Sip some happiness

Mia has really enjoyed drinking from a cup lately. She makes this loud smacking noise during mealtime whenever she's thirsty. She still has a bottle, but she loves drinking out of a cup and anything that looks like a cup, even if it's empty. She really likes using her sippy cup that Connie and Jimmy without the lid. And of course, Leigh has to harass her.

Not quite tall enough

My pumpkins are dead next year. As a side note, she's walking like crazy!

A bathroom ruckus

Mia has discovered a new way to make music. She can grab the bathroom cleaner wand and clang it against the metal trash can. Bliss.

Conald McDonald

Yesterday we went to my Aunt Connie and Jimmy's wedding and it was fantastic! Leigh is quite excited that Connie's new last name is McDonald, and he has dubbed her Conald McDonald.

Just to summarize: karaoke wedding at George's Majestic Lounge. George's is one of the most historic bars on Dickson. I have to admit, it was kind of crazy seeing my aunt get married on the same stage where my friends used to play all the time with Six Hung Sprung.

We had so much fun. Here are some photos from the big event

With my cousin Carly and her boyfriend, who normally doesn't look so scary:

With my fantastic Uncle Kelly, who is Mia's godfather:

Leigh and me with my dad and stepmom:

My Grandma Sue and my Uncle Kelly on their way to drink whiskey together (seriously):

My dad with his cousin, Uncle Norm's daughter:

The fabulous Del Colles, Josh and Zoe:

The sign outside, congratulating Jimmy, Connie and Tyrannosaurus Chicken:

I'm sorry I don't have ANY photos of Connie and Jimmy that turned out! I was so bummed! They're all crazy dark and blurry. Lame. I'll post some whenever they get their professional photos back.

Making the rounds

My Aunt Connie is getting married tomorrow, so we're in Fayetteville for the big extravaganza on 10.10.10. We spent game day at Uncle Kelly's house, meeting relatives we haven't seen before and spending time with everybody. As you can imagine, Coppernoll gatherings are loud and fun. Mia enjoyed evaluating Kelly's chair and sitting in the super-amazing, high-tech high-chair of the future he bought her for her birthday. She also got to meet the Del Colles for the first time! She spent lots of time looking at all four of them. She especially loved my cousin Zoe. She played with Zoe a bunch and let her hold her quite a bit. And Zoe was so good with her. I snapped this picture of Zoe helping Mia play with her new toy microphone.

Almost time to say goodbye

In a shocking development, Mia is turning into a big girl.

Her days in the infant room are numbered. This is a mixed bag for us. On the one hand, we're really excited that she'll be spending her days with big kids who do big kid stuff, like run, eat at the table and say lots of words. On the other hand, we're really sad that she won't have her amazing teachers any more. I snapped some photos of her with them. The first is of her main teacher, Miss Persephone. The second is of the assistant teacher, Miss Joanna.

Mia loves them both, and we'll be sad when she isn't in their room any more. Leaving your child in someone else's care is so difficult. You know nobody can love your kid like you can. But I feel like Persephone and Joanna have been her moms-away-from-home. They have taken such good care of it. It doesn't make going to work fabulous, but it makes it a lot easier knowing two women with such good hearts are taking care of her.

Our new room

We spent this weekend redoing our bedroom. As you can see, it really needed some help. Mia was even upset by how blah it was.


Clay and Marc came over to help us, and it was fantastic! Our bedroom was the last room in the house to have carpet, and we planned to paint the hardwood floors a light grey. Clay has the same thing in his bedroom and it looks outstanding. We eventually wanted to paint the hardwood in the hall and living room to match. But when Marc pulled up the carpet, we discovered that the hardwood floors didn't actually exist in our bedroom. (We also discovered that the floor where Deter sleeps had a disgusting layer of silt and dust under it. Sick!)


The people who flipped the house before I bought it had just gutted the floors and replaced it with huge boards. Fine. Whatever. Change of plan. So we decided to do the textured linoleum like is in our bathroom.

We also decided to build a new bed, like the one Clay built for himself in his room. It's basically like a three bookshelves on their sides that make a U shape. It was so easy! We bought a few 2x12s at Lowe's and had them cut the wood to the sizes. So we didn't even need a saw. Clay brought over his drill and we screwed them all together. Here's a picture of the primed wood in the middle of the painting process. We decided to paint our bed dark brown.


We chose a dark grey for our room and decided to repaint the trim white. It looks really nice - very calming.


After the new floor was down and the walls were painted, we had to figure out how to arrange the furniture. Mia assisted with that.



Here she is giving us advice about where the bed should be. She pointed out that the way we originally have the bed facing (in this photo) was a little too crowded. We followed her advice and turned it the other way.


We haven't put everything back on the walls, so I'll put some more pictures up when it's all finished. For now, here's the finished product:

Adult supervision

We've been remodeling our bedroom this weekend, so that has translated to me taking about 6,000 trips to Lowe's. (Eventually I gave up and started going to Home Depot. It's further away, but I'm too embarrassed to go back to Lowe's. Really. I've been there that many times.)

So while I'm out picking up stuff, Mia has been left in the loving care of Leigh, Clay and Marc. Super.

I returned from a short trip for supplies to discover this:

Mia looks like an alien child. If you look closely on her cheek, you can spot green dots all over her face. That's because Leigh and Clay were licking the end of crayons and dotting their faces. Great. I guess it's better than eating crayons, but only slightly.

The master of her fate

Mia is still feeling under the weather, but she's come out to run errands with me. She loves checking everything out. She no longer has any tolerance for facing me while in the grocery cart. She has to face forward and see everything around her. She's such tough stuff. I took this picture because it reminded me of the poem "Invictus."

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

The hardest day as a mom

Today was my hardest day as a mom yet.

Mia has been sick since Wednesday afternoon, so this morning we headed to the doctor. Her regular doctor was out of town, so she had to see a new doctor in his office. Her fever's been pretty high, but he said she isn't showing signs of the four main types of infection (ear, throat, lungs and meningitis). He said he was worried about her heart murmur. He told me that the cardiologist might have missed something and she could have a blood infection. Scary!

So she had to have blood drawn. I felt so scared. The nurse taught me how to clamp down and hold her still, and then she sent me to the hospital. I was nervous. Mia felt so sick that she just sat quietly on my lap, a rarity now that she has turned 1.

I wrapped my arms around her, held her tight and whispered shh into her ear while she screamed. She jerked her head back until she could see me. "Maamaamaamaaa!" I couldn't do anything. I cried. I tried not to let her see me, but I sobbed. She twisted and screamed, and the blood draw seemed to last for minutes, minutes, minutes. The nurse pulled the rubber tie off her arm and then took the needle out of her arm. I eased my grip. She spun around on my lap and clung to me. I held her close and rocked. She popped her thumb in her mouth until her cries subsided. They wrapped a tiny bandage around her arm while I kept crying. (You can see her tiny little bandage. So sad!) :(

It was the saddest day by far. At least she was braver than I was.