A snow day

Because all is right with the world, we had a snow day today. Last year, if school was closed, I was home alone in the quiet. I napped. Cleaned up. Got things done. It was amazing. Now, Mia is home, too. So is Wren. And by a stroke of good luck, Leigh was here, too. It has a been a loud, loud day. But Leigh took Mia outside to play. Wren and I stayed inside and watched.

If I was in charge of playing outside, it would have been short-lived because the ground was really covered mostly ice with a little snow on top. But Leigh was running the show, so the four-wheeler and sled were involved. And then Leigh had a brilliant idea.

He took Skye outside on a leash. Mia sat on the blue plastic sled and held on to one end, shouting "Hee-yah!" as Skye dragged her around the yard. I would have taken a picture, but I was too busy trying not to wet my pants from laughing.

Skye Bojangles

This took this photo of Skye in the backyard, and it is the perfect illustration of that dog for so many reasons. The main ones:

- Whenever we let her outside, her first order of business is to relieve herself, obviously. But her second order of business every time is to take a flying leap onto her back to roll around on the ground. She covers herself in as much dirt and grass as possible and then brings it all inside. Every. Single. Time.

- Her tongue is slightly out. She's always sticking her tongue out at least a little.

- She looks suspicious of me. She is usually suspicious of you because she thinks you're keeping snacks from her.

- She looks totally submissive because she is. From the first day she met Deter, she always embraced her role as the beta dog. Most of the time, Deter didn't even really seem to care. I don't think he was socially advanced enough to know he was the alpha dog; she just reminded him all the time, as if he cared.

Are you there, Dog? It's me, Mia.

 Sometimes you have to make phone calls to your dog, and the only way to do that is with plastic yellow cups.

Downward-facing dog

Leigh and I have started doing yoga, and our dogs are pretty sure that the yoga mats are for them. As you can see, Deter is particularly interested and the most reluctant to move. He is especially disturbed by my rendition of downward-facing dog.

Another long lost video: Mia draws the family

OK, I think I might have forgotten to post this video as well. What the heck am I doing? Anyway, the other day Mia was quietly coloring away and I decided to take a video. I asked her what she was drawing and she explained it was mommy, daddy, Skye and Deter. So sweet. And then she scribbled some more stuff. But let's focus on her being adorable and drawing the family.

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.

That's our house?

It's not until your child take a photo with your camera that you realize how messy your house is. What is up with the bubble wrap?

Tiny socks, tiny paws

What do you do when you have a dog and a bunch of tiny children's socks? Clearly, you do this:

A new camera!

It arrived! After a long, long, long ordeal, we finally got a new camera! There was research, Black Friday shopping, Cyber Monday returns, Cyber Monday shopping and a whole string of shenanigans that made me not like Target very much. Nevertheless, our new Cannon is here and we got a smashing deal on it.

I decided to play around with it after Mia had gone to bed. The dogs were kind of surprised by all the attention they were getting. Deter was slightly confused, but you know Skye was all about it. Look at these sweet faces.

Peanut butter solution

Does this make me a bad mother?

I gave Mia some peanut butter toast for breakfast. I turned my back for just a moment, and she had smeared all of the peanut butter into a pile and picked it up with her tiny fist. She didn't even take a single bit and announced, "All done!"

Gross. How do you get that much sticky peanut butter off one of your child's hands?

Call the dogs.

On the porch

One of the things Leigh and Mia love to do together is sit on the back porch. She loves to boss around the dogs and point at airplanes, and it's such sweet daddy-daughter time.

Our own little Beulah, Part 2

Earlier this year I wrote about how Mia can sometimes remind me of our crazy old neighbor, Beulah. Well, she's up to it again, but this time she got Skye in on the act.

Another use for the chair

As I've mentioned before, Mia loves her new little chair. She's so hilarious when she does what I like to call a run-by-sitting. She'll be on the move, going somewhere as fast as she can, when she plops down in the chair. Then she hops up and continues on her way.

Well, she's found another use for the little chair. She pushed the giant box of dog food across the kitchen and living room, stopping in front of her chair. Then she scoops out a little bit of dog food using a plastic lid that she found God knows where. Deter finds this too dangerous, but Skye is all in.

And another note about chairs: she has a little chair that my dad refurbished for her that's absolutely adorable. In the mornings Mia loves to take the seat off and put it back on. Off and on. Off and on. Who knew a child could love tiny chairs so much?

The Skye Scratcher

Last month I bought an Arkansas Razorbacks back-scratcher while we were in Fayetteville. Leigh made fun of me, but I still say that it's the best $2 I've ever spent. I've discovered all kinds of uses for it besides just scratching my back, such as petting the dogs. Now that Leigh is laid up with an injured foot, I think he'll come around to my side on this one.

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!"

An artistic angle

Mia captured her first photograph: the feet of three of our family members.

So artistic.

The old man dog

I love this dog. Seriously. Look at this face. Poor Deter. He turns 9 this month, and he's still battling some serious ear infections. We'll give it another go and try to clear up his problems again. This time our vet armed us with some extra cleaning solution, which I'm sure Deter will absolutely love. But hopefully he's ears will feel better soon and he'll be back to his old man self.

A voice from beyond

OK, I debated about whether to post this, but I decided to just go ahead and post it all without editing. What would I edit about this precious little girl being all adorable? The awful dog hacking at the very end. The more I thought about this video, the more I realize that it really summarizes parenthood. Anybody who says their days are filled with only sunshine and rainbows is a liar. There's always an upside down cupcake or a leaky diaper or a dog hacking in the background. But it's still all fabulously hilarious.

Our attention hound

Skye is still, um, adjusting to having someone smaller and cuter than she is in the house. Mia is 15 months old, but that's OK. Bless Skye's heart. She still looks to take center stage whenever she can. Case in point: while Leigh reads the newspaper.

Bang the door all day

Mia is a pretty quiet kid, but every now and then something gets her wound up. Case in point: barking dogs. Mia has discovered that she can look through the back screen door and see what's going on in the back yard. This is a very exciting development when you've only been alive for 15 months. But she gets really wound up when the dogs start barking at our neighbor's dogs. I think she's trying to rally with them, like when inmates clang on their cell bars in solidarity. So now we need to keep the door closed when the dogs are out.