A Bug's Life

Mia has had an interest in bugs (i.e., insects, spiders, and any other tiny creepy crawlers) for a while. A few weeks ago Dad took care of (pick your own euphemism for "eliminating") a large fly in the kitchen, and Mia frequently reminds us of that. In a good way. Dad as fly-stopping superhero. Sometimes Mia is scared by insects (like that fly), but more often she seems to have a growing affinity with them.
Case in point. This afternoon, as Mia watched dog Sam from inside our leaded glass front door, she saw a small, still insect on the opposite side of the door. She pointed it out to babysitter C. and I, watched it for a while, talked to it, called out "Here, buggy." As C. and I exchanged one of those, "Ooooh, isn't she precious?" looks, Mia tried to pet (i.e., grab) the bug. Fortunately, the insect was outside and Mia was inside, so nothing happened. Since we didn't want Mia to keep tapping 0n the glass, C. suggested the insect was sleeping and Mia shouldn't disturb it. (Very clever, I thought.)
Mia stopped tapping on the glass and proceeded to sing to her new friend, "buggy." As C. and I stood by, Mia then found a piece of dried grass on my less-than-pristine rug and tried to feed the buggy through the glass. Again C. suggested it was sleeping. Then Mia tried to kiss it. A good-night kiss, maybe?
I'm not sure whether I should actively encourage this interest in bugs. Maybe a library book or two? Make a bug-catching jar?
In the meantime, I'll stay close by to make sure neither bug nor daughter gets hurt (i.e., no kissing).

Fathers' Day

We had a pleasant weekend together. It has been extremely hot here - highs in the mid- to upper-90's every day. We headed to the swimming pool both days, arriving right when it opened at 11 a.m. on Saturday and 12 p.m. today. That got us a coveted umbrella table under the trees. A sun worshipper I am not. To protect my skin from the midday sun I wore a rash guard over my swimsuit. So did Mia. We were the only people there wearing long sleeve black turtlenecks in 90-degree heat, but I wasn't embarrassed. Some of the other members could be poster children for the ravages of the sun, which reminds me to take precautions.
Mia had a great time pushing herself off from the steps of the pool and swimming underwater into Mom or Dad's waiting arms, 4 or 5 feet away. She did that over and over again. We could hardly get her to do anything else. In fact, today she demanded that we move farther away from her. She did that by saying, "Mooooove" in a sing-song voice. I reminded her to say please. We obliged by going 10 or 12 feet away from her. Once she dove in, we would move in closer.
Mia also tried wearing goggles today. She really likes the look - I think she wants to be like the bigger kids - but doesn't like how they fog up.
We made a handmade card for Dad. I did most of the work, stamping and pasting the letters D-a-d-d-y on the card as Mia napped. Later, I gave her crayons and encouraged her to add her own personal touch, which she did. Daddy said it was the best card ever.
After a Father's Day dinner of grilled steaks and vidalia onions, Daddy took Mia to the park, where as usual she enjoyed the swings. When she came home, she reported, "I pumped." That girl is quite a swinger.
We called both grandfathers. Mia regaled them with the ABC song and said "Happy Birthday" or "Happy Fathers' Day."

If Mia were here, I know she'd want me to add:
I love you, Daddy. I love you, Boppy. I love you, Grandpa.

Tidbits

This morning when I gave Mia a choice of eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, she replied, "Chicken nuggets." This surprised me. At our house we make large batches of baked chicken nuggets and put them in the freezer. For some unknown reason, Mia hasn't been interested in eating said chicken nuggets for weeks, so I was more than happy to serve them for breakfast. I even offered her barbecue sauce. (She declined. Maybe I should have offered ketchup.)
Last night as we drove home from Mia's swimming lesson, she stopped licking her "reward" lollipop long enough to announce, "I wanna go out to eat" in her most pleading voice. She has said that several times over the past few weeks and every time it cracks us up. I don't know why, somehow it just seems like she is too young to be saying that. Besides that, given the way she behaves (i.e., badly) on those occasions when we go to restaurants, you'd think she dislikes eating out. At any rate, Jeff and I have now concluded that she keeps saying it because it gets a guaranteed laugh. And by the way, we didn't go out to eat. Jeff informed Mia, "You are eating out. You've got a lollipop." Oddly enough, this seemed to satisfy her.
Speaking of swimming lessons, Mia continues to make great progress. The only thing holding her back is that she really doesn't like putting her face in the water. I think she is overcoming that. She loves standing on the steps then swimming underwater to get to Mom or Dad. We stand all of 3 or 4 feet away, so she just has to swim about 2 strokes. She really really wants to be able to dive off the diving board. During adult swim period (the last 15 minutes of every hour), she pleads, "Wanna watch kids jump!" We keep telling her she can dive after she learns to swim. Maybe I shouldn't be making such promises. On Sunday we saw a couple of families who were letting their (I'm guessing) 2-year-old boys jump off the diving board into 12 feet deep water. These boys were much smaller than Mia. One of the kids was barely able to swim to the side- his Dad had to grab him. I can't imagine letting Mia dive off the diving board anytime before she is 6, but maybe I'll change my mind.

