An update about Vilakazi

Exciting news! Our friends at Midtown Rotary secured a $1,000 grant to buy 100 water-filtering drinking straws for the children of Coffee Bay, South Africa. This is very exciting for Vilakazi. We are so, so, so grateful for our pal Megan for her hard work. She's amazing. Seriously.

They labeled all the straws with names of Rotary members and people who've come to speak at their meetings. They also labeled some for Vilakazi people! These are labeled for Leigh and me:

I updated the Vilakazi website with information about the grant and all of that. So if you have a minute, you can check it out by clicking here.

Leigh and I are anxiously checking the mailbox every day for a letter from the IRS. Just to share an update about our 501(c)3 status, we're still waiting. We sent in our application, the IRS had a couple of follow-up questions, we answered them and now we're waiting for their response. So ... hopefully the next letter that comes from them will be our official notice of nonprofit status. We're crossing our fingers and checking the mail!

Alfalfa

This is what happens when the daddy who gives you baths has a sense of humor.

Curling up with a good book

Mia decided she needed her little chair from Grandpa and her footstool before she could settle in with her book.

Well, that was amazing

The three of us were playing in the living room when Mia hauled off and threw a book. Leigh explained that we don't throw our things. Mia immediately picked up a toy and threw it, too.

Leigh asked, "Do you need a time-out?" She's only ever had two time-outs.

Mia then climbed down from Leigh's lap, walked into her room, dragged her little chair to the time-out spot and sat down, facing the linen basket.

I've only ever had one child, but I'm guessing this is some kind of miraculous event.

Gorilla fight!

We had a free day, so what do we do? The zoo. Of course. For the first time, Mia played in the sprayground. It was adorable. She normally feels tentative about it and hasn't really let loose. Today she did.



And then we saw a big gorilla fight! It was crazy! The alpha male banged into the glass right where Mia and I were sitting. I jumped up in fear and wrapped my arms around Mia. Um, unnecessary. But at least everybody else in the crowd jumped up, too. Except for Leigh. I got a little bit of the end of the wrestling.

Elizabeth Taylor's wedding

We went to Elizabeth Taylor's wedding. It. Was. Amazing. She was, of course, the most glamorous bride I have ever seen. The wedding was the most lavish, beautiful affair I've ever attended. It was amazing. And even though it was a very grown-up party, everyone kept asking where Mia was. At the babysitter's, people!

Disturbing

So for Christmas this year I bought Leigh "Big Game Hunter," his favorite arcade game until he discovered that I am way better at it than he is. The home version is a plastic gun in hunter orange. Mia likes it because if you flip the on button, a little light turns out. Otherwise, she has no clue what it's about. Anyway, so Mia was enjoying flipping the on/off button.


Then Leigh created this. She is a mini-Big Game Huntress, just like her mommy.

Pigs singing opera

When I heard there was an opportunity for my kid to hear pigs singing opera, you know I was all over it. We took Mia to hear the Cimarron Circuit Opera Company perform "The Three Little Pigs." The group is doing a tour of metro libraries.

We realized that not only was this Mia's first opera, but it was our first opera as well. Good thing we started with something easy.

I was a little nervous about how Mia would act. Most of the children were older than her, and I was scared she'd maybe make a break for it and tear down the set.

Nope. Not an issue. The whole half-hour she sat like this:


She watched everything intently. The only time she moved was to shift from Leigh's lap to mine. The signers were fantastic, and the older kids laughed and laughed at their jokes. It was fabulous. Afterward we got in line to take a picture with the three little pigs.



We are really lucky to live in a city with such fabulous things to do. Mia was 21 months old when she saw her first opera performance. I was 29. Hooray for Oklahoma City and the Metropolitan Library System!

Morning play time

Sometimes you have to squeeze in a few minutes of play before heading to the office.

All done

Mia shows off her new cow sound, her ability to say and her crazy all done signal.

Updating Twitter

Mia says moo

We've discovered that Mia loves to moo. She loves all things cow, especially mooing. This might or might not be related to her Halloween costume last year. Viewer warning: this gets violent.

A day of animals

It was a day of showers for me - a wedding shower for one friend in the morning and a baby shower for another friend in the afternoon. I rode to the wedding shower with my pal Kelli, and we spotted these amazing shrubberies in the neighborhood of the host. We couldn't resist tresspassing. It turns out, Edward Scissorhands lives in western Edmond. Who knew?

While I was off at the wedding shower, Leigh and Mia had an adventure to the zoo. Highlights include sitting together under a shady tree, avoiding a blood-thirsty hyena and playing in the creek at the Children's Zoo exhibit.

Sleepers and Sheepers

This kid loves her sheep, which we cleverly named Sheepers. Sheepers wears tiny yellow socks and loves to cuddle up with Mia at night.

A quick story

OK, for the record, I try not to document Mia's bodily fuctions. But this is too much to let pass.

Scene: Leigh, Mia and the dogs are playing in the living room. I'm listening from the bedroom.

