You Don't Say!

I am constantly amazed by how quickly Mia is expanding her worldview and language skills. Almost daily, she says something that has me doing a double-take. Recent examples:

We were creating Halloween pictures with some sticky foam Halloween shapes. Mia had put a haunted house, trees, and bats on her page when I volunteered, "Here is a pumpkin for you, Mia." Her reply: "Mom, that is not a pumpkin, it is a jack-o-lantern."

Then there was the day I brought Mia home from preschool. She had one of those Scholastic handouts they periodically distribute. As I helped her exit the minivan, she said earnestly, "Mom, I have to do my homework."

Mia has been enjoying the book, "Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale" before bedtime. Before we start the story, she wants to look at the flyleaf, which has a scene of brightly colored row-houses. She says, "I want to count the houses" and proceeds to do just that. Then we can get on to the story. (But not before reading the title and author.) The other night she announced, "I want to count the houses in Spanish" and she did. She counted to 10 in Spanish, beaming with pride.

Since I taught her none of the above concepts, I have to conclude they are doing a great job at preschool.

Mia At Age 2.9

She loves pizza, Swiss and cheddar cheese, and strawberries. Goldfish crackers and dried apple slices are in. She adores "the spicy Triscuits", namely the Rosemary and Olive Oil variety. Smoothies are out, "Dad juice" (a little bit of Fresca added to her watered-down V8 Fusion) is in. Chocolate milk is in. Vegetables are hit or miss - she rejected roasted red peppers on Saturday then devoured raw and roasted orange peppers on Monday. Any food is more attractive if it is on Mom or Dad's plate instead of her own. The mention of McDonald's makes her whisper "french fries" in a tone that could only be described as reverent.
She insists on wearing dresses most days and prefers going bare-legged rather than wearing tights or leggings. She doesn't like dressing in layers. If we put a jacket on her on a cool day, she must remove it before we can buckle her in to her car seat. She rarely seems to get cold.
She loves making funny faces. She has perfected wrinkling her nose as if in disgust, then laughs when I match her. She just learned how to stick out her tongue and practices this skill frequently, despite any consequences we have inflicted to date.
She sees a time out as a chance to practice getting Mom and Dad's attention by jumping out of her chair, running to us, and giggling. (We try not to take the bait.) If we are so dumb as to ask, "Do you want a time out?" when she is misbehaving, there is a 50/50 chance she'll say "Yes".
She recently discovered Mother Goose rhymes and demands them several times a day. Favorites include Humpty Dumpty and Sing a Song of Sixpence. She is fascinated with the scene where the blackbird snips off the maid's nose, and loves re-enacting it. She thinks Jack (in Jack & Jill) looks like a girl. Her other current favorite books are Curious George Goes To The Aquarium (still) and Over The Moon: An Adoption Tale (new).
She has an impressive (in my view) vocabulary with words like camisole and veterinarian and Jarlsberg, but she generally has trouble pronouncing K and R sounds. She can do it when she concentrates.
She has started taking ballet at school. At home, she sings and dances a lot. I recently concluded she can carry a tune. (I'd been wondering.)
She is perfectly capable of using the toilet but still wants to wear diapers. This morning when my back was turned she put on a fresh Pull-Up for the express purpose of pooping in it. Oh, and she likes to wear panties over her Pull-Ups. (My mistake - should have kept the panties hidden.)
She frequently asks to go to Starbuck's, which in her mind is the place you get chocolate milk. We go there a couple of times a week and she is always disappointed if her favorite server (aka "the lady") isn't there. She loves Kroger because they give out free balloons. She prefers Home Depot over Lowe's because HD offers father/child workshops on the first Saturday of the month, and Lowe's has a scary automated monster on display for Halloween.
Her favorite toys are her Color Wonder markers and blocks. Bristle blocks, wooden blocks, cardboard bricks. She refers to every structure she builds as a "castle."
We don't let her watch TV very often, to the point that when we do turn on a cartoon in mid-show, she insists that we "start over" as if it is a DVD.
She has rediscovered her love of ASL and amuses herself in the back of the van by practicing her signs. We are thrilled to have a respite from constantly listening to the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom CD in the car. She sometimes makes up a new sign and innocently asks, "Mom, what is this sign?" When I say, "Mia, you made that one up" she laughs, apparently delighted that I got the joke.
She has a lot of empathy and if she hears another child crying it rivets her attention. She has recently demonstrated a propensity for pointing to people in stores and saying things like, "He's big." (Not so bad if a tall person overhears her, but embarassing if the individual is overweight.)
She loves her Dad and her Mom and has become really very snuggly.

Am I Going To Have To Separate You Two?

