disney! thanksgiving!

this year we spent our thanksgiving vacation in socal visiting disneyland and friends. and oh my god - it was the best thanksgiving vacation ever! we might just have to make a tradition out of it.

monday mia and i hung out with 2 great friends and their daughters at an outdoor shopping center. they were nice enough to bring a baby stroller for mia to push her cabbage patch doll around in. holy crap did she ever love that thing! she was very serious about it, too. she kept stopping to throw up the sunshade and check on her baby. then she'd throw it back down and be on her way again. all she has talked about since we left is that stroller. guess what she'll be getting this christmas?

the next day was a day of rest for all of us and we had a bite to eat with josh's highschool friend (who mia fell instantly in love with and keeps referring to as "my adam") before taking a long nap. then we took a dip in the freezing cold pool (because we promised mia we would) and quickly traded it in for a warm bubble bath in our room. we finished our night off with ice cream, where mia discovered the joy of a sugar cone for the first time and quickly stole my cone.

wednesday we were off to disneyland ("mickey's house!") with more friends. now, mia doesn't know disney from any other character on tv so there wasn't any worry about her being let down at not being able to see it all but there also wasn't that crazed excitement, either. both good things, in my opinion. i was concerned that there wouldn't really be a lot for her to do once we got inside the park (as far as rides go) but i was SO wrong. she could ride almost everything (as could i) and there was so much for her to just look at that it made the trip more than worthwhile.

her favorite ride (and she loved the rides) was the tram to and from the parking lot. had we only known! she got her own pair of ears with her name on them - she had been asking for them all day long and when we finally got her a pair she wouldn't wear them for much more than pictures. but the pictures, they're cute :)

the one thing she could have done without was the posing with giant cartoon characters. she was fine with them being across the street from her but we kept thrusting her into close contact with them. there was clawing and escape attempts and damn near tears. she now hates every character we made her touch. the others are all still on her good list.

we didn't have plans for thanksgiving when we got to town (we were hoping to visit with family but it didn't work out) but were invited to spend the evening with friends of ours. what a fantastic night that was! an awesome dinner, great company, good kids, no stress - it was perfect. thanks again for having us, guys!

so yeah, we had a really wonderful thanksgiving. and one final trip with mia before the baby gets here. in only 10 more weeks...

more bits and pieces of life with mia

per usual it we have not been good about updating on a regular basis so here is your dump of mia bits and pieces:

too much
any time you tell mia "i love you" now she will respond with "i love you TOO much". which? come on - that's the sweetest thing in the whole world and knowing that she came up with it on her own? makes me cry everytime.

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pronouns
mia's been learning her pronouns lately (why?) and has to assign everything a him/her/he/she/it title. she gets a little hung up on the boy/girl thing but once she gets it she can't stop. charlie is now HIM and that bowl over there? that's HIS. crazy.

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no....
she likes to run through a list of impossibles before giving a correct answer these days.

us: mia, where are your socks?
mia: i ate them? no.... charlie ate them? no.... in the car? no... in my room! silly mia.

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not listening.
when mia's being "bad" she will come and ask you "i listening?" and then tell you that no, she is not listening. then she will giggle her evil giggle. so it's obvious that she knows what she's not supposed to be doing - she just gets a kick out of not being a good listener. little rebel.

the rules

we've been working on "the rules" with mia as of late. i know that might sound kind of crazy since she's only 2 and whatever. but you know what? the kid needs some rules and i need a reason to tell her to get her damned finger out of her nose and stop screaming at people. and so i give you "the rules."

go kings

"i wet." horrible words to hear at halftime when you've taken your daughter to a basketball game and left the diapers in the truck. we lucked out the rest of the evening. she went au naturel and just told me every time she had to go potty. she could have done without pulling her pants down to her ankles and exposing her naked booty to 17,315 adoring fans, but overall i prefer that over peeing her pants. so in the scheme of things, her first game as a walking, talking, potty using person was a huge success. mostly she just liked the chairs that folded up and down. i remember liking those too as a tot. she also enjoyed Slamson, the Kings lion mascot, and my buddy Paul's binoculars.

mostly though, she just enjoyed not watching the game and being in this giant loud place with a ton of people screaming and clapping. oh yeah, she liked the clapping too. clapping rocks.

but in the end, it all comes down to the poopoo with mia. sensing some drama developing with two minutes left in the game, she looked up at me with sad toddler eyes and said the word that daddy cannot respond "the game's almost over honey" to, she said, "poopoo daddy, poopoo." so we ran off to the nasty arena potty and she pooped and sang as i could hear the crowd cheering for God knows what reason. i would have to find out later on sportscenter.

but thank you mia for a lovely evening and at least now i have a good excuse to stay up and watch sportscenter.

"i talk a lot!"

that's what josh and i heard when mia took a break from her constant chatter the other night. she was jabbering on and on and on and on (per usual) while josh and i were having our own conversation and then she paused (which shocked us both) and then told us "i talk a lot!" and immediately went back to the jabbering. i don't think josh and i have shared a laugh like that in a long long time.

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"who broke it?" her latest question. if we come across something that she's done she'll ask us. if we come across something she doesn't think should be like it is she'll ask us. and sometimes? well sometimes she'll just ask us for no apparent reason. of course.

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"where's (fill in the blank)?" where's daddy (she asks josh)? or mia (she asks anyone)? and on and on until we've all been accounted for.

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"my uncle ben" mia found a photo of my youngest brother when he was in 1st grade (he's a senior in high school now, HI, BEN!) and has been carrying nit around with her insisting that it's her uncle ben and that she has to talk to him. all. the. time. unfortunately uncle ben is a teenager which means that he's either never home or sleeping. hee.

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and just because we haven't talked about it for a while...POOP! mia's been pooping almost every day for over a week now. without crying! it's taken a year but i think she might finally be rounding the corner on her fear and trouble with the pooping. thank the lord! she's even just gone ahead and pooped without warning or mention 3 times while she was on the toilet peeing. i know that some of you might be thinking "so what? my kid poops all damned day without telling me." well ours doesn't. ours cries. goes 2-4 days between poops and hasn't pooped in her diaper (besides last month when she was sick) in a year. it's exciting times at our house. viva la poop!

happy halloween

on her third halloween mia was a very scary lion. no really, she was really scary. ok, maybe not. she practiced her growling for days and when it finally came time to scare people all she managed to eek out was a put out "rowr." with her hands in front of her. completely embarassed at my asking her to do it. again.

but she put up with us since we promised to take her to the zoo with her friends and let her wear her costume to school and eat candy with more of her friends. i think it was worth the embarassment in the end.

we didn't end up trick or treating this year, though. between the zoo and the parade and trick or treating mia did at school she had, what we thought to be, enough fun. so we went shopping and to dinner instead and enjoyed what will be our last year ever that we can skip halloween without her knowing. jealous, aren't you?

of course, while we were at old navy we walked by the clearance rack and there was a chicken costume for $4. josh pleaded with me to buy and when i kept saying no he turned to mia and asked "honey, do you want a chicken costume?" and then it was all over.

"my chicken!!" she clutched the too big for her stuffed chicken costume to her chest and wouldn't let it go. telling everyone we passed that it was "my chicken." the next day when she woke up she cried and cried for the chicken costume (that was left in my car) and we had to put it on her first thing when we got home. i think she'll be wearing it a lot between now and next halloween (when it still won't fit her). hopefully i'll manage to get a photo of it soon...