Mia's Top 10

1

Traversing the springtime mud with a backpack (like Dora's!) full of unnecessary items:

Because Mom is easily affected by weather and light level, Mia projects similar sentiments over every rare ray of sunshine we get. Yesterday (which was lovely) she woke up and declared, 

"Oh, there's the sun.  It's a beautiful, beautiful day!"

Throwing rocks into our local stream never gets old.  

Just moments after Mia threw this rock, a family of six otters bobbed past us.  As novel and cute as they were, it was a major temptation for Mia to propel her stash right at them.

2

Getting serious with her Valentine cookie roll-out:

3

Mia had her first try at skiing this month with skiing pro, Aunt Carrie (I am still developing my own down-hill skills and like I expected, Mia surpassed my abilities within five minutes).  It was so fun to watch her zoom fearlessly down the hill...until some guy with a creepy green mask showed up on the same run.  Once she recovered from "the green guy" she was gleefully shouting, 

"I want to do 'skeeting' all day long!"  

4

This girl is being bred into a mountaineering machine.  Here she is on a weekly jaunt up our backyard mountain, only this time she wanted to take the route with 1000 ft/mile vertical gain. It requires a bear crawl much of the way. 

Exploring craggy knolls along the way...

Summit!

 5

Mia really likes hanging out and doting on Great Gma R lately.  

When she caught GGma with some velcro rollers, hair time was inevitable.

6

Surprise visit from beloved cousins resulted in Hawaiian Party at Gma R's:

7

Caged animal:

8

For weeks, Mia has worked hard to save her allowance for none other than a trip to Panda "Bear" Express. We had a less than thrilled cashier as Mia proudly poured $6-worth of coins onto the counter from Mom's childhood purse (circa 1987). It was so worth eating greasy "gourmet Chinese food" (their subname) to see Mia's inventive use of chopsticks.

9

On the allowance-earning note, Mia's new chore is to tear up cereal boxes for our compost pile.  She finds the idea so enticing that it presents quite the distraction from every day routine(like getting dressed).

10

Yesterday, David took too long on his Sat morning run, so mom felt compelled to improvise hers and run within view of the house while the girls slept.  Mia discovered her plan and met her on the road with nightgown, snow boots, stollen pacifier (June's), and bunny, ready to "go running with you, Mommy!"