Long weekend

Last week was a crazy week for me at work. I pulled off my big two-day event and was just exhausted by the time the weekend rolled around. It kind of went by in a big blur and was pretty uneventful. Saturday night Mamaw and Papaw Robbins kept Mia overnight so Mike and I could have a date night. The thing was, we were both so tired that we were asleep before 9:30. On Sunday I met Mia and Mamaw at Walmart, their weekend hangout. Mia was enjoying her usual treat of chicken tenders, mashed potatoes and potato wedges while they shopped. They reminded me of how Grandma Ruby and Grandpa Al would let us eat anything and everything while we were with them and it made me laugh! Later that day, Mike and I took Mia shopping for some new shoes. She's going through them pretty quickly now that she's running around on the playground at daycare. Plus she occasionally crawls around and it scuffs up the toes. We got her a new pair of tennis shoes and a new pair of dress shoes. She looks just adorable!

Late Sunday afternoon my eyes really started bothering me. I had Monday off to relax after my long week and it was a good thing - I had a recurrence of pink eye. I took Mia to daycare and spent my day bleaching and cleaning the house. Not the way I would have preferred to spend it, but whatever.

Mia is adjusting much better at daycare. They said her walking is developing very well and she's keeping up with the older kids on the playground. Sitting in the chairs for meals and art is no big deal to her now, and she continues to bring home "masterpieces" for our refrigerator. At this age babies don't really play with each other, but do parallel play. I've noticed she really likes to play near other kids and when I pick her up she points to her baby friends and says "bye-bye" to them all.

The new room really wears her out though. She's ready to crash when we get home at night. She also goes off to play by herself a lot during the day. It actually reminds me of myself. I frequently close my door at work when the stimulation of all the office action gets to be too much. I think she goes off by herself to wind down. 

Mia has definitely learned to make her opinions known. Last night she threw a tantrum like I've never seen. She was tired from daycare, and Mike and I stopped by Walmart after work. We were a little late feeding her and in the car on the way home she went ballistic. She started screaming and worked herself into a frenzy, throwing herself backward and balling up her fists at her side. She kept pointing to different things (banana, pasta, milk) but when I'd try to give it to her she'd shake her head and keep screaming. She wanted to hold the spoon herself, but when I gave it to her she threw it and kept screaming. I knew she was super tired and hungry, so after about 15 minutes of trying to "ignore" her actions and feed her anyway, I pulled her out of her chair and held her on my lap. She clung to me, still screaming, burying her face in my shoulder. I talked to her in my soothing mommy voice, kissing on her head. Then I turned her around and started shoveling pasta into her mouth as fast as she'd eat it. She kept crying but swallowed the food. In between screams I gave her milk. Finally her belly got full enough that she calmed down. After about 10 more minutes she was fine, playing with us until bedtime. Tonight I could see that she was just as tired when I picked her up so I did not wait to feed her. I'm convinced that understanding baby cues is half the battle before they can talk!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned here how much Mia LOVES the dogs, especially Reese. We've been so worried about how Reese would react to her, and when Mia first became mobile I had to put the smack-down on Reese when she growled at Mia for crawling on her. But ever since I did that, Reese has been good, and she lets Mia do whatever she wants. And it's a good thing because Mia loves to hug her, lay on her, feed her. She tries to give Reese her paci and on Sunday even gave Reese a kiss - on the mouth!!!! It was so gross to us, but Mia squealed in delight. She is crazy about that dog. She likes Grace too, but Grace is so wiggly and all over the place. She doesn't sit still long enough for Mia to love on her.