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.

Swimmy Fish!

Mia love love loves the water! We call her our little swimmy fish. She kicks her feet and splashes her hands like she just wants to take off and go!

Speedy

These last 4 weeks of work went by fairly quickly. I hated every minute of being away from my Mia. Going back to work just reinforced my decision to stay home with Mia. I've applied for an online teaching position and if I don't get that, Troy said he'd do whatever he had to, including waiting tables. What a guy! He wants me to stay home as much as I want to stay home. I just can't see someone else raising my Mia.

Mia has become so quick on her knees that she rarely even attempts to stand anymore unless there is something on the coffee table that she wants (usually something she's not supposed to have). Every time I leave the room, she follows me, although sometimes she whimpers because she's tired of crawling after me.

On Father's Day, Mia had her first all-fruit Jamba Juice and drank it with a straw! It was totally cute and it made our day. She was so good at using the straw that I thought she might get a cold headache from drinking so much at once. Whenever I would take the cup away, she danced with her entire body to tell me that she wanted more. How could I resist?

Movin' On

Our little girl is officially mobile! This weekend she started crawling forward. Of course, she is still much more proficient at backwards maneuvers, such as this one where she pushed herself back between the couch and the wall.

I expect that very soon she'll be pulling herself up on furniture (Grandma Jeri is helping Mia work on this one already). I never could have imagined how excited I would be to see her accomplish each of these things. Just when I think she's reached a plateau in her learning, she surprises me with something new. We didn't get this kind of excitement with the rabbits. They could only learn so much, being animals and all. They definitely weren't as willing either. Mia is so curious and wants to try everything.

Troy loves being home with Mia in the evenings and especially on weekends. He doesn't even mind getting up early on Saturday. In fact, he's usually the first one up because he wants to be the one to wake Mia.

Sometimes, though, Mia has to wake Daddy.

Only two more weeks and then I go back to work. That's only three more times at the playgroup. Ten weekdays. Two weekends. That's it.