Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 13: Graduation, a long weekend, a birthday, and baseball!

What a fun, busy week (and a half)!

First off, Mommy graduated with her Master's in Education Technology. Pretty awesome. Way to go Mommy!

That same day, the matron of the house, our "baby face" Cleopatra turned 10. She is now officially ancient for a great dane, but she still has some hop in her step and is enjoying her golden years.

Mia, slightly under the weather, managed to make it to two bbqs and a baseball game this weekend. In her very first regular season pro baseball game at the new Nationals Stadium, she arrived just in time to see the opening pitch and didn't leave until the final, wild pitch sealed the Nats victory over the Brewers. She had a great time climbing on the seats, looking out at the bird's eye view of the field, and clapping when the Nats did well (or when buddies Prince Fielder or Craig Counsel were up to bat). Daddy was pretty proud as he seems to remember having a lot harder time making it through all 9 innings as a kid, healthy, let alone under the weather. Friends Isabel and Owen were there too, taking in the game and beautiful day. The bbq on Saturday at Jackie and Andrew's place allowed Mia her first chance at beer pong. Turns out Daddy throws better while holding her. The bbq on Monday at Elaine, Allen, and Owen's was maybe the breaking point for Mia. She got in some nice paytime with Owen, but the heat and her cold really got to her and eventually we had to let her get some rest.



Last post we talked about how certain music really gets Mia moving. We had high hopes that maybe she had more discerning tastes in music than her parents (at least her Daddy), but this week the floodgates opened. We get in the car and she points at the stereo and starts grunting (we're working on saying "music" instead). Then pretty much no matter what comes out of the speakers (she actually wasn't thrilled with Run DMC) puts an immediate smile on her face and gets her grooving. This week's favorites: U2, Grateful Dead, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kiedis, Flea, Frusciante, and Smith even had her saying "woo!" during "Hump de Bump" (click on the link to see and hear what Mia and Chris Rock think the fuss is all about).

A wise person once told us that 15 months is a golden era for parents, and now we believe it. Mia's personality is bursting like spring in Maryland. She is funny and mischevious, and she has such a healthy desire to talk and show us things, even though she doesn't have full control of her talking instrument yet. She loves to laugh and read and listen to music and dance. She loves to run and play barefoot outside in the grass and look for animals (especially birds). She loves to stack blocks with Mommy and rough house with Daddy. She likes the taste of Dogfishhead 60 Minute IPA, but will spit out lite beer (don't ask how we know this). She's basically perfect.

For the rest of the pics, click here and here.

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 Nos. 11-12: Mother's Day and Happy Birthday Abi!

Hey there, hi there, ho there -- another combined issue. Are we getting too busy to keep up? Too complacent in our current volume of Mia records? Lazy? Or is just less happening? Well it's definitely not the last thing.







Issues 11 and 12 of photos uncover Mother's Day and allow the release of a couple of photos from Mia's 1 yr old professional photo shoot. We'd been saving these since they were presents for Mommy and Daddy's Mommies -- that'd be grandmas I guess. We had a nice Mother's Day -- breakfast in bed, a trip to the park (where Mia, upon eventually being forced to leave honed her tantrum skills), a sighting of a long time family friend,Special Ed (someone was selling him at a garage sale...darn it, we didn't have any cash or a camera!) a visit with her friend Owen and his family, some Mexican food, and creme brulee. Overall, a really nice day.

Mia is learning a ton at daycare -- both good and bad. Good: fun games like "ring around the rosie". Mommy started singing it once day and Mia walked up to Daddy and and grabbed his hand. Next thing we knew we were singing and dancing and falling down. It's a lot of fun and Mia just can't get enough of it. Bad: scrapping. Mia has at least a once a week battle over toys with her classmate Cameron (see the twin monkey photo from Vol. 1, No. 36). Mia gets bit and Cameron gets his hair pulled and face punched and scratched. Cameron's parents (friends and neighbors) were a wee bit embarrassed to find out Cameron's classroom rival was little Mia. Hopefully it's just a phase.

