Little Things

I never used to notice the ceiling lights in department stores, but Mia does. She notices everything because everything is new and interesting to her. This morning we went to Smart and Final to buy plates. Usually that would be a pretty mundane errand. When I went to take Mia out of her car seat, she smiled at me like we were going on some big adventure. I love when she smiles like that. When I put her in the shopping cart she started talking, probably telling me how much fun we were going to have. The first thing she noticed as we walked into the store was the lights. She looked up at them and held her hand out to show me. I said, "Lights," and she smiled. She gets so excited about simple things like that. After we had purchased the plates, I gave her the receipt. She waved it around and laughed, then crumpled it up and laughed at that too.

It's so much fun to see the world through her eyes because EVERYTHING is new and exciting. Sometimes I feel guilty if I have to take Mia on a shopping trip like that because I "should" be teaching her something or playing with her, but then I realize that everything we do is a learning experience and she needs to have lots of different types of experiences. A "stay at home mom" doesn't necessarily have to be at home all day. Kids need to see the world too, even if it's just the world from their car seat as I deposit a check at the bank.

Warm Water

We hadn't planned on toilet training this early . . . just kidding, we're not. Don't email me. This is what happens every night when Mia takes her bath. The warm water must make her want to poop, so we whisk her out of the bath as fast as we can and get her on the toilet. She thinks it's fun. We sing songs and laugh at how she kicks her short, chubby legs over the edge. Who knows? Maybe we have a toilet training prodigy. :)

The Lamb was Dirty . . .

I went into the garage to get the laundry and I heard, "Jesus Loves Me" playing over and over. I wasn't sure where it was coming from until I opened the dryer. That's when I realized what I had done. Mia's stuffed lamb was dirty, so I had washed it, forgetting that it had a music box inside of it. Earlier, when I took it out of the washing machine to put into the dryer, I reasoned that I wanted the stuffing nice and dry, still not remembering that it played music. When I opened up the dryer the lamb was playing the song repeatedly. I couldn't shut it off, so I took it inside and Troy and I had a good laugh. Then we stuffed it into the couch cushions until it could behave itself!

Our Spontaneous 4th

Artsie Inspiration

It seems that I always have more pictures than words and today is no exception.

We weren't planning on attending the ArtHop, but I always hate to miss it, because then it's another month before the next one happens, so we spontaneously decided we'd go. We figured Mia would love it and she did!

We hadn't been to Margaret Hudson's for a while and it's one of my favorite places to go. Mia is about two and a half blocks tall on the clay pillars outside the gallery. We'll have to remember to take a picture next year and do a comparison.

I'm dying to have a real MH giraffe for Mia, but it doesn't seem there are many real ones left. Most are made by her "artisans" now. As we were driving past the Meux Home downtown tonight, I was remembering when my grandma took me to the teddy bear picnic there and I met Margaret Hudson. She taught all of the kids how to make a teddy bear from clay and I remember feeling like I had been taught a big secret. I knew she was an important artist even then, at about age 8.

I love the sculptures in the "Art Park". Maybe someday I'll get brave enough or crazy enough to try working with metal and I'll make some characters for our backyard. ArtHop always makes me want to go home and create something. Unfortunately, I tend to start projects and never finish them. I am reminded of the wall in Mia's room that I need to finish painting. Perhaps I'll post a picture of that finished masterpiece soon.

Lots of Pictures

Because Troy and I love taking pictures, we still haven't taken Mia to a professional photographer. Sometimes it's a challenge taking pictures at home with her. We don't always have the perfect background or props like a children's photographer would, but we do have the benefit of knowing our child and what expressions we want to capture and what looks like "her".

When we started to take pictures, I thought Mia wasn't going to last long because she wasn't real happy about how the grass felt on her hands and knees until Troy jumped up and down and acted like a fool which made Mia start clapping.

We were finally able to get a few pictures that we felt captured Mia's personality. I was even able to take a few shots that show how Mia looks like me!

Mia grew out of her hooded baby towel, so I searched on the internet for something that looked like her. Troy and I decided a dinosaur would be appropriate since he calls her his little velociraptor. (They like to make weird "dinosaur" sounds back and forth with each other.)

Mia had fun the other night when Jeremy and Marcy brought their ever-growing family over for dinner. She enjoyed splashing in the pool with them, but sternly (you would have to see the look on her face and hear the tone in her babbling to really understand) reprimanded them whenever they jumped off of the diving board. Apparently she thinks they shouldn't do that.