a new friend.

this morning i asked mia who her friends would be today and her response was an emphatic "dirt!". and then she declared "mia happy." which made my day. mia is happy.

***

there's no more chacha and it's kinda sad. mia says charlie's name loud and clear. yesterday i asked her if she wanted to go home and see charlie or go and visit her daddy at work..."charlie!!"

we went to visit josh anyway.

what's new.

mia's done with her first week at her new school, she got her first haircut and memorial weekend came and went. we've been busy with a bunch of nothing.

one week later.

mia's in love with her new school. by day 3 she was no longer crying when josh dropped her off in the morning and is so worn out at the end of the day she just wants to go "hooooommmme" when she sees me.

• she has now pooped 3 times without screaming or blood. she still has the initial fear of going but that's it. once she gets going it's not a problem. you can't imagine the kind of stress this is taking off of all of us - it's wonderful. yesterday she was in the bathroom with me while i was taking a shower and needed to go poop, i would open the shower door to check on her every now and again and she yelled at me to close the door. she needed her privacy to make her "wow! stinky poopoo!" hee hee - she's growing up.
• her vocabulary is growing more and more. she says "potty" now instead of the weird "fafa" thing she had going on. i give complete credit to the daycare as they actually take her all day long.
• she has discovered the joy that is the sandbox. my house is compeltely covered in sand. the other day i went to pick her up and she was playing in the dirt and when she saw me she splayed out and pretended to be swimming. in the dirt. that's my girl.
• she drinks from a cup instead of a sippy every chance she gets. just a week ago she was all choking and covered in water. ah, but now she's a big kid.
• no more sippy cup at nap time!!

the haircut.

she loves it. some of you out there are all "it's crooked. it's too short. it looks weird." and to you i say - BAH! mia loves it. it has to be this short to keep the hair out of her eyes when she's in the water. and it's not crooked - it's curly. so there. last night mia spent her entire bathtime pouring water over her head. she is a different kid with the bangs. but holy moly she's not a baby anymore.

memorial weekend.

yardwork, gymnastics, swimming and the zoo. that pretty much sums it up. we slept in as much as mia would let us (we're teaching her to snuggle and relax in the bed instead of jumping on our heads - it's a long process) and just lounged around all weekend, really. a pretty perfect weekend, all in all.

my aunt nancy invited su over for a bbq and a swim - so much fun! lat year mia was a little lump in the pool. she enjoyed it but wasn't overly impressed. this year she turned into one of those kids that insists they're not cold as they're shaking and turning blue.

mamma jamma. damnit.

for the past 2 weeks mia has been saying "damnit". at first we thought it was just something that sounded like damnit. surely our little angel hadn't picked up a curse word from her parents. no, that wasn't it at all. but then the pronunciation and context couldn't be ignored.

she would be playing with her something and when she couldn't get it to do what she wanted she would scowl and say "damnit". "uh-oh" has been replaced by "damnit" whenshe drops things. she tells the dog "damnit". sigh...it's all my fault.

but during the past 4 days there has been another development. now she says something like "damma" at random things. it's not damnit but it also has no meaning. it is the first word she's used that we can't put a meaning to. she screams it while she points at the counter, looks otu the window, eats her food, runs in circles....there's no pattern.

mia: damma!!
me: pajamas?
mia: yeah. damma!!
me: frogs?
mia: yeah. damma!!
me: mamma jamma?
mia: yeah!!!

my only guess is that josie has taught her a bit of her crazy language.

damnit.

starting over.

yesterday was mia's first day at her new daycare and it went GREAT! she cried for all of 10 seconds when josh dropped her off and then quickly forgot that she had parents at all.

when i picked her up that afternoon she merely glanced my way as i walked in the door. per usual. when i asked her if she had a good day she exclaimed "YEAH!" and showed me all around, telling me how they danced and played and went potty.

she took her first nap ever without her sippy cup and...get this...she even pooped. i almost fell down dead when they told me. they must think i'm a big liar. mia played "independently" and was a happy kid all day long, they said. no problems at all.

and when it was time to say goodbye? she cried. wasn't ready to leave all the fun behind and go home with boring old mama. and then she sang "E I E I O" all the way home. my kid sings now (of course this probably has a lot to do with josie singing the same song for 2 days, but whatever).

and then this morning she slept in. josh had to wake her up so they could leave. i'm in love already. who knew i would fall so fast?

