didn't see that one coming...

Mia has been waking up about once per night for the last week or so.  If I go into her room she stops crying for a minute but then cries for daddy persistently.  Instead of wrestling with her for what feels like forever, usually Greg will come in and help get her settled back to sleep. Lately if she's woken up and I can't settle her, I try to go back to bed myself, but by that point my brain is so awake it's gotten really hard for me to settle.  There have been a few nights over the last week where it's taken me an hour to get back to sleep.  

When this ended up happening last night, I lay in bed planning Mia's birthday party.  It's this coming weekend, at our house (EEK!) and I have felt so unprepared.  I have a theme, and a few ideas, but I hadn't thought through all the logistics.  Where for that? What for this? And how?  But after thinking through a lot of the options and getting some suggestions from friends, I've come up with a plan and just this morning ordered a bunch of the supplies from Oriental Trading Company.  Their items were quite inexpensive but unfortunately I got hit with a shipping charge :-/.  Oh well, ain't nothing a coupon code ($10 off) can't help. 

Well, after figuring all that out during the wee hours of 2 and 3am, I was hoping Mia would "sleep in" till past 8 (as she has been doing just a bit lately--so nice).  Well, instead she was up at 6:45 crying for daddy.  I went into her room and was shocked at what I saw.  There was throw-up all over her bed and down her (white) PJ shirt.  Uh-oh.  As soon as I said, "Oh no Mia, what happened?" She stopped crying and said, "Yeah."  That's sometimes her response to our questions; it doesn't always make sense but it's funny.  

She had had 1.5 hot dogs last night at dinner, some canteloupe and watermelon, and a few bites of popcorn.  It was a "big" dinner, but she didn't eat a lot at lunch, so we figured she was legitimately hungry.  However, maybe she was overfull.

Greg put her in the bath right away while I started stripping her bed and rinsing stuff off in the sink (blech!)  She threw up a tiny amount one more time in the bath (so sad!) and since then, hasn't thrown up yet.  She's only had a little bit to eat: crackers, a couple ounces of milk, and a few pieces of banana.  She hasn't been super hungry yet, but she's already been rubbing her eyes this morning.

We're watching Sesame Street and taking it easy.  Here's hoping the yukkies are just a one time thing.  I have been *blessed* up to this point in that Mia has rarely thrown up in her lifetime.  Just a couple of times, usually a reaction to food or motion sickness in the car. Not sure what I'd do if she had a stomach bug.  

Here's a picture from a better time this past weekend.  We went out to eat and got yogurt after dinner.  It was a perfect night Friday night!

2 peas in a pod

I'm blogging a lot.

We are highly anticipating the arrival of Greg's parents, i.e., Nana & Granddad this weekend, to visit with Mia for a few days on their spring break.  I know Mia will love playing with them, and I am looking forward to a reprieve from the current chaos a teething toddler brings to the fray.

This is the AFTER picture:
a place for shoes (green cubby) & just a few less boxes

Lately I've been feeling the urge to purge -- let's just call it a healthy dose of spring cleaning with the warmer days & extended daylight.  I rearranged Mia's closet this morning and it so desperately needed it.  Her shoes -- mirroring my own shoe condition (which is really just a lack of closet space & shoe organization) -- really needed a place to go, and there were old boxes that used to contain toys just hanging out in the closet.  Why?? I don't know. I'm a bit of a hoarder, I confess, and I guess I think, perhaps I'll need this cardboard box someday.   But I ne'er do.

hey! we can actually close the doors!

While this "organized" closet picture may cause even the most Martha Stewart like person to cringe, for me, it's definitely an upgrade.  I've always been a "messy clean," sort of person.  I think it's partially having a spaghetti noodle for a brain (everything's related), and I think it's just part of my personality.  I married the opposite of a hoarder, a "tosser?", so I guess we even out.  And occasionally lovingly drive each other nuts.  All in good fun.


While I was being all organizational, Mia was out on our patio when I heard her screaming.  It sounded like horrific pain and I was seriously fearful she was being attacked by some animal or insect.  My mommy instinct had me running out the door to find her hand was caught in the hinge of the screen door.  Ouch!!  It looked so painful and had grooves from being stuck.

