In this photo Mia is getting a ride from Lea. Part of the walk back included her riding on my shoulders, as well. This is the downside to having a five year old who loves to ride her skates and run down to a lake–at some point she gets too tired to return. So Lea and I do our best to give her a break.

They went around and grabbed all the snails they could, tossing them into the grass and ground cover so that no one would step on them.

But, alas, her family is talking and not listening! This made Mia angry and thus we have the drawing on the right–an angry Mia mad at her family for not listening.

This drawing was submitted to the family as evidence of their rude behavior a few minutes after the actual events unfolded.

Mia had gotten the idea that I could pull it out by tying it with dental floss, which I had done with some of Willow’s teeth, so I said I would try. Well, the tooth was very small and slippery, so I had a very hard time tying a not around the tooth securely. As a result, it kept slipping off when I pulled on it. Mia was very sad, but we decided to wait a day.

Mia's tooth is lost

The next day I tried again with the same result. I finally decided to not tie the tooth but rather wrap it with dental floss and, holding both ends, just pull straight down. See, as the tooth was on the bottom, so I figured that if I used enough force in pulling down, it would pull the tooth forward enough to come out. And, as luck would have it, that’s exactly what happened. I tugged, and the tooth came out, landing on Mia’s lower lip. She was thrilled to death. Since then she has gone around showing everyone she meets the gap in her teeth. It is, indeed, the mark that she’s becoming a big girl.

One of the truly funny things about the experience is how Mia handled the tooth once it was gone. She originally put it under her pillow for the Tooth Fairy, but when she woke up she was sad that she had a dollar and not her tooth. She really wanted her tooth back. So the next night she put the money back under the pillow and the Tooth Fairy obligingly returned her tooth. She then carried it with her everywhere. At one point she dressed her tooth up in clothes. Unfortunately, after a few days of keeping it with her, she lost the tooth, and it has yet to be found. Still, I think she would say that trading $1 for a few days of happiness with her tooth was worth it!

The good news is that Mia picked up where she left off last year and continues to look like a confident swimmer, even though you couldn’t consider her a swimmer just yet. She’s close, though. She can swim quite a long ways, pausing for breath along the way, but she also tires easily and if she gets frustrated or scared will simply stop trying. So I still need to stay near.

Willow, on the other hand, is an accomplished swimmer, and I could conceivably leave her alone in the pool. I don’t, however, but rather keep an eye on both girls, although Willow has earned more free time and less oversight thanks to her swimming ability. Still, you can never be too careful.

Personally, I can’t wait until the time when I can sit on the side reading a book, while the girls swim without my help. I can tell right now that we are, at most, only a year away from that.

Mia opens a present

I had to post this because it illustrates how much fun Mia had during her birthday. She was excited over every single present she received. She would open the present and then her face would light up, as she would exclaim what the present was and how happy she was to receive it.

Having kids is a really great way to help you appreciate the joy of life.