The Ice Man

Leigh is the Ice Man. Or something. But he snapped this giant icicle out of our back porch before it killed someone! And he is displaying it with Mia for a sense of scale. Poor Mia. She is always used as a sense of scale. I think she may take that icicle and whack him with it. And here are the remaining icicles off our awning. Yikes!

Mia is old!

Mia is four months today, which is insane. In some ways it seems like she has always been here, but sometimes it feels like she was born yesterday. (Did I sound cliche and old just then? Yes, I did.) I can't believe how big she is! She used to be so tiny. Here are some photos of her hanging out in her play gym. As you can see, she just finished looking through the classifieds and doing the crossword puzzle.

Laugh it up

I finally caught Mia's laugh on video. She started cracking up because I said "Das Mia!" I love it! Seeing her giggle makes me giggle.



Our power is still on, and we are so grateful. Leigh spotted a branch that was sagging onto one of the lines to the house and cut it down. Hopefully that will be it for dangers to the power between the company lines and our house.

I worked from home again today and Leigh came home early. Leigh was only one of three people in his entire office! He spent the day helping a friend, who was inundated with calls. I tried to balance watching Mia and working. I was able to get a lot done even though I had to take a few breaks to feed or change her. I interviewed a woman while Mia was napping, and only a few minutes in she woke up screaming. The woman was so nice and waited until I could get Mia her pacifier. We finished the interview, and I'm glad it was with someone so nice.

We are both glad to be finished for the weekend. Our plans include staying inside and praying the power stays on.

The snow is still falling on top of the half-inch layer of ice below. The dogs are loving the weather! Here's a video of them playing the back yard this morning:



Mia goes with me when I let the dogs outside, and she loves looking out at the snow. She's not even bothered when I open the door to let the dogs in or out. She just looks outside, engrossed with the weather. I'm glad she can see it. This winter has had the most snow of any winter since I've lived in Oklahoma.

The power

We still have power! Fingers crossed it stays on ...

I worked from home today and Leigh's office closed early. Thankfully we're all inside, warm and able to see each other because the power hasn't gone out.

Being shy

From the moment she was born, the paparazzi have been in Mia's face. Leigh had to beat back the grandmas with a stick to keep them from taking pictures of Mia's poor little cone head. Well she's had enough. She says, "No more pictures!"

Nap time with mom

Mia's been having a rough few days we think may be attributable to a growth spurt. She's been eating, sleeping and crying. Here's a picture of the sleeping:

Big hats

Mia models two giant hats. The pink one was a gift from Grandpa Doug and Nancy. The second is Leigh's that he got from the Salvation Army in Mountain Home. Both options are ridiculously cute.

Rockstar

Mia plays air guitar during the Haiti benefit concert.

Alpacas and boots

Today I went to cover the alpaca show out in Shawnee, and I had a chance to wear my cowboy boots to an assignment for the first time. The gal I was interviewing looked down and pointed, "You wore your boots! Smart girl." YES! Thank you, Dad and Nancy.

This is a video I shot that includes the woman who was proud of me for my boots:

Stand up for your rights

Mia figured this out about a week ago but we finally caught it on camera. If I pull her up to sitting on my leg, she'll tilt forward and push herself up to standing. We have no sense of scale about whether this is impressive, but we think it's impressive. Then again, we think pretty much everything she does is impressive.

We think it's because of the super cute shoes her Aunt Lee and Uncle Ralph gave her for Christmas. She's really good at doing this while wearing those cute little shoes.

Go State!

Chad came over tonight and gave Mia her Christmas present! Shockingly, it involved Michigan State. It's an adorable MSU sweatshirt that she will grow into just in time for fall. But because Chad was ALSO wearing an MSU shirt, we had to document their love of the green and white. In this picture, Chad is telling her that State is going to have a great football season next year. As you can see, Mia thinks that's highly doubtful.


And as a side note, Chad was the first non-relative to hold Mia.

Beat up that ball!

So apparently Mia has a personal vendetta against her play gym. Or she's really hungry. I'm not sure. Either way, she has been so interested in batting at the ball and other toys on her gym and pulling them toward her mouth. The ball actually makes it all the way, but the other toys don't. She's pretty furious about that. But some day she'll be big enough. Not today. Or tomorrow probably.

Pretty in purple

Here are some pictures of Mia being generally cute!

Gym takedown

Mia beats the stuffing out of the beach ball - well, if it had any - of her play gym.

