Fiscal Relief

I once read that the average child goes through $1500 worth of diapers. I'm not sure who came up with that figure, but I'm pretty sure we surpassed it long ago. And don't forget that we weren't buying diapers for her until she was 10 months old. Go figure.
I am happy to report that Mia is finally using the toilet several times a day! The tipping point seemed to come a few weeks ago, after we babysat for two girls who are ages 3 and 4. While they were at our house, they went to the powder room so frequently that I wondered if there was something interesting in there that I had failed to notice before. After their vist, Mia suddenly started showing more interest in using the bathroom, though she rarely actually made a deposit. Her parents noticed this and starting putting her on the potty a lot figuring she'd go eventually. (Despite Mia's interest in using the toilet, she often protests. Remember we're talking about a 2-year-old, and 2-year-olds ambivalent about a lot of things).
Admittedly, there are a few bugs in our process. The main issue is our incentive compensation system. For months, we've promised her a lollipop if she used the toilet. While I have to say that was not a particularly effective incentive at the beginning, we feel we have to make good on the promise we've been making for months - "Use the toilet, get a lollipop." Now that she's going all the time I'm a bit worried about the amount of sugar she is getting. I've been fairly successful at reducing the reward to a couple of M&M's, but sometimes she insists on the lolly. I usually give in - I don't want to give Mia any justification to go backwards.
I just re-read this post and concluded it is TMI (Too Much Information). I could edit this, but it's getting late, so I'll just wrap it up.
We're using so many fewer diapers, I think we're going to see a big difference in this month's Visa statement.

Swimming Progress Report

Mia just finished her latest series of 8 lessons. She is still going on Monday and Wednesday nights, and has made terrific progress. She now jumps from the edge of the pool and swims underwater more than 20 feet. She still doesn't like to put her face in the water while swimming at the surface, but she does it. She really doesn't like to float on her back. I suspect that is because floating on her back requires her to be still, and Mia is never ever still. That child doesn't stop moving all day long. Even when we're reading a book, she tends to move around, shifting positions or just plain fidgeting.
In between swimming lessons, we're able to get Mia to practice all of her skills except she will not float on her back. We'll have to work on that. Her instructor says that as soon as she can float on her back independently (meaning he doesn't have to hold her legs still), she can move up to the next level, which is normally for 4-year-olds and up. Then she will start to learn the freestyle stroke and elementary backstroke.
I'm biased, but I think Mia is a hard worker, very motivated, and quite athletic. I'd better start working out more, or she will be able to outrun me by the time she is 5.

I Did It My Way

Lately it seems that Mia expends a lot of energy finding her own ways to do things. We just never know what is coming next. At our house, Mia eats most of her meals at the kitchen island. If the three of us are together, we eat at the kitchen table. Eating in the dining room is a rare event.
The other day, I put Mia's plate at the end of the kitchen island while I fixed my own plate. When I turned around, Mia had disappeared. I caught a glimpse of her running into the dining room, plate in hand, with a self-satisfied grin on her face. She then proceeded to seat herself at the head of the table and chow down.

And I Quote...

Mia has been saying some interesting things lately. Below are a few phrases that cracked me up. I fear some of these may not translate well to the blogosphere, but I'll try to give you the context. I apologize in advance if you find yourself saying, "I guess you had to be there..."

On unwrapping her Dum Dum lollipop, given as a reward for going potty:
"Oh, me! Oh, my! I do not like coconut one bit."

On arriving at the preschool parking lot:
"Lots and lots of minivans!"

While riding in the minivan:
"Mom, I have questions. " (Note: When I ask her what her question is, she doesn't have one. She just likes to say that.)

At apparently random times:
"We really have to think about it."

After her mother raises her voice (Imagine this being said by a 2-year-old in an accusatory tone):
"Mom louded!"

Fast Friends

Mia's babysitter brought her 7-month-old daughter with her yesterday. When Mia got up from her nap, she was delighted to see "Baby L." there. Mia loves babies, but especially this one. She shared her Lambie with her and later, when she saw L. with her mother's car keys in her mouth, she took them away for safety. She can't stop talking about "Baby L." Judging from the second photo, it looks like the admiration is mutual. C. and I thought this scene was just precious.

