Walking

Mia is walking! On Saturday night, Mia took her first steps at Dorina and Ericlee's house while everyone was over for cooking club. Troy was helping her walk and let go of her hands and she took four steps to me! Troy and I were thrilled. Mia didn't seem to know what she had done. I think she probably only did it since her motivation was high . . . she wanted Momma.

My Amazing 30th Birthday Present from my Very Sweet, Oh So Creative Husband

When I got back from the climbing gym (Troy took a long lunch to stay with Mia while I went), these "postcards" were all over the house. Some were tucked into picture frames, some were in the kitchen cupboards, the bedroom, on the tv, the couch, and in Mia's room. I couldn't believe how many there were. When I found the first 7-8, I got on the phone and called Troy and asked, "How many of these are there?" He told me to guess, so of course I figured it out. There were 30 of them! I found 28 in the house. He told me I would get the other two later.

Of course I thought this was the sweetest thing ever, so I took the cards to MOPS at 6:30pm. It was the first meeting and just happened to fall on my birthday. When I got to MOPS, I got my dinner and sat down at my table. Before I started eating, I told the ladies at the table that I just had to tell them what a sweet thing Troy did. I showed them the postcards and they started to pass them around the table.

That's when Troy walked in with Mia. I have to say I was absolutely frozen. He came in carrying Mia and an arrangement of flowers! He gave me the flowers and said "Happy Birthday" and I started crying, of course! The whole roomful of ladies (63 of them!) started singing "Happy Birthday" to me!

Inside the card attached to the flowers were the other two postcards. The best tw0. . .

30 is the best birthday!!!

Open Cabinets by Troy

Allison, Mia and I just got back from a long day of events. We finally decided to go and get our family pictures taken with Jerry McElroy. We had a great time and usually we would place a picture up for you to see, but he uses film. You know those cameras that don’t have a color view finder on the back? Yes, you have to wait a week to get the results. Anyway, we just finished our nightly rituals of giving Mia a bath, brushing her “teethies”, praying, reading a story, singing and going “beddy”. After leaving Mia’s room, I changed my clothes and walked by the kitchen. See Exhibit 1 (picture at the top of this blog). I know what you are thinking… we have just been robbed. Why else would all of the cabinets be open, right? No, we had not been robbed. This too is part of my nightly ritual of closing all of the cabinets that Allison has opened throughout the day. For some reason, Allison opens cabinets, but doesn’t shut them. What’s weird is that she doesn’t even know they’re open. One time, I asked her to go to the kitchen and tell me what was wrong. Every single cabinet was open (similar to the photo). She didn’t even notice the open cabinets, but thought I had swept the floor! It’s always good for a laugh!

Mini Jamba

After Mia got her shots at the doctor, I decided we should start a tradition of going to Jamba Juice for a treat. We shared a Pomegranite Paradise. I just love the mini cups they have for kids. Just the right size!

Polka Dot Party

I think planning a birthday party is fun. I've been collecting polka dot fabric, ribbon, and party favors as I've seen them in the stores. It was a fun challenge to pull it all together this Saturday for Mia's 1st birthday and I love the way it all came together. It wasn't super fancy, but it was cute and fun and just about everything was polka dotty!

There were lavendar polka dot table cloths, round orange lanterns, and round "polka dot" pictures hanging for the tent outside.

I was looking at Pottery Barn kids magazine one day and they were selling a birthday banner for $45 similar to this one that I made out of felt and fabric for less than $10!

Our little birthday girl was a little shocked to see so many people at our house when she woke up from her morning nap, but she got right into party mode after some lunch and a swim.She really enjoyed opening presents with Momma and reading the birthday cards. She likes to turn the "pages". Mia's favorite gift was this Radio Flyer ride on rocket from Grandma Jeri and Grandpa Jim. Uncle Paul spent the rest of the party pushing Mia around on the rocket and teaching her how to push on her own. Mia is definitely our child. She's not big on getting dirty, so we weren't surprised when she didn't dive right in. After a close call with the flame, she took off all the marzipan polka dots and broke off a small corner of the cake to feed to Momma. Because of the flame incident, my family stopped singing after the first verse of Happy Birthday. In our family we sing three verses, but Mia only got one on this day. Here's a picture of the cake everyone else ate. Aunt Heather did a great job!

Mia let us know she was partied out by popping her "thumby" in her mouth. She lasted quite a while past her normal naptime, but did very well! Sunday, on her actual birthday, we did a little "redo" of the cake smashing with better results. Mia is still not the type to rub cake in her hair though. We also sang all three verses of the birthday song and she LOVED it! She smiled and swung her feet while we sang. She was enjoying it so much that we sang it twice more, all three verses! Here's a picture of the second cake smashing opportunity on Sunday afternoon.

Animals

Mia is quite expressive. She was really taken by this elk at the Clovis Elks Lodge where we went for my cousin Joey's Eagle Scout Ceremony. She would make an "Oooooh" sound with kind of a grunt to it and put her hand out. Our favorite part is how she sticks her chin out. She doesn't just do this with elk heads though. She makes the same sound whenever she sees any animal. What a kick!

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.