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.


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Dia de Mia Vol. 1 No. 35 Mia and the Purple Crayon

Mia attended her very first play this weekend: Harold and the Purple Crayon. She was a guest at her friend, Karena's, birthday party and the key event was the play. At first, Mia didn't really know what to expect because she had just woken up from a nap and suddenly there was a lot of noise. But, after she woke up a little, she seemed to like most of the show (if staring blankly with your mouth hanging open for an hour can be interpreted as enjoyment - it certainly was something). We went to the playroom afterwards for a pizza party and some games. Mia had great fun!


Other news this week includes:

• Mia wore a barrette for more than five minutes but would rather place them all over mommy's hair instead of hers.
• Mia talks, and talks, and talks- like a true parrot... she mimics everything- UH-OH!
• Mia knows more songs- her most favorite is "... now I know my ABC's..."
• She likes to give orders such as "Daddy SIT DOWN!", "Mommy read book", "Mia up!", "Help Pawease!"
  
• When she runs off, you can almost always find her bottomless sitting on the potty- but no potty in the potty yet!
  

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Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No.34: A Visit from Dana and Playdates Galore

We had a great visit with mommy's long time childhood friend, Dana. She flew in for a brief trip to D.C. and we enjoyed every moment touring the National Mall, monuments and museums. Mia loved playing with Dana because she made her laugh. It's funny, because Mia, who is normally pretty shy around new people, took to Dana right away. I guess she knows family when she finds 'em.

This week was all about new discoveries. Mia loves using her toddler markers...so much that they end up on her clothes, the carpet and the hardwoods. This week, she discovered how comfortable it is to color lying down like a big girl. On the flip side, she found out how uncomfortable it is to fit inside the ottoman.


Mia and Isabel got together for one of many play dates. The two were initially shy but it didn't take too long before they were cooking things up in the play kitchen, rolling on the floor and playing chase around the house (and trading viruses -- sorry about that DeLeon family). Mia was intrigued by Isabel's baby brother Johan. She even let mommy hold him for a while.

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Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No 33: Burnt Orange and Baby News

Texas handily beats OU. Moves up to #1 in every college football poll in the nation. Mia is talking up a storm. She can identify and say just about every basic color, identify more animals than daddy can name, can count to four sometimes, said "no thank you" at the beginning of the week and by the end, was very fond of "no way!" She loves ice, animals, and dancing to good music.

So we watched UT win and had a bunch of good friends over and later went to the pumpkin patch with Elaine, Allen, Owen, Andrew, Claire and Luke.


Drum roll please...


The alien picture that you see above is actually the new Lil' Baby Brown. Mia will have a new sibling on or around April 16th. We are certainly excited for our new addition to come and we know that Mia will be an exceptionally loving big sister! So...Dia de Mia will no longer be a proper name for our blog. We will need more of a familial type name. So we're having a contest: send in a name for the blog to marloabrown@gmail.com. We'll choose the top three and put them up for a vote next week. Let your voice be heard!

We have a ton of pictures this week so we thought that we'd let the pictures tell the story. Click here.

Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 32: Lions & Tigers & Runners & Playdates, Oh My!

We started the week with a 5K walk in our neighborhood, Becca's Run benefiting the Cancer Society. We were pretty excited to spend the brisk morning participating in the traditional race however, Mia had her own agenda. She screamed in protest for most of the race, because she didn't want to be pushed in the stroller. Instead, she wanted to walk and push her own stroller: which took us from 5 mph to approximately 0.05 mph. In the end, we made it through and she enjoyed her post race bagel. That same night, we hired our first paid babysitter, Emily, (one of mommy's former students) to watch Mia while we went out to dinner. Mia only cried for half the time and Emily did say that she'd come back!

Mia has taking a liking to stripping her feet of her shoes and socks, while munching on her socks. We're trying to keep her from putting them in her mouth but sometimes she's just too quick. She also has been sitting at her little table and coloring and squishing play-doh around.

We had another great trip to the zoo. This time we saw a few minutes of the elephant training and the small mammals exhibit. We had no idea that Mia would get so excited about meerkats.


Later that night, we went to Allen's mom, Sharon's, house where she and Don, her husband, made a delicious dinner for us all. Mia and Owen played in the sand box , giggled in the hammock, and munched on chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.


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