Pinkalicious Faces

One of Mia's favorite books is Pinkalicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann.  We read it ALL the time.  In the story, a little girl named Pinkalicious loves the color pink.  She eats too many pink cupcakes and her whole body turns pink.  Her doctor tells her mother that Pinkalicious has an acute case of pinkititis.  The only cure is a steady diet of green vegetables.  It's a really cute story.  Last night, Wesley was pointing to each page and asking Mia to make the same face as Pinkalicious.  It was pretty hilarious.

Mia has gotten so good at potty training that half of the time she doesn't even tell us that she has to go.  She just goes in the bathroom, gets her stool and potty seat in place, and does her business.  Only then does she yell at us to let us know that she had a potty victory.  She still hasn't had any accidents, but I don't expect her to be perfect.  She's amazing me with how well she's doing.  In one week, she's basically become potty trained (not counting when she sleeps).

Mia fell out of her big girl bed the night before last.  In the middle of the night, I woke up to hear her talking over the baby monitor.  She sounded annoyed like she was scolding something.  Then, it got quiet again, so I went back to sleep.  When I went to get her out of bed in the morning, the first thing she said was, "I got a owie on my nose!"  I asked her what happened and she said, "I hit it on my big girl bed."  When I asked her where, she pointed to the board that's attached to the front of the bed.  I realized then why I had heard her over the monitor.  During the night, she fell out of her bed onto the cushions in the floor, but she hit her nose on the bed in the process.  Instead of crying, she just got ticked off, scolded the bed, and climbed back in.  Haha!  This morning she was asleep on one of the floor cushions when I went into her room.  I guess she fell out and just kept sleeping.  As long as she's okay with it, I am too.

For anyone with little girls who love this book, there is a great website for Pinkalicious.  Under the "Fun and Games" section, there is a game called the Cupcake Sprinkle Game where you can build your own virtual cupcake.  Mia loves it.  I couldn't find illustrations from Pinkalicious online, so I just took pictures of the pages with my camera.

Wordless Wednesday: Pretend Brain Freeze

Big Girl Bed

Wesley converted Mia's crib to a toddler bed yesterday.  I'd been wanting to do that for awhile, but I was afraid of struggling with keeping her in there at nap time.  Last night was her first night to sleep in it, and she did great!  We put cushions on the floor beside the bed just in case, but she didn't fall out.  She's been really excited about it.  She keeps climbing up there with books and toys just to sit and play.  We'll see how nap time goes!

We've also been potty training.  Mia has a little potty that she has used a few times, but it wasn't very consistent.  Last week, I started sending her to daycare without a Pull-Up.  The big girl panties have been a great incentive.  She gets to choose Minnie Mouse, Cinderella, etc., and she absolutely doesn't want to get them wet.  However, I noticed that they have those little seats on the toilets at daycare.  I decided to get one to see if she likes it better.  No accidents in the last three days!  I guess that's what she needed.  I've been really proud of her.  Honestly, I thought it would take a lot longer to get to the point of few to no accidents.  She's doing really well.

Chocolate handle bar mustache.  Lovin' ice cream on hot days!

 

Hanging out in her big girl bed

 Ready for bed

 

A Sunday in Photos

Daddy had to work on Sunday, so Mia and I:

Played with the puppet she made at daycare

 Played with her pony bubble blower

 Looked for butterflies for her to catch but couldn't find any.

 Ate a cupcake that she just HAD TO HAVE from the Target bakery when we got groceries.

 Loved it so much that she licked icing off of her leg.  Didn't want to waste it!

 

Mia's Birth Story- Part 3

          By 2:00 pm, it had been twelve hours since my water had broken.  I had continued to dilate each time the doctor checked me, so she let me continue labor on my own.  The last time she checked, I was at 6cm.  The pain was fairly strong with each contraction but certainly something that I could handle.  At the 2:00 check, she said I was still at 6cm.  She reminded me that they want mothers to deliver within 24 hours of their water breaking.  I was at the halfway mark (12 hours), and the doctor didn’t want anything to slow down the progress of labor.  She told me that we should start pitocin to keep things moving along.  This was disappointing to me because this meant drugs.  I had been hoping for no drugs, but I wasn’t naïve enough to think that they wouldn’t be needed. 