Mia At Age 2.6

Mia loves:

• Fruit (especially strawberries), turkey, chicken, smoothies, any kind of crackers, and best of all, cheese.
• Saying big words like armadillo.
  
• Feeding, petting, giving commands to, and attempting to tease our toy poodle, Sam.
• Long hair on people, dolls, or animals.
• Yelling, in cavernous places where it echoes (such as the indoor pool).
• Picking out what she wants to wear each day.
  
• Wearing dresses.
  
• Attempting to dress herself.
• Running around naked.
  
• Undressing her dolls so they are naked.
  
• Wearing only a diaper.
• Hiding.
  
• Being found.
  
• Being chased.
• Baths - but not getting her hair washed.
• DVD's - The Laurie Berkner Band, Signing Time, and Elmo's Alphabet.
• Songs - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, Goldfish
• Books - Oh, The Places You'll Go, Green Eggs & Ham, The Cat In The Hat, Chugga Chugga Choo Choo.
• Pretending she is reading.
  
• Word games of her own invention, such as by changing the sound of a word a little bit and then seeing if we can figure out what she is saying.
  
• The 3 S's: Singing, Swinging, and Swimming
  
• Shoes. Her shoes, other people's shoes. Especially her hot pink Crocs.
  
• Coloring with Color Wonder markers.
• Driving her Cozy Coupe in the house.
• Pocahontas Barbie.
• Hearing me tell the story of how she was born in China, right before she falls asleep.
• Saying her Chinese name.

Swimming Lesson Progress Report

Mia has now had about 20 swimming lessons, and she is making great progress. She has a new instructor who pushes her a bit harder, which she is ready for. Being able to practice at our local pool a couple of times a week has accelerated her progress, too. She now regularly puts her face in the water to blow bubbles, can float on her back with just a little bit of support, and can swim a couple of strokes above water or underwater. Even more important, she has gone from being quite hesitant to having fun most of the time.
Mom is still getting into the water with Mia at every lesson and Dad is the cheering section.

My Very Own Sweeper

Mia loves to help me clean the kitchen floor. When I get the little Bissell sweeper out, she gets quite upset if I don't let her use it.

Q & A

Mia constantly surprises us with new words and phrases that seem to come out of nowhere. A sampling:
"I need some kind of help here."
"Sam [our dog] not listening. That's frustrating."
"She's a dumb dumb dog."
"Not going to church today."
"I want to go out to eat."

Clearly, these things do not come out of nowhere. Mia is so good at ignoring me when I'm asking her to do something, sometimes I forget she is listening to us all the time.

She has also entered that phase where she asks the same questions over and over. It doesn't matter how many times we answer the question, she asks it again, as if she:
(a) Became temporarily deaf and didn't hear our answer.
(b) Didn't believe our response.
(c) Is testing us to see if she'll get a different answer next time.
(d) Just plain enjoys asking the question, especially if we start sounding exasperated.

I think we can rule out (a). I suspect it is a combination of (c) and (d). A few questions Mia likes to ask over and over:

Mia: "Why is she dumb?" [Referring to the dog.]
Me: "I don't know." OR "Mia, that isn't a nice thing to say. Mommy shouldn't say it, either."
Mia: "Why is she dumb?"
Mia even went so far as to ask her swimming teacher Miss Whitney, "Why is she dumb?" Oh, do I wish I'd never called Sam a dumb dog.

Mia: "What happened to Curious George's finger?"
Me: "He stuck it in the water at the aquarium, and a crab bit him. He shouldn't have put his finger in there, should he?"
Mia: "What happened to his finger?"

Mia: "Where's Miss Diane?"
Me: "I don't know. She is probably at home. You are in another class now, so you have a different teacher."
Mia: "Where's Miss Diane?"

Mia: "What happened to her foot?" [The hand-me-down Loving Family mother figurine has a chewed-up looking foot.]
Me: What do you think happened to her foot?
Mia (with a big smile): A dog chewed it!

My former colleagues might find it a bit surprising that it took me so long to remember the trainers' time-tested technique of lobbing the question that is not really a question back to the wise-guy who asked it.

