and showed her how to clean up her little mess. Thinking that she wouldn't like doing that, therefore stop coloring on our appliances. Nope. she got all into cleaning and actually had a blast! :)

We took advantage of....

....the perfect weather yesterday and hit the park!

Yesterday, it was crisp and cool...a little cold in the shade, but we bundled up and drove out to Katherine Fletcher park. It's about 3 minutes away in the car and about 1 1/2 miles away on a bike/walking trail. Since we weren't sure how long Mia would last, we opted to drive. A friendly squirrel came pretty close and had a snack while Mia watched him from the top of the slide. I'm glad there wasn't anyone behind her, because that little squirrel and Mia had a connection, so she didn't budge till he scampered off.
We walked down to the little creek and watched the water flow by. It was so pretty out there. The trees that still had their leaves so so brilliant in color, and the grass was still very green. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Mia ran into a 10 week old rat terrier named Kipper (after a show that Mia LOVES). She was so excited that she got to meet 'Kipper', and his owner was so impressed that Mia remained cool and composed when he jumped all over her. Apparently, two older boys burst into tears a few minutes before. Not Mia, she was all over this little pup. It was a good thing that she had her mittens on, because he teethed on her a little :) Dada was on it yesterday. He pushed her on a big girl swing, picked her up and zoomed her on a zip line, held her hand while walking by the creek. I went down the big twirly slide with her ( a little boy had bum rushed her, so she wasn't feeling very confident) until she was ready to go by herself, I tried to find the 'hat' to the acorn she gave me, and I wiped her nose...it sure does run when she's cold and running around.


Saturday, I ran around a bit doing a little Christmas shopping, came back for lunch then headed off for my hair appointment. While I was gone, Daryl took Mia up to the park, but it was so freaking windy, they didn't stay long at all. Daryl couldn't find Mia's mittens, so they left after playing for about 1/2 an hour. Daryl said she pretty much enjoyed all the pebbles, sticks and fallen leaves.
When I used to ask Mia to smile for the camera, she would look at me and give me a very sincere angelic smile. Well, that's all changed. Now she'd rather not pay attention to my request, but when she does, she screws this silly forced smile on her face that makes both Daryl and me want to bust out laughing. It's like she's saying, 'look, I'm in the middle of something important, but if you want me to stop all my fun and give you a smile, then this is what you'll get...so stop bugging me'. :)

She's also been doing this thing with her tongue. When she's really concentrating on something, she'll poke her tongue to the right side of her smile..it helps her think. :) Also, instead of saying peek-a-boo, she says keep-a-po0. We think she's learning the right way to say it, but she's so sweet when she covers her own eyes, flashes her hands open and squeals 'KEEP-A-POO!!!!'

Keep-a-poo!

zip line fun:

Doctor Visit & Art Exhibit

I think I posted that Mia was feeling a little crabby yesterday. Well, this morning, she woke up crabby again and this time with a fever. The only time we could get in to see her Dr. was at 11:30. Right smack in the middle of Melissa & Gwen Christmas party :( We hated missing it, but couldn't go with a fever.

On the way over to the Dr, I talked to Mia about what was going to happen. I've been trying to prepare her while we're on the way to things.... To a playdate: 'Mia, we're going to play nicely, not hit or push. We can hug or pat, but not hug or push' To the store: 'Mia, you need to stay in the cart until we get to the pet isle (it's always empty...and there are lots of pictures of dogs, cats, birds....) I've found that she's been more receptive to these talks, and only needs little reminders later.
Anyway...I told her about the nice Dr who's going to help her body feel better, how she's going to sit and be weighed, her temp taken, her eyes looked at with a pretty light, her ears touched and looked at, a round cold thing put on her body to check her breathing and heart...but not to worry, because there's a frog attached to it (I love that Dr. Kilgoar), and that she may have to open her mouth, stick out her tongue and say 'ahhh'. When I said ahhh, that made her giggle, so I did it over and over (other drivers must have thought I was crazy) then she started doing it. Oh, I also told her that she'd get a sticker at the end. Ohhh a STICKER! Mia's big on stickers lately.
Last night, she put one on her nose, one for daddy, one for mama, and even Niles got one. Then she put the rest on her paper...the only other place she's allowed to stick them.
Well, the office was decked out for Christmas with a tree, and little Santa and snowmen decorations everywhere. Mia LOVED it, and she LOVED the fish! She went over and told an elderly lady, that those were fish in the tank, and the sweet woman agreed and asked her what they were doing. Mia replied that they were swimming and eating. That made the woman, an obvious Grandma, laugh with delight. Then it was time to go in, so Mia turned to the woman and said 'bye, love you'. What a charmer.