I knew from my favorite pregnancy book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, that pitocin use goes hand in hand with intense, painful contractions.  My pain was high enough at this point in natural labor that I decided to accept IV pain meds at the same time as they started the pitocin.  IV meds were supposed to be a very light dose of medication that would wear off fairly soon.  I thought it might help.  Two things seemed to happen almost simultaneously.  First, the nurse told me as she gave me the IV pain meds that it might make me a little sleepy.  Instead, I felt like I went on a full blown acid trip.  I’ve never done drugs, but I think it might be like that.  I couldn’t focus on anything that was being said.  Words came out of my mouth that were not the thoughts I had in my head.  I felt like I was possessed.  I can say with much assurance that I will skip straight to the epidural next time before I let them get anywhere near me with those meds.  The second thing that happened was the onset of back labor.  If you’ve never felt it, just imagine someone shoving their fist in your back and ripping out your spine.  I can honestly say that that feels like an accurate description.  One of the differences between back labor and natural labor is that there is no chance to catch your breath in between contractions.  The contractions continue in their regular rhythm, but I didn’t feel them much.  I just felt the worst pain in my life in my lower back.  Nothing could ease it.  All I wanted was a second, just one single second to catch my breath, but it didn’t happen.

The nurse came to ask if I wanted an epidural.  Wesley started to tell her that I had told him that I wanted to wait as long as possible.  I just remember saying, “I want it! I want it!”  So, they gave me an epidural.  It was heaven.  Pure heaven.  I felt so much better.  The pain didn’t go away entirely.  I’d say it was knocked down over 50%, though.  Ah yes, a much more manageable level.  My labor continued to progress once the epidural was in place. The epidural only worked on one side of my body, so there was still a certain level of pain.  Finally, I made it to 10 cm dilated.  About 18 hours after my water broke, it was time to start pushing.  At this point, they usually only allow one person to be in the room with the mother.  Once again, the nurse said that she didn’t mind if I wanted extra people in the room.  Dad, Preston, and Darvey disappeared.  Mom, Carol Ann, and Bev were still in the room.  The nurse asked me who I wanted to stay.  I mumbled, “I don’t care.”  She then looked at Wesley and said, “What did she say that she wanted before you guys got to the hospital?”  Wesley started to answer her saying, “Well, she said she wanted me and her mom-“  I interrupted him by saying even louder, “I.  Don’t.  Care!”  That settled that and all three of them stayed.  It didn’t matter to me.  All three of them are mothers.  They knew the drill.  The doctor let the epidural run out so that I could feel to push.  Unfortunately, this meant that the back labor cranked up several notches.  It was severe enough that I couldn’t push.  I heard one of the nurses whisper to another nurse, “I’ve never seen back labor that bad.”  Great.  That’s exactly what you want to hear from a labor and delivery nurse. 

I was so exhausted at that point that I couldn’t do much of anything, so Dr. Patton called down for another pack of medicine for the epidural.  She didn’t think I’d be able to push without it.  She was right.  After two hours of pushing, Dr. Patton said that we might need to do a C-section.  It was getting to be pretty late.  I was worried that if we went to the OR, Mia wouldn’t be born on Tyler’s birthday.  I asked the doctor if it would be safe to continue pushing and try to get Mia out myself.  She said I could try but warned me that if the baby didn’t come out soon, we would be headed to the OR.  I continued to push.  I barely heard what anyone else was saying to me.  I just kept talking to the baby in my belly saying, “Come on baby girl!  We can do this!”  When Mia’s head came into view, the doctor used the vacuum to help her out.  There was a NICU team waiting for my baby so that they could check her out since the vacuum was needed.  As soon as she came out, she was carried to the other side of the room.

