The essence of Mia

Having a toddler (I guess now a pre-schooler?) in a house that you are always trying to keep looking perfect would be quite stressful or even impossible I would think. It's not that she just destroys things, but she just leaves a little trail everywhere she goes... an essence of Mia that lingers on even after she has gone to bed or gone to visit family, we always know that she is here. Its not just the toys and things strewn about on the floor, or the sweet little sitting area in the living room that she likes to eat a snack at after nap time, but it is even more... this picture is a great example. After she went to sleep one night I went in our bathroom to find this! You can almost imagine her sweet little squishy body wearing only a diaper all wrapped up, hiding in her 'tent' and giggling like only a two year old who thinks they are hiding from you (even though you are sitting right there on the toilet as they wrap themselves up in your shower curtain and obviously can still see them) can do.

You can probably tell by the bit of longing in my tone that Mia is gone again, with her dad's family at Schlitterbaun for a few days. She was so excited to go that I can't possibly be sad about it. She kept telling us what she wanted to do when she got to "fwitterbom" like eat cheetos and ride a horsey. They made sure cheetos would be available, but I'll let her dad deal with the horse part...

Before she left we took her on her first real hike! It might have been a bit challenging for her, as she got a little scared and we had to carry her most of the time. It was too close to nap time and she get even grumpier when hot so we cut it pretty short, but I got these cute pics going down the trail...

and finally, while I am getting used to my short hair, it does have its down sides. Yes it is cooler and easier to manage, but sometimes you wake up with short hair, and you look like this. Even after hair silk, pomade and water, this bad boy was around all day!