It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's day 2 of being snowed in. I can't remember the last time we got this much snow. It started on Friday evening. I think we got somewhere around 2 feet - too much for Mia to even stand up in. Andrew shoveled the drive-way yesterday so she had a place to play. I use the term "play" loosely. I'm not sure she knows what to do with all of this white stuff; she mainly just stands and eats it. Andrew attempted the 2-feet-deep snow angels; I made a snowman; and Mia just watched and ate :) Below are some pics. I've also included a video of her singing a snowflake song she learned at pre-school. It's our current favorite.

I'm a little snowflake, I seem round;

I fall from the sky and I don't make a sound;

When it's cold I stay all day;

When it's warm (but Mia says cold again) I melt away.

Typical snow day fun... Mia's own version of a sno-cone.

Best Christmas Pageant Ever - Literally

Remember that book, "Best Christmas Pageant Ever?" I hadn't thought of it until I typed the title of this post. Well, Mia had her first Christmas pageant tonight. And, I'm happy to say the kids were nothing like those in the book; the 2-year-olds did a fabulous job standing up there in front of 100+ people and singing and smiling. They were just too cute for words.

I had no expectations going into this. I was a tiny bit worried that she might see us and come running off stage. But, then I thought about pre-school and how I thought she'd scream the first day and she completely proved me wrong. The minute I saw her walk in behind her teacher leading the rest of the class to the stage and then smiling this hilarious smile as she stood up there waiting for the first song (because the teacher was telling them all to smile), I knew she was good to go. And, I was just so proud of her singing all three songs looking into the faces of a sea of strangers. It wasn't until the very last song that she found us - and she gave us a little wave.

Afterwards, we took her to Wendy's for an M&M frosty. She sat down and told the guy sitting at the table next to us, "I'm two and I was singing!" She then proceeded to sing Annie's "Tomorrow" and the little snowflake song that was part of the show tonight REALLY loud - several times. I think she enjoyed the little taste of fame that she got tonight.

Here are several pictures and a video we took of her last performance tonight:

Mia pre-show:

"Jingle Bells"

Mia and her friend from school. They ran up on stage and gave each other a huge hug after the show. It was just so cute. The hug below was re-enacted for the photo opp.

Mia enjoying her frosty post-pageant.

Mamma Mia

It's funny to watch little girls with their dolls. They (or at least this one) really do have a nurturing instinct. Mia's favorite doll is Baby Ava. She feeds her; walks her in the stroller; wraps her in a blanket and rocks her to sleep; holds her and kisses her; sings to her; soothes her when she's "crying;" and puts her to bed every night (Baby Ava has a crib in Mia's room). As I'm writing this, Mia has Baby Ava in her stroller doing loops around the first floor pretending they're at the grocery store. She keeps stopping by to tell me she needs to "check out."

The funniest thing happened the other morning. Mia was bringing Baby Ava down the stairs and accidentally dropped her (no, that's not the funny part). Baby Ava took quite a tumble all the way down the stairs. I thought Mia was going to cry. Once she got down the stairs, she picked up Baby Ava and was kissing her and asking if she was ok. I said "Poor Baby Ava. Is she alright?" And, Mia said, "Yea. She's just had a really crappy morning." I cracked up and then thought to myself that "crappy" was Mia's first "bad word." And, she totally got that from me. At least, I'll take this one and Andrew can take the next :)

Here's a video we shot of Mia and Baby Ava a few weeks ago. She told us she was going to sing her a song, but instead, you get to see a bit of Mamma Mia in action.

I Love You; You Love Me

It's Halloween! And, guess what Mia wanted to be? Not a princess. Not a fairy. Not even a VT cheerleader (believe me, I tried). She wanted to be Barney - her favorite "person" other than mommy, daddy and the grandparents. I don't think I've talked about Mia's love of Barney on the blog. That's literally the only show on TV that she's watched since she was one. We've tried introducing other shows - but up until a month ago, it was the only thing she'd watch. We know every Barney song, every character that's been on that show for the past 18 years, and have a pretty hefty collection of Barney DVDs.

Every holiday gets better as Mia gets older. We even were able to paint pumpkins with her this year (see below). She loved going trick-or-treating (we went twice - to the UVA Lawn last night and then tonight in our neighborhood). Although, I have to say, I think she had even more fun when we got back to the house tonight and she got to answer the doorbell and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters. I was trying to feed her dinner, and the doorbell rang every two minutes. She'd jump down off the bar stool and she and her friend Trudy would race to the door to open it and give the trick-or-treaters candy. Very cute. Now, what to do with all of this candy...

First Day of Pre-School

The moment I've been worrying about for months has finally come and gone. And, I was so proud of how Mia handled herself. She did much better than I did. Here she is before we got in the car to go to school. Her toys of choice for the trip? Kitty (of course - we don't go anywhere without Kitty) and my (purple) tanning bed glasses from years ago, which she found in a drawer this morning. Which also stayed in the car once we got to school. Can you imagine her walking in with those? Talk about embarrassing.

When she woke up this morning, I asked her if she knew what today was, and she said, "school!" (We've been prepping her for this for a while now.) She was excited and kept talking about how she'd get to play with markers and Play-Doh and even got dressed with absolutely no fussing - a rare occurance these days. Once we got close to school, she started asking "what u doing? where we going?" I guess she noticed we got off Interstate much too quickly to be going to nana's house. When we pulled up at school, she asked again where we were and once I told her, the tears started followed by, "I don't want school. I want Mia's house." So, I gave her a little pep talk in the car and off we went. We walked in the classroom. I knelt beside her and we watched some of the kids play. Her teacher came and sat down beside us and started asking about Kitty, which she was still holding. The teacher asked if Kitty was coming with her to school today and Mia said "yes," so the teacher talked about how that was so great, and Mia and Kitty were going to have so much fun, etc. This was nice because the pre-school literature said "no personal toys" because of sharing issues, etc. So, I was worried about having to take Kitty away as I was leaving. The fact that Kitty could stay relieved my anxiety quite a bit.

I tried to leave a few minutes after we arrived, but this was followed by tears and Mia grabbing me saying, "mommy don't go. mommy watch just a little bit." How can you say no to that? So, the teacher recommended that we go over and see the baby dolls. Another little girl followed us and she and Mia started playing. After 15 minutes and a few more pep talks, I told her it was time for me to go - that none of the other mommies were there and school was just for little kids and teachers. So, she started crying again and the teacher asked if I wanted her to take Mia. I reluctantly said "yes." And, much to my surprise, Mia went to her. She cried for maybe 10 seconds and had quit as I reached the door.

Once I got out in the hallway, I realized I left my car keys in the room somewhere but knew I couldn't go back in to get them. Luckily, one of the teachers came out and saw me standing there. Her first reaction was, "She's not crying. She's already playing with some of the little girls." I felt like one of those overly attached parents. Here I was the only mommy to hang out for 15 minutes in the room, and then the teacher catches me in the hallway like I couldn't bear to leave or something. I explained I was standing there because I left my key in the room, so she went back and found it for me. I swear I didn't do it on purpose!

I accomplished my goal: didn't cry until I reached the car. And, then I cried way more than Mia did :)

When I walked back in school, the teacher was holding her at the door and said, "Look Mia! There she is!" I guess a few of the other parents had come to pick up their kids and Mia was wondering where I was - even though I was five minutes early. Looks like I wasn't the only parent anxious about how the morning went :) The teacher said she did great - no tears whatsoever after I left. When I asked Mia about her morning, she said, "Where's mommy? And. Mommy coming soon." She was re-capping her conversation with her teacher. I'm hoping it was her latest conversation and not what occurred all morning. But, that's pretty much all she told me about it. After that, she was ready to go to nana's house for the afternoon.

First major hurdle accomplished. I'm already nervous for Thursday - day 2 of pre-school. Hoping it goes as well as today did. Looking forward to putting week one behind us.

Pre-school Anxiety - Mommy's, That Is

Today is the first day of school in Albemarle. All of this talk about the first day of school has my anxiety levels about sending Mia to pre-school going from "yellow" to "red." We decided a few weeks ago to send her to pre-school - they just started a class for 2.5-year olds. It was a big decision for me; one that I thought about for months.