As Dr. Patton was stitching up some minor tearing I’d had, it was hard for me to lie there patiently.  The NICU team had whisked Mia across the room to look her over.  I kept raising up on my elbows to try to see around Dr. Patton.  When she was finished with me and Mia got the okay from the NICU doctors, my little baby girl was placed in my arms.  

How do you describe such a moment?  I’d dreamed of it my whole life.  She was perfect.  She looked up at me, and the whole world shifted.  I would never be able to look at anything the same again.  This little blessing was given to us.  To Wesley and I.  How could we ever live up to such a privilege?  I already loved her before she was born, but to see her for the first time was to give away a piece of my heart.  She’ll always have it just like her daddy does.

Mia and I the day after she was born

 

Mia's Birth Story- Part 2

Once we arrived and made it to the maternity floor, one of the nurses wanted to check to see if the fluid was actually my amniotic fluid.  I was puzzled by this and told her that I had taken a shower before coming in, so there was nothing for her to see.  She informed me that you aren’t supposed to shower after your water breaks.  It’s another risk of infection.  Oops, my bad.  Nobody had told me that before.  How was I supposed to know?

They admitted me, and we were taken to our room.  It was the room that I would be in until I became a mommy.  That was a heavy realization.  The room was huge and had an amazing view.  We were several stories up in a corner room.  It faced north with a fantastic view of downtown.  It was around 6:30 a.m., and the city was just waking up.  For a lot of people it would be a nice, relaxing Sunday.  For me…not so much.  It was comforting to look out the window and see Fountain Place which is my favorite building in the Dallas skyline.

I had a pretty good idea of how I hoped to cope with the pain of labor.  I had heard that walking was good to get labor going and that taking a shower could help with the pain.  My room was equipped with a shower, so I felt that we were good to go.  I was super excited that there was a rocking chair to sit in during contractions.  The nurse came in to hook me up to the monitors and get me changed into a gown.  I asked her about walking in the hallway when the contractions got going.  She said that mothers aren’t supposed to walk the halls after their water breaks.  Geez, what else is there that I can’t do after my water is broken?  Apparently, the list kept growing.  My next question was about showering during labor.  Again, I was told no.  I guess I should have figured that one out on my own since I had just been told that showering at home was a no-no.  Okay, fine, I can live with all of that.  Then, she said that I couldn’t use the toilet either.  I’m sorry?  I beg your pardon?  Then how, pray tell, do I answer nature’s calls until the baby arrives?  Enter my new best friend: the bed pan.  Great, just great…  I guess they’re worried about babies being born in the toilet or something.  Alright, can I sit in the rocking chair…no…(sigh).  She was killing me, just killing me.  Apparently, they don’t want you to leave the bed after your water breaks.  That’s what she said.  I guess she felt bad that I was so disappointed because she spoke with the doctor.  She came back and told me that I could sit in the rocking chair whenever I wanted.  It was only two steps from the bed, but at least I could get up.  I don’t want to make them sound too strict.  They only had my best interest and the baby’s best interest at heart.  I appreciated them for that, but I was very grateful that they could be a little flexible.

My friend, Jill, and her boyfriend, Greg, came to hang out with Wesley and I that morning.  None of our family had arrived yet, and we had a good time with them.  I was doing well and progressing each time the doctor came to check me.  Around lunchtime I was starving.  We took our labor and childbirth classes at Methodist’s sister hospital, Charlton, and the nurse there told us that we could have popsicles during labor.  I was pretty pumped up about that.  Who doesn’t like popsicles?  I asked my nurse if I could have one because I knew that I wasn’t allowed to eat anything else.  She said that it was their policy for laboring mothers to have nothing to eat but ice chips.  I know that my face fell.  I mean, come on!  I’m extremely pregnant and haven’t eaten for hours.  I was hungry!  She smiled at my crestfallen expression and said it wouldn’t hurt to ask the doctor.  She came back with a double cherry popsicle for me. Jackpot!  Whoa, whoa, whoa there…If we aren’t allowed to eat anything, where did the popsicle come from?  You know what?  I could have cared less.  Still, it’s an interesting question.

