Tiny friends

Scout stayed the night with us the other day. Shenanigans ensued.

Coach Leigh

Well, Mia's soccer coach went on vacation with his wife, and Leigh has been left in charge of  the team.

I can't explain how excited I am about this.

Wrangling 3-year-olds is hilarious anyway, but now my husband is in charge of the wrangling. Soccer has now become twice as hilarious. Here are the main duties of a coach for this age group:

- Point out where the goal is.
- Lift up renegade children and place them back down within the field of play.
- Encourage players to stop playing with dirt and/or grass.
- Discourage crying.
- Pause for hug breaks.

Leigh was fantastic.

Sometimes famous people say hi

Long story short, a few weeks ago, the SeaWorld penguins came by our office. I was super incensed that I missed it, even though I am clearly not on the penguin beat as an education reporter. I harassed the features editor for not taking me along on her random adventures in the office.

Today, though, she nabbed me on her way up to our video studio so I could get a chance to meet John O'Hurley and Christopher Rich.

It was a ridiculous geek-out moment for me.

Never mind that Christopher Rich has been a television actor for as long as I've been alive. Never mind that John O'Hurley was Elaine's boss on Seinfeld or that he's been in lots of shows and movies before and since his most famous role.

I was super excited because John O'Hurley used to host Family Feud. I love game shows, but I didn't have the nerve to blurt out, "My favorite thing you did was host a game show!" So I just quietly said thank you and moved in and out.

Play it cool, Carrie. Play it cool.

Oh yeah

I think I forgot to post this photo. Here's Mia enjoying her pretend supper in an Ikea display while we were in Dallas.

Dinner for Nick

We were so sad earlier this year when our friends Michael and Susanne moved to Houston. Thankfully, Susanne is telecommuting so she comes up to the main office every now and then for work. We had the chance to have supper with her the other night, and it also happened to be our friend Nicholas's birthday! Because he lives even further way - South Africa - we had to just make him a sign and eat a delicious dessert in his honor.

Choo-choo

While we were in Dallas for the Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon, we couldn't resist stopping by Ikea. Sadly, Mia was 3 inches - 3 inches! - too short to stay in the children's area. Want to see a sad kid? Make them stand in line for the kids' area and then NOT let them go play. But despite that horribleness and a near-choking incident during lunch, she was extremely well behaved. The result: I snapped up a wooden train set for her. Needless to say, she was pretty excited.

Running with mommy

Running with Mia is so much fun. First of all, there's plenty of running, which always impresses me. I guess I don't expect a 3-year-old to have so much focus, but Mia is always up for going around the block, which is half a mile.

That said, there are plenty of stops. Sometimes she just needs a break - run, run, run, sit on the sidewalk, run, run, run, side on the curb. Sometimes we have to look at dogs or butterflies or cars. Today, we picked up some rocks.

She's the best running buddy a person could ask for.

For sale: a bunch of stuff

It was time again for us to empty our garage and pile everything into our friend Clay's front yard. We had the annual Vilakazi garage sale yesterday, and it was great! Even though we didn't have as much stuff, our board members worked and worked, and we made nearly as much as last year. In fact, we brought in enough to pay for about 25 backpacks. Hooray!

The Premier League

First of all, let's all be clear about this: 3-year-old soccer is hilarious. Hiiiilarious. Well this weekend was an eye-opener. Mia's team played a a team whose dads are nearly all professional athletes. (That's Desmond Mason in the photo above!) Scout's parents were convinced all the kids were 5 because they were a foot taller than our kids. But then we realized that they were all a foot taller than our kids because their parents were two feet taller than we are.

Flashback

I have no idea why these are wonky, but I guess it will just have to be that way. I found some old photos that made me smile. Here I am with my dad and with my mom's parents, Alice and Russ.

The runaround

The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is getting close, and Mia is putting in her distance for the Kids Marathon. I love when we all go out together. It's so fun to unplug and do something with just the three of us, even if it's only for half an hour.

Ain't nobody got time fo dat

Mia has bronchitis.

Pause for yoga

I don't always know what they're teaching Mia at school, but I presume it's good because she seems to know lots of things. Apparently, she also knows how to do yoga.

After yoga, Mia kept telling us to, "Check this out!" Then she'd kind of pretend to start a lawn mower, we think. Whatever. We checked it out. It was hilarious.

Super Mia

When we got to school this morning, Mia put her jacket on her head and announced: "I'm a superhero in fancy, fancy boots!" Oh, you are.