Coming in from the cold

Last night was awful. Mia started sneezing blood, and it was pretty scary. I called Nancy and she said it was normal. Little bitty noses are sensitive, so after a bunch of hard sneezing for two days, the tissue can become irritated and break. It was maybe the saddest thing ever.

This morning Mia had a doctor's appointment, which she had anyway, and he said all the same things Nancy said: the cold will go away on its own. He said her ears and chest were clear, so no need to fret.

You can tell she feels better today than yesterday, though she still feels pretty yucky. I shot this video of her talking about how awful she feels.

Right after I took this video, she kept talking and talking. She wore herself out and eventually talked herself to sleep. I laughed and woke her up. She talked herself to sleep again and I laughed again. I eventually had to move to the edge of the bed so she could talk, fall asleep and not be distributed by my laughing.

That zebra is delicious

Mia and I are staying home today. Mia continues to feel under the weather, but she's taking little breaks between coughs and sneezes to smile and enjoy herself. We figured out this morning that she enjoys sucking on the mobile from her swing. Apparently, the zebra is the best. She started chewing on him first before moving on the giraffe. I guess the lion was the hardest to take down.

Out in the cold

After Leigh and I both suffered through a nasty cold, Mia unfortunately has it now, too. Seeing someone so tiny have such a tiny little cough is the saddest thing ever.

The cling and jerk

This video shows Mia preparing for the 2010 Baby Olympics. She's competing in the cling and jerk, which is done with a blue, felt-tip pen. She's giving it her best shot when a streaker - Skye naked because she ate her own collar - comes bounding in from the audience. Mia manages to continue her lift successfully despite the disruption.

A day in pictures

Bundling up before going out in the cold, enjoying the Jenny Jump Up (look closely and you can see she's using it as a teething ring with the drool all over the front) and getting ready for bath time.

A long, hard day

Mia continues to enjoy her daycare. Leigh picked her up this afternoon and she was watching one of the little boys in her room with a bottle. She looked at him intently and then just smiled and laughed. This socialization is good, we think. Tonight when she got home she was really tired and conked out about an hour earlier than normal. We think she's doing at school what she does at home - staying awake way past nap time so she can see what's going on. I was holding her up in a sitting position on my stomach and she just fell right asleep.

Spinster

Mia is really enjoying her play gym. Here's a video of what she learned to do with one of the toys from it.

A much better feeling

Today we got confirmation that Mia's daycare is infinitely better than her first location, if not maybe the coolest place ever.

Leigh dropped her off this morning with an older lady who works part-time in the baby room each morning. He handed Mia over to her. She looked at her and said, "Good morning, Mia. Are you going to talk to me again today?" Leigh said Mia's face just lit up. She smiled and started babbling away.

This is good.

All the women who work there are so gentle and sweet. This is the right place for her. We both feel worlds better about where she's spending her days now.

Don't take no crap

Leigh was feeding Mia when she wrestled the bottle away from him. She couldn't hold it up completely on her own, but she did for a few seconds here and then. In this picture she's telling us to back the heck off. She'll hold her own bottle, thank you very much, and she doesn't want any lip about it.

The octopus and the seahorse

Oma Jill gave Mia a really cool play gym, and she loves it! We're not sure what's she's saying, but she has been talking to the octopus and the seahorse nonstop since we put her in there. She also does her trademark high-kick moves.

C'mon, Mallett!

We watched the Liberty Bowl today as a family, and Mia was a little disappointed in the Razorback's first half today. She thinks Ryan Mallett needs to relax a little bit and throw. Mia firmly believes Mallett needs another year of college before going to the NFL. Anybody who thinks otherwise is a ninny.

I think this picture illustrates what it's like to be a Razorback fan, particularly in the post season. It's best she learns now.

Obviously, things started looking up after halftime, and the Hogs won a bowl game for the first time since the 1800s. Unfortunately, she was so angry she peed through her Razorback onsie before the game was over, so I couldn't capture a photo of a happier Mia.

So instead, I'll share these photos.

This was Mia wearing that same onsie on Oct. 10, when she watched her first Razorback game. The Hogs beat Auburn. She's so much bigger. (You can even see how much bigger she is since Nov. 7, when she watched the South Carolina game.) I can't imagine how big she'll be by next season!

Alfalfia

Mia has looked like a girl Alfalfa for about a week. We've brushed it down. She's had more than one bath. Deter has licked her head. As parents, we are concerned. This appears to be permanent. And hilarious.