Since then, lots of things have been running through my mind. I'm worried about the first few weeks dropping her off with complete strangers and her being upset at me for leaving her there. She's a mommy's girl and especially wants me around people she doesn't know. I worry about someone being mean to her and her looking to me for comfort and me not being there; wanting something, e.g. kitty (her lovey) for comfort, and new teachers not being able to understand her; not having her needs met because teachers are dealing with eight other children; not having an adult with her 100% of the time to teach her right from wrong; etc. Up until this point, she's stayed with grandmas while I worked, so none of this crossed my mind. And, losing that little bit of control and not having me or one of the grandmas with her all of the time is causing me, you guessed it, some anxiety. (Do I sound like I need a Xanax?)

But, then I have to remind myself that it's only two mornings a week. And, that she's pretty outgoing and will do well once she adjusts. It will be good for her to be a little more independent and to learn how to fight her own battles. Still...it's a little scary.

I'm just trying to prep her for what's to come; to talk about school and how much fun it is and how it's just for kids - no mommies, no nanas, no mimis and no daddies. She starts on the 8th - I'll let you know how it goes. Until then, I might get that Xanax prescription filled :)

No Fear

Mia and I went to the pool yesterday and watched in amazement as this 2-year-old girl jumped off the diving board - again and again. It was so funny to watch. She looked so tiny getting up on the diving board. And, then she'd do this grand belly flop as her dad scooped her up and swam her to the ladder.

Mia has always been great in the water - she'll go under, jump off the side, etc. But the diving board? No way would she do that - or so I thought. The next thing I know, Mia's saying "I do that!" and wiggling out of my arms to get out of the pool. She walks up to the diving board and climbs up. I asked the dad of the other 2-year-old girl if he would catch Mia since he was already in the deep end. (In hindsignt, I had no idea who he was so it probably wasn't a good idea to trust him with my baby jumping in 11 feet of water, but he seemed to be doing a good job with his daughter. I think I was still in shock that Mia wanted to do this; my brain was clouded.) Mia gave her usual "no, mommy do it." So I got in and started treading water in front of the diving board hoping I could catch her and swim to the side. The skills I learned as a lifeguard were rushing through my mind just as she walked up to the end of the board and jumped. Just like that. No hesitation. I couldn't believe it. I was in awe. As we were swimming to the side, she said she wanted to go again. So, she went a few times. Of course, when I wanted her to do it later so I could have a friend take a picture for me, she stood on the board crying about how she wanted to get down. So, that's what we got on film :) Figures.

Little Love Bug

Tuesday night, Mia was outside playing with neighbors/friends who ranged in age from one to seven. We were hanging out with the other parents in our driveway keeping a close eye on the kids (because Mia had a few near-death experiences with one of the neighbors pushing her in her car - none of which phased her). I heard some of the older girls asking Mia if M., our 3-year-old neighbor, was her boyfriend. Her natural reaction was "yea," which the girls thought was just hilarious. Of course, Mia has no idea what that means. So, she kept saying "yea" and laughing with everyone every time they asked. Then, the kids decided to go next door and play in the sand box. Five minutes later, the older girls came running up to us saying how Mia kissed M. Now, I'm sure someone put her up to it having heard the boyfriend/girlfriend conversations earlier. On the other hand, maybe she was just doing it to be nice; she does like M. and she likes to give kisses. My first reaction was to laugh. But, then as I was laughing, I had this sense of dread/fear run through me - that feeling of "ohhh no." I can't quite explain it. I think it has to do with the fact that I already see her growing up so fast, and now, even though she had no idea what she'd gotten herself into, she's in the middle of this "Mia kissed M." situation. The stuff that happens when you're in elementary school. And, she's TWO! Oh Lord...

The "Not All Terrible" Twos

I have been feeling so terribly guilty about not blogging, I've decided I need to get back into the swing of things. I'm going to take a different approach and truly blog - not just about the fun things we take pictures of, but to try to capture all of the cute and not-so-cute moments that aren't necessarily on film. With that said, I'll do my best to quickly re-cap the past few months.

The week following Mia's birthday, my friend Megan asked if I'd noticed a change in her behavior. She noticed it with her son, and I told her I hadn't noticed it with Mia - "it" being what a lot of you know as the "terrible twos." THE VERY NEXT DAY following that conversation - no joke - "it" came crawling out from wherever "it" had been hiding. I'm talking a major shift in behavior. Tantrums, "NO," "I do it!," "Mine!" - we heard it all. And, so did perfect strangers. People in the mall or in the grocery store would say, "hi there, aren't you cute!" only to be met with "NO! MY MOMMY!" Which made no sense - it wasn't like they were trying to take her from me. But, that's what she'd say. I'd just give a red-faced apology. It got to the point where I didn't want to take her out in public because I didn't know how she'd react to people. And, it wasn't just out in public. She was screaming in Little Gym, at play dates, etc. Now during all of this, she was cutting her two bottom 2-year molars. And, just when I'd had it and felt myself losing control of my toddler, the teeth came in and her personality switched back. Which begs the question - are the "terrible 2" behaviors related to teeth? In her case, it seems so. I just dread the top two teeth coming in.

This past month, she's been on her best behavior. She has a huge personality and is so much fun to be around. She gets excited about everything - especially swimming. I take her to the pool several times a week - she's even going completely under water now with me - and she's been at the lake house 4-5 times. She's even been tubing with me (yes, behind the boat - she sits in my lap and gives daddy the thumbs-up to make the boat go faster). We also went to the Isle of Palms with my family. It's 20 minutes outside of Charleston - one of my favorite cities. We had a house with a pool, which is key if you have a little one who naps because you can hang out at the pool while they sleep.

Mia is very affectionate. She loves to give hugs/kisses. And, she's very nurturing. She has a doll - Baby Ava, who she named after one of our neighbor's babies - and she feeds her, wraps her in her blanket, puts her to bed at night, walks her in her stroller, etc. She also likes to brush her teeth with real toothpaste and feed her food when we're not watching, so Baby Ava is constantly getting her face washed :)

Perhaps the biggest hurdle we crossed was POTTY TRAINING!!! After months of peeing in the car seat, in restaurant seats, at the playground, etc., she finally decided to go to the potty full-time. And, yes, it was a matter of her deciding. She got the potty thing the first week. But, if she was playing, or eating, or riding in the car/stroller and didn't want to get out, she'd just go in her pants. Finally, I threw in the flag and put diapers back on her. I calmly explained that if she was going to act like a baby and go in her pants, she'd have to wear diapers like a baby. And, I swear, I went to change her diaper three hours after I put it on her (we were in Richmond visiting friends), and it was completely dry. I said, "Mia! Your diaper is dry!" And, she said, "yea - I hold it. I go potty." And, off we went to the potty. It hasn't been a problem since. So, at 26 months, Mia was potty trained - and I was relieved (and proud - you go girl).

Purple Passion Party

Mia's sleeping, and I'm supposed to be packing - we leave for the beach tomorrow morning. But, I can't let myself go on vacation without posting about Mia's birthday. It's been almost a month since Mia turned two, and I feel completely guilty for not writing about it, yet! What kind of a blogging mommy am I?

We threw her a "purple passion" party. I didn't know until AFTER the invites were sent that "purple passion" is actually the name of a mixed drink. Oops! Purple is Mia's favorite color. If you put 100 pieces of candy in front of Mia, she won't be happy until she finds the purple one - that's how much she loves the color. So, we decorated with purple streamers, purple plates, purple cupcakes, purple balloons, and of course, the birthday girl's purple outfit (and purple ribbons in her pigtails). I was especially impressed when a few friends also showed up in purple!

The morning started with Mia's first present - a sand and water table from mommy and daddy. She was sooo excited. This was the first time I've seen her get really excited about receiving presents.

It was supposed to be 90+ degrees - unusually hot for this time of year. We had 30 people coming to our house, so we decided to have the party outside. The day started out sunny and beautiful. Andrew and I worked in the yard all morning - mowing, pulling weeds, setting up all of the activities, decorating, setting up the borrowed tent and umbrellas for shade, etc. Everything was ready - and then it decided to POUR rain 30 minutes before everyone was supposed to be here. The streamers outside started leaking purple all over our bushes and patio - it was a mess! Which meant I was a mess. I had to quickly get over it - after all, it was Mia's party and she didn't seem to care (but all of that hard work - ugghhh!). So, people arrived in the pouring rain, and it continued pouring for the next hour. I'm not kidding when I say that you could see blue sky everywhere - it was just one rain cloud that lingered over our house. But, then the sun decided to make an appearance and the rest of the party was perfect. We went outside and dried off all of the chairs and toys. The sand and water table was a hit (a messy one, at that) - as was the little roller coaster. We also had sidewalk chalk, Mia's Barbie jeep and a super fun bubble machine (a present from Mia's friend, Davis). Mia had the best time. Can't believe our little girl is two already.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend started with a special present from the waitresses at a little Italian restaurant that mom and dad take Mia to at least once a week. She knows the entire staff. Even the chef, who takes her into the kitchen, I'm told. They even have a fish in the restaurant named after Mia. The waitresses gave her an easter basket filled with a hot pink apron, bunny slippers (in the picture), crayons and more. Isn't that so sweet? They also have given her presents for Valentine's Day and Christmas.