I was really happy about how I was dealing with the pain of contractions.  They started out very mild and gradually got stronger as the hours passed.  I had never been hurt or in a hospital before, so I had no idea how my pain tolerance would be.  I wasn’t trying to be a stud or anything, but I wanted to hold out on pain meds as long as possible.  I was trying to breathe through each contraction.  Jill was there to try and distract me, and Wesley kept making me laugh to take my mind off of it.  I spent most of that time in the rocking chair.  That thing was awesome.  Everybody started showing up- Mom, Preston, Darvey, Carol Ann, Dad, and Bev.  My perception of time was a bit skewed, so I’m not sure who showed up when, but the room was pretty full.  My room was at least twice as large as a regular hospital room.  Maybe bigger than that, but even so there were a lot of us.  My rock star of a nurse was great, though.  Even though the hospital policy called for only two people to be in the room at a time, she said it was fine with her.  She told them that as long as they didn’t get too loud or interfere with the nurses’ work that it was no problem.  We aren’t a rowdy crowd, so everything was cool.

Reading at Barnes and Noble yesterday.  Neither Wesley nor I found a book, but Mia ended up getting four books!

 

Mia's Birth Story- Part 1

After linking up with Kelly's Korner yesterday about when we revealed to our parents that we were pregnant with Mia, I decided that it's about time that I put Mia's birth story on here.  I wasn’t blogging when Wesley first started this blog.  Wesley was in charge of it throughout my pregnancy with Mia because I barely knew what a blog was.  I was reading through those old blog posts, and it made me want to write down everything I can remember from Mia’s birth.  I know that over time I will forget a lot of the details.  It was such a huge event in our lives, and I don’t want to forget.  Plus, I’d like to get the blog printed into book form someday, and I think this would be a nice addition to it.  I'll just have to put it on several different posts since it's kind of long.

            Let’s see…my original due date from Dr. Larue was set for February 1^st, 2009.  I was surprised by that because I thought Mia would be a January baby.  I didn’t care, though.  I was just super excited to meet her.  January 24^th was a Saturday and also my company’s Christmas party. Yes, it was a month late, but that’s another story.  I had every intention of going.  Even though I was almost 39 weeks pregnant, I had bought a new outfit and was planning to be there.  Some people talk about having a burst of energy before giving birth, but for me it was the opposite.  I became so tired that afternoon that I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the party was already going.  Oh well, forget it.  Wesley was working nights, so I sat up in bed for awhile reading after he left for work.  I was reading Twilight and really enjoying it.  I was getting close to the end, so I decided I would just finish it.  I figured that it was Saturday evening, and I would get to sleep in the next morning anyway.  I finished the book right at midnight.  I was pretty tired, so I decided to tell Amelia goodnight and go to sleep.  I knew that she was still awake in her warm little cocoon.  She was always head down at every check up so her feet were always stuck up in my ribcage.  Every night while I rested my book on my belly and read, she would kick at the book as if to say, “Hey Mommy! Get that thing off of me!” The next day was January 25th which is my brother's birthday.  I patted my belly and said to her, “Now, Uncle Tyler’s birthday is tomorrow.  I know it’s a few days early, but if you want to make your entrance tomorrow, that would be okay.  I’m sure Uncle Tyler wouldn’t mind sharing his birthday with you.”  She gave my hand a little kick in response.  I turned the light out, rolled onto my side, and immediately went to sleep.

            Two hours later, at 2:00am, I sprang out of bed from a dead sleep when there was a huge gush of water.  Well, I sprang as well as a hugely pregnant woman can spring.  There was zero doubt in my mind that my water had broken.  It just kept coming.  I guess I thought that I would immediately start feeling contractions like the women in the movies.  Honestly, I didn’t feel a thing.  That was the weird part.  My plan was to stay at home for as long as possible until the pain became too intense.  I thought it would be nice to be in my quiet house rather than in a busy hospital.  I called Wesley at work because I knew that he would want me to call him immediately.  I told him that he didn’t have to rush home.  I said that he could finish his shift (til 6:00 am) if he wanted because I wasn’t feeling a thing.  We hung up and I went about packing my hospital bag and making sure that the diaper bag was ready.  Wesley called me back very shortly and said that he was coming home.