***

in other news, we had a fun filled weekend with josie and her moms and new friends from inside the computer!

we started out by going to a baby gymnastics class with mia's friend, katia. holy moly was that ever fun! mia ran and jumped and played and watched all the big kids on the balance beam in complete awe. we're totally signing up for this class!

then there was naked baby swimming - and hoo boy those girls had fun! i certainly didn't think that they'd have enough energy to go to the park and then out for dinner. but they did. and how.

low attention span.

mia loves for us to sing to her. she's particularly fond of "wheels on the bus" and will spin her hands around each other and insist "mama. bus." and so we sing:

us: the wheels on the bus go round and round..round and...
mia: shh. shh. (finger touching nose)
us: the mommies on the bus say...
mia: daddy. shh. daddy.
us: the daddies on the bus say shh...
mia: woof.
us: the doggies on the bus say woof...
mia: mama! la la la (the cue to sing the elmo song)

and so on and so forth. she can't be bothered to hear the whole verse. i suppose i should be grateful that i don't have to sing the whole song but geez, she's so rude sometimes. :)

mia did it!

no, she didn't poop...

she's growing more and more independent these days. every day when we get in the car she has to clip the carseat buckle herself. same with her booster seat. "mia do it" followed by "i did it!"

of course last night i couldn't tell if she was wandering around the house saying "do it" as she tried to shove a vhs tape back in it's case or "damn it" because it wouldn't go in. hee hee.

***

today is mia's last day at her daycare center. she's been loved and spoiled there since she was 3.5 months old and it's a sad day. she's completely in love with her teacher, ms. bonnie, and ms. kimberlee does her hair for her everyday (since josh can't figure out the rubberbands yet). she has friends that she hugs and kisses and plays with and fights with everyday.

but it's also a really exciting day. it's time to make a change. we're moving to a much nicer facility and into a class where she already knows some of the kids. so it'll be fine. right?

wish us luck.

chatty cathy

mia's been talking up a storm lately. more than just her usual chit chat - new words are flowing out all the time and it's hard to keep up with how much she's learning. she knows some of her shapes and colors, she can remember things from days ago, she can is learning to recognize emotions and can put on a happy/sad/angry face if you ask her to. and really? it's all freaking me out.

mother's day 2006

we had such a nice weekend. josh's parents came down friday night and woke up with mia, letting us sleep in until the unthinkable 8am. it was wonderful! later in the day josh's brother and family came by for a bbq. mia was so excited to see her cousins. the first thing she asked me for on sunday was to go outside with the big kids and splash. she cried and cried when i told her that they were gone.

sunday we cuddled in bed until mia got too bored. and then we just sat around and enjoyed the day. it was perfect.

what i can't get over is how much more of a KID she is these days. and an awesome one, at that.

daddy's girl.

suddenly mama isn't good enough anymore. mia has figured out that her dad is pretty darn fun and that he doesn't always know that mama has said no already. twice she has not wanted me to take her to read her final book of the day "no mama. dada." and if she needs the bathroom in the middle of the night she cries for him to join us in the bathroom. maybe i should be sad that i'm not always her parent of choice anymore but honestly? i have been waiting for this - mama needs a nap :)

she’s a good mama, that baby.

mia has taken to wrapping everything she can in a “baby blanket” ... when she’s done with her dinner she wraps it up in her napkin, rocks it on her shoulder. then throws it on the table and yells “all done, mama."

she's finally fallen for a stuffed animal. two actually (because everything is TWO! these days). first there was yoyah (grover). i have been wanting to get her a grover doll like the one we sent her cousin and internet friend for a long time, but i knew that she would just toss him aside. well i finally did it - and she's in love. she force feeds him dinner (which she then yanks out of his mouth and gobbles up noisily), makes him drink out of her sippy cup and even sleeps with him.

a week or so ago she noticed a teddy bear that has been sitting on a shelf in her room since before she was born and insisted that i bring it down for her. she hugged it like it was a long lost friend and it hasn't left her bed since. every night she places grover on one side of her pillow and te-ey baur (teddy bear) on the other, puts them both in the strangle hold and says "two."

outside!!!

it's all we hear these days. she has to be outside or life is simply not worth living. we were doing yard work this weekend and she was a great help - even offered to fix the drip system for josh.

towards the end of the day she screamed bloody murder until we put her in the truck. and so we did. we rolled down the windows and closed all the doors and left her in the truck while we finished up the yard work. weird baby.

allergies.

mia's got her mama's allergies, it seems. they knocked her out for a day with the puffy and goopy but for the most part she seems to be ok. she's like a little mutant baby evolving past things one at a time. good thing, she looked pretty pathetic.

poop. and.

tonight mia pooped a big poop. a poop that made her angle herself in strange ways on the potty and strain and cry. but when it was all over she stood over the toilet and exclaimed...

WOW! POOP!

it's progress, the more proud and the less afraid she is of pooping the better it is for all of us. so...all together now...WOW! POOP!

***

i forget exactly how it went but i'm quite sure that mia used the word "and" while talking to me today. she's amazing.