Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 41 Daddy's Birthday Celebration in Boston

We woke up before dawn on Saturday to travel to Boston. Daddy had a business trip and Mommy and Mia wanted to tag along since it was his birthday weekend. We got to the airport and sleepy Mia perked up. She climbed up onto the baggage claim scale and got her weight measured before we could tell her not too. She weighed in at 27 lbs. while Mommy and Mia's bag was a mere 25 lbs. Mia was very excited to fly on a plane again. And we all were excited when we found that we practically had the entire plane to ourselves -- there were only 12 passengers total. It was the shortest flight that Mia had ever taken (a little over 1 hr.) and she was such a good little traveler. We hopped on a bus and headed to the Westin. The people at the Westin were so happy to meet her. She came in dragging her new backpack (she didn't realize that it didn't have wheels) and they provided her with a much lighter pack filled with treats (sun hat, colored pencils, etc...)

Mia loved the view of downtown Boston from our room. She would often perch herself up on the window and just babble and babble at the boats in the harbor, the planes in the sky, and cars and people on the street below. We took her to the Boston Children's Museum where she learned about boats, played in a wonderful indoor play yard, watched The Three Little Pigs and much more. Later that day, we went to dinner in the North End for delicious Italian food (Mia ate her soup out of a olive oil dish -- see below -- very cute and fun) and later to Quincy Market to do some window shopping. The only small meltdown in the evening happened over some decorative soap. She stayed up late and in true Perry fashion, fell asleep in front of the TV watching the AZ Wildcats crush the AZ State Sun Devils.

The next day, Mia decided to give daddy and early morning happy birthday wake up call and got up around 6am. Daddy had to give a talk at the conference during the morning so Mia and mommy hung out in the lobby. We rode the escalators for what seemed like hours! Then we had a great lunch of mostly French fries (hey, we were on vacation!) and took a nice long nap. We had a light dusting of snow and Mia got to throw her first snowball and caught some falling flakes on her tounge. As we headed in from the snow, Mia said "Bye bye snow, love you snow". Fun stuff. At night we headed back to the North End for some wood fire pizza and soup (Mia ate hers out of an olive oil dish!) and a wonderful evening near Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market posing in front of the Christmas Tree.





Mommy and Mia came home on Monday. Mia was again, an expert traveler. She had so much fun watching people at the airport and we were lucky enough to have rocking chairs at our gate. So, Mia found a shelf of bottomless Delta Magazines and rocked and read until we hopped on the plane. The flight was awesome- again not too crowded. Mommy was so thankful for that!

Click here for all the pictures from our trip.

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No 39 & 40: It's that time of year -- the most wonderful time that is!

We certainly are having a ton of fun with Mia these days. Last weekend we got motivated to go to Wheaton Regional Park. Daddy decided to take Ulla to the dog park, while mommy took Mia to the playground. It was a very cold and windy day and we realized this after we got there and there was no one in sight (which is very rare for this park). We figured that since we were already there, we'd stay for a few minutes to play. Daddy and Ulla joined up with us and daddy took Mia down the slide. They slid so fast that daddy fell right on his bum! (Can't really tell from the picture above, but there were whole bodies in flight -- those things are fast with full winter gear on!) Since it was so cold, we decided to come home and have some warm soup. This is when she discovered how to slurp soup out of a bowl...what fun!



Mia and Ulla had a holiday photo shoot at the vet. We thought that Santa Claus was going to be there but it turns out that holiday photos only include a few colored giant ornaments and a Christmas bag filled with tissue. It was entertaining nonetheless as daddy had to lift Ulla onto a platform and every time she shifted weight, she's gingerly knock Mia off. Mia was good at landing on her feet and mostly laughed about it. We are still waiting on the pictures to come back but you'll see that we couldn't resist a mini photo shoot of "Mia Claus".

Thanksgiving was a real treat. Mia was intrigued by mommy and the mixer. Every time daddy tried to distract her so that mommy could bake, Mia ran as fast as she could to the kitchen when she heard the mixer. She enjoyed eating some Cool Whip as a special treat and referred to it as "ice cweam".




We ended the week with decorating the "jimmy pee" or Christmas tree. Mia was WAY more in to it this year and is excited about pointing out the ornaments and lights. This is truly the most wonderful time of the year and we are so excited to witness the holiday through the eyes of a toddler.

Speaking of toddler hood, here are some new things that Mia has been up to...

• counting from 1-10 or sometimes 1-3, 1-7 etc...
  
• playing doctor- she'll perform check ups on her little people animals
• building towers with blocks and stacking animals on them (daddy helped her with the one in the picture)
  
• sticking stickers on herself and coloring books
• speaking in longer phrases and some full sentences
• watching the Muppets on youtube
• eating cheese dip...yum!
• helping daddy with the CDs so she can DANCE!

Click here and here for more pictures...