Rock Star

Mia has been showing more interest in singing and dancing. As we ride in the minivan, she often entertains us with songs of her own invention. This makes her mother happy. It is really fun to hear her cute little voice singing about whatever is on her mind. In addition, this means she has stopped insisting that we play the Laurie Berkner "Buzz Buzz" CD every single time we get in the van. (Nothing against Laurie Berkner. It is a great CD with lots of catchy tunes, but after 9 months, I am tired of it.)
I recently dug up a "Wiggles" electric guitar that I purchased for Mia at a rummage sale 2 - 3 years ago. Up until now, she has been putting the guitar down on its back and pushing the buttons that play the songs. Jeff and I have been periodically demonstrating how to hold the guitar properly, but she wasn't interested. She just wanted to push the button that plays the song that goes, "Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy" over and over.
Then all of a sudden one morning she picked up the guitar and started playing and dancing and jumping around the kitchen. I love this photo of her, airborne, pony tail flying.

Play Date

On Friday night, we had a picnic playdate with Mia's China playgroup. The food was no great shakes (thanks to her mother who put very little effort into it), but the company was excellent. Mia had a blast, from being chauffered in a Barbie Jeep to hanging out in the hammock with the "big girls." She even enticed me to spend some time jumping on the biggest, best trampoline I've ever seen in someone's backyard.
As for me, I enjoyed spending some time catching up with the other moms while keeping an eye out to ensure our daredevil didn't over-extend herself on the play equipment.

All Tuckered Out

Mia accompanied me shopping on a really hot day. It was a bit grueling, so I brought a lollipop as an incentive for good in-store behavior. I gave Mia her lollipop to enjoy on the ride home. I thought it was really cute that she fell asleep but didn't give up her grip on the lolly.

Art or Architecture?

As I was getting ready to take Mia to school one morning, she found some plastic hangers in the bedroom. By the time I was done brushing my teeth, Mia had arranged the hangers in a row and put pieces of cereal in the corners. She was protesting that Sam was trying to eat them. Sam skedaddled before I could snap the picture.

I Can Dress Myself

Mia has taken an interest in choosing what she wears each day. On a recent day, she picked out the lovely toile print dress at left. I suggested, "Honey, you're going to camp today. Don't you think you should wear shorts?"
She left the room and returned a few minutes later with a pair of khaki shorts, which she preceded to put on under the dress. Not what I had in mind, but what's the harm?
I then gave her the white ruffled socks. She again left the room and came back a few minutes later, socks pulled up to her knees. "Boots!" she announced with a grin. I had to agree they did look kind of like an odd sort of go-go boot.
After breakfast, I suggested she put on her shoes. I shouldn't have been surprised that she picked the hot pink crocs. This combo had to be saved on film. (No, she did not wear the crocs to camp. Fortunately, they don't allow crocs because they trap sand and bark on the playground, creating a nuisance for the teachers.)

Triker Chick

Mia has been learning how to pedal her trike. It has a tall handlebar in back so the parent can help push, and a canopy for shade on hot days. Dad is just out of frame, giving a push. I think that had something to do with Mia's big grin.

Big Girl Bed

We've been letting Mia sleep in the Big Girl Bed for a week now. I'd wanted to wait until she was toilet-trained, but she's grown so much that it was getting quite difficult to lift her in and out of the crib.
She thinks the Big Girl Bed is really cool. We've had some challenges in keeping her in bed, mostly at nap time. She likes to arrange her stuffed animals on the bed and sing to them. We don't mind, as long as she doesn't get up. Jeff and I have talked about disassembling and removing the crib, but not just yet. If we did that, we couldn't say, "If you get up again, you'll have to take your nap in your crib."

Dueling Mouthpieces

A few days ago, we babysat for another family in our babysitting coop. They brought their 2-year-old daughter to our house. I hadn't spent any time with A. before, so was a bit surprised to see that she uses a pacifier. I guess we were lucky on that front - Mia had apparently never been given a pacifier in the orphanage, so we didn't have to break her of the habit. Mia must have been envious of A.'s pacifier, because she dug out the pink plastic "lip whistle" that her speech therapist gave her last year and put it in her mouth. It is really goofy; it makes this whizzing sound when you blow into it.

4th of July

We had a simple but fun 4th of July. We started our day at the pool, where Mia practiced swimming underwater and using her paddleboard. After nap and dinner, we decided to finish off the fireworks left over from the package we bought at Target a year ago. Since the drought is over, I had substantially less anxiety about lighting fireworks in the backyard than I did last year. We had a lot of sparklers, which Mia was quite interested in. We decided to let her hold one, with Jeff's hand over hers for safety.

Blueberry Hill

Mia's China adoptee play group has a play date every week. We don't get to many of them - they are held on weekday mornings when Mia is usually at preschool or camp. This week we joined the group for a trip to a blueberry farm, followed by a picnic. Like many of these events, this one was 30 miles away. The drive took us through a rural-turning-suburban-sprawl area. The roads were narrow with lots of twists and turns. I had printed directions from Mapquest, and I had my Garmin GPS system as well. As usual, Mapquest and Garmin didn't agree, so I decided to go with Mapquest. (As it turned out, the Garmin was right this time.)
Oh, and did I mentioned that we were supposed to meet the group when the blueberry patch opened at 8 a.m. sharp? That meant I had to get up before 6 a.m., Mia at 6:30. Mia had been up until 11:15 the night before (her idea, not mine), which made the wake-up call particularly difficult. To tell the truth, I had little hope of waking Mia up, so I packed up her clothes, sunscreen, bug spray, etc. and strapped her in her car seat in her pajamas, with a Nutri-Grain bar and sippy cup of milk for breakfast.
We left the house at 7 a.m., and by 8 a.m. I was getting pretty frustrated by the obvious inaccuracy of the Mapquest directions. The Garmin was proposing that we circle back to an area we'd already passed, and I was pretty sure that wasn't right, either. Mia (who incidentally didn't sleep as I'd predicted) was loudly protesting that she wanted to get out of the car, and I felt the same. As I thought to myself, "I'm never again going on one of these junkets out here in the hinterlands," I decided to pump up my enthusiasm. "Mia, we're going to pick blueberries. Doesn't that sound like fun?"
To which Mia replied with delight, "Costco!!!!"
That is when I realized how little exposure Mia has to farms and vegetable gardens and berry patches. In my childhood, we lived within 4-5 miles of cornfields, grew tomatoes and radishes in the backyard, and picked wild berries when we visited my grandparents in northern Wisconsin. I vividly remember the times my grandparents took us with them to buy milk at a nearby dairy farm. (So vividly that I still practically gag when I recall the odor. My grandparents finally stopped taking me there, because I honestly couldn't help gagging and that embarrassed them in front of their dairy-farmer neighbors. When I discussed this once with my brother-in-law who is from a farming town in Minnesota, he said his parents always told him to think of that horrific odor as "The smell of money." That didn't help him, either.) Poor Mia, the only food she sees in the ground is the pots of basil, rosemary, and mint I grow on the deck.
With renewed determination, I stopped at a gas station, the first one I'd seen in 10 miles. The cashier helped me find the berry patch. (Garmin was right, I had to circle back.) By the time we arrived at 8:30, there was a long line of SUV's parked on the roadside, and the easy-to-reach branches of the blueberry bushes were already pretty bare. That meant we had to reach above shoulder height to get any berries. There were a few left on the very lowest branches, but Mia didn't have much interest in picking. She loved eating berries straight out of my pail, almost as fast as I could pick them. With my little blueberry-monster at my side, it took me about 45 minutes to accumulate 1 quart of blueberries. As we checked out and paid our $2.50 for the quart, the owner assured me we didn't have to pay for what she'd eaten. (I'm sure he would have been shocked to know how many blueberries the little blueberry-monster had consumed.) Mia tugged at my arm, wanting to go through the rusty barbed-wire fence to explore the owner's private vegetable garden. I felt satisfied that I am teaching my child that produce comes from farms, not from the walk-in cooler at Costco.

I Wanna Be Like Mom

One of the downsides of being an older mother is that I have to use reading glasses when I clip Mia's nails. I think they're a hassle - I'm still largely in denial that I need reading glasses. (I swear everyone is using ridiculously small font sizes.) Mia, on the other hand, thinks my reading glasses are way cool.