Icing the hand, listening to Elmo.  
The Sesame Street pictures have got to stop.

Last Christmas, Mommo gave Mia an "ice pack bunny" to use for just such occasions, so Mia, at her very tender and understanding age, actually kept the ice pack bunny on her hand to help with the swelling.  I found a bunny sticker in her closet too, and gave that to her, and lately she's been playing with a bunny stuffed animal (also from Mommo), so maybe we're getting into bunnies right now.  I'm cool with that.  I saw one on my run the other morning and thought of YOU, Sarah Moran, if you're listening.  Bunny lover.

Time for a Change

Not just from the food post but also time for a change at home.

One of our many home improvement agenda items has been painting the family room & kitchen.  This weekend we tackled the family room and chose "Sharkey Gray" to go up on our walls.  We're still determining the kitchen color, and painting the kitchen will obviously require a bit more work: lots of weird angles, tall ceilings, and the obvious appliances with which to hassle.

It's not a drastic color choice, but hopefully something that will enhance the feel & vibe of the family room more so than the vintage white that was up there before.  It's such a vast space, it needs a little coziness to encapsulate it.

Mia--as she does in many things--wanted to help out, so she stood on the bottom rung of the ladder for a long time.
We'll pretend she didn't accidentally wipe her booty across the top of the wet paint can...

We were able to do all the painting on Saturday and then we finished up on Sunday by painting an accent color on the interesting woodwork we have popping out one wall of the family room.  Unfortunately, we sorta botched the color choice so that will need to be repainted at some point.  Too bad we really thought we had that figured out!

In other efforts to keep Mia distracted while we painted, we once again relied on our good friends at Sesame Street.  "What's the word on the street?"  Mia has definitely learned her numbers and the alphabet more thanks to Sesame Street, so there must be some learning going on there!



In the meantime, our current challenge with Mia is mostly behavioral.  She won't be two for yet another month but many a mom friend can relate to me here: the terrible twos have already arrived.  I received a call while we were walking through Target this morning and since I was holding the phone, and apparently Mia desperately wanted the phone at that moment (no doubt to watch Elmo), she began hitting me in the face and screaming.  Um, not the desired behavior while in public.  I put her in timeout at the end of an aisle and tried to discuss good and bad choices (© J.H.).  There is talk of a parenting class in the works at our church and it seems there's no time like the present ... we eagerly want answers and direction in raising our little one.  She has a fun, gregarious personality, but like someone else in her family (hmmm...who could that be?), she has a strong will and is quite independent.  Some have called her "secure," which I am happy to hear about her, but it gives both me & Greg a physical & mental workout at times!

Ain't that the way it goes, though?

Speaking of workouts...we have a 5k this weekend.  Here's hoping that these little workouts + some runs with the jogging stroller will be enough to see us through!

Northern Exposure

Last weekend we traveled northward to Minnesota quick trip to visit with family.  Mia traveled super well on all our flights and even though an airline employee accidentally ripped up the copy of her birth certificate, almost all things went pretty well.  Gotta love all the do's & don'ts you just have to learn on the fly when you travel with a wee one (pun intended).  



Even though it took Mia about a half hour to warm up to Uncle Nate on Friday morning (she avoided looking him in the eyes at all costs), after spending just a little bit of time with "Na-ate" and Aunt "Jonga," Mia was pretty taken with her Minnesotan aunt & uncle.  Anytime they left or she thought she heard the garage door, she'd point towards the door and call their names.

We had many other jokes about "batdus" (diapers) and the poopy stairs and Mia got to show Nate & Jenna how cool Elmo's World is.  I'm sure we'll all be singing, "A-B-C, A-B-C" India Aire style for a while now.  See the Youtube video below if you're not sure what I'm talking about.



Now we're back home enjoying warm weather & sunny skies.  This is pretty much the best time of the year in Florida.  It was 19°F when we left Minnesota on Monday and it's been the 70s & 80s here all week.  Funny; I guess every climate takes their turns loving life outdoors.  Let me tell you, come July & August, we won't be loving it so much!

PEACE to you where'er you be.