Home Sweet Home

There's nothing like being back home after some fun holiday traveling and sleeping in your own bed again. Oh, and man how wonderfully we slept last night! Mia was an angel and slept in until almost ten this morning. I think she, as well as mama and papa, had a lot of crazy nights and lack of sleep to make up for.  :) Hooray for comfy beds and a fabulous night's rest!


Today Mia got a package from her Great Aunt Charlotte and Great Uncle Harold that was filled with all sorts of goodies. It was delivered the day we headed out of town and our sweet neighbor grabbed it for us so that it wouldn't sit on our porch for a week. 

The package was almost as big as she was, and there was so much stuffed into that small package that I felt like I was pulling things out of Mary Poppins' hand bag!  lol

Out pops the giraffe's head. We LOVE giraffes around here.  :)  All of her 0-12 month photos were taken with her big stuffed giraffe and now we have a NEW giraffe friend - two in fact, this chair and a pillow pet that was also in the box which I thought was a footstool at first. lol

Mia sitting on her new giraffe chair in her new outfit. I was surprised that she was so good at sitting in it all by herself and she was in and out of it all day long. As you can tell by the look on her face, she's lovin' it!

 In her jammies drinking some milk before bedtime as she chills in her giraffe chair.

In other news, as of a week ago and all during our holiday travel, Mia is walking all over the place and seems to finally use walking as her primary mode of locomotion. Whew! She's FINALLY a walker at 18 months, my silly little stubborn baby girl who only wanted to do it on her own terms and in her own time!


Also, I'm writing this blog on my new laptop!!!  Santa (aka, Michael, Deena and Zeus) was terribly generous and thoughtful and got me a new laptop. Thanks to them, the blog and photo updates shall continue indefinitely!!!  :)  It's so incredibly nice and fast and totally problem-free as opposed to my old laptop which I feared was about to die any moment and which would blue screen a few times a DAY. It has a wonderfully clicky keyboard and is so thin and light and fast and doesn't overheat. It's amazing and I'm in love!

Thumpity Thump Thump

Yeah, we have a three time repeat offender. Mia climbed/fell out of her port-a-crib for the third time last night. Needless to say I did not get much sleep at all last night, but it made it so Mia and I both passed out for over two hours during the drive home.


Before we headed home today we went to a friend of my cousin Kristi's house and went fishing. It was chilly, but pretty. Zeus even caught a two foot long gold fish, but unfortunately it wiggled off the line as he was pulling it from the water. Mia wanted to walk all over the place and it made me super nervous, but we all survived and no one fell in the water.  Oh, and I got some cute photos of my little explorer.  :)

Mia and papa checking out the dock and the missing boards that gave me heart failure.

Of course she's FINALLY decided she wants to walk all by herself. Scary!

Matthew, Zeus Karson and Kristi dropping in their lines.

What's this mom? A swing? I like swings.

Did you get a picture of my cute hair mom? Oh look, there's a hole in it! I like finding holes!

What's this mom? A canoe? I like canoes!

What's this? A fishing pole? I like fishing poles!

Look mom, I can wind it just like papa. I'm super smart.  :)

A few other fun photos from our holiday trip this last week:

A moment of fun cousin playing together time.  :)

Zeus working on his Christmas tamales - YUM!!!

The delicious tamales, all wrapped up and ready to get steamed. SO worth the day of work and three hour wait while they steamed!  :)

The shirt that Mia got from Uncle Michael and Aunt Deena. I totally loved it - so fun and gave all of us a good  laugh!  :)

Mia in her first forward-facing ride from Arkansas back to Texas and LOVING the new view. Does she look ecstatic or what!?!

Ear-to-ear grin of our new forward facing girl. She makes me smile all the time!

Playing with her magneto-sketch thing in the store - she LOVES it and can even swipe the top to erase the screen, little smartie!

Mia and her new BFF Aunt Kristi walking through the store and checking everything out - great fun! 

Such a fun day with the cousins before our drive back home. We had such a nice time in Fr. Worth and Arkansas, but I think we'll all be happy to sleep in our own little super comfy beds in our own rooms in our own little house.  :)

Things that go THUMP in the night

Apparently that's the sound that an 18 month old makes when they climb out of their port-a-crib and splat on the floor. Sadness. And the even SADDER thing is that we had not only one, but TWO thumps tonight. Oh my!

