The Return Trip

Our week-long trip home to Minnesota had its moments. In general, Mia was quite a trooper, accepting the disruptions in her schedule without too much complaint. We stayed at her maternal grandparents’ house, making the half-hour drive to Jeff’s parents’ house several times. She’d come down with a cold the morning we left for MN, and it dogged her all week.
Toward the end of the week, the weather warmed up enough that we could take Mia outside. We had a hand-me-down snowsuit from cousin Connor. We weren’t able to borrow boots that fit, so Mia wore her sneakers. That didn’t take her too far in 4-6 inches of snow.
I have to admit I feel I was relieved to be on the airplane, heading home. Daily, Mia indicated she wanted to go home. Can’t say I blame her. The relatives’ houses are far from childproof, so she heard the words “No” and “stop” an awful lot. (I know she missed Sarah as well. Every couple of days, she'd say, "Sawah, Sawah, Sawah.") The day of our departure, she woke up at 3:45 a.m., announcing to Jeff, “All done sleeping.” Fortunately, after we fed her eggs and cereal, she began to look drowsy again, and I escorted her back to her bedroom.
The return flight was largely uneventful. Mia protested having to wear the special FAA-approved child harness, but she napped most of the way home and watched a DVD for the rest of the way. When we got to our home city, the temp was about 40 degrees warmer than MN. As we waited for our baggage, it actually felt hot. Mia got pretty cranky and insisted on taking off her shoes and socks. Since she was in her stroller, I allowed it. We got some pretty funny looks as we wheeled her through the chilly parking garage. When we got to our van, she was all smiles. "Home, eat." It is the simple things in life.

Pig Tails

Mia is a bit overdue for a haircut. Sarah took advantage of this as well as Mia's newfound interest in hair elastics, and put her in pigtails. It is as if she is a different child! I am not sure why Mia's tongue is blue in the photo at right. Perhaps a popsicle was involved in the transaction.

In Her Shoes, Part II

Didn't I say she usually gets her shoes on the correct feet?

Oral Hygiene

From the beginning, we struggled to brush Mia's teeth. She'd chew the toothpaste off the toothbrush, but would not actually brush her teeth, nor let us do it. When we took her to the pediatric dentist, he characterized her as "orally defensive." He showed us how to brush an orally defensive child's teeth, which involves sitting on the floor with the child's head between your legs, her arms pinned down under your thighs. Not pleasant. especially when Mia realized she could kick me in the face with her feet, which aren't pinned down. Enter Parent 2 to hold down the feet while trying to distract Mia with signing or rhymes.
At her 2-year checkup, the pediatrician asked how often we brush Mia's teeth. I had to admit "once a day." (Could you imagine going through that ordeal more than once a day?) She suggested we increase it to 2 times a day or try an electric toothbrush. I didn't think Mia would go for the electric toothbrush, but it was worth a try. She wouldn't use my Sonicare, so we tried one of those kiddie battery-operated toothbrushes. The one we purchased makes a rather loud buzzing sound, which even I find a little offputting. For the first few days, Mia didn't like it, but we kept trying. All of a sudden, one morning Mia started giggling as we brushed her teeth. I think she has decided it tickles. Now, several times a day she signals she is ready to brush her teeth by using her index finger as an imaginary toothbrush. Not only that, when we are in the bathroom together in the morning, she demands "fwoss" and tries to get into the secured drawer containing my dental floss. So, I give her a length of floss and she flosses. She really likes watching herself in the mirror.

In Her Shoes

Mia is really into shoes these days. Her preschool teachers shared the attached photo. Apparently Mia has a weakness for pink high-heeled mules of the princess persuasion.

If she has a favorite everyday pair, that would have to be the pink crocs with the fleece lining. These function as her slippers. Until we got these, she wouldn't wear slippers in the house, and her little tootsies got really really cold. So one day we went to the Stride-Rite store in the hopes that we'd find a pair of slippers she liked better than their inexpensive Target cousins. She rejected all the darling polar fleece slippers, even the ones with flashing lights. On a previous visit, the clerk had encouraged us to try the crocs but at the same time she'd said, "Once kids try these on, they won't wear anything else." That was not a selling point as far as I was concerned. I had visions of my child never wearing cute shoes again, so I'd resisted. On our second trip, I decided to give it a shot, and she loves them. Most of the time she even puts them on the correct feet.

Scenes from Thanksgiving

Mia's paternal grandparents visited us, and boy did Mia eat up all the attention! She demonstrated her sign language skills for Grandma and her vacuuming skills for Grandpa. She loves our Bissell electric sweeper, so every now again we let her do a little cleanup for us.

Talk Around the Clock

Mia has been talking up a storm. Ever since the visit from her paternal grandparents over Thanksgiving, she has been a lot more vocal. Even her teachers commented on it this week. I don't know what exactly triggered this - I've been wondering whether having 4 sets of ears listening to her instead of 2 somehow inspired her to talk more. She is putting together lots of 2-word phrases and also her pronounciations are improving. I just love hearing her say "pink slippers." It is still rare to hear her say a K sound, so it comes out "peent sippahs."
She is also going through a phrase where sometimes she just starts giggling for no apparent reason. It is really infectious, so it makes us giggle and that leads to more giggles from Mia, and so on.
We're not making a lot of progress on the potty training. She doesn't mind sitting, but she holds it in until we put the diaper back on. One day before Thanksgiving, Sarah tried pull-ups. That didn't have any effect. On Monday, Sarah decided to try putting on some thick underpants with a vinyl outer cover. Since Mia doesn't seem to like being wet, it was worth a try. Sarah reports that soon after, she saw Mia walking kind of funny. You guessed it. We decided to leave Mia in diapers a bit longer. Today on their weekly trip to the library, Sarah found an Elmo potty training video. We'll let you know how that turns out.