On Friday, we went to SML with Andrew's parents and Uncle Chris. We took Mia to the arcade where she rode rides with her new friend (who she met there) - they ended up holding hands and walking through the arcade together - ahaha. She also went to an Easter Egg Hunt, which was hosted by Mimi and Papa's friends, The Pfosts. Several of their grandchildren were there and Mia had the best time. Every egg was filled with candy. So, she'd get an egg and take it to someone and say "open" and then would be so interested in the candy, she'd forget about (or lose interest in) finding the rest of the eggs. The weekned ended with a visit from the Easter Bunny this morning, who gave her bubbles, a musical book and sidewalk chalk. And, then a ride on Mimi and Papa's boat. As Uncle Chris put it, "She was so excited, I thought she was going to explode!" She loved going fast - we have a little daredevil on our hands.

Welcome to the World, Baby Colin

Our friends Jeremy and Christina had a baby boy (their first) on Thursday - Colin James O'Hara. 8 lbs. 2 oz. and little blonde peach fuzz on top. We're so excited for them. Mia saw them a few weeks ago and continues to talk about "Tina's baby in tummy." We explained how she was once in Mommy's tummy. Actually, I made the mistake of showing her my c-section scar and now she CONSTANTLY wants to see where Mia came out of Mommy's tummy - not so appropriate in public places :) Here's a message for Jeremy, Tina and Baby Colin from our family. Love you guys!

Cinnamon Toast Gone Bad

One of my favorite breakfasts as a child was Cinnamon toast. I started making it recently for Mia, and she loves it, too. I buy the Cinnamon and Sugar spice (already pre-mixed unlike the "old days" when you had to actually mix the two) and sprinkle it on the bread on top of a little butter before toasting it in the toaster oven. It's so yummy. This morning, Daddy got up with Mia and decided to make her some Cinnamon toast - only he didn't look at the label on the spice and sprinkled CAYENNE PEPPER on the toast instead. You'd think he would've noticed how RED it was. But, no. And, so he toasted it and gave it to Mia to eat. She took a bite and turned to him and said, "This yucky!" He must not have had much Cayenne Pepper on the edges of the bread - thank goodness - because that was the only reaction she gave. And, he quickly recovered from his sleepy state and realized what he'd done. Of course I can "out" him without feeling too guilty because I've written about LOTS of not-so-great parenting moments that I've had (you know, like letting her fall on her head twice in one week). Note to self for parents - read the labels!

Invitations...As Important as the Party Itself

Mia's second birthday is coming soon. Two! Can you believe it? I ordered her birthday invitations last week. We're throwing her a "purple passion" party because, well...purple is her passion. She loves EVERYTHING purple. I just didn't realize how tough it would be to find a purple birthday invitation. Everything for girls is pink! I've searched around town and online for the past three weeks. Yes, three weeks. I love stationary - it's one area where I can't just settle. I found one that I really liked, but it cost $65 for 25 invites - and, this was for blank invites. To print them cost an extra $20! (Another reason I need to get into the stationary business.) I finally found one that was cute and within my price range - purple with white polka dots (which Mia calls bubbles). It was on www.invitingsmiles.com. And, they had an amazingly quick turnaround time. They had my proof to me in 12 hours.

If you're ever looking for invitations, birth announcements or holiday cards, two of my other favorite sites are www.tinyprints.com and www.polkadotdesign.com. Unfortunately, they didn't have purple invites that I liked, but they have LOTS of other cute ones.

Potty Incentives

Mia is now 90% potty trained. She still has small accidents when she's preoccupied, so I usually put a Pull-Up on her when we're out and about, but overall she's doing really well. I'm constantly thinking of new incentives to keep her motivated - especially when we have to use a public potty. I think the loud flushes scare her - especially with the ones that flush automatically and sound like they're going to suck the toilet down with the water. Or, maybe she's just a germaphobe like me. So, I sometimes have to bribe her to use them. That has gotten better, though. She used to have a fear of all potties outside of our house - even at the grandparents'.