Precursor and side note - in Arkansas Mia would sleep in Sadie's crib, but we are back in Ft. Worth on our way home and Mia's back in her trusty port-a-crib. Yesterday was our anniversary and we spent it on the road from Arkansas to Ft. Worth. We turned Mia's car seat forward facing so that I could reach her easier on the long trip and to see if having a view OTHER than the back of the back seat would make the drive a little more tolerable for her. She LOVED it! She was grinning from ear to ear and did SO much better on the drive facing forward. I got the cutest photos of her with her ear-to-ear smile, but I'm not on my computer so I'll have to upload them when we get home. Super duper cute!  :)

We got in about 11 pm, put Mia down to bed and chatted for a little bit before calling it a night. We set the port-a-crib up in the walk-in closet in the room we were staying in and Mia slept until about 9:30 am this morning with no thumps of any sort - hooray for letting mommy and daddy sleep in and for no thumps! We spent the day hanging out, shopping for supplies for dinner and then cooking and eating and chatting. Zeus brought some of his Christmas tamales to share and they were a big hit! He also made homemade Spanish rice, re-fried beans and two different batches of home made salsa - yum! Kristi made some amazing chocolate chip cookies for dessert and we all got filled up on some delicious food.

Well, night time came and Zeus went upstairs to put Mia down for the night. We had the ancient monitor we use at home hooked up and could hear that she was NOT happy about being put down, though the sound quality is not the greatest.  I was debating going up and getting her up for a little longer because she usually goes down really easy, and since sleeping in that morning had been a little off schedule. I was going to get her up to let her play a little more until she was tired, but decided to wait a few minutes to see if she settled down. Suddenly we heard a loud THUD from upstairs but thought that it was the kids playing upstairs and didn't really think anything of it. Suddenly we realized we could hear the crying a little differently and that it almost sounded like it was coming from the stairs. Sure enough, Mia was making her way tearfully down the stairs. Super sadness!

Apparently she'd gotten out, opened the closet door and room door (both of which were cracked open) and crawled over to head down the stairs. We checked her for bumps and red spots but couldn't find any, and when given an M&M by my cousin, she took it and quieted down a little. We thought it may have been a freak accident thing, at least we hoped it was! We let her hang out with us downstairs and play and crawl around a little more and then I took her back up to try and put her down again. I snuggled and sung to her and then put her down. She wasn't to happy about it, but I knelt in there by the port-a-crib and patted her back to try and get her to sleep. She kept putting her arms up and saying "Uh!" I told her I wasn't going to get her up because it was time to go to sleep and I kept patting her. She would calm down and then I'd stop and she'd get back up. I figured I'd step outside the closet and close the door so she couldn't see me and then listen for any climbing. I could tell that she had stood up in her crib, but didn't hear any scratching sound of her pushing her feet against the mesh sides. Suddenly I heard another sickening THUD! I flipped on the closet light and flung the door open, only to see Mia sitting on the floor outside of the crib! I was horrified that she'd fallen out so quickly and on my watch.  :(  Zeus came hurrying upstairs and was upset that I'd "let" it happen again when I was right there. I tried to explain what had happened and how quickly it had happened, but I don't think he realized just how quickly it had occurred. I was able to get her to sleep by laying down on the bed and snuggling her on my chest, and then transferred her back into the port-a-crib. She woke and I had to pat and "sh-sh-sh" her back to sleep for a few moments, but we haven't had any other thumps tonight. Of course, we are both a little paranoid that we'll be greeted with that sound bright and early tomorrow morning when she wakes up and realizes she's back in the port-a-crib. I usually hear her when she wakes up and will be hopping up immediately to get her up when she stirs in the morning and we've put pillows all around the side just in case this time.

Oh my - I've got a climber.

Family Time

We made it safely to Arkansas for the holiday on Wednesday night after a fun stop in Ft. Worth at my cousin Kristi's house. Mia's having a fun time with her cousin Sadie who's 8 months older than her. They are so cute together and would be even cuter with some noise reduction head phones.  lol  They LOVE playing with each other's toys, but do not want to share said toys with each other and have not yet realized that they can easily share the same toys. Good thing they're so stinkin' cute and better yet, they sometimes even get along and play together for a few minutes.  :)  


When we first got in around 8 pm, Sadie was already asleep but her papa (my brother Dan) decided he needed to get her up to see her cousin.  :) They looked SO cute in their jammies and actually played really cute together with Sadie's kitchen and Sadie kept repeating her name in the cutest voice ever.

Jammied cousins playing with Sadie's kitchen.

Sadie helping Zeus push the cart. So cute!

Mia thought Sadie's vacuum was pretty darn cool.

Her little pig tails are so stinking cute and are getting so long!

Sadie and Mia with their matching pig tails - SO cute!

