This year

I wrote this column about the end of 2009.

Parents and children

After Mia was born, I was surprised that I continued to be somebody's daughter.

When you're growing up, you think of your parents as Parents with a big P. Parents do important Parent-type stuff. They Pay The Bills, File Taxes, Have A House, Have Kids and do other really Important Things that seem light years away.

In the first three months of Mia's life, I'm pretty sure I've called friends and relatives about 7 million times to ask questions. Am I doing things right? Is she happy? Is she healthy? What does it mean when she cries this way or that? Am I doing enough to stimulate her, engage her, teach her, comfort her, love her? I know I'll call for advice millions of more times.

It isn't until you're completely responsible for someone else do you realize how vulnerable you really are.

And it wasn't until I started facing that vulnerability and overcoming it did I realize that my parents must have felt that way, too. My parents probably called their parents a million times and asked about what to do for me. They were kids, too.

You think of you parents as superheros who were born somewhere around age 40. Parents with a big P. They already know everything. You can't imagine there was a time in their lives when they didn't. But as I've transitioned into this new phase of life, it's given me a new appreciation for all of my parents.

When you become a parent, you don't stop being a child. You're always someone's daughter or son. I appreciate that I can still call my parents and ask for help. It's really a lovely place to be in life.

Christmas with the uncles

We had another Christmas last night and it was fantastic! We went over to Clay Barrett's to see him and boyfriend Marc Bell. Clay made a delicious dinner and we traded presents. (Just FYI ... that fantastic Golden Girls living room set is only temporary. No on in his right man, let alone Clay, would choose that for the long-term.) It was so wonderful. We're so lucky. We have the best friends in the world!

Why babies have pockets, 3

To carry their pacifiers around. You wouldn't want them to fall on the floor and get dirty.

Why babies have pockets, 2.

Why babies have pockets, 1.

The big crawl

Mia crawled! OK, so she only crawled, like, 6 inches. And it was really more like a flounder than a crawl. Nevertheless, it was really exciting! She had some tummy time at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Susie's house in College Station, and she pushed herself forward for the first time. It was a long series of butt-in-the-air, head-in-the-air lifts, but she finally managed to propel herself a little bit. We all cheered. Here's a look at her later attempts.

A Very Texas Christmas

So if you were to guess what is involved in a Texas Christmas, what would you guess? That's right: cowboy hats, cowboy boots and armadillos.

We discovered that Mia has the same hat size as a Build-a-Bear ...


It was really hilarious. She was, of course, very tolerant of our nonsense.

So then she decided to round up her buffalo ...

Once she had the buffalo taken care of, she decided to put on her pink RealTree boots she got from Grandpa Doug and ride the armadillo.

Then it was time to eat. We had the back half of a pig my dad's friend shot. It was extremely creepy looking on the grill, but it was really tasty when we ate.

Mia enjoyed some more cuddle time with her family, particularly Aunt Susie, Uncle Jeff and her great-grandparents, who also happen to be just plain great in general.

While we were in College Station, my dad helped Mia do her first Hog Call. I laughed so hard I'm pretty sure I wet my pants.

Drive time

It took us eight hours to get to College Station but we survived. The roads were fine except for an icy stretch between Pauls Valley and Ardmore. Leigh said I spent an hour of our trip with my eyes open wide and my hands covering my mouth. It's true. Yikes. We stopped in Ardmore and Mia had had enough of our mamby-pamby driving, so she took over. Here she is pulling out of the parking lot.

Merry Christmas!

Mia's first Christmas was white - the first white Christmas here since 1992. Santa was smiling on her. Leigh enjoying going out in boots and shorts.

Our house:

Our street:

We opened presents at the house. I got a Broingtons shirt! (You say it BRO-ingtons. It's a shirt made in honor of three of the Oklahoma City Thunder players - Kevin Durant, James Harden and Jeff Green - who make videos of themselves lip-syncing and then post them to YouTube. They are awesome!) These shirts are REALLY hard to get, but Leigh is AWESOME and found one for me!

After we finished at our house, we went over to Jill's. This little hat Mia got is the cutest!

Now on to Texas for our fourth Christmas in our third state!

Snow drifts

Leigh is a great dad! We realized we forgot Mia's gift from Aunt Connie - a copy of "The Night Before Christmas" with a recording of her reading it - in the car. This is her first night before Christmas, so Leigh braved the 4-degree windchill and 40 mph winds to go get it. He took this picture on the way:

Snow drifts in Oklahoma? The world has gone insane.