We've used just about every incentive in the book - stickers, M&Ms, gum (yes, she loves sugarfree Orbitz gum - we give her 1/2 piece, which she chews and then spits out when she's finished), dum dums - and my latest - pretty toes. I told her since she's a big girl and goes potty now, she can have pretty painted toes like mommy. So, I painted her toes pink. She was so cute. She sat perfectly still on my lap while I painted them and then helped me fan them dry. It was a very exciting moment for her. She couldn't wait to show daddy when he got home.

Snow Day - Finally!!!

We finally got a good snow day. I bundled Mia up this morning and we went out to play with some of her friends in the neighborhood. Mia lasted all of 10 minutes. She's like her mommy and much prefers the warmer weather. Her favorite part was her little friend D, who kept falling and couldn't get up - that elicited belly laughs from Mia.

Drug Allergy Part 4

Our poor baby has had yet another reaction to medicine - and it's the worst by far. This one was caused by Amoxicillin, which she was taking for an ear infection. What started as little red dots the size of a pin point have exploded into this horrible looking (and feeling, I'm sure) body rash. It looks like an amoeba or something you'd see under a microscope in 7th grade Science class. Her face is swollen - to the point where I saw her at 5 a.m. this morning and went into a state of panic. We rushed her to the ER and they put her on some steroids, which actually have helped A LOT (these pics were taken a few hours after the steroids, so you can only imagine what she looked like early this morning). It's been a rough few months (and a rough 24-hours judging by how I look in these pics:)...

Funny Videos

We were videotaping Mia the other night trying to get her to sing her ABCs. She can sing the entire song, and it's just adorable. But, for some reason, whenever the video camera is on, she just won't do it! What we did catch on camera was her "showing off" a bit and trying to act funny as she was singing and then throwing a little temper tantrum as she tried to wrestle the camera out of my hands. You can hear her yelling "Daddy!" This is because whenever one person won't give her something, she yells the other person's name to let you know that she didn't want it for herself - she actually wanted to give it to the other person (yeah right). This shows another side to Mia that I haven't highlighted on the blog, yet. It's not all peaches 'n cream, as you parents know all too well :) Oh - and it looks like she's going to hit me at the end. She actually went for the camera but I was ready for her the second time. (Although we've been through the hitting phase - not fun.)



This second video makes me laugh, too. She runs up to Andrew, who must have had something sharp in his pocket because she then says, "Owww - my back!" I'm not sure why I find this one funny - I think it's because she just reminds me of a little old lady or a pregnant lady complaining about her back. And, Andrew just seems completely oblivious.

Nose, Keys and Wings

We took Mia to Wintergreen the weekend before last. Andrew was there all weekend celebrating his brother's birthday, so Mia and I joined everyone for the day on Saturday. It was the perfect day - 60s and sunny with lots of snow (they got 5 inches two days before). You didn't even need a jacket. We planned to take Mia to a little ice park they have for toddlers, but it was all booked. (Note - you have to get tickets online in advance - and it is the cutest park with a little innertube ride that pulls the kids in a circle on the ice. Kind of like the hobby horse ride, but they're in individual tubes.) So, we just hung out at the top of the slopes. Mia walked out of the lodge and announced, "Look! It's Nose!" She speaks her version of Pig Latin sometimes, where she takes the first letter and puts it on the end of the word - so "snow" becomes "nose" and "ski" becomes "keys." Her favorite part was the lifts. She thought they were swings and was completely fixated on them. There really is no "out of sight, out of mind" with her. Once she sets her mind to something, she'll mention it 100 times - even as we were eating lunch, we kept hearing about the swing ("wings"). And, Mia got to ride her first bus, which we had to catch to get back to our car. She LOVED that. People were laughing at her because she yelled "bus!" the entire time we were on it and would then cover her mouth and laugh, like "I can't believe I'm finally on a bus!"

Happy Birthday Aunt Sarah!

A little birthday wish for Aunt Sarah. We forgot to mail your card (sorry!). We hope you have a good day!

kkkkkiigffggggggggggggtttttttyyyynnnnnnnnybbbybbynynyybbybybybyby (That's a note from Mia - kind of funny how the last part looks like bye-bye.)