My mom had told me to call her at any hour when I went into labor, so I gave her a ring.  My parents live four and a half hours away, so I knew that it would be awhile before anyone would get here.  My mom asked me exactly what had happened.  When I told her that my water had broken, she said that you’re supposed to go to the hospital very soon after that happens.  I was in no hurry, but I called the on call doctor for my ob/gyn’s office to make Mom happy.  It turns out my mother was right, as usual.  Dr. Patton (the on call doctor that evening) said that it is important to deliver a baby within 24 hours of the water breaking because the fluid level can get too low as well as there is an increased risk of infection.  She said to come on in to the hospital.  That was a bummer.  So much for staying at home as long as possible.  I decided I wouldn’t get in any big hurry.  I took a shower and put on clean clothes.  We stopped by Jack in the Box for some breakfast on the way to the hospital.  I savored my bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit and my orange juice.  It was about 5:30 am, and I knew that they wouldn’t let me eat once I was admitted to the hospital.  Haha, score one for me!  

Now look at her, she's trying to text!

 

The Beginning of Amelia: How we told our parents

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today as part of her Show Us Your Life series.  This week's topic caught my attention because it's about how you told your spouse and/or family that you were pregnant.  For me, that all occurred about three years ago.  In June of 2008, I went on vacation with some college friends to Las Vegas.  We all live in separate states, so we try to get together in the same spot once in awhile.  During the vacation, I felt a little ill, but I attributed it to the dry desert air as well as the fact that we were on the go all day, every day.  We spent most of the time in Vegas, but my friend Jill and I took a day trip to the Grand Canyon one day.  We were just too close to not go see it.  By the time I got home to Dallas, I was worn out.  I couldn't seem to shake the fatigue over the next few days.  I'd been trying to eat healthier for the past couple of months and had even lost twenty pounds which was great.  As I sat down to eat my baby spinach salad one Saturday for lunch, I took one look at it and felt a wave of nausea.  I thought that was odd because I had been eating that most days and really liked it.  I ended up eating something else and dismissed my odd feelings.  I realized that evening that I was a few days late on my cycle.  Wesley and I had been trying to get pregnant for the last six months.  It's strange that up until that point I hadn't considered that I might actually be pregnant.  I took a pregnancy test, and my jaw hit the floor.  Holding the test in one hand, I walked into the living room where my husband, Wesley, was watching Leave it to Beaver (it's odd how you remember small details).  In a daze, I told him that I just took the test, and it was positive.  I think he was stunned as well.  Suddenly I said, "We need to go buy more tests!"  We drove straight to Tom Thumb.  I'm glad that I don't remember how many tests I took in the next 48 hours.  I'd probably be embarrassed by the number. Haha! I know that it was at least 3 or 4!

It took a couple of weeks to get in to see my ob/gyn, but when we went to that appointment they confirmed that we were pregnant!  As soon as we left the doctor's office, Wesley called his mom and told her about it.  We were so excited, but I really wanted to tell my parents in person.  We live in Texas and all of our family lives in Oklahoma (most of them near each other because we grew up in the same town).  Wesley's family was having a reunion, so we picked that weekend.  I had onesies made up for my parents.  The one for my dad said "I love Papaw", and Mom's said "I love my Grammy"(Mia later changed her name to Mimi).  My parents are divorced (but thankfully get along great), so I lured my Mom out to Dad's on the premise that I needed a ride back to town.  When she arrived, I was telling them about my recent Vegas trip and announced that I had souvenirs for them.  I gave each one of them a bag.  At that point, my parents had no grandkids, but my dad's wife had a granddaughter (Kennedy) that Dad claims as one of his own.  She's so adorable!  Anyway, Dad opened his bag, saw the onesie, and said, "Oh, I'll have to show this to Kennedy."  Right about that time, Mom pulled her's out of the bag and said, "Um, I don't think that's for Kennedy!"  My dad seemed a little confused for a second but then it dawned on him as Wesley and I sat on the couch grinning from ear to ear.  This was followed by smiles, laughter, and tears of course.  I loved being able to pull one over on my parents to give them such a great surprise!  Amelia Korynn McGee arrived in January 2009.  We love our little Mia and enjoy watching her grow!