One other thing... we found out that Mia is going to have a baby brother! We couldn't be more excited!

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No 38: Open the Flood Gates

Mia has had quite a week of developments, she...

• mastered the jump- both feet off the ground at once (oh boy and it's CUTE!)
• is bonding more and more with Ulla- at times, she'll go over to Ulla and just rub her back and head-- she has completely mastered the feeding of Ulla routine and can do it all on her own. She likes to hold on to Ulla's leash "all by herself" while we walk, too.
  
• refuses to let mommy put her in her car seat... "Mia do it!"
  
• saw Ulla sleeping, ran over and got a book, turned the pages until she found a picture of a dog sleeping and said, "Shhh Ulla sweeping!" (text to self connection in a 21 month old? Come on!)
  
• is repeating mommy and daddy phrases such as "nice and slow" every time she goes up and down the stairs
• refers to the color brown as "Mia Bwown" when she colors
  
• loved taco night- it might have been her greatest meal ever (see picture below)
• only cried for 10 min. when we left her with babysitter, Emily (that's a record!)
• has learned more of the ABC song
  
• remembered Cleo- we were kind of wondering if she even noticed Cleo wasn't around. But the other night, she was naming the colors of her bathtup doggies and we asked if she knew what color Cleo was, to which she replied, "Cweo bwack". Suprised by this, we asked her if she knew where Cleo was (risky move I know, but curiosity was killing me) and she spouted a whole bunch of unintelligible stuff followed by, "Cweo, night-night". Pretty amazing I think.
  
• learned how to hold her Ukulele the proper way while listening to ACDC (daddy was so proud! Look at her jamming in that second picture. Awesome!)
  

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 37: Loss of a Friend and Family Member

November 2nd ended up being Cleo's last day on Earth. It was a sad one indeed, as it became obvious to us that she was going fast. The whole family said goodbye to her in their own capacity -- Mommy and Daddy with tears and hugs and whispers, Mia with gentle pets and kisses, and Ulla with frantic barking. She died quietly in the night with Ulla by her side. When Mia awoke and saw Cleo lying under the sheets, she said,"Night, night Caweo,". Yup, I guess so.




Cleo was part of our family for more than 10 years, since we were first married, from our lean, wild, footloose days, to the more tempered and fruitful days, right into our full fledged family hood with the first year and a half of Mia. Cleo took her aging and demotions from center of the universe to family pet with grace and dignity (with a few notable bumps). But she was always special in her actions, her beauty, her charisma, and her place in our hearts.



Nearly a week has passed and we have buried her ashes in the garden in the backyard (in a place where the flowers were always noticeably smashed, as we had the nerve to plant them in Cleo's sunning spot). Cleo lived a good life and gave us so many great memories. We know this, but her absence in the house tears us up a bit, and we miss her so. We love you Cleo, wherever you are.

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 36 Trick or Treat

Pretty exciting week, this last one in October. Costumes are worn, candy doled, chili prepped, leaves colored and flying. The week ended with our annual chili party. The day was a perfect 70 degrees and the leaves were at just about peak color, the chili was delicious (Daddy's best batch yet, he thinks), the company was great, and the kids had great time. Although there were adults at this shin dig, photo evidence will only show you Mia and her school buddy (and sparring partner) Cameron setting up their own little picnic, Tom "The Bomb", Lydia, and Owen doing what you do at one these things, and Mia and Cameron (again) showing off their costumes.



Speaking of costumes. It official -- Mia did her first real trick or treating. Mommy, Daddy, and friends Jess and Dale took Mia on her first costumed stroll through our neighborhood candy land. Though thoroughly prepped before we left, we could only convince her to whisper "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you" even to our most familiar neighbors. Oh well, something to shoot for next year. Up above, you can see her getting ready to go, digging in at her first house, and not being happy about coming home. Mommy put the kibosh on actual candy eating for Mia, but Daddy didn't see the difference between candy and cookies, so he snuck her a bite or two.

Earlier that night, Mia carved her first pumpkin (or at least played in her first pumpkin gook). Is she eating raw pumpkin there? Who thought that was a good idea? And what is Ulla's nose doing there?



Besides getting ready for the festivities, Mia hung with the doggies and honed her skills. Her skills? Dancing and jumping and running. Not only listening to music, but DJing (yes, by insistence - recall from last week, "Daddy, sit down!" - she helps, A LOT, when we load up the CD player for the day. She knows what buttons to push and how to handle the CDs without wrecking them, kind of. And yes, she knows how to change the volume). She's working on counting and her abc's, and getting to know even better her colors, animals, and neighbor's names. She's getting to know her shapes, and is starting love puzzles. And she puts together three word sentences commonly now. Sometimes she even recites essays, but not in English. Not bad for a less than two year old.



We ended the week with some leaf play with Lydia.


Click here and here for more photos.