I love that Mia's at the coloring age because it gives the paper on the exam table a whole new role. The nurse gave her a pen and was amazed when Mia drew a circle and called it a circle, drew another circle and called it an oval, and the final circle was an OCAGON! (Octagon...Mia mistook a stop sign for a circle the other day, so I told her it was an octagon, now it's her fav new shape). The wait for the Dr was pleasant because Mia was all over that table drawing away and I spent a minute or two taking some pics of my little artist.
The check-up went well, and for the first time Mia sat still during the whole exam while I explained what the Dr was doing...everything that I'd told her in the car. So, an infection in each ear , a little cold and a RX for an antibiotic later, Mia got her sticker and was on her merry way. Hmmmm and infection in each ear and a little cold, yup, I'd be a little crabby, too.
What's really sad about the whole thing is that we were going to host a pre-Christmas lunch and gift exchange with Joe, Melissa and Gwen before they headed off to Rockwall. I'm not sure they'd want to come over if Mia may be contagious, Nana and Paw Paw may not either :( We had also planned on going to Krinken, Juliet, Monique & Blake's home for a little dinner party Saturday night, but we can't go to that either. Blake isn't feeling well, himself, so Juliet easily understood.
Before we left the Dr's office, I asked Mia where her drawing was. She looked at the long paper on the exam table, threw up her arma and said 'EVERYWHERE!'

Back in the swing of things

Our crazy little elf

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Gigi loved her birthday cupcake

Wednesday (gosh, is it only Thursday today?) morning we spent at a playdate at Juliet & Blake's home. We all celebrated little Gwyneth's FIRST birthday. She was around 7 months old when they joined the group, and now here she is blowing out her birthday candle and enjoying a very chocolaty cupcake...and she's walking, too! It was fun hanging with everyone.
Auntie M & Gwen were there, too. I really enjoy seeing them as often as we do. Gwen can do something new every time I see her. This was a bittersweet playdate because our good friends Amy Joy and Livie are moving to Philly next week, and this probably was going to be the last time we see them. At least we got to know them as long as we did, but we will miss their smiling faces.

Amy Joy & Livie

Daryl had league pool night last night, so Mia and I went to Chick-fil-a for dinner and fun. In the play area, she did pretty well. She made friends with two little girls, and at one time there was this 9 yr old boy, Kevin who wanted to know how old Mia was. They were the only kids in there, so when I told him she was almost 2, he said 'she'll do' and started playing with her :) He was sweet and coaxed her gently up the huge step/climby things, through a tunnel and down the slide. But when another boy showed up, Kevin ditched Mia and started shooting his 'super powers' at the other boy, and they started running around like lunatics. It did end a little poorly when Kevin, bonked heads with Mia pretty hard, and had Mia in tears. I don't have a problem telling other kids that they need to be careful around young ones, and I asked Kevin to come down and apologize to Mia...he readily did, and I do believe, truly was sorry. It sounds like a huge deal, but from start to finish it took about 1 1/2 minutes. I'm a mama bear, hear me roar! :)

On the way home, Mia noticed all the 'lights, lights!'...christmas lights on all the homes, and kept saying 'again' and 'more'. We drove around for about 30 minutes checking out our not very festive neighborhood. Some houses are decked out, but the majority just aren't. We, will never be compared to the Griswold's (just found this cool link)and their light show, but we do have some twinkle lights out. We skipped the bath, cuz she was so darn tired, and I was, too. So off to bed she went. We had a fun ladies night out. Daryl had a great time and pool and shot a 38. Which is pretty darn good, regardless that he's been out of the league since Mia was born. I hear the star of the show is Tom. Mia's pool shark Paw Paw.

Today, Mia woke up in a crabby mood. I took her to Ready, Set, Play in hopes she'd snap out of it. Nope. Everything hurt her feelings and she cried a little. She was super fragile, so we took off back home after only 30 min. I put her down for a nap almost 2 hours early than normal, and she was out like a light. She was in a much better mood when she woke up. The girl just needed some rest is all. Our pals Jillian & Kayli came over to play this afternoon. Then we piled the kids in Mia's wagon and I took them for a ride to the mailbox and back while Jillian started dinner. Then we all hung out at their place for a bit. Kayli has a new kitchen play set that Mia adored. Even thought there's a 9 month age difference, the girls get along great.

Now that I'm feeling better than ever, we've been busy , but I think that's about it for now.

Here are some shots from Gwyneth's birthday playdate...at the end (you can use an arrow there to skip all the older pics)