Note for all other viewers: Excuse the cheesiness; I had to keep Mia interested :)

Dancing Machine

Mia loves to dance. Last week, we were listening to Black Eyed Peas, and I showed her how to shake her hiney while dancing. It was even funnier that the song was "My Humps." She was dancing so hard, she couldn't keep her balance. Here's a bit of what we caught on camera. And, take a look at her shirt - she's wearing it with one shoulder exposed - like she's in Flashdance or something.

Ballerina Kitty Boots

Our friend Katie gave Mia this adorable skirt for Christmas. Mia calls it her tutu and wants to wear it everywhere. Mimi and Papa kept her last Thursday night and said she even wanted to wear it to bed. Here's a picture of her with the outfit she picked out to wear to Nana and Poppy's house a few weekends ago. She HAD to wear the "tutu," so I paired it with a black leotard and tights. I was going to put her little black shoes on with it, but she insisted on wearing her kitty rain boots instead (even though it was perfectly sunny out). I also love the way she pulls it up to her chest - it actually looks cute that way. We have a little Sarah Jessica Parker on our hands, I think.

On the Mend

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. We've been extremely busy this month - especially with my work. An update on Mia - we had our appointment at UVA Friday before last. We got a pretty good report. Her kidneys look good - that was our major concern. There are two minor things they think are causing these infections. It's a little too TMI to post on the blog, but she is on medicine for both. One of the medicines is working very well. The other seems to be working - but if it doesn't totally fix the problem in 3-4 weeks, Mia might have to have minor outpatient surgery. Let's keep our fingers crossed that doesn't have to happen. I can say that for the first time since October, she's feeling much better. We had our first negative culture in three months - so things are really looking up.

Potty Troubles

Most of you already know this because I have a habit of telling EVERYONE everything :) but Mia has had a series of UTIs, bladder infections and other various bacteria infections (five total) since November. Oh - not to mention three drug allergies, which caused hives and total body rashes (we just had two in a row - ugghh). We decided it was time to see a specialist because the infections never seem to go away. We made an appointment with UVA's pediatric urology department. They're going to do an ultrasound on Mia Friday, Jan. 23, to check her kidneys and bladder. At this point, we don't think it's anything serious. But, please keep her in your thoughts. Poor thing probably doesn't even remember what it feels like to feel normal; if it isn't the painful uriniation, it's stomach issues or rashes from all of the drugs :( I'm just hoping we can get it all resolved soon.

Christmas Cheer

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a good holiday. We certainly did. It almost turned into a disaster because Andrew got a stomach bug on the 23rd, which spread to me on the 24th, but I didn't have it as bad as he did, thank goodness. And, we were all feeling fine on Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve, we spent the day at my parents' house. Mia was in great spirits - although she wasn't into the presents as much as I would've thought. She really didn't care about opening them. Her two favorite presents that night were a purple horse and a chair from "Mum," who is Granny, but Mia calls her Mum. She also got a doll and stoller and other toys that used to be mine that Nana cleaned and gave to her and then a drum and other musical instruments, which she loves to play.

On Christmas morning, Mia got up around 7ish and we went downstairs to see what Santa brought. Her big gift was a kitchen. I was sooo excited about the kitchen - much more excited than Mia was, apparently. We had the kitchen all set up when we got downstairs and all she said was "Barney!" because she saw her new Barney doll beside the kitchen. She really wouldn't even play with it until after breakfast - and even then she wasn't that into it. Certainly not as into this kitchen as the one in the toy store that she'll play with for 30 minutes straight - the reason I got her this kitchen in the first place. Oh well. Actually, her favorite present that morning was a little $2 ladybug wind-up toy - of course :)

The grandparents and my sister and her husband came over for brunch on Christmas morning, and then we went to Mimi and Papa's house for dinner. Mia got the American Girl "Mia" doll; she is so adorable. I'm going to keep her in the box for another year or so - she's just too pretty to give to a 20-month-old. She also got some pots and pans for her new kitchen. Oh - and a new Barney DVD (which we've watched EVERY DAY!). She actually wakes up in the morning saying "Barney." I think I know what this year's birthday theme is going to be - as much as I would rather have something cute or girly. Speaking of...Mia turned 20 months on the 26th. Hard to believe she'll be two in four months!

Here's a cute video of her playing with her new musical instruments (a little dark, but you can still see her). Her band mates are Aunt Sue and Meghan.