14 Months Old!

14 months ago, Miriam joined us and our lives have never been the same since. To celebrate, here are some more things I absolutely love about Miriam:

1. How ladylike she is. When she sits she almost always crosses her legs at the ankle. So dainty!

2. Her three freckles. She has two on her right shin and one on her lower back. There are other places I think are getting them but they're not dark enough to be official yet.

3. Her ever-increasing-in-difficulty dance techniques. Today she started twirling. She was glued to the BYU International Dance Show on tv. She stayed focused on it longer than she even does during Elmo's World. After a while, she stood and spun, laughed, clapped, and spun again. Then repeated it a whole bunch of times.

4. How she loves her sippy cups.

5. How she loves reading her books.

6. How she says "thank you." Almost each time I give her something she responds by saying "doo doo" with a descending minor third tonality. What an amazing girl!

7. How she gives hugs and kisses.

8. That she is oblivious to her crazy hair.

9. JUST THAT SHE IS MIRIAM!

March Madness

Another great thing about springtime is the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I don't know of anything that causes more adrenaline and excitement. Who can forget the first round overtime victory of Utah State over Ohio State in March of 2001? I was in St. George, Utah at Applebee's watching that game. Brent tells me he was at Grandpa Moore's house. And what about the time that Chris Webber called a timeout in the waning seconds but his team didn't have a timeout and he ended up getting a technical called on him and the game slipped away. I'm glad he went on to have an amazing professional career. A lesser man would have been driven insane. And the brackets! There is nothing better than taking a highlighter to the brackets after a good day of great games. My brackets are never very close to right, but it is all for the love of the game and perchance a bit of glory. The greatest sadness during the weeks of March Madness is the letdown after four solid days of games when you know that you have to live through Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before the action starts up again. Apparantly little Mim feels the same way. Today we went to Savers to scout out some deals. Miriam likes to play in the toy area there and it is usually tough to get her out of it. Today she played like normal with all of the dolls and the stuffed animals and the things with buttons. Then she picked up a full sized basketball, smiled right at me, and proudly walked out of the toy area and towards the front of the store holding the ball the entire way. I think we have a player on our hands. Or at least a March Madness fan.

Happy Easter!

Easter is one of my all-time favorite holidays. It is in the springtime, when everything outside is fresh and new. I love the baby ducks and sheep and chicks and bunnies that are showcased. The pink and blue and purple pastel shades are bright and happy. I love seeing everybody at church bedecked in their finest spring fashions. Singing the Easter hymns brings me such excitement and joy. Plus you can't beat a good Easter ham.

This is the time that we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, and everything about the Easter season points to that amazing and thrilling event. The new plants and animals give us hope for a new life. The hunting for eggs and baskets embodies our continual search for Christ. The bright colors symbolize the brightness of hope.

The Moore family had a fine Easter. Miriam caught on to finding and gathering eggs right away, although was disappointed that hardboiled eggs don't bounce. We looked for the baskets and read the resurrection story from our family Bible. Mim wore her new blue Easter dress to church and got many comments on how the color matches her eyes perfectly. After church we had Grandma and Grandpa Moore and Darrell & Amanda over for an Easter Feaster where we had the classic Easter ham and scolloped potatoes. And deviled eggs, of course. All in all, it was a perfect Easter.

Spring Break

What a fabulous vacation we had! Miriam and I spent the last week in Boise. It was wonderful to spend some time with my parents, and Miriam loved it. She learned that skooching down the stairs really is the most effective technic, that ice cream is better on a cone, and that signing "please" while standing next to Nana's M&M drawer really works. She loved spending time with her cousins Marsaela and Adelle, loved all the new places to find in a different house, and snuggling with Nana and Papa. She discovered the glories of the outside Boise world. The trampoline and the canal bank were both hits. We had a great time attending a party at Adelle's house, playing at the Burger King playground, and watching the Jazz games that we normally don't get to see. We also went shopping for a summer wardrobe for Miriam. It's a little stressful being the chief dresser of a cute little girl because if she looks dorky it is all my fault. Oh the pressure! Hopefully she won't be too terribly vocal about it when she grows up. Mim wasn't very happy on the trip to the airport this morning. Nana put in her John Denver CD, a favorite with the rest of the cousins, to cheer her up. After clapping and jigging to show her appreciation, Miriam put her blanket on her head. I'm not sure if it was because she wanted to block the sound out of her ears or if she was embarassed to be seen singing about "West Virginia, Mountain Mama." All in all it was a great vacation. But oh it's good to be back home again.

Practicing for Easter

Miriam and I are on our grand Spring Break vacation. We flew to Boise last Thursday and have been reveling on the homefront ever since. Brent, on the other hand, went to discover slot canyons in Eastern and Southern Utah. While he had fun, he also had cold nights and snow and arrived back in Midvale last night, two days ahead of his original plan. We have not had any snow here in Boise (although it did hail Saturday). It feels like Spring! Yesterday, Adelle (Miriam's 4 year old cousin) decided to sponser an Official Practice Easter Egg hunt. I'm glad, too, because Mim needs all the help she can get. She did good putting eggs into her basket. She also did good taking the eggs out of her basket and giving them to Papa, putting them in Marsaela's basket, or balancing them on her feet. She also enjoyed weaving the easter grass through her toes. We may be ready for Easter!