Mia: *passes gas ... loudly*

Leigh: "Miiiaaa ... was that you?"

Mia: "Skye!"

Reading time with mommy

Brushy brush

Pooped

Happy birthday, Leigh!

To celebrate Leigh's birthday, we went out for a round of golf with Bryan Dean and Tre Dupuy. Tre played amazingly, and Leigh and Dean also shot in the 100 range.


It was a great day for me - I shot only 17 over double par! I think my Grandpa Dean is now immediately regretting giving me his clubs. (I promise to work on my long game, Grandpa!) I also hit this beauty. I actually had a great drive, but I managed to hit the only puddle on the entire hole! It was the tiniest water hazard ever. Leigh shot a video of my awkward swing.





In addition to that, we also saw this guy:

What is he doing? He's busy looking like an actor out of an 1950s exercise video. He was sweating like a madman and wearing Chuck Taylors. He must live on the course, because he was in a back yard walking back and forth carrying a kettle weight. I wished I could have captured him in full action - carrying the weight over his head, out in front of him, swinging it to the side. It was amazing.

And then there was this: Tre's attempt at frightening a squirrel.

It worked.

Fanny pack-tastic!

I got to write a column this week that was so, so fun: Artists bring fanny pack fashion back to Oklahoma City. At the urging of my friend Kelli, I asked our photographer if she could also snap a picture of me with a fanny pack. She obliged. I chose the one that looked like a robot head. Yes.

It will cost you, daddy

First of all, I'd like to point out that I put these ponytails in! Second of all, I'd like to point out that Leigh is responsible for these high socks.

Mia reciprocated by stealing Leigh's wallet on the way to school:

The secret of ponytails

Mia has the wonder teacher, Dashira, who always sends her home with at least two ponytails. Today, Mia had four. I couldn't decide whether they were more hilarious or adorable. I finally cornered Dashira after school and asked how she could manage to get four ponytails in Mia's hair when Mia wouldn't sit still long enough for me to do one. Dashira promised me she didn't practice black magic, though I'm still skeptical. The secret: toys. Who knew? It seems so obvious now! She will sit Mia down, give her a toy and then get to work on her hair. Amazing! Mia will now have more homemade ponytails now that I know the in and outs.

A child of the 80s

Leigh's birthday is Saturday, but scheduling a party for him has been pretty much impossible. The city's big film festial is this weekend, and friends have scheduled events for next week. We were busy last weekend. It just wasn't going to work out, and Leigh was getting pretty bummed out about it. So I planned him a surprise party, even though he asks for a surprise party every single year. The theme: 1980s. Leigh was born in 1981, so we had a tribute to that child of the 80s.

Our friend invited us over for dinner as a decoy, and we showed up in regular clothes. I'd been to the thrift store to buy some amazing outfits for all three of us, so they were waiting in the trunk. Our friends Stacy and Andy opened the door, and Stacy was dressed completely 80s. She had a fabulous side ponytail and old Lemondheads shirt. Stacy is one of the most stylish people I know. She's always dressed to the nines, and I have literally never seen her in anything but a dress or skirt. I knew the surprise was blown as soon as I saw her.

Turns out, Leigh just thought Stacy was drunk.

Surprise still on!

We walked across their living room - where Leigh's presents were - and toward the kitchen, where our friends all shouted surprise. Leigh was, sadly, actually surprised. He will not be taking up a job as a detective any time soon.

Sadly, Mia was also surprised. She was not as excited.

I dashed out to the car and got our hilarious outfits. Here are some of the folks who dressed up:

And more party pictures:

This is my favorite picture. I'm guessing that Stacy labeled these drinks. "Sangria" and "Boring Juice."

Forget you, pool

So we decided to take Mia for a swim. Of course this meant I had the chance to put her in a life jacket and sunglasses. Hilarious.


But she was not interested. At all.



She didn't want anything to do with getting in the pool at Tiamo's condo complex. A few hours later, we gave it a shot at one of the city's sprinkler park. Not interested. It was really more complete revulsion as opposed to indifference.


What happened to our water bug kid? Last year she was all about it! (Click here.) So Leigh and I decided we would give it one more shot in the pool after dinner. She went from crying when we put her in the pool to crying when we had to leave.

Elizabeth Taylor and the Half-Naked Man

A couple of our fabulous friends, Elizabeth Taylor (yes, Elizabeth Taylor) and John Semtner, are getting married at the end of the month. I attended Elizabeth's bachelorette party, and it was fabulous. Kelli, a friend of mine who is one of her bridesmaids, planned the most hysterical activity ever. Elizabeth and John are going to Paris for their honeymoon, so Kelli hired a model to wear a beret, a neck scarf and his skivvies to model for us. So we all painted him. It. Was. Hilarious. Mostly because Elizabeth hates feeling awkward. I loved it.


Elizabeth is the one standing to the right of me (in the strapless dress) and Kelli is to the right of her (in the black and pink dress):