Winter weather

The weather is really gross here. Luckily, I'm working from home today, so Mia and I are staying warm. But unfortunately Leigh is at the office. Look how excited he was this morning to leave:

Here's what's happening at 10 a.m.

I'm getting worried about whether we'll be able to go to Texas in the morning. I really want to see my dad and family, but things aren't looking to good. We'll have to play it by ear tomorrow.

Things are getting worse. It's crazy! There's a blizzard warning for a big part of the state and winds are getting up to 50 mph! Here's the front of our house at noon:

Milk man

Mia's been spending this week with Jill. Leigh drops her off and picks her up and acts as the milk delivery man between home and Jill's. There's no good way to carry a bunch of little bottles without them falling over. Then I figured out this:

Appropriate? Maybe not. But Leigh said it's a light beer so that makes it OK.

Christmas column

I wrote about how awesome our regifting Christmas was. Yea! Speaking of Christmas, here are a couple more pictures from the weekend: Mia with Pawpaw Bob and Aunt Beth.



And here's a video of Natalie being super cute.

Leaps and bounds

Mia's been continuing her triathlon training tonight. Here are two videos of her working out like a crazy lady.

Time to say goodbye

It was finally time to go back to Oklahoma City after Mia's first visit to Mountain Home. She was pretty worn out, as you can see. But she gave Grandma Peggy one more smile before heading home.

Two littles at the Back Forty

Mia and Natalie had the chance to make their first trip to the Back Forty yesterday. Yes! I'm pretty sure Mountain Home city ordinances require everyone from Mountain Home and all their relatives and friends go to the Back Forty at least once in their lives.

Mia sits on the table and demands some service ...

Leigh holds his two favorite things ...

Grandma Peggy hogs the baby ...

Natalie says she's had enough of these holiday decorations ...

Natalie tells us she loves Bare Knuckle: fighting and beer.

Beth and her sweet girl ...

Surprise!

We arrived early this morning to Grandma Peggy and Pawpaw Bob's house. They were expecting us Friday evening but we came about 2 a.m. Friday. We left Oklahoma City after work and came straight on through. Mia did great. The only time she was awake was when I woke her up to eat. My brother, Joe, and sister-in-law, Beth, left the door open so we could sneak in. So at 2 in the morning we dragged in all our stuff, turned on the Christmas lights, set up the crib and camped out in the living room. No one noticed. Peggy and Bob both woke up and noticed someone sleeping in the living room but didn't check it out. What? They could have squatters and would never notice.

But Grandma Peggy was excited nonetheless. We had so much fun with our extra day. We went to the thrift stores, got a beer and hung out. We went to the Back Forty and played a card game. As you can see, Mia offered to help Beth.

Natalie - Joe and Beth's little girl - is absolutely beautiful. She is so big! She turned 1 on Oct. 15 and is just a busy little body. It's crazy to think that Mia will be her size next year.

Despite Natalie's cuteness, she is a bit of a rebel. She wasn't a fan of Beth holding Mia. She was pretty sure that Beth was her mom and her mom alone - no other baby better encroach on her terrirotiry! This is the only photo I think we will ever have where Beth has both girls.

More Goodness

And more goodness:

1. We received $175 - really!!!!! - in the mail today from some very special people. I can't believe how much we've raised so far for Vilakazi. This is amazing!

2. I love receiving Christmas cards in the mail. It is such a wonderful feeling knowing that people think of you during the holidays. We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family!

Goodness

Last night we had two kinds of goodness:

1. We had about 30 people into our house for our annual Christmas dinner. Mia was passed around like a cold, only cuter. There's nothing better than a house full of happy people enjoying food and beer and each other. It was fantastic. I heart Christmas.

2. We collected $361 - really!!!!! - in donations for Vilakazi. Our friends' generosity is overwhelming.

A Christmas Miracle

I think we'll have the house clean and all the food ready before our guests come tonight. It will be the first time that's ever happened. Ever. Ever. It's a Christmas miracle!

Chicken and lights!

Saturday night we made our second annual trip out to Eischen's Chicken and the Kingfisher in Lights display. (For the out-of-town folks, here's what I wrote last year about Eischen's. It's epic chicken, people!) Hooray for Alison for organizing again! Of course we had to take pictures on the beautiful bridge:

We learned two valuable lessons on our trip: Eischen's frito pie is good and Sonic does not sell hot chocolate. This year, unfortunately, the Johns weren't with us so Sutter could say, "Merry Christmas - get the f*** away!"

Our pediatrician

As if we couldn't love our pediatrian any more, check this out!

Oklahoma City — The Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis, Missouri, has named Oklahoma’s Stuart Schrader, D.O., as a medical director for Mercy’s Center for Innovative Care which encompasses a network of more than 20 hospitals in the Midwest.

Dr. Schrader, a board certified internal medicine and pediatric physician at Mercy Health Northwest Family clinic in Oklahoma City, will continue to practice medicine part-time in Oklahoma City while providing input into ways Mercy will transform how patients experience health care and take part in finding new ways to respond to the health needs of our communities.

Dr. Schrader, who serves as chair of the quality and safety committee for Mercy in Oklahoma City, received his medical degree from Des Moines University in Des Moines, Iowa, and performed an internal medicine/pediatrics residency at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

So we did a MUCH better job at finding a pediatrian than a babysitter.

The baby and the chicken

We went shopping today for all the stuff for our holiday party, A Very Tribal Christmas. We're expecting about 40 guests. We can't wait! The menu: crunchies, milk tart, curried chicken wings, veggie pizza, bobotie, sausage rolls and malva pudding. To make sure we have enough food for everyone, we bought a giant bag of chicken wings at Sam's this afternoon. When we got home, we realized we bought 10 pounds - the same weight as our child. We have as much chicken as baby in this house right now. Here's Leigh acting as a scale:

Invictus

We went and saw Invictus tonight. It was great! (It was helpful to read the poem before.) We were probably the only people in the theater wearing real South Africa rugby shirts. Everyone else was jealous.

Back to daycare

We snapped some pictures of Mia on her way back to daycare today, the day before her last day.

In this picture, we just told her she had to go back to the crazy lady's house.

In this picture, we just told her that after Friday she never has to go back again.

She's a rebel

So today when I picked Mia up from daycare I got some startling news: she's been kicked out.

That's right. Our 2-month-old baby girl has been expelled from daycare. Why? She doesn't take enough naps. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I didn't know a 2-month-old baby could be given the boot. She's a baby! Little babies don't have sleep schedules yet. Because she doesn't nap along with the other kids doesn't mean she should be kicked out. Apparently it's not cool with the babysitter that Mia hangs out in her crib and watches a mobile while the other kids sleep. Like Mia knows that from 1 to 3 p.m. is nap time.

As Leigh says, "That's my child! She's a bad ass!" As Green Day says, "She's a rebel. She's a saint. She's the salt of the earth and she's dangerous."

I think this babysitter is taking naps of her own and is mad that she has to stay awake with Mia.

So now here we are - three weeks away from when she'll be in daycare for good - without any plans. Great. But I'd rather start looking for daycare all over again than have this crazy woman take care of my kid.

First day of daycare!

Mia went to daycare for the first time Monday. Here is a picture of her at the house, all ready to go. It was really hard dropping her off. I kissed her a thousand times, but she was sleeping. She eventually started squirming around while I was smooching her. OK, OK - I'll let you alone, little baby. When I left the babysitters, I thought I would cry. But when I got into Leigh's car the CD player switched to a new CD. Bob Marley told me that every little thing was gonna be all right. And it was. I picked her up after work and she was sleeping away, facing the babysitter's Christmas tree. She survived without me. Somehow.

Congrats!

So we have some good news from the Coppernoll family! Aunt Connie and Jimmy Squeegee are engaged! Here's a picture of them at our wedding. They met on 05.05.05 and will get married 10.10.10. Hooray!

Santa cuteness

Mia went to visit Santa today at the Oklahoman company Christmas party. Of course, because she's a weird baby sometimes, she slept as soon as we got into that noisy room. There were kids running around everywhere and shouting and playing. Mia? Sleeping. She slept the whole time Santa held her. She didn't even ask for anything for Christmas, so we are fulfilling her request by not getting her anything. OK, not really. We already got her presents, which are wrapped to be opened by ...? But he gave her a candy cane. You can see it tucked into her little hand. Unfortunately, she doesn't have teeth and we lost the candy cane. So much for that.

In an attempt to capture pictures of Mia actually awake with Santa, we visited a mall Santa in the northwest part of the city. She was actually awake! We had pictures made with him but don't have digital copies.