Fall Activities

I think in the last few weeks Mira and I have spent more time outside than we have during the summer months - the weather has been so nice out here! Autumn is one of my favorite times of the year anyway but with an active toddler that doesn't enjoy sitting inside (ok who am I kidding, she hates to sit at all) this weather has been very helpful. We've had lots of fun going to the various parks in the neighborhood, and once my mom got to join us.

My mom is very hands-on

I have to say that I absolutely LOVE how this second picture came out. This was one of those shots that had perfect timing. And it certainly represents how active and busy and fun-loving this girl is.

We also went to the children's museum again after a few months' hiatus. They've added some new stuff to the helicopter that Mira enjoys so much, including an injured patient and the Emergency Department from my work. 

We're starting her young!

I hear a lot from people that they can't believe how grown-up Mira is looking. She's definitely losing that baby look. I used to be sad and nostalgic about it but it's actually starting to be exciting for me to watch her grow up. Plus now that her hair is getting long I get to play with it.

Mira is girly enough that she gets excited about getting her hair done... sometimes. Every few days she decides she wants to say "no" to everything and then it's just battle after battle all day long. Those days are hard for everybody. It's so tempting to just give in and save the trouble of dealing with a screaming child every five minutes! I guess that's what we get for having a diva princess.

I was at work when Mark sent me these pictures and it made my night. Anything princess gets this girl's attention! And apparently when Mark tried to get Mira out of her princess dress she threw a massive tantrum. I was a little relieved that he was the one who got to deal with it that time. :) Mira has her daddy wrapped around her little finger, no doubt about it. Anything she does Mark thinks it's the most wonderful thing ever and he swears all the time that she's absolutely perfect - so I feel bad for any guy who thinks he's going to date Mira in the (very distant) future.

Mira's other obsession these days besides showing everybody she comes across her pretty ruffly skirts/dresses that she insists on wearing is performing. Anything providing a slight elevation off the ground will do for a stage and she doesn't even need much of an audience to get going.

This one I think is hilarious. We tried to teach Mira the Chicken Dance and this is her version of it.

And speaking of hilarious, this is what's starting to happen when she gets ahold of my phone these days.

Most of the time Mira is very charming and hilarious and continues to surprise me with her grasp of the world. For example, she's starting to get the concept of counting and numbers, which is still a challenge for me most days so this one impresses me. (I like to say that I know enough math to keep my patients alive and that's as far as it goes.) If Mark and I are doing something together, like sitting on the couch, Mira will come up and point to each of us and say, "Mom, Daddy, Momdad, two!" and hold up 2 fingers. So I'll ask her how many it makes if it's mommy, daddy, and Mira. So she'll say, "Mom, Dad, me, three!" and hold up 3 fingers. She's actually really good about getting numbers right up until about 4 or 5 and then it gets sketchy, but still!

And then some days she does stuff that makes me want to rip my hair out. For example, she thinks it's hilarious to ignore me and continue to go about her business when I'm calling her name. I don't find this particularly amusing, especially when I'm trying to get her attention to keep her from walking into the street or crawl underneath the car or something similar. So one day we were at the park and she was having one of those days when everything was causing a meltdown. Finally I ended the park visit early and started herding her home, which of course caused another meltdown but she calmed a bit when I told her we'd eat lunch when we got back to the house. So when we got home I told Mira I needed to use the bathroom real quick and then I'd make her lunch. This news caused another meltdown and rather than try to reason with her I just went upstairs to the bathroom. When I came back downstairs 60 seconds later, Mira was nowhere to be found. I called her name, and of course she didn't answer. I went through all the rooms in the house, and didn't see her. I didn't think she'd gone outside since both the front and back doors were closed (and when she's gone through the doors it hasn't occurred to her to close the doors behind her) but after ransacking the house and calling her and not finding any trace of her, I started to panic. I looked in the back yard and didn't see her, which meant she had to have gone out the front door. I frantically called Mark while I was running around the block; he gave me the number for dispatch and told me to call the police. Of course I'm screaming Mira's name and of course she's not answering. I got back to the house and was about to grab my keys so I could drive around and cover more ground when I just happened to glance out the back door and saw the top of Mira's head as she was running around in the back yard. I believe this is what other parents are referring to when they say parenthood is wanting to hug and strangle your kid simultaneously. Needless to say Mira got a very stern talking-to, which caused yet another meltdown. Naptime really didn't come soon enough for either of us that day. Luckily most days are not like this.

Me? Naughty?

Our new batch of chickens are starting to lay so now we're getting 3-5 eggs each day, which means everyone gets scrambled eggs or omelets for breakfast. We try to let the chickens wander around the back yard once a day, and one of the hens got brave enough to climb the steps to the back porch and investigate. Try to ignore how dirty the glass is and how cluttered the porch is.

Mira screams and runs away when she gets near a chicken but I don't think she's actually afraid of them. She knows how to put on a show. (See videos above.)

And now a story about this bizarre cat.

One day Wally came upstairs with what I originally thought was a toy mouse in his jaws, but then after thinking for a minute I remembered we didn't have any toy mice, especially ones that squeak. Besides the disturbing fact that we obviously have live mice in the house, Wally had somehow managed to get it and was playing mercilessly with it. Meanwhile my other cat Neo slept through this whole thing on the couch. Wally, who is declawed and has spent his whole life indoors, knew what to do with a mouse better than the prowling-around-outside-at-night-with-claws-attached Neo. Eventually I had to grab the mouse by the tail (shudder) since it was obvious Wally wasn't going to eat it, and went outside to give it to Isis, my outside cat. She of course knew what to do with it. Sorry to those of you who are squeamish or don't like to think about mice dying. Wally was rewarded with a kitty treat, and Neo got nothing for being lazy.

Finally, yesterday Mark and I ran another 5K called the Hit and Run. For those of you who have seen the show Wipeout or American Ninja Warrior, it was kind of like that. My sister Sara, her friend Crystal, and her (Crystal's) father all ran the race.

Unfortunately we didn't have a designated photographer so we don't have pictures of us during the race but it was a lot of fun! This one we didn't run to get a good time of course but it was still a blast. We're hoping the race is put on next year so we can do it again with a bigger team. If you're curious as to what sorts of obstacles we had to conquer, here's the video the race organizers made.

Apparently Mark and I only do unconventional races that involve obstacles or getting stuff thrown at us or wading through some substance or another.