Before Dane was born, Mia was pretty much the center of my universe. My worries and concerns oriented around her: Would she feel a lack of love with my divided attention with the new arrival? Would Dane's crying wake her up at night? How would I fit her school-time, outside-time, and creative-time (our daily routines) in with an infant? Would our relationship crumble when we couldn't spend one on one time picking out nail polish together? And so on, and so on, and so on.
Then Dane arrived. All of the sudden, my tunnel vision jumped track. Without warning, Mia took a back seat to my little male ray of sunshine. My worries took on a new subject: Is he eating enough? Is he eating too much? How many wet diapers has he had today? Do his eyes look yellow to you? Is his belly button supposed to look like that? He isn't sleeping. He's been asleep too long!
When I did have the wherewithal to spare a thought for Mia, it was usually along the lines of: I haven't seen her in awhile, where is she? Has she eaten anything today? How many days has she been wearing that outfit? (Sidenote: my mother and sister were champions after Dane was born... not only did they make sure she was fed and clothed, they also did fun things like taking her to the zoo and the movies. I will forever be grateful).
It wasn't that I didn't care. Not even close. It was that my sleep deprived self could only muster a few tasks a day, and I chose "keeping my newborn alive" over what was once a very carefully selected set of skills and activities to enrich Mia's life.
Now that things have settled into what seems like something resembling normalcy, I've been able to break out of my newborn shell. Mia never ceases to amaze me, and my time "away" from focusing so intently on her has intensified how much I love and appreciate her antics.
There are some things about her that I never want to forget.
She has poured enough pretend tea to fill the English Channel.
She loves chocolate. And incidentally, band-aids as well. If I recall correctly, this one was for a headache.
Just before bedtime, she morphs into comedian mode.
She knows if she can get me laughing, she'll stall bedtime.
She spends as much time putting on makeup (usually pretend) as I do these days. I love it when she announces she's ready for the ball.
"Mests" NOT nests. She has made about a billion of these in our back yard. The eggs that go in the mests are usually rocks that will hatch into anything from dinosaurs to baby brothers.
A "people mest." She went outside one morning and was more quiet than usual.
I found her curled up asleep in our very dirty picnic blanket.
Regular shorts and shirts don't do it for this little chickadee.
Thankfully, she has friends who share her obsession.
She LOVES her daddy.
Bingo Lamby, who is not actually a lamb at all, but a goat who resides in our local zoo's petting area. Mia can't get enough of him. Forget the zebras and lions, she just wants to hang out with her Bingo. To give you some idea of how much she loves him (or her?) I printed this picture out thinking she'd like to look at it... she now sleeps with it under her pillow. The last thing she asks me every night is if I think
Bingo Lamby is sleeping okay.
Furniture gymnastics. You'd think with all of the times she's gotten hurt pulling stunts like this she'd rethink the activity... but no. If you want to make her day, ask her to show you some "tricky moves."
Mia "practicing to be a mommy."
Sparkle, Mia's imaginary friend deserves a picture, but has proven illusive thusfar. Sparkle is quite unique.. she is Mia's best friend, cousin, and twin. She usually comes on car rides with us, but doesn't sleep at our house. Mia proclaims she sounds like Kailan from Nick Jr. She also unfortunately gets lost. A LOT. Mia is always asking me to help find her. I am not successful at this.
I can't believe that this beautiful, crazy, adorable girl actually calls me mom.
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