Is it Wednesday already?!?!

After the Raspberry Breakfast Massacre, we shopped, played and napped until Lori and her Livie came over to share a beautiful afternoon with us.

After Mia decided to test her polar bear's swimming abilities in my wine, while Livie looked on, we headed outside! The girls took turns swinging and hung out on the slide until Mia backed up onto Livie. Mia's been practicing backing up to get herself off the sofa and our very high bed. She's pretty much mastered it after a few not so gentle landings on her butt! The girls had dinner together and then Lori and her little bug went home in search of daddy aka Josh.

Raspberry Massacre Clean Up Crew Leader

Yes, polar bears are winos

Mia the Toddler

A few clips (some long) of Mia when she first started to walk.

Daddy Daughter Time

Saturday Mia spent the whole day with her Daddy while I hung out with Sarah and Lori to celebrate Sarah's birthday. I had a fabulous afternoon with my friends, and Mia wore her Daddy out! Later Daryl, Mia and I watched Erik and Sarah's little Isabel so they could go out on a date :) The girls played until Mia called it quits and went to bed. The Bell, however, played and waited up till her parents came to get her. It was fun to watch Daryl interact with two little girls. He's the best Daddy in the world.

Here are a few pics of Mia helping Daddy change a light bulb (she climbed up and back down by herself...a few times), Mia and Daddy reading a book after a nap, Daddy teaching Mia how to use a hammer, and Mia hanging out with The Bell.

Poo Poo the Easter chick

Here's Mia & her new, appropriately named Easter chick compliments of Nana & Paw Paw

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter!

We had an amazing fun filled Easter day. After Daddy made some scrumptious migas and got ready, we headed over to Nana & Paw Paw's house. On the drive over, Mia kept saying 'Nana Nana Nana'. I've been showing Nana's (Dee's) picture to Mia and telling her that she's her Nana. I'm so glad Dee came up with it, bc Mia can actually say it. 'Grandma' was a little hard.

Anyway, we were welcomed by Nana, Paw Paw (changed from 'Grandpa' for the same reason) and Memaw, AND Mia's new chick, who she named PooPoo, bc the chick did just that when Daryl sat her down on the carpet for Mia to check out. So, Mia has a Rhode Island Red chick named Poo Poo :) Out of the mouths of babes. Mia heard the word 'gentle' a lot while hanging out with her new baby.

Carl (Daryl's cousin) and Shannon (Carl's girlfriend) came up from San Antonio. We hadn't seen Carl since Memaw's 80th birthday bash last August, and had never met Shannon. Daryl and I had a great time playing doubles with them. While Mia walked around the house like she owned the place! Joe and Melissa introduced Gwen to her little chick, but I didn't hear what they named her.

Tom made his tasty chicken chow mein, I brought my Italian cream cake that I made from scratch! and Shannon was sweet and came to the party with a luscious chocolate pie. Daryl brought in Mia's portable booster seat, so everyone was able to eat together. Gwen had the highchair and squealed at a water bottle and had a pretty good time while Mia was fed by Nana.

We had a fabulous visit, but on the way out, my husband cracked a cascarone on my head! He'd hidden it in his shirt... actually dropped and broke a previous one in Dee's office and scurried around to clean it up before I noticed. I was completely blindsided. I truly underestimated his sneakiness :) He was sweet, and gave me a pair of Longhorn bunny horns on the drive home.

Mia has been asleep since we got home...about 2 hours ago! She'll probably wake up early, but it was such a busy day full of fun people and things to explore it's nice that she relaxed and gave in to the sleep fairy.

(p.s. Look for the video of Mia's introduction to her new chick)

Note to Mia

Hey Snapper,
I love watching you grow. You've become so affectionate and have always been mellow and light-hearted. While making dinner tonight, I was thinking about how much I'm looking forward to you scooting up a chair to the counter, climbing up and helping me mix a cake, snap the ends of green beans, measure all sorts of good stuff and of course, lick the bowl. You're a great help already. You pull out the mixing bowls and pots and pans and create some beautiful music which to cook by. You have such a ball opening and closing the automatic trash can and love your refrigerator magnet toys, that you seem to be in front of the fridge just when I happen to need to get in there, and really don't understand why you have to move. But when the door is open, you make a bee line for anything you can get your hands on. Oh the lure of the fridge. So many bottles, containers and colorful stuff. You're well aware that's where most of your food comes from, not to mention your 'mi'...milk :) I truly enjoy sharing the kitchen with you little girl, and am really looking forward to sharing the joy of cooking with you, too.
Love,
Your Mama

Romping around

I just had to ask Daryl if the backyard water fun was on Saturday or Sunday...it was Saturday. Daryl mowed the lawn earlier that morning, so it was ready for visitors.


We suited Mia up in her rash guard, shorts and so much sunblock she turned a lighter shade of pale. The swimming pool was full, but the water hadn't sat in the sun long enough to warm up (we did this around 5 pm), but Daddy introduced Mia to the sprinkler. She played with balls and buckets and water, water, water!



Sunday: My sweet husband made blueberry pancakes. My favorite. Mia enjoys them, too. After a bath, she was still purple tinged.


We hit Ready, Set, Play! A place full of inflatable giant slides, crawl Mazes, moonwalks... There were only about 5 other kids there, and they were older, so they stuck to the larger jumpers. Mia hung out in the kiddie area complete with a ball pit, but then she saw the giant slide! I took Mia up and she came sliding down all by herself. Daddy caught her at the bottom. We went up and down up and down up and down up and down up and down up and down :) Mia couldn't stop smiling, giggling and crawling back to the stairs for more, and it was a great workout for me! We had dinner out and then headed home. While Daryl was carrying her in the house, she kept saying 'night night'.


Today: Daddy was back at work and Mia and I were back at the Y for Baby Bumpers. She played very well with Jason (a boy about Mia's age we know through Lapsit at the library). He kept trying to stack the orange pylons while Mia diligently unstacked them. A great team! Of course we had to hit the inflatable bouncer there...

We drove by another beautiful bluebonnet field.... Mia takes after her Daddy and loves to eat the flowers :)

Oh, we had a blast at Half Price Books. They had a mess of little stuffed bookmarks that Mia thoroughly enjoyed flinging them out of the bin, not as much fun putting them in, but then she got to take them out again. Learning all about the concepts of 'out' & 'in' is FUN! Mia is now enamored with a cow puppet.

After dinner, Daryl installed Mia's new birthday swing (thanks Aunt Janice and Memaw!) after dinner, but Mia was so wiped, she went to bed before she could even try it out. Be on the look out for swing pics.