Mia reads a book

Mia read a book to me while we were at the doctor's office.

Last of Las Vegas

For our last day in Las Vegas, we rode the bus up the strip and walked our way back before hopping a cab to the airport.

In front of Paris:

Doing more walking:
The creepiest slot machine ever, Kitty Glitter, where judgemental cats leer at you for not betting enough:
Leigh enjoying Margaritaville:

Vegas: Day 2

We might have had too much fun on our first day in Vegas, so we took it easy for Day 2. We bought a bus pass - best idea ever! - and went shopping at the outlet mall. On the way back, our trusty "guide" told us the wrong bus stop to get off on to see the famous Las Vegas sign. Lesson learned: a guy working bus security probably doesn't know much. We. Walked. Forever. But we had fun and found a shopping cart in the desert.


We finally made it to the sign! Hooray!


On our way back to our hotel, we met a lovely German lady named Alexandra who needed our help. She was traveling alone, and she couldn't have made it to the Las Vegas sign without some assistance. Not only were the sidewalks pretty broken down in that area, but there was no crosswalk across the three lanes of traffic to get to the stupid sign. It was way unsafe for someone with mobility issues. So we walked back to the sign and helped Alexandra take a photo in front of it. Hooray!


We headed back to our hotel, and I made Leigh sit down outside before we could even make it indoors. I was so tired from walking!


The rest of the day we spent jacking around. We saw the lions at the MGM. (She's right above my head!)


We went to the M&M store, where I was hungry and Leigh was thirsty. He was so fascinated by the ability to drink beer wherever you want in Las Vegas - on the street, in stores, between casinos, in front of innocent children. So, of course, he had to take advantage of that in the M&M Store.


We met our friends for dinner and ate the fanciest miniature lemon pie ever.


After dinner, we gambled $20 on behalf of a friend of mine at work. This is how that went:

So, long story short, she and I both still work at the paper.


After that, we decided to go to Freemont Street. We did something else on the way to Freemont, but that is a story for another day. We ended up walking forever again. On the way, we stopped in front of the pawn shop from Pawn Stars. It was closed, but it was still kind of cool to see.


We finally made it to Freemont Street!


I'm sorry. I'm too busy sitting here to read your sign:


Leigh was really excited about our trip to Freemont Street because of these two things: the world's most stereotypically policemen and the world's largest pint glass.

Viva Las Vegas!

We took our first trip without Mia this weekend. Any regret about leaving Mia at home was quickly erased as soon as we saw a rolling billboard for prostitutes. Vegas is not a place for children. Leigh and I went for two main reasons:

1. It was our 30th birthday presents to one another.
2. Two of our very good friends went for their bachelor/bachelorette parties.

We had a supremely fantastic time. Here's the proof.

SpongeBob was so happy to see us:

Leigh wanted to point out that SpongeBob was ALREADY drunk when he offered him his beer:

The real reason we went to Vegas was to play Mortal Kombat:

And Whack-a-Mole:

We watched the Bellagio fountain:

I met a guy with a crazy (real!) moustache:

We had a lot of fun riding in what we determined was the tiniest limo ever:

The limo was so tiny, Kimball was actually holding the door closed:

But we all arrived safely and had a really fun time at the casino's dance club:

How did we end up here?

Sometimes in life you wonder how you ended up in a particular spot, like when you wake up in the morning and you're all tangled up uncomfortably in the covers.

Tonight, Leigh and I had one of those moments when Mia was running around in only her socks in the bathroom of a doctor's office.

This is how we got there.

We've been trying to get Mia to become familiar with the potty. She's really interested in it, so we were thinking it might be a good time to capitalize on that interest. She's peed a total of once on the toilet, and she was so terrified of what was going on that she left off and into my lap. (I promise not to tell too many stories about potty training. Really.)

Fast forward to today, when the daycare director called to say that she was crying and holding her diaper. Her teachers suspected a bladder infection.

We picked her up and took her to the walk-in clinic. The nurse gave us two options: let her pee in a cup or put in a catheter. Well, that was an easy choice.

While the nurse rustled up a cap, she had us take off Mia's diaper and hold her over a little bucket, so that if she peed, we could at least capture it. Let me just say this: a 20-month-old child is TOTALLY interested in sitting perfectly still inside a tiny bucket.

The nurse returned and took us to the bathroom, where she put big cup under the toilet seat. She also handed us a cup of water for Mia to drink. All we had to do was wait for Mia to pee.

And let me say this: a 20-month-old child is TOTALLY interested in sitting perfectly still on a toilet until she pees.

So we coaxed her into drinking some water, and we realized that her shirt might get in the way and her shoes might contaminate the bucket if she moved wrong. So we stripped her down to her tiny little blue socks. She thought this was great, inexplicable fun.

We then tried to get her to sit still and pee.

We realized we could be trapped in that bathroom for hours. Hours.

We lucked out and Mia went fairly quickly, but it was so sad. She screamed and screamed and screamed. We pulled her off as soon as she was done, tears still streaming down her face. We were sure that she had an infection.

Turns out: nope. She just had no idea what the heck was going on. She was totally fine. The physician's assistant said she probably was grabbing her diaper because she is weirded out by it now. Great. Naked baby in the bathroom for nothing.

Mia's first Hunker Down

Mia got her first introduction to Oklahoma weather today. A rash of horrible tornadoes struck the state, killing people throughout the city. I have to say, it was the most afraid I've been since living here. We left our house and stayed in Megan and Andrew's basement. It was Mia's first real hunker down, and she was great. I think she thought it was all a great game where all the adults got together to watch her run around. After it was all over, we were so grateful to be safe and have a home to go to. Mia, on the other hand, was exhausted from all the excitement: