Lasagna Night

One more thing

V and I took the light rail downtown this morning. Our route passes by the convention center, with the 50 ft. statue of a bear peeking into it. Mia LOVES the bear. She screams with delight when we take the train downtown. Today, as we passed, she said, "Mama! Bear! Bum! Gina!" "Gina" as in vagina. I quietly said, "Ummhmmm...there is the bear. Yup. You see his bum. Ummhmmm...maybe there is a vagina too." V and I looked at each other knowing this parenthood thing is a riot.

Could it be almost fall?

Today is the last day of my summer. I go back to work tomorrow. What did we do to celebrate? We went to the post office to get Mia's passport ready to go for a trip to Mexico in February. We thought there is no better way to usher out a season than to plan to visit it again in 7 months! We are so excited!! In fact, Mia already has her summer clothes all set in her closet for the trip. I bought some sale things this week in the next size up so we'd be ready to go. I am a PLANNER friends. I can't help it; organization just comes very easily to me and it's something I can't squelch. I sometimes long to be that boho girl with the cool easy flowy dress and the long hair that just jets off to Italy on a whim. Then reality sets in. Let's be honest here...that chic free spirit had to have some great travel clothes at the ready AND her passport close at hand in order to jump that flight. It just goes to show - even groovy hippy dippy types need to be organized. Who knows...maybe I'll hop on a flight to Europe soon. Doubtful. But it's a nice thought.

Mia has been a chatterbox lately. And we love every second of it. She repeats virtually everything. (Note to self...stop dropping the f-bomb and saying "God damn it" to Bijou.) She is putting sentences together and really expressing herself. She gets frustrated when we don't understand something but that is rare. We've become excellent interpreters of her language. It is exhausting though...being so clued in. I remember collapsing in bed at night when I lived in Italy because my brain was so fried from having to listen so closely. I remember conjugating verbs while brushing my teeth and running through vocab in the shower. It was constant. The amount of energy it takes to communicate in a language that is not your native language is so much work. I never forget that when Mia is talking to me. I try so hard to listen closely and value every word. I know how frustrating it is to feel voiceless, and I don't want her to feel that with us. I love watching her language develop. I find it endlessly fascinating.

Mia will be going to "school" this year. It's a parents day out program at a local church that friends have recommended. She'll go just one day a week from 9:30 to 1:30. I bought her a little sack for her lunch. Can you believe it? She eats lunch there! I'm so excited for her. I know she'll love playing with other kids and having new toys to explore. I'm excited for V too. He'll actually get some time to himself, which is a treat. He's thinking he might sign up for yoga or tai chi. He deserves a day to himself. The guy is a rock star - and a work horse. I have always had my evenings to myself, after Mia goes down. V doesn't get that time to unwind and relax so Thursdays will be his....that little quiet place that only exists for him. Everyone needs that.

Here is to a great great summer and to a fall just as fun. People have asked if I'm sad for summer to end. My answer? No. I so love the change of seasons and think it's important to find beauty and happiness in all four. I'll miss tank tops and flip flops and lazy days with Mia perched on my hip as we walk to get ice cream. I'm anxious though for cooler weather, cute jeans, and the new winter coat I got last spring. See you on the flip side.

Sayings to Cherish

My dad kept a leather bound book as a journal for his entire adult life. This wasn't just any journal. He didn't use it to wax and wane about issues, or even chronicle the ways he filled each hour. He only wrote inspiring thoughts and quotes, and used it as a place to capture the pivotal moments of his life, which included the wacky things his children said. It was kind of like a "best of" book. He even let us write our names in it occasionally. It's like entering into a time warp when I open his book; I see "Meghan" scrawled in shaky letters with a date from the 70s neatly scribed above my work. God I remember the power that little book had over me. I thought it was fantastic and so very very special. The thing is...it is fantastic and special, and not just to a 7 year old. Who else has one book, a single leather bound book, and can say that it houses only the finest and most thought provoking thoughts of a lifetime? Reading his book is like holding his hand and walking backward through years and years of rich and deep meaning. The last entry was noting Ottilia's birth, in December, two months before he died.

This blog is kind of like my leather bound book. I want to note Mia's funny sayings as she grows up so she too can take my hand when I'm long gone and listen to me tell her just how truly special she is....

Here are two that I don't want to forget...

• When Mia gets out of the bathtub, she smiles and says, "naked baby".
• Mia refers to herself as "you". She likes to point things out and tells me who they belong to. She'll point to my water bottle and say, "Mama's". She'll point to V's running shoes and say, "Dada's". Then she'll point to something that is hers and she'll say, "you's".

Home Sweet Home

We wanted to officially welcome one of our dearest friends to planet Earth...Aidan James. He was born last week and spent some time in the NICU to strengthen his lungs before heading home into the arms of his doting daddy and loving mama. Enjoy your first night in your warm and cozy home in VA.! We love you and can't wait to meet you!

V, Meg, Mia, and Bijou

Pictures from the heart

If eyes are a window into a soul, than great photos are a reflection of that soul. I'm posting a few more photos of our weekend in Vail. Rach, my super talented friend, took the pictures. We are so fortunate to have a professional photographer in our mix, or else we'd be limited to my photos, which resemble still shots from 70s porn complete with the blurry lens. (Rach sweetly just suggested that I try to wipe my lens to see if I can get some sharper images. Thank God for her!!) My favorite picture is of Lillee and Shawn. It kind of captures the kind of weekend we had - heartfelt, wacky, full of love, and really damn funny.

VAIL

Lillee and her super darling boyfriend came into town for a week of Colorado fun. We had a ball. We all went up to Rachel and Steve's place in Vail and had a weekend that would rival any from our days back in Boulder. We hiked, ate, relaxed, ate, and drank way way way more than 6 people should drink. Our debauchery was actually limited to one night, Friday night. And it was much needed if I do say so myself. Not that I'm condoning getting housed on a regular basis but I do think it's mandatory for 3 besties from college, and their partners, to tip the bottle a little to far on a reunion weekend. It was one of those nights that you wish would never end, even though you know the consequences will be dear for each bottle of wine that gets emptied. We talked way into the night about everything and even shed a few tears, almost like paying homage to the girls we once were.

Mia and Brynn were angels during the trip. They hung in there with us (minus the bit about drinking) and managed to stay pretty happy for most of it all. They hiked a three and a half hour hike with us and stayed mostly content. Mia ate her peanut butter sandwich next to the falls at the top of the hike. She played in the children's fountain in town and rode a choo choo train that meandered through the farmers market. Vail is like this little bit of heaven, all set up for families with little ones. I never knew how much I'd appreciate that.

Haircut Success!

Mia was beginning to look a bit like a wilding with her curly hair and long bangs. We met Hadley and Finn for haircuts today followed by treats at the mall. Mia didn't cry while getting her haircut because I sat with her, and wore a hideous yellow "bib" as well. She took on look at me in it and said, "off". My girl has taste, that's for sure. She did well and sat while the stylist worked her magic. The chocolate chip cookie after the cut was the moment that held the most magic for me though. I do love a mean chocolate chip cookie. My sister and I attempted to pop into the Gap with three kids hopped up on sugar. Needless to say, we didn't stay long.

It was just a short afternoon trip but seeing the cousins together, and being knee deep in child rearing with my sister, felt really really good. You think the moments you'll remember will be the ones that are the most dramatic or exciting, but I think the everyday moments of chaos and sweet and simple pleasures somehow seep into one's soul and remain there, tightly gripping the very fiber of self. It's these moments that we remember.

Friends

We had our friends Wally and Andrea over for dinner the other night and the girls got to play. Mia calls Maddie "Maya". All day she waited patiently for her little friend to arrive. She called for "Maya" all day and pointed to things that I told her they would do together. You forget that any small change in the routine for a child is really really exciting. They played well together and Mia is getting used to the whole notion of sharing. She's actually not too bad at it. (Don't hold her to that if we're playing at your house in the near future and there is a melt down over a toy that she must share!)

Mia the Brave

The beauty of people is that they are capable of housing such contradictions. A cheerleader hunched in fascination while reading an intellectual book, a smiling engineer with a loose tie and slippery beer in the center of a crowded room, a methodical and cold scientist expressing his love with embarrassment and fervor to a woman. We always try to pin people down and trap them in boxes and are somewhat alarmed when they operate outside of those built in confines but I think we're all reminded often that we simply can't be trapped. People can have moments of extremes that are still within their very own special range of normal. Having a child brings this to light even more.

