Dia de Mia Vols. 50 & 51 Mia's Terrific Two-What Can She Do?

We celebrated Mia's 2nd birthday in true style with some of Mia's best friends (and ours) and their families. She was so excited about turning two that she helped mommy pick out the Elmo plates and napkins, jumped with excitement when she saw her balloons and even got all dressed up in a custom made party dress (made by our neighbor Sharon). Jess made the delicious banana Elmo cake and pizzas were a plenty. Mia had so much fun playing with her friends, eating and tearing up the dance floor.

On her actual birthday, she helped mommy make birthday cupcakes to take to school and was so excited about the purple ones. Gifts rolled in all week and everyday when we got home from school she said, "Mia open presents, happy birthday to Mia!" We are so appreciative of the love that you all share for our precious little girl.
Now that Mia's two... what can she do?

• Sing her ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Old McDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and numerous made up songs


• Count from 1-10 in English and Spanish


• Identify basic colors


• She wears pull-ups (aka: big girl diapers) and is making progress on going potty on the big potty
  
• Talk in phrases and sentences (she basically talks all the time now!)


• Run, jump, climb, sing, spin, dance, somersault...


• She loves to help mommy and daddy cook, clean, put CDs in the CD player...


• Recall some parts of books without help (Brown Bear Brown Bear, The Hungry Caterpillar)


• Build and stack towers, create block houses, grounds and animals


• Take care of her babies (change diaper, clothes, feed and cover with a blanket)


• Mia loves cookies, ice cream and any "treats"


• Can say some words in Spanish: pantalones, agua, adios, bonita


• As of her 2 yr. check up she is 28 lbs. and 35 1/2 in. tall
  

We are so proud of all that she has accomplished in such a short time. She is truly a sweet little girl with a quirky personality. What's most impressive is how flexible and easy going she has been through numerous transitions this past month (change from diapers to pull-ups, packing our house up for renovations and moving out and changing classrooms on the same day). We know that she will do great as she transitions into becoming a big sister

Here are some more pics of a recent visit with Owen. As you can see, they are really hitting it off.

Fun with Daddy!


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Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 49: Superbowl!

Well, the Cards were finally in a Superbowl.... and they played awesome.... and it was an incredible game.... and they lost..... bummer.



Hey, but their loss didn't stop us from having fun. We donned our "customized" pro Cards/anti Steelers t-shirts (thanks Camachos!), and did some serious "wachee football", as Mia would phrase it. Mia was absolutely enthralled by the hi-def action. Yes, she actually watched an entire half of football, cheered for the "Ayzhonah Kahdnalls", and generally had great time until bedtime, right before the The Boss the took the stage at half time. We even, for the first time maybe, tried out the time honored tradition of eating dinner as a family in front of the boob tube. Mia thought that was the bee's knees. We won't be doing it again anytime soon (at least until March Madness starts).





For our family these weeks are getting, well, interesting. With baby boy on the way, trying to get construction on the house under way, wondering where we are going to stay during, and how we will finance said construction, the potential for a new job, birthday parties to plan, with all of these things, it requires serious effort sometimes simply not to freak out. I am assured by anyone I talk to that these are all great things, and I agree. But I can't help feeling like I did when I was talked into getting on a roller coaster by my older brother and sisters, that feeling you have when your car begins an ascent at some ridiculous angle on a belt that, with every click brings you closer to the plummet on the other side. Locked in, no turning back, the reality of major ups and downs and loop-de-loops seconds away. The promise of fears and exhilaration realized just a few clicks away... Luckily we can honestly say that there's never been a roller coaster ride that we've regretted.

Dia de Mia Vol. 2. Nos. 47 & 48 Inauguration, Snow Day, and Fun with the Boys

The long weekend (4 days!) of the inauguration of President Barrack Obama was an exciting one indeed. But... as millions descended on DC to witness the event, we mainly avoided the crowds and forgot to take any pictures. We did manage to get downtown to see Sheryl Crow and the Beastie Boys show their rocking support for Obama at the 9:30 Club, and brew some Inaugural B.O. IPA. For the actual event, we headed to Mia's friend's Tom "The Bomb" Brady's house to witness the whole thing in all of it's Hi Def, kid friendly glory. Although we didn't take any pictures, the main things to note are: 1.) Mia spent the entire time by the hors d'oeuvres and treats and ate, literally, more than half the veggies, chips, dips, hummus, and cookies (note to future Mia: We love that you have a great appetite and that you love veggies, but this is not always necessarily the best way to perform as a guest. But hey, who judging?), and 2.) friend Cameron showed what he thought of the President Elect's stand on policy by puking all over the place right before Obama began his speech. A fun time for all! (Except for Cameron and his Mom).



The next weekend we continued our trend of trading baby sitting duties for Mia's friend, Luke. These two continue to play extremely well together, and love the whole "sleep over" aspect of these babysitting stints. Pictured below are the run-and-try-to-get-away-from-Daddy/Mr. Brad-and-yell-and-scream-game, catching a flick in the kids area at the Pirate restaurant (the food is terrible, but the drinks are fun and it is a great place to take the kids), making cookies with Mommy/Mrs. Marlo and tasting the wares.









Then.... Mommy and Mia had two snow days! Daddy was a little jealous. Mia was extremely excited about her short lived winter wonderland to say the least. She ate her first snowball (is that even safe anymore?) Made her first "snow angel", and took her first sled ride (Ulla didn't pull, but was happy to follow along). We started slow down the little hill in our back yard, but by the end, our little adrenaline junkie was screaming to go as fast as possible, which was pretty darn fast and scary. Everything about the snow was great, the time off, the cold, the softness, the slipperiness, the beauty, the newness, the opportunity to don some new snow gear, and warming up on the couch with a good book after some furious snow play .











We capped the two weeks off with a visit to one of Mia's other good friends, Owen. Since Owen lives in Capitol Hill, after we played a bit at his house and had enough time for Owen to show Mia some of his cool toys and his room with new big boy bed (please no gross inferences here), we hopped, skipped and, jumped (actually rode in Allen and Elaine's new mini van) over to the Building Museum. This was our first time there as a family, and it is an awesome place. The structure itself is amazing, the main room is 3 or 4 stories high and able to house a football field with some ease I think. But the really cool part was that in one corner of the main room, there were tons of building supplies available for anyone to use. Mia and Owen had a blast and, as the evidence shows, so did the Dads (at one point we were offered $10 to allow someone's kid to knock this structure down. Upon agreeing to allow it though, we found the man was less than serious).
















We followed up the Building Museum with a trip to the National Portrait Gallery. Were we there to see the famous portraits of prolific figures in history? Nope. We went to their awesome new atrium where there is a "fountain" that is essentially a quarter inch of water flowing over slate. The kids had a blast, but got wetter than either set of parents naively expected, and the Dads were forced to dry Mia's and Owen's trousers off in the hand dryer in the restroom. Ahh, the stories we will tell at the future dinner table.....




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