Happy birthday x 3

OK, it's hard to tell from the photo, but Leigh and I got to celebrate our friend and the number 3 in fabulous fashion. Our friend Greg, who is a triplet, turned 33, and his brothers came to Oklahoma City to celebrate. (Greg was the second born, so he is labeled as No. 2.) Of course, this alignment of the planets led to a 3-themed birthday party. Oh yes. I have to say, Leigh and I had some pretty fantastic costumes. I was the Gulf of Guinea, which you can find at 3 degrees north latitude and 3 degrees east longitude. Leigh is the pi minus "0.14159265358979323846264338 and so on."

A dialogue

Leigh: "But that is my milkshake."

Mia: "False."

Mia the conductor

I love to find out what Leigh and Mia have been up to if I have to work late or on the weekends. This is what they came up with tonight:

 

Pizza night

Mia loves making pizza. It takes about 7 hours to get all the cheese on. The dogs are so hopeful for the entire time.

When things go wrong

Sometimes, things don't really work out. I get out the camera and think, "Aww, look at Mia being adorable! Let me take a video!" Then it all goes to hell.

The world's shortest Durant

Love thy neighbor?

God said love thy neighbor, but should you really love thy neighbor's cars this much? This silver SUV loves Leigh's Toyota a lot, apparently. It was a little Sunday morning smooch for the Matrix.

A visit to the Myriad Gardens

The Myriad Gardens downtown were open for free, and you know how much I love free. We decided to take Mia on a walk-through to see all the exotic plants from all over the world. This is how excited she was:

So, I guess it could have been worse. The more we walked around, the more she enjoyed seeing all the bright colors.

Abby's house

As I mentioned, Mia lost her bet little pal Abby recently when their family moved away. This morning she built "Abby's house" out of her blocks. It sounds really sad, but it was actually really sweet. She was excited to do it. Oh, teeny tiny friendship!

Mia writes her first essay

Mia typed out her first essay today. It harkened back to when she was just a wee babe and typed her first letter. Here's what she wrote this time:

Hjhnnbnnnnm mnnnnnnnnnnb

Why I love journalists

This is the soda machine from my office.

Sand is bad

We decided to try out a new playground because the weather was nice, so we headed north to Nichols Hills. For those of you who don't live in Oklahoma, that community is known for beautiful mansions and immaculate gardens. So we thought for sure the playground would be some kind of wonderland. False. Turns out, it's a sand playground. Sand? What? Do you know what's a bad plan before you go out to dinner with friends? Taking your toddler to the world's biggest sandbox. Mia loved it, but we had to pat her down forever to get all the sand off her. Lesson learned.

Neighborhood watch captain

Stud finding

Mia has decided that the stud finder is the greatest of all tools in the toolbox. She has been helpful while I've been putting up a chair rail.

Lil ... cleaners?

As can be expected, Leigh is really, really, really excited for Mia to play soccer. Really excited, people. Well, it turns out that Mia is, you know, not very old. But then we found out that there is a new program in Oklahoma City called Lil Kickers, and it goes as young as 18 months. Oh goodness. Now we're excited. They had an open house, and guess which family went? The Jacobs family.

Now I'm looking at this whole ordeal from a financial perspective. How much does this cost, and is that worth is for my how much my daughter is going to get out of it? The answer is too much and nope. Mia had a fun time and wanted to play, but she was not really interested in kicking the balls around much. No, sir. What did she think was more fun?

Cleaning.

Oh, you better believe it.

Near the end of the class, she had tidied up nearly the entire play around. She had put all the soccer balls away while the rest of the kids were still off enjoying parachute time. What does this say about us as parents? I'm concerned.

Our drama queen

We went out to see our pal Marc perform in a play called "Drama Queens," which is set backstage at a drag show. It was performed in a drag bar. It was great. Marc was the lead. As you can see from the photo, he plays a coke addict. As you can also see from the photo, we did not take Mia to see this play. She probably would have cried when she saw Uncle Marc screaming when his addiction is discovered. Not fun times for a 2-year-old. But he did give a wonderful performance! Hooray Marc!

Smiling face

I don't need you, pillow

Sometimes a doll makes a better pillow than a pillow does. The giant drool spot is proof. Just like her mama.

Because we're pals with the Thunder

So THAT was amazing. Our good pals the Kimballs were out of town the day the Oklahoma City Thunder hosted their season ticket party. Who was the lucky family? The Jacobs family! They gave us their passes and let us take their spot at the event. It. Was. Incredible. We saw Russell Westbrook twice. I failed to say hi twice. We saw Daequan Cook and he was sweet enough to take a picture with us. He even called me ma'am. What! Our boys are the best. Mia was not so impressed with the whole ordeal. It was loud and there were tons of people. But we found some popcorn and all was well.

Don't serve popcorn

Mia hit another milestone: a noisy, chaotic, insane milestone. We had a sleepover. Our good friend Michelle brought her two kiddos over to stay the night with us.

The first lesson learned: you can never have two many snacks already prepared. By the time a kid asks for a snack, it's already too late. You can mosey around the kitchen, leisurely flipping through your cupboards. It's go time. You have to have something ready.

The second lesson learned: do not serve a snack you don't want to clean up. For example, don't give a group of excited, active children popcorn unless you'd like to wake up and discover popcorn kernels in your bathtub and other various locations.

They had so much fun. They watched a movie, jumped on the bed, did lots of yelling and even slept in a little bit. Noah spent lots of time riding Mia's Power Wheels. Izzy spent lots of time explaining how we should deal with Noah. Mia mostly giggled and followed them around like they were rock stars.

Mia draws the family

Mia has been drawing pictures forever, but she did something today that was especially neat. She drew a picture of our family. She made a mark for each of us - Leigh, each of the two dogs, her and me. It made my heart so happy. I might have put it in a tiny frame.

My 15 minutes

This year, I've given up swearing for Lent. Even though I'm not Catholic and the church we go to doesn't really give up things for Lent, I'm still doing it. Mostly, I'm trying to brush up my mouth so Mia doesn't repeat me and get kicked out of daycare.

The reporter who sits across from me at work has been very helpful. And then she did this: http://www.overheardinthenewsroom.com/2012/03/06/9114/.

That's me! I'm famous! Sort of. She sent in my quote to the hilarious website Overheard in the Newsroom. This is why I went to college for journalism.

One amazing park

Oklahoma City is undergoing an amazing downtown transformation. I'm not going to lie: this is sometimes a huge hassle. There are always a bunch of closed streets or weird one-ways. But each new piece that is finished has been wonderful. Case in point: this amazing park. This new children's park next to the Myriad Botanical Gardens is spectacular. It looks like a fantastical playground designed by Dr. Suess. Mia gave it to toddler thumbs-up.