The daddies feeding the daughters yummy spaghetti last night.  :)

Another brother of mine, Michael and his wife Deena made it in last night from Washington after a day of flying. Today Michael and Deena ran errands and Zeus went grocery shopping while Dan worked so Brienne,  and I and our girls hung out at home. Zeus got home and made a BOMBAY dinner of enchiladas, re-fried beans, Spanish rice and homemade salsa. It was so SO yummy!!!  Here's some pictures of our day... as I uploaded them I realized that I should probably get more photos of the grown-ups as well, so that's my goal for tomorrow.  :)

The girls coloring today. 

..and today, again with the cute matching hairdo's. Nope, wasn't even planned, though tomorrow it may be.  :)

We played with bubbles which both girls love.

The girls had fun coloring with Aunt Deena.

And ending the day with some kitchen play in the jammies again seems to make for a good way to end the evening.  :)  Mia's sporting a pair of Sadie's outgrown jammies - hooray for cousin pass-alongs!

NOOOOOO!

Man, I've been trying to avoid it for as long as possible, but it's finally happened this week and unfortunately seems to be happening pretty consistently - Mia now says, "No"!!


I knew it would finally happen SOME day, and I definitely didn't want it to be her first word or even ONE of her first words. Thankfully she has said a TON of other words prior to this sadness. We try not to just say no to everything and to use it in a sentence along with what we want her TO do so that the emphasis is not on the word no itself. Thankfully she doesn't scream it yet, so that's a relief - it's more kind of this sweet little, "Na", but she's definitely meaning "no". It's kind of so cute that we have to keep ourselves from smiling when she does it. lol  However, that same sweet little turkey swatted at my hand and told me "Na"  tonight when I asked her to please not pull the power chord out of mommy's laptop and went to move her hand away from the chord. I do not know WHERE she got THAT from and we are not fans of that kind of behavior AT ALL. Oh my!

Mia LOVES reading books with her papa.

Her newest thing is giving kisses to the dogs and cats - that and "petting" them on the page.

Another new favorite thing for Mia is to drink the milk "all by herself" from the bowl after she eats her cereal. She's such an independent little soul!  :) 

Mia also loves the little slide that we picked up on the side of the road for free - score!  :) We recently moved it inside and she loves climbing on it and sliding down the slide.  

Hello - just chilling here in my little jeans and jacket.   Hmmmm.... What's this?   Peek-a-boo!

I finally went to the optometrist for the first time in years to get a new eye prescription. Zeus came to watch Mia during his lunch break and they took a break outside. Mia loves exploring - even exploring the inside of her jacket apparently!

Trying on the sock monkey hats at the store today. Mia looked SO cute that I almost got it for her, even though it was adult size!  :)  (I may just have to go back and grab it.) 

Papa's credit union is the COOLEST! 

(we may have to come back just to play with the toys in the waiting area!)

Mia taking the bulbs off the tree at Gideon's house tonight.

Zeus took Mia with him on some errands this past weekend so that I could have some uninterrupted time to get some things done around the house. I just saw this photo on his phone the other day and promptly requested a copy of my honeys with Santa.  :)  

Between that and peeling grapes for her at Olive Garden today (part way through eating them decided she didn't want the skins and would chew all the juice and pulp out and then spit out the skins), I'd say that Mia pretty much has her papa completely wrapped around her cute little finger. Yeah, he's pretty besotted - just as a papa should be. She's so lucky to have her as her papa, and we are so lucky to have HER!

I wish I'd never gone there...

So, I taught Mia the sign for "please", which is a circular motion on your chest. She picked it up pretty quick, even though her version of it is more of a one or two-handed random rubbing motion on her torso. So now she uses it all the time. It's killing me though because in the mornings when I'm making breakfast she clings to my legs saying, "UH!" - her version of asking to be picked "up". Well, I usually tell her that I'm cooking breakfast but I'll pick her up in a second. However, now when I tell her just a minute, she keeps saying, "uh!" and then does the sign for "please" every time I look down at her. Man, how can I resist?!?! Sometimes I wish I'd never gone there.  lol


Anyhow, today we headed to Elgin to Michelle and Amali's house for a cookie decorating party. I thought I had my camera with me but was sad to find that it hadn't made its way into the diaper bag after all. Bummer! Thankfully Michelle had her camera and was kind enough to send me a few shots. I didn't really think Mia would "get" the idea of decorating cookies, but part way through I picked her "uh!" and put her on my lap while I iced a cookie. I tried to hold her hand with the knife to spread the frosting, but those of you who remember her hand-being-touched aversion can only imagine that it didn't really last. However, she was SUPER interested in shaking the sprinkles out onto the cookie and did such a cute job!

Mia playing on the floor while mama chatted with the other mama's and decorated some cookies.

Mia getting in on the action and shaking on the sprinkles like a pro.  :)

Oh my goodness mama, look! Look at THIS! Mama, my SHIRT is the same color as papa's! And our PANTS are the same color too!! And we both have black SHOES!!!