Mia-isms

We had a pretty good weekend around here.  At least, that is, until Wesley and I got food poisoning.  We were pretty useless yesterday.  We just laid around all day.  It was awful.  Fortunately, Mia didn't eat what made us sick.  She felt just fine.  I could tell that she was confused by our behavior.  Since when do Mommy and Daddy lay around on the couch all day?  We told her that we were sick and that our tummies hurt.  I had saltines and Powerade close at hand by the couch.  Mia would say, "Mommy's sick?"  I told her, "Yes, my tummy hurts."  She frowned at this and said, "Momma, you want cackers? You want juice?"  Then, she would hand me the Powerade and saltines.  After I took them, she said, "Okay, Momma.  Are you happy?"  I told her that yes I was happy, but my tummy still hurt.  This seemed to perplex and frustrate her endlessly.  After all, when Mommy kisses her boo-boos, they're all better.  Why couldn't she fix Mommy and Daddy?  I finally just started saying that I felt better and told her she was doing a great job of taking care of us.  We both feel fine today, but we won't be going back to that restaurant any time soon.

Wesley and I were laughing the other night about some of the cute things that Mia says, and I wanted to make sure and write them on here.  I don't want to forget these little details.  For instance, when we decided to stop carrying a diaper bag, I bought Mia a backpack that looks like a monkey.  She loves it and calls it her "monkey pack-pack".  She also has a butterfly net that she refers to as her "neck" rather than net. 

The other night after Splash Day at daycare, I was folding laundry.  Mia came into the room and said, "Hey Mommy!  You washed my bading soup!"  I couldn't figure out what she meant until she walked over and picked up her bikini top on the pile of clothes.  Oh right, bathing suit.

Mia stayed home with Wesley on Friday because Darvey, Denise, and Grandma Ella Mae were down for a visit.  Wesley said that when he asked Mia what she wanted for lunch, Mia replied, "Umm...a puper sammich!"  Wesley knew that she was saying "purple sandwich", but he still didn't know what she was asking for.  Later on, we decided she had been asking for a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich.  It's the only thing that makes sense.

Mia is starting to ask questions that I'm not sure how to answer.  When it's her bedtime, we show her that it's dark outside and tell her that she needs to go to sleep because the sun has gone night-night.  The other night she asked me where the sun's covers are.  I thought for a second and then told her that the sun uses clouds for covers when it goes night-night.  She then asked me, "Where's the door to Sun's room?"  Hmmm, this had me stumped for a minute, but then I said, "It's behind the moon."  She nodded solemnly in acceptance of this answer, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself.  Still curious, Mia asked, "Where is Sun's bedroom?"  What? Umm, well...uh..."It's behind the door that's behind the moon."  It was a fairly lame response, but I guess she was satisfied.  She said, "Okay Mommy!"  I was relieved that that was the end of those questions because I was running out of answers.  It's funny when I think about it, though.  No parent wants to get halfway through a conversation and say, "Oh, I don't know." Haha!

Mia was bored since Mommy and Daddy were too puny to play much.  She entertained herself by standing on her toybox and throwing toys in her crib.

Wesley and I laid around so much yesterday that I guess Mia wanted to participate.  She made her own pallet in the floor.

 

Baby, You're a Firework!