Mia is a bit shy with new people. I think I would use the word cautious. She is loving and tender and terribly funny but if you don't know her, and she doesn't know you, you may not see this side of her right away. At parties, she'll sometimes tuck her lithe little body between my legs and peek out from around my thighs. Once, when an acquaintance of mine, yelled "Hi Mia!" right into her face, she backed away tentatively and reached for my leg. The woman then said, loudly, "Well, someone sure is shy." I just smiled and said, "only when you bark into her face and she has no idea who you are." I love Mia's observant nature and want to protect her and her lovely demeanor. I just never want her to feel trapped by a label. My snappy comment was only a warning to those who try to limit my child. Low and behold, I almost did the trapping today. We entered her last day of gymnastics (she calls it "sticks") and Mia tore through the gym, hitting the foam pit with such enthusiasm. She did her somersaults with abandon and clapped as she darted back and forth. These are all activities she knows and loves. They are familiar. Safe. Known. When the instructor pulled out a new contraption today, called the "flying machine", I wondered how Mia would react. I grabbed her hand and said, "Let's go watch the other kids fly Mia!" We wandered over to the mats and sat down as a harness was lowered from the ceiling. I could easily see that the child who was brave enough to attempt this would be lifted about 10 feet into the air to be sent whirling around like an oscillating ceiling fan set on medium speed. "Any takers?" Mia wandered over to the harness and wanted in. Here was my kid, the thigh peeker, volunteering to be sent into thin air, literally. She got strapped in and said, "Mama?" a bit tentatively and then up she went. I wanted to hold her hands and keep her low but she really didn't need that from me. She watched me from her secured spot as she rose above me with her little legs hanging limply and her shirt rising up to expose the soft of her belly. And then she was sent spinning into her open destiny of being limitless - box less. Right then and there she shattered any labels. Any expectations. My kid was the bravest in the room. The only one ballsy enough to try the unknown first. She was released from the harness and she went running off to the other mats to play. And to think, I had actually sat down with her on that mat with the expectation of watching someone else's child fly above us. It was my Mia though that shone like the sun in a vast sky above me for that brief period of time. It way my Mia, the one some have called shy, who jumped into a harness full of possibility and said, "what the hell?"

She reminded me today how dangerous it is to limit yourself with labels. To say, "I can't" is more like saying "I won't." Keep trying and it'll happen, whatever it is that you may want for yourself. And know that you can make it happen in your own way, your own time. Your spark doesn't need to stop traffic. Your jokes don't need to bounce of walls and deafen ears. Your jumps don't need to spring you into mid air forever. And if people don't recognize your light, humor, and agility because they are expecting only those extremes of each, then they'll miss such a beautiful sight to behold.

Run MFP

Mia found a pair of Puma sneakers in her closet recently and won't take them off. They are several sizes too big, a hand-me-down from her cousins, and were on a shelf waiting patiently to be worn. She looks like Run, from Run DMC. You can see the treads of these bad ass shoes in the photo. She looks very street - how urban of her eh?

I came home from yoga tonight and Mia led me upstairs to show me her creation. She and Daddy had dressed all of her babies. V told me that Mia initiated the game and directed him. He did the actual dressing but she pulled out the outfits to be worn by each baby. She loves to play this game and has dressed bear in the past. Bunny and Elephant have never gotten in on the action though. When I saw it I shrieked with excitement because it was so cute and funny. Mia loves that kind of reaction. Who wouldn't? We were all laughs until Bijou came in and had sabotaged little bear, who was dressed downstairs. Bijou has stripped him and brought his naked body up to show us her handy work. Mia was so not pleased.

Now that Mia is eating at the big table with us, we started out dinner by doing a quick toast. Mia was laughing about "munny" (her bunny, presumably because he was dressed in a sweatsuit upstairs) and I felt such joy with my family as I watched her pick at her food and pull at her little feet, which were nowhere near the edge of the huge seat. We have a lot of fun together and I feel lucky for that.

