C.C.C.C.

"C" is for Chewy Coconut-Chocolate Cake: a good birthday cake for my good mom. It was so tasty, even with a post-Texas Roadhouse belly.

The chewiness comes from oatmeal, and the coconut comes from the coconut milk the oatmeal is soaked in. The chocolate comes from the special dark cocoa powder, and the rest of the goodness comes from a stick and a half of butter and real vanilla with some fancy liquor from Mexico.

The original recipe is at Hillbilly Housewife. Substitute 1 cup of water with 1 cup of coconut milk (I used the light kind). For the frosting, I just made a regular butter cream chocolate frosting, but used a generous amount of coconut milk for the liquid (I wanted it to be runny enough to drizzle).

Mia has a well-practiced "more chocolate please," then, to emphasize her sincerity, she does a little dance while I sing "chocolate is a girl's best friend."

21

This body can hardly contain all its personality.

Mia has been exercising each morning with her dad. As you can see, her hard work is paying off.

Mia has spent much of the last month nestled into whatever box she can find

(we've got a couple stragglers from our move).

This is our morning Mia, complete with her 4 "B's"- bunny, blankie, binki, and big hair.

I am always surprised by how closely and stealthily toddlers observe their parents. A few weeks ago, I found Mia situated, almost perfectly, with my running accessories.

Grandma R will often allow Mia to work her hair magic. Mia loves it and the results are always stunning! For payment, Grandma R gives Mia free reign in the laundry room...

Now that we have access to a full-fledged entertainment system,

we get to see this smile every weekday at 9:30 am. Elmo's World!

Mia has learned to name her parts.

She is somewhat camera-shy, so I had to bribe her to perform with a blue jelly bean at the expense of articulation, but you'll get the jist.

Handy & Dandy

Mia's got a handy dad. Although it's been tempting, we have never had the courage to spend $300+ on the Nordic ski attachment for our bike trailer. So, having found ourselves determined to squeeze in another ski excursion last weekend and without an unoccupied Grandma to babysit, David got creative:

He worked late into the night...

...only to up the ante on his morning workout.

It's easy for me to say, but this view was well worth the effort!