Hmmm..... what else? Mia has found that her finger fits in her nose. She's curious about his, but not obsessed luckily. She's getting really good with her animal sounds and identification: she's got monkey, lion, bear, duck, snake, sheep, horse, dog, and cat down pretty well. She'd rather make the sound for most of these than actually learn the name. She can point out many more that we haven't figured out how to make a sound for.

Mia's favorite music? Hands down the blues. It's crazy, but whenever a classic blues tune comes on she just giggles and dances like crazy. We found this out mainly through the new Black Crowes album. There's a song on there called"God's Got It" that has a great classic blues shuffle feel to it (according to Mia, "Wounded Bird" is a close second on this album). She goes absolutely nuts over it. One of these days we'll get it on film. From there we figured out the bluesy songs by Big Head Todd (by the way, in looking at the website it looks like BHTM will be in Tempe on the 28th and in Austin on the 30th -- run, do not walk, to get tickets this show) and John Lee Hooker's more modern stuff do the trick too. It has to be something about the beat that she likes. Happy to report that just about anything Bob Marley and The Clash gets the same reaction. Its gotta be the beat.

Outdoors: Mia loves 'em. Can't get her to come inside sometimes. And she loves to point out birds and chase them. A couple of days ago, she was absolutely intent on following a bird that flew over the parking lot and over her school. She got as far as the school wall and then was pretty frustrated. Luckily there were other birds around to get her mind off the "one that got away".

This weekend we headed to Brookside Gardens with Mia's friend Isabel and Dori and Javi (her parents). Amazing landscape, local wildlife, awesome plant and animal exhibits, including an unbelievable butterfly "aviary", and really just an awesomely beautiful place to spend the day. About 4 miles from our house we had never been. Needless to say we'll be spending a lot of time there from now on.

Last but not least, we got a small dose of the two kid arrangement when we baby sat our neighbor Lydia. It wasn't too bad. Both kids are sweet. Enjoy the pics. See the rest of them here and here.









Oh yeah, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ABI!
We hope you are enjoying your time with the Perrys!

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 10: The Wild Rice Incident

As a descendant of Minnesotans, Mia knew that one day she would have to make wild rice a staple in her diet. This week, unlike at Christmas, she showed genuine interest in the dark, crunchy, chewy, tasty goodness. She was shoveling the stuff in her mouth (with hand) at an almost alarming rate. It's what happened next though, that forced us to get the camera out. Mia has never been to a wedding (her first will be this July in Mexico) or any other such event, but when the rice eating was just about done and it was time to celebrate, she discovered with much glee just how fun that stuff is to throw. Results can be seen in the photos above.

The week overall was a quiet one, but we had lots of fun outside in the great weather we've been having. We picked weeds (Mia mostly picks grass and flowers and pretty plants), played in the dirt, watched the dogs chase deer, and spotted birds and rabbits and squirrels. We were all pretty exited to see a garter snake, a toad and a slug up close. She picked up and then showed a healthy respect for and fear of her first caterpillar (she handed it to Daddy pretty quickly ad then backed away). We even had a couple of "picnics" on the front lawn. We were supposed to witness our first regular season Nationals game this week, but Daddy got the day wrong and we missed it: IAOHF'Dhvsiq 'pnpi 'r phi08- 23-044-8h4- nnt4ct4n0t4n (pounding my head against the keyboard).

We did manage to make it to Mommy's school May Fair. We only went for 1/2 hour but Mia got so much attention and enjoyed every minute of it!

Mia has a pretty healthy run (more like a jog I guess) down now, and she will climb just about anything she can find (luckily nothing too vertical yet). She's starting to mimic just about anything we say, but most of the time things just come out "dada", or "didi". But after some work and repetition she can sometimes get pretty close. For example:

While changing Mia's diaper --

(Mia correctly retrieves a diaper from the bin when asked if she needs a new diaper. Then we try to get her to actually say "diaper")

"Mia, diaper,'

"didi"

"close, dy-Per"

"didi"

"almost, DY-Per"

"dadee"

(..... a couple of minutes later)

"almost got it, Dy-Per"

"dipah"

"Yes! Diaper!"

"didi"

"....ok, didi it is"

And the sentences and paragraphs that are spouting from her little baby lips are even funnier... and cuter.

To see all the rest of the pictures we took this week, click here.