My Favorite Things #1

I have very fair skin and have spent a long time learning to love it and to quit pining over the fact that I will never have summer-fun-beach-lover skin. I also have a history of skin cancer, so I generally stay away from sun exposure unless I am wearing a thick coat of sunscreen. In fact, if I were ever crowned Miss America, my platform would be WEAR SUNSCREEN. As much as I have embraced my fair skin, it's harder to embrace blindingly white legs. So much so that I have in the past avoided wearing capris or skirts without nylons unless I have some sunless tanner on them. My experience with sunless tanners is that you must apply it very carefully once every 5 or so days. Too often and your skin gets orangy, not often enough and it's awfully pale. The application consisted of exfoliation, especially around the knees and ankles, careful application, waiting for a half hour for it to dry before putting any clothes on it, and hoping for the best 24 hours later when the color shows up. It takes a long time and you have one shot for it to work. If it doesn't, you have to figure out how to take it off (which is a whole process of its own) and start all over again. Plus, if you want to wear a skirt NOW, it's not very effective. I for one am very excited to report that all of that has changed! Jergens now has a Daily Moisturizer lotion called "Natural Glow." If you haven't discovered this, you're in for a treat! I love it because it is a daily thing... you don't have to set aside a chunk of time once a week. It's just a lotion, so there's no worries about streaking or sliding. You can put your pants on right over it, you don't have to wait for it to dry. You can reapply it every day so if you miss a section one day, it'll be covered the next. I discovered this last year and I LOVE it. It has completely changed my summer wardrobe. In fact, in February when it was barely 30 degrees outside, I was already wearing capris! I love this stuff!

This Little Piggy

One thing I love is watching the determination and focus that Miriam has. She loves her feet and frequently balances things on them. Favorite balancers include her plastic cups, her bug blocks, and an old cottage cheese container. The other day, she decided that she wanted a hair band between her toes. She tried and tried and tried and tried and finally succeeded.

A New Perspective

Today Miriam started to look at things in a new way. Literally. I heard her laughing this morning in the front room with Brent and when I got there she had her head on the floor looking through her legs in an extreme Downward Dog position. She thought it was absolutely hilarious to see her dad upside down and indeed she was right. She repeated this repeatedly throughout the day and was thrilled to find it not only kept working, but kept being funny. Her head has rested on many a surface today and by bathtime, her ponytails were flat. But perhaps we should all take a moment and view life from a new perspective.

My Miriam

Okay, let's face it. The number one reason that I started a blog was because I have the smartest, kindest, toughest, sweetest, and all around most amazing little girl in the world and quite frankly all of her friends and family have the right to see all of the smart, kind, tough, sweet, and amazing things that she does all the time. So I am going to make a list of just a few of the millions of things that I love about Miriam Paige Moore, age 13 months.

1. The way her ponytails stick straight up. When she has two, they look like little antennaes. When there's just one it looks like an exclamation mark on her head. She is so cute!

2. How her voice changes depending on what she's doing. When she talks to the cats, she uses a ducklike voice that Grandpa Moore calls her "tough voice." When she's rocking her baby dolls, however, it's much more singsongy. And when she's in the bathtub having the time of her life, it's completely joyous.

3. Watching her be so attentive. She is aware of things going on around her and likes to watch as things move across her field of vision. She stops and watches, studying everything very carefully.

4. The way she puts olives on her fingers before she eats them.

5. The way she shimmies when she dances. She tenses her side muscles and just jigs. It's absolutely adorable.

6. How after dinner she plays for a bit, then gets her stacking cups (her favorite bath toy) out and walks to the sink telling us that she's ready to take a bath.

7. The way she feeds me goldfish or pretzels or cheese or whatever else she's eating when she's having a snack. She is so generous. She did get her finger nibbled once at church when sharing with a friend. Miriam didn't get her fingers out of the little girl's mouth before the said little girl bit down on the goldfish. I'm sure it was an accident. Plus Miriam is tough and doesn't hold grudges.

8. The fact that she is a natural "maker." She loves putting things "in," "away," and shutting doors. She knows where the remote controls belong and can put them away even when she's across the room from where they go.

9. How she waves her hands around when music starts. She loves watching the music conductor at church and she definately has a flair for it.

10. The way she pats my back when I pick her up. It is so gentle, and exactly the same thing that I do for her. But it is the sweetest thing in the world.

11. The way she knows how to sign "more," but will only do it at the bottom of the slide. Oh, it's nice to have spring here!

12. How much I love her!

Oh my goodness I just LOVE this little girl! I could go on and on but then what would I write tomorrow?

The Great Potato

I have been thinking for quite a while about starting a blog. Funny... when I logged on to do it this morning, I see I already made a post back in September. See, I wasn't lying. I really have been thinking about it for a long time. But yesterday I read something that made me decide to buckle down and do it. No, it wasn't anything brilliant or wonderful that Miriam did (although she does do brilliant and wonderful things on a daily basis). It was an article that Brent pointed out to me in the Economist called "The Potato: Spud we like: In praise of the humble but world-changing tuber." Oh be still my beating Idahoan heart! It turns out that the United Nations has declared 2008 to be the Year of the Potato. Yes, my friends, you read that correctly. WE ARE LIVING THE YEAR OF THE POTATO! Could anything be more exciting? Besides being delicious and able to prepare in myriads of satisfying meals, it turns out that the potato has played a major role in economic development across the globe. In fact, it has even been said "that the potato is the equal of iron for its historically revolutionary role.” So be you Idahoan or not, share a moment of silence and wipe a tear as we celebrate the official Year of the Potato.