Unbeknownst to us all, papa and Mia were unintentional twinners today.  :)

Speaking of twinners... my brother Dan and his wife Brienne went in for an ultrasound today to find out the sex of their second child. Come to find out, their second child is actually identical twin boys!  :) My sweet little niece Sadie, who just turned two, is going to be a big sister to twin brothers. Wowza! How crazy and exciting is that?!?!  My brother was so excited at the thought of having TWO sons to play with, and my sister-in-law burst into tears. How like the man to think of the fun, and how like a woman to realize the statistical and logistical implications. After the initial jealousy wore off (I've always thought it would be cool to have twins) and I returned to reality, I came to the realization that I'm too old for twins and can't wait to meet my new little nephews (as well as my new little niece) that are due next year!

Always a Day Late and a Dollar Short

Man, time can get away from you so fast - especially in November and December between the holidays! I downloaded some new photos from my phone and camera and realized that I've been lax at posting quite a few of the fun things we've been up to. We'll see how much I can get down before little Miss Mia wakes up!  :)

Mia got her first "trim" a few weeks ago on December 2nd.  

It was just a few straggle bang hairs, but papa was really sad that I did it when he was at work - he's such a good dad and hates to miss out on anything!

Zeus picked up an electric popper since our microwave died and the one we borrowed from his sister before she moves back doesn't pop popcorn very well. Mia thought it was SUPER cool to watch the kernels pop and jump and couldn't wait to dive in with both hands and much down on the pop corn!

On Saturday, December 3, Carrie and Mia and I braved the rainy weather to head to Gruene Christmas Market down in Geuene (pronounced "Green"), Texas.

Luckily it only sprinkled for a minute or two while we were down there. He's one of the cool old trees with some HUGE wind chimes. Of course I had to pull them to see what they sounded like - way worth it, they were gorgeous sounding!

We ate in the Old Gristmill Restaurant that had a decorated Christmas tree hanging upside down as you walked in. It's kind of hard to see in this photo, but it looked really cool.

We had a blast, but it was a LONG day for Mia who hardly napped. I had to snap a photo of her just laying there on the floor when we got home.  lol  Of course, she had enough energy to take a photo to send to papa who was out of town that weekend.

We had a cold front come in near the beginning of the month, so I've been taking along an extra blanket to tuck around Mia. She LOVES getting tucked into to car seat and gets this HUGE grin on her face as I tuck it around the edges. Luckily I was actually able to snap a picture of it!  :)

I needed to trim my toenails so tried to quick get it done before running errands. Monkey see, monkey do - need I say more?  :)

Mia in a winter coat and mittens by our mail box. Thank you Jan Vargas for passing along the darling warm coat set!

Shopping with mama - can't help but try on the cute headbands!

Narwhal, unicorn, or Hershey's Kiss?  Mia's hair is getting SO long!

Gotta wear those holiday shirts while you can!  :)

Mia LOVED the stairs at Eddie and Olivia's house. Mia and I went to have a girls night this last weekend and had such a nice time until Eddie ran out to run some errands and got in an accident when someone ran a red light. Thankfully he's okay, but his car was totaled. So scary!

While Eddie was out running errands, all the girls (Olivia and her daughter Adelina, as well as Olivia's mom, cousin and sister and her daughter) went on a walk through the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. This one was  a favorite in green, blue and purple. Christmas lights are one of my most favorite things!

Mia's other winter coat from Aunt Nikki - thanks Sara and Fia for passing it down! We think of you guys every time Mia wears it!!! 

Mia's growing entirely too fast!  She's 18 months old at the end of the month and we can hardly wrap our minds around the idea that she's only been in our lives for the last year and a half! We can hardly remember our lives without this little bundle of joy!  :) In my church, they have a nursery class for kids that start at 18 months, so we've decided to drop in a few times this month to get her use to the class. This past Sunday was our first week. Unfortunately Zeus had to work his part time job so he missed out on the first of her in Nursery. She did pretty good, but definitely needs to hone her sharing skills as she wanted to play with whatever someone else was playing with!  The baby strollers were one of the hot items in the class, so we've added that to her Christmas list.  :)

Mia with her name written on a piece of tape on her back.  :) Aren't her tights the cutest?!?!  She was SO styling! Thank you Aunt Nikki for the dress and Tia Hilda for the tights and shoes!

Checking out the toys and other kids.

The tiny chairs were a big hit, but mama was NOT such a fan of the climbing ON the chairs!

Well, my little big-girl is waking up. On to start our day! We have a cookie decorating party out in Elgin to head to, as well as some Christmas shopping to do, so we've got a busy day and lots to do before making it back home for Mia's nap and tutoring.  :)  Tis the season for busy days!