I'm not a big Katy Perry fan, but I actually like the song that I based this blog post title on.  It's pretty catchy.  On Sunday, we visited with everyone some more.  Mia was having too much fun to take a nap.  I had planned to let her swim at Dad's again that afternoon, but she fell asleep in my lap at 6:00pm.  Ordinarily, I would have tried my best to keep her awake a little while longer and then lay her down for the evening, but she was knocked out.  It ended up working out well, because Uncle Darvey invited us to the 4th of July celebration at his church.  After Mia had slept for about an hour, I got her up, and my mom went with us over to the church.  They had bounce houses, snow cones, etc.  I was really impressed that they turned it into a free community event so that anyone who wanted to come could participate.  I saw many people that I haven't seen in years which was nice.  Rachel brought Zoey too, so we all got to walk around and visit a little bit.  Last year, if you remember, Mia was terrified of the fireworks.  She liked the lights but was so scared of the loud noises that she buried her head in my chest for a solid two hours without making a peep until it was over.  This year was completely different.  She just sat next to me on the picnic bench with this awed look on her face.  She kept saying, "Wow! That was a big one! It goes pop, pop, pop!!"  There were a couple of times that the "pops" got a little loud, and she looked like she was getting scared.  She said, "Fire! Don't get me fire!"  I told her they were just pretty lights in the sky, and they wouldn't "get" her.  She was fine after that.  She really liked them and kept talking about it on the way back out to Dad's house.  I'm so glad she got to see some "fire cackers" as she called them.

It was fairly warm (Haha! It's July in Oklahoma.  Let's face it.  It's just plain hot!).  Her hair was plastered to her head.

  She was pretty amazed at the fireworks.

 Blowing bubbles at Papaw and Nana Bev's this morning before we headed home.

Miss Z Turns One!

Mia and I took a road trip to Heavener on our own this weekend.  Wesley had to work, but Zoey's birthday party was Saturday.  There's no way we were gonna miss that!  Rachel decided to have it out at Dad and Bev's house so that it could be a pool party.  That was a fantastic idea.  I love to swim.  There were a ton of people there.  We ate lots of food, and then Zoey got to attack her smash cake.  There wasn't too much hesitation.  Before we knew it, she was getting fistfuls of hot pink icing and squishing it up in her little fists.  She really enjoyed herself! 

After cake and presents, some of us went swimming.  In the past, Mia has always been hesitant at first when getting into deep water, but then she would warm up to it and enjoy herself.  This time she had no problem with it.  She was really excited to be in the water.  She didn't want me to hold her, but I had to because of her life vest.  I didn't end up liking it because it didn't hold her upright.  She could float on her back or face down, but that just doesn't work at all.  I'm going to go buy her another kind of floatie before our next visit to a pool.  I put her (in her life vest) in a floatie ring that was already there at Dad's.  That worked really well and gave her the freedom to float on her own somewhat (with me hovering nearby as usual.  Hehe!)  I'm glad she's learning to have fun in the water.

Here's the birthday girl playing with her favorite thing at the party: balloons!

 Mia and Carson (my friend Angela's little boy) getting in on the balloon fun.

 Before shot of Zoey's smash cake.

 Miss Z is ready for some cake!

 Hmmm, what's this?

 Oh yeah!

 Papaw had to hose her off in the sink!

 The smash cake when Zoey was done with it.

 

Tutu Cute!

Another of Mia's dress-up loves is her hot pink tutu.  She was twirling all over the house in it last night.  She kept trying to walk and twirl at the same time, but she kept falling down.  It was adorable.  She has a book that she got for her birthday called Mia and the Too Big Tutu.  She likes to look at "Kitty Cat Mia" and read about how she dances like a ballerina.  Maybe ballet classes could be in her future?  We'll see if she stays interested in it.

I finished a craft project that I've been meaning to do for awhile.  I made Mia a hairbow holder to hang on her wall.  We bought the "A" back when she was an infant, and Wesley painted it red.  We never hung it on the wall, though.  I hot glued some ribbon on it, and there you have it.  I like how it turned out, and now I don't have to worry about her bows squishing each other in a drawer.