Out in the cold

After Leigh and I both suffered through a nasty cold, Mia unfortunately has it now, too. Seeing someone so tiny have such a tiny little cough is the saddest thing ever.

The cling and jerk

This video shows Mia preparing for the 2010 Baby Olympics. She's competing in the cling and jerk, which is done with a blue, felt-tip pen. She's giving it her best shot when a streaker - Skye naked because she ate her own collar - comes bounding in from the audience. Mia manages to continue her lift successfully despite the disruption.

A day in pictures

Bundling up before going out in the cold, enjoying the Jenny Jump Up (look closely and you can see she's using it as a teething ring with the drool all over the front) and getting ready for bath time.

A long, hard day

Mia continues to enjoy her daycare. Leigh picked her up this afternoon and she was watching one of the little boys in her room with a bottle. She looked at him intently and then just smiled and laughed. This socialization is good, we think. Tonight when she got home she was really tired and conked out about an hour earlier than normal. We think she's doing at school what she does at home - staying awake way past nap time so she can see what's going on. I was holding her up in a sitting position on my stomach and she just fell right asleep.

Spinster

Mia is really enjoying her play gym. Here's a video of what she learned to do with one of the toys from it.

A much better feeling

Today we got confirmation that Mia's daycare is infinitely better than her first location, if not maybe the coolest place ever.

Leigh dropped her off this morning with an older lady who works part-time in the baby room each morning. He handed Mia over to her. She looked at her and said, "Good morning, Mia. Are you going to talk to me again today?" Leigh said Mia's face just lit up. She smiled and started babbling away.

This is good.

All the women who work there are so gentle and sweet. This is the right place for her. We both feel worlds better about where she's spending her days now.

Don't take no crap

Leigh was feeding Mia when she wrestled the bottle away from him. She couldn't hold it up completely on her own, but she did for a few seconds here and then. In this picture she's telling us to back the heck off. She'll hold her own bottle, thank you very much, and she doesn't want any lip about it.

The octopus and the seahorse

Oma Jill gave Mia a really cool play gym, and she loves it! We're not sure what's she's saying, but she has been talking to the octopus and the seahorse nonstop since we put her in there. She also does her trademark high-kick moves.

C'mon, Mallett!

We watched the Liberty Bowl today as a family, and Mia was a little disappointed in the Razorback's first half today. She thinks Ryan Mallett needs to relax a little bit and throw. Mia firmly believes Mallett needs another year of college before going to the NFL. Anybody who thinks otherwise is a ninny.

I think this picture illustrates what it's like to be a Razorback fan, particularly in the post season. It's best she learns now.

Obviously, things started looking up after halftime, and the Hogs won a bowl game for the first time since the 1800s. Unfortunately, she was so angry she peed through her Razorback onsie before the game was over, so I couldn't capture a photo of a happier Mia.

So instead, I'll share these photos.

This was Mia wearing that same onsie on Oct. 10, when she watched her first Razorback game. The Hogs beat Auburn. She's so much bigger. (You can even see how much bigger she is since Nov. 7, when she watched the South Carolina game.) I can't imagine how big she'll be by next season!

Alfalfia

Mia has looked like a girl Alfalfa for about a week. We've brushed it down. She's had more than one bath. Deter has licked her head. As parents, we are concerned. This appears to be permanent. And hilarious.