Life on the Concrete Prairie: Going on Safari

Things have been pretty busy around the home front lately. My friend, Jill, came over and baby-sat Mia on Saturday so that Wesley and I could go out for an anniversary dinner. November 5th was our four year wedding anniversary. Some people like to say, "Oh how sweet! You're still practically newlyweds!" Perhaps, until you consider that if you add in how long we've dated, we've been together for ten years. We're like peanut butter and jelly: just perfect together. We drove over to downtown Ft. Worth for dinner. I love the way that downtown looks this time of year. Every tree is full of Christmas lights and there are people everywhere with delicious smells coming out of the storefronts. We had planned to eat at PF Chang's, but the wait was over an hour. Deciding that it wasn't a good idea to stay out late since our little early bird would be up at the crack of dawn as usual, we went to Uno instead. They have awesome pizza! There is a Marble Slab Creamery a couple of doors down from there, but we were stuffed with pizza and couldn't even entertain the thought of dessert. So yummy!

There was a program going on at the Dallas Zoo on Sunday that Mia's daycare (along with several other daycares in the area) was invited to. It was called Literacy at the Zoo. A local author was there reading her new children's book and each child got a free copy of it. It's called Thumbs Up Johnnie. The main character is a thumbprint. It's cute! I got Mia's copy signed by the author, too. After that, she and I walked all around the zoo for free! You can't beat that. We saw elephants, giraffes, gorillas, and lots of other animals. Mia loved the flamingos and cheetahs the best I think. They were colorful and moved around a lot. She also thought that the meerkats were entertaining. She would smile when one would pop its head out the top of the hole.

Uncle Darvey and his girlfriend, Ruth, came down to visit for Veteran's Day. We let Mia play hookey from daycare and all of us had a great day. We went to La Calle Doce for lunch. It is a Mexican seafood restaurant. Wesley and I aren't big seafood people, so we got chicken enchiladas. The food was excellent, though. I guess Mia was jealous because we had to keep feeding her peach-flavored cereal puffs to keep her quiet. After lunch, we all went to Kidd Springs Park to feed the ducks. Mia slept through the whole thing. Oh well, next time I guess. The rest of us had fun, though. Then, we came home and played Chicken Foot dominoes for awhile. Mia must have been my good luck charm because I won! Yes! I love to win. Probably because I'm not that great at games. I have no strategy whatsoever. We had a great time with Uncle Darvey and Ruth and hope they come back soon!

Food news: My dad will be so proud. Mia likes the parsnips! Who would've thought? She genuinely enjoys them. Maybe she won't be picky like her Mommy and Daddy. She is also eating papaya now. Wesley and I thought it has a weird smell, but Mia likes to eat it. I suppose that's the most important thing. We also baked and froze the eggplant. We plan to let her start eating that tomorrow. I'm a little skeptical about it. I tried it myself, and it wasn't so great. If she likes it, I'll have to find something to mix in with it to add a little flavor.

Mia at 41 weeks old (9 1/2 months)