Her Kind of Place

There is a McDonald's at the nearest shopping area to our house. We drive by it at least twice a day. Even though we actually don't go there often - less than once a month - Mia talks about McD's all the time. (How does this happen? Is there an addictive ingredient in the french fries?)So, it was a big treat when Grammy not only bought us lunch, but also let Mia play in the Playland. She had the place all to herself and didn't want to leave. I forget how we actually got her out of there, but it probably involved some kind of trickery. Or maybe begging (on my part).
On the following Sunday morning she announced, "Don't want church. Want McDonald's." One of Mia's parents told her that if she went to church, we could go to McDonald's afterwards. Her other parent didn't think that was sending the right message, but we kept up our end of the bargain nonetheless.

On The Fence

I just love this photo of Mia because it captures her sweetness and beauty.

More Pics From Grammy's Visit

Mia and Grammy had a wonderful week together. They built spectacular castles from bristle blocks, colored, read books, and played with various dolls and figurines. Mia loved it when Grammy would prop one of the Loving Family dolls up against the furniture so she (Mia, that is) could knock it down. Over and over and over again. You should have heard the belly laughs coming from our girl.
Mia particularly liked "styling" Grammy's hair. Grammy was quite a good sport about this.
We hope Grammy will come again soon.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

We have a new babysitter who picks Mia up at Camp every afternoon. "C" has been on the job for just 4 days now, but already Mia likes her a lot. Still, I was taken aback this afternoon when, after C. left, Mia came into the kitchen and asked me, "Where's the new mommy?" At first, I couldn't believe my ears. I asked Mia to repeat herself and she said it again, "Where's the new mommy?"
Carefully disguising my near-horror, I gently explained to Mia that C. isn't her Mommy, she is her friend. (That's what we call babysitters around here. Friends.) Mia protested that I wasn't understanding her, "No-oo-oo-o." She then led me into her playroom, where she had lined up 3 of the family of 4 Calico Critters bunnies her Grammy gave her a couple weeks ago. "Where's the new mommy?" she reiterated. That's when it hit me - She wanted me to help her find the missing mommy bunny in her (relatively) new bunny family. I dropped everything to search high and low for that critter. She still hasn't turned up yet, but at least I am not worried that C. has replaced me in Mia's affections.


Mrs. Bunny (alias "New Mommy"), taking the family for a spin around the playroom in the Barbie convertible on a sunny day in May. (File photo)

Castles

During Grammy's visit, she and Mia spent lots of time building castles with bristle blocks. Those two came up with some very imaginative structures. Once the castle was complete, the fun was just beginning. Grammy would wag her finger and say, "Now, don't knock it down" as Mia teasingly reached for the castle, then drew back. Mia loved this game of cat and mouse, squealing with anticipation. Most of the time, the castle stood for quite a while, demonstrating that Mia enjoys the anticipation way more than the actual knockdown. She is quite a thrill-seeker, our gal. I can't wait until we can ride a real roller coaster together.

Running Away With The Circus

Camp is not what it was when I was a child. To us, "camp" meant you went away for a week or more someplace in the woods with cabins and a lake. "Day Camp" was in a park someplace, with arts and crafts and campfire songs sans campfire. In Mia's world, camp is a shorter, fun version of preschool. They have a different theme every week, such as Circus or Rain Forest. Mia's preschool offers 8 weeks of camp (several mornings a week) over the summer, and we signed her up at another camp in the remaining weeks. I have to admit I didn't pay much attention to the weekly themes, we just signed her up for everything.
Last week, Mia's regular preschool (which we'll call "Camp") was not in session, so she went to a place we'll call "Alternative Camp." She took a while to warm up to it, but boy did she enjoy it. Alternative Camp has all-indoor play on some great indoor gym equipment, plus arts & crafts, storytime, and the like. Last Friday when I went to pick her up, about a dozen children ages 2 to 6 were sitting in a big circle listening in rapt attention as a teacher (dressed in a clown suit but without the white-painted face, thank goodness) read a story about the circus. The kids had on these festive little paper collars and party hats, and their faces were painted. (For the life of me, I don't know how they got Mia to sit still long enough to paint her face. Or keep the collar and hat on, for that matter. She took it off as soon as we got into the van, and refused to wear it for the above photo.)
At the conclusion of the circus story, the children marched in a circus parade with little noisemakers, to the tune of Stars & Stripes Forever. Of course, Mia didn't want to leave, so the teachers invited me to join in the march. I complied, of course. (In case you hadn't picked up on it, I love these excuses to relive my childhood.) When the march concluded and the other parents began arriving to pick up their children, Mia delighted in making me chase her all around the play area. I finally had to ask the youngest, most athletic-looking teacher to team up with me.
I wish I'd had my camera with me to capture Mia's sheer joy during the circus march or ensuing game of Catch-Me-If-You-Can, but I'll settle for sheer preciousness instead.