A Piece of Americana

We took the day to hike near the town of Pine and then hit one our favorite burger joints, The Buck Snort. It's a dive bar off of a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere, literally. Motorcyclists frequent this place and it reeks of good times and rustic cool. It's a place like the ones I grew up going to with my dad, he was a fellow fan of dive eating establishments. It was such a great day. Notice Mia carrying my water bottle "self!". She was saying "hiken" all the way up the trail head. And then she would say, "packpack", because she knows she sits in the backpack. It was a beautiful thing to be able to walk out onto a trail and leave our real lives behind. God bless this big vast country eh?

Happy Fourth of July!

We are celebrating the independence of our country on the 4th of July, of course. But I also took a quiet moment to celebrate the fact that my child lets me dress in her whatever I want. I know those days are numbered so I reveled in it. You can kind of see the objection in her face in the first photo, "Ummm...Mom...what's the deal with the hat? And why I am decked out in a nautical theme?"

A Night at the Pellegrinos

Thank God my girls like to do what I like to do, which is hang out a lot. Mia and I took baths and then jumped into the big chair to watch an episode of, what else, Teletubbies. (I would have angled for another show but I thought asking a year old kid to watch Denise Richards, It's Complicated, might be a tad inappropriate.)

Self Taught

PHOTOS: Mia now wants to eat at the big table. She also loves her reading perch, which is universally known as an ottoman. And her Bijou, so faithful and loyal, remains her very best friend.

Mia has entered into new waters. Apparently, she is now floating in a sea all by herSELF. She wants to eat by herself, wash her own hair, put on her own shoes and put the puzzles together without my assistance. She has begun to say, "self!", as in, "Back off Mama or else!" It's so exciting and heartbreaking too. Of course, it pulls at my heartstrings because in my mind she is still my teeny tiny baby that I want to cuddle, except she isn't quite teeny and tiny anymore. Wanting her to stay small isn't what necessarily makes me feel such mixed emotions as I watch her struggle to do things alone; it's the knowledge that life IS a struggle. It's knowing that she will fall time and time again and there really isn't anything I can do to protect her. I watched her today sitting on the steps working on putting her shoes. It wasn't going so well and I tried several times to offer my help. She yelped, "self!" to me and I just knew. I knew what she was feeling - frustration yet determination. I grew up the youngest of four kids; I know the feeling well. I could see the pain in her face as she tried to maneuver her little foot into the right spot in the shoe. What impressed me though is she tried a new approach with each attempt. She would get up and move to another step and try again. She would shift her weight, move from one shoe to the other. This kid has tenacity. I like that. She is plucky and a bit of a fighter. I wanted to stuff her feet in the shoes and bolt out the door - on to the next activity in the day. But, I just put my purse down and told her we had no where to be. She eventually did it and I cheered. I'll never be able to fully protect her from the disappointments in life, but I will always be there to recognize the triumphs. Or to dust off her knees and remind her that we have all the time in the world.

Off to Summer Camp!

My mom threw a send off party for Owen a few nights before he left for his first experience at sleep away camp...for two weeks! She set up a table for the kids to make camp like crafts - spiders out of Ritz crackers, pretzels, raisins, and cheese and "dirt cups" with chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and candy frogs. The kids had a blast and it was so cute watching the babies get right in on the action. Getting Ottilia and Mia in the same frame is virtually impossible! They are both on the go ALL of the time!

Fresh from the groomer

You know you're a poodle owner when:

Your child refers to your dog as a "poodle" and not a dog. (We poodle people do the same thing...as in..."My poodle is driving me crazy!" or "My poodle is acting a bit funny.")

Your dog is fussier than your child when it comes to eating and food in general.

Your dog LOVES being groomed and literally smiles when you tell her she is the most beautiful creature around.

Bijou currently smells like roses and is as soft as a cashmere sweater. She is extra snuggly when she is back from the spa.

Obsessed

Mia is really loving all shoes. We went to buy a new pair (for both of us) the other day and she loved trying all of them on. She'd say "toot" (for cute) when we put each pair on. I'm creating a monster aren't I? I catch her in my closet a lot, digging around and putting things on.