Erika was back to work today, which means that Mira spent her first day back at daycare in the last 3 weeks. She seemed a bit confused when we got there and wanted me to hold her for the first 5 minutes or so. But when she found out she could have cereal, I plopped her down at the table and she was just fine. Heidi is our daycare person and she is with Mira everyday. She does a very good job. Even so, I was pretty paranoid dropping her off today. And I said to Heidi, “Watch her, watch her like a hawk.” I know I was trying to be nice, but I’m sure it came off as “Pat the tyrant.” Which is definitely not what I was going for.

But I left and put my cell phone in my pocket and didn’t let go of the phone until I arrived back at daycare at 4:30 this afternoon. Mira was in the playroom and seemed to be doing just fine. She took a nap today, ate, particpated just like normal.

We came home and she began asking for her new favorite food, ketchup. We gave it to her to get her eating and back on track and now she thinks its 3 of the 4 food groups (the other is ice cream cones). Two scoops of ketchup, some turkey, puffs and a glass of milk later, Erika strolled in the door. What are puffs you ask? I haven’t the slightest idea. They come in a bag and are cheese flavored and look like small, fat, white, puffy cheetos. They are called “Pirate’s Booty”, which means less to anyone than puffies if you ask me.

Mira was dressed with her holiday dress and sweater shortly after that and we were off to the pagent. Mira seemed a bit concerned when she arrived at the local rec center, but she warmed up once she saw Heidi. We left her in Heidi’s capable hands and headed off to take a seat with the rest of the parents. It was a pretty big room and there were a ton of kids running around.

Mira’s class came in all dressed as presents. You could tell that she was looking for us. I tried my best to hide so that she wouldn’t see me. I snapped this short 15 second clip while she was on stage here:

After her class finished, she was nearly in tears, so I grabbed her and took her back to our seats with us. Now, this is the part where Erika is going to call me a softy and says that I should have left her up with her class. I just can’t seem to see that little monkey sad. So call me part of the problem. Call me an overbearing father. Call me too protective. Either way, my little girl got to be with her dad the rest of the pagent.

Which means that she sat with us for about 5 seconds, got bored, and made me go out in the hall with her. But I was smart and stuck one of those present costumes back on her and snapped this beauty:

Mira in her pagent costume

Santa showed up shortly after this. And Mira had had enough. Kicking and screaming we went up and got her present. “No Santa! Let’s get out of here! This way! This way!” That was some of the stuff she was screaming. I looked at my watch and it was close to 8:30. Way past her bedtime and this was probably the busiest day she’s had in a long time. Right before we snuck out we snapped this dandy of a shot in the lobby:

The family at the Christmas pagent

Notice the white mustache Mira is sporting. No that isn’t milk. It’s frosting from a delicious brownie one of the parents made. In answer to your question, yes I did eat the bit that Mira didn’t eat. So I can validate that it was, in fact, very delicious.

Mira had her nightly milk upon returning home, took one look at me and said, “Night, night daddy.” No brushy teeth, no stories, just “Night, night.” She was beat.

Erika and I brought her upstairs and off to bed she went, sleeping like a little angel.

Things are going great. Tomorrow is another adventure!