She is fancy

This evening, as  I was folding clothes, Mia pulled her little pink blazer out of the laundry basket. She said something about and called it a jacket. I told her it was a blazer, which was kind of like a jacket that you wear for special occasions. She asked what kind of special occasions I meant. It's for when you want to be fancy, she said. She pulled on the blazer and buttoned it up. I asked her why she was putting it on.

"Because I FANCY. I so, so, fancy."

True.

Mia and the carousel lady

We visited the zoo for the last hour or so it was open and decided to visit some animals we don't normally see, especially the ocean exhibit and the meerkats. Well, the zoo has a carousel, which we forget because we never walk past it. Mia spotted it right as we were making our way out at closing time, but we decided to go ahead and get in on the last ride.

We were too late.

The woman running the carousel told us it was the last ride and we were too late. Mia sat down on a brick wall and made the saddest little people face of all time. I patted her on the back and told her we'd ride it next time.

The carousel lady couldn't handle it.

"Oh, OK! Come on! Hurry!" 

I snatched up Mia and we scurried on board. She was so, so happy. It was seriously the best. Thank you, carousel lady, for having a heart and giving this 3-year-old a chance to ride on a crane.

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!