Since school started Mia has been misbehaving a lot, just to see how we react. She makes sure we're watching before she throws food on the floor or sticks her tongue out. After a couple of weeks of that, we decided to lay down the law and enforce it with time outs. I had been attributing the misbehavior to the back-to-school transition. To be honest, I was guessing it was a product of being around lots of little boys. The ratio in her classroom is 5 boys to 2 girls on most days. The other girl is a cute little blondie named Sophie, and they stick together like glue. I even saw them holding hands on the way out to the playground. Soooo cute!
Imagine my surprise when Miss Diane took me aside last week to tell me they were making a change. Apparently my Mia who was an angel for Miss Diane last year has been acting up, and Sophie is the instigator. According to Miss Diane, Sophie defies the teachers' direction and then Mia follows suit! Miss Diane explained that they are purposely keeping the two girls apart, not letting them sit together or play together. They want Mia to start thinking for herself. The girl I know has no trouble thinking for herself, so I find it puzzling that she becomes a lemming after I drop her off at the schoolhouse door. Peer pressure already?
When I reported this to Jeff, he asked "Should we talk to her?" I was of the view that Mia wouldn't benefit from a lecture hours after the behavior - instead the teachers should give her feedback at the point of transgression.
A couple of days later, Jeff reported that as he drove Mia to school she announced that "Miss Diane yelled yesterday. She was mad." She explained that Sophie told all the kids to take their shoes off while playing on the playground, and they all did. That allowed Jeff to give her the standard, "Mia, just because the other kids do something doesn't mean you should do it!"
Somehow I didn't think we'd need to deliver that message at such a tender age.

Ducks on Parade

During the preschool orientation, Moms (or technically I should say "parents", though I didn't see any Dad's names there) were asked to sign up for various tasks like helping out at the Halloween party. Since I'm trying to focus on my job search during the day, I signed up to decorate a bulletin board. I figured I could do all of the work except for the actual installation late at night or on weekends. When I asked the teacher, "What does decorating a bulletin board entail?" she simply said, "Anything you want."

Arguably Interesting Facts:
Mia's class is called the Lucky Ducks.
The duck in the corner is saying, "Ladies & gentleman, start your engines!"
Mia's class has six boys and three girls. (More on that later.)
Eight of the nine children are blonde.

Bow-Mania

Mia has an assortment of hairbows that I've picked up here and there. I love hairbows, but I haven't made them a regular part of her attire. On days when I put a bow in her hair, more often than not the bow disappears somewhere between the time I drop her off for preschool and when I pick her up. Since school started a couple of weeks ago, Mia has been expressing a desire to wear a bow. She also tells me, "Bella has big bows." Mia wants not just any bow, she says she wants, "the big white one." Since "the big white one" is too dirty to wear (I've been hiding it with the intent to use it as a pattern for a replacement), I am unable to comply.
The babysitter has been witnessing this and the other day, she brought a big bag of super-sized bows with her. She explained they were given to her as gifts for her infant, but she doesn't plan to use them. Mia was delighted and insisted on wearing as many as she could fit on her head.
To complete the outfit, she tried on the pink suede Ugg-style boots someone gave us. If my Mom was here, I'm sure she'd say, "That's quite a getup."

The Odd Couple

I have never big a particularly prolific photographer, but I am trying to get better about it for Mia's benefit. For inspiration, I have been reading a couple of books about scrapbooking. One author reminds us that we tend to capture the birthday parties and big events, but we forget to photograph the little, everyday moments. She has a point. Back in the olden days when I was a child and all cameras used film, I remember the time my Mom sent a roll of film to the drugstore for developing, only to discover that nearly every picture on the roll captured one of her 4 children blowing out the candles on their birthday cake. You'd think nothing else ever happened at our house.
Which brings us to today's photo, one of those little everyday moments. When I went to make our bed, I discovered that Mia had been driving her Barbie Jeep around on the bedspread. I think Barbie and the Loving Family Man make quite an odd couple. When I pointed this out to Jeff, he suggested maybe she is the Amazon Barbie.

Diving, Mia-Style

For weeks, Mia has been telling us she wanted to jump off the diving board like the big kids. We told her she had to learn how to swim (strokes, breathing) first. (What I really wanted to say was, "In your dreams!" There was no way I was going to let her jump into 12-ft deep water.) The rule at our pool is quite reasonable - children of any age can jump off the low diving board as long as they can then swim to the side unassisted. Mia isn't quite up to that yet. Then last Thursday I told the babysitter she could take Mia to the pool. When they came home, K. asked, "Do you let Mia jump off the diving board?"
Apparently, Mia had expressed a desire to jump off the diving board, and since there was literally no one else there, the lifeguard allowed K. to tread water in the deep end so she could retrieve Mia after she jumped. According to K., Mia was fearless, jumping again and again until K. was so tired they had to stop.
I could hardly believe this story, but on Friday night Jeff and I took Mia to the pool. With some apprehension (and lifeguard approval again), Jeff waited in the deep end while Mia jumped off the diving board and I manned the camcorder. Another club member, Becky, took an interest and helped Mia get out of the pool each time. Unfortunately, this was the best still shot I got. Mia jumped off the diving board 8 or 9 times on Friday, then the same on Saturday. On Sunday and Monday, she started to show some trepidation, so she only jumped a couple of times. Besides that, the pool is only open for 2 more weekends (and the water is getting pretty cold), so Mia's diving season may well be over. We don't mind that at all. She's got plenty of years ahead of her.
Becky, whose 10-year-old daughter is on the diving team, told us Mia should join the diving team next year, in the "Under 5" division. We'll see.
P.S. The 3 meter board is strictly off limits to children under 8. Thank goodness.