
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The Social Smile

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Home Again, Finnigan
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
March Madness
Monday, March 23, 2009
RSV: Really Very Silly


Monday, March 16, 2009
My Favorite Things #4

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Give peas a chance
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
A Month of Elijah

Friday, March 6, 2009
PBS Musings

For some odd reason (okay, it's all Eli's fault!), the television has been on a lot more often than normal lately. I'm awfully glad that Miriam likes to dance and sing along with the characters and answer all of their questions and even play with her other toys rather than just sit and stare. If that were the case I might be rethinking our routine. But as it is, I'm aokay with it. STILL, here are some random comments about the PBSKids morning lineup.
*Did you know that Curious George is narrated by William H. Macy? And produced by Ron Howard? No wonder it's such a quality show! It's honestly one of my favorites.
*The only thing I'd change about it, in fact, is when they cut to the "kids" part, the narration is "George is a monkey, so he can do things you can't do." I wish they'd change it to "you don't do." Cause quite frankly, most of the things George does I COULD do if I wanted to, but I just don't. It also might be part of my focus-on-abilities-not-disabilities background.
*And speaking of disabilities, there is a dog with three legs and a girl in a wheelchair on Clifford. There's a boy with one arm on Maya and Miguel. And a dragon in a wheelchair on Dragon Tales. I'm not sure if they're really trying to make disabilities more approachable, but I find it incredibly entertaining.
*Ziggy Marley, Bob's son, does the theme music for Arthur. Just an interesting tidbit.
*It bugs me a bit that Clifford and his friends talk with each other when there are no humans around, but as soon as humans show up they can only bark. I know I'm getting picky, but gosh can't the rules stay the same? They do for Curious George!
*On Word World, all of the animals talk. Except for Dog. He has a huge house and can spell, but he can't talk. He's not a pet, either. He just can't talk.
*Sid the Science Kid goes to kindergarten and there's only four students in his class! What state does he live in, anyway!? And the teacher always bases her lesson on the question that Sid asks that morning. Is it luck? Did she already have it planned and was just relieved that Sid asked the question he did? Or is it kind of like a Montessori situation where it's student-guided? And does the teacher really have everything for every lesson there every day? I'm impressed.
*Barney isn't purple. He's magenta. Which in my book is much closer to pink. I would just say they're going with a different purple, but when they have all the kids wear purple to Barney's birthday party, they're not wearing magenta. They're wearing purple. And even lavender. But not magenta. And when they sing "purple is the color of fun fun fun," the crayon that Barney holds up is not the same color as him. And it really bothers me that they speak-sing a lot of the song. Even if you know the tune, it's really hard to sing along.
*I still love Sesame Street. And I recently found out they have podcasts that you can download to your ipod! Miriam loves to watch these and she's awfully adorable when she does it, too.
*Between the shows on PBS, they have a little preschool class with a teacher and students. Miss Lori was the teacher last season and she was absolutely wonderful. Now they have Miss Rosa. Miss Rosa I'm sure is a wonderful teacher, but she's awfully awkward in front of the camera. And her interactions with her students just doesn't feel natural. Miss Lori at this point does the Reading Time segment and nothing else. I hope that was a promotion for Miss Lori and that they didn't just demote her because Miss Rosa is younger and flashier and bilingual. I highly prefer Miss Lori.
*Mr. Steve does their music section. Last season (the ones where he's wearing a long sleeved red shirt and sitting down) I thought he was a little awkward. But he's come a long way. This season's takes (on the playground wearing a red polo) are quite a lot of fun and I find myself singing his songs throughout the day. He's a boy-next-door kind of a guy and I just want him to do good.
*I highly prefer the weekday lineup to the Saturday cartoons. It's not even worth turning the tv on on the weekends any more! But it just feels like a good morning to know that after George and Sid, Super Why will come on.
That's all for now. I'm sure that I'll wake up in the middle of the night with an insight that I forgot to share, but until then... may all your tv watching be happy!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
I would have chosen Jacob

Friday, February 20, 2009
We have now entered the video age
First, this is when we were leaving the hospital. From the very beginning, Miriam was incredibly protective of Eli. The day he was born, she walked him down to the nursery. She was not invited to go in and when the door closed, she broke down crying. "BABY ELI! BABY ELI!" My thought is that she remembered the stuff they did to her behind those doors as a baby and was trying to stop the madness. ANYWAY, this is on the way out of the hospital. It was so incredibly tender to watch her carry his carseat all the way to the car. I'm crying now just thinking about it!
Here's the second one, and it's funny (in my oh so humble opinion - she IS my daughter, after all). Hopefully it will counterbalance the emotion of the first. Miriam learned how to play Hide and Seek and thinks it's great fun. The problem is, if Daddy isn't hiding in the same place (the bathroom), it really throws her off. She also has a hard time hiding and usually jumps out and says "HERE SHE IS!" as the Seeker is still seeking. ANYWAY, here is a round of her as Seeker. And yes, I know that her diaper and pants are completely sagging and not doing any good. It kind of adds to the moment, don't you think?
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Name them one by one
*That Elijah was born healthy even with the cord wrapped around his neck three times.
*The "Ba-ba Machine," aka my breast pump. I love being able to give Eli breast milk, for health and even more so financial reasons, but I adore feeding him with a bottle because I get to see his little face and eyes so much better. With pumping I get to do both. Plus it doesn't hurt while I'm actually feeding him.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Elijah Brent Moore
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Rock-a-bye baby
Monday, February 2, 2009
TWO!

She knows all of her colors, foods, animals, body parts, and clothing. She knows where all of her toys belong, and can get things out or put them away with just a little reminding.
She can crawl, walk, run, gallop, and somersault. She can squint her eyes (especially if I tell her to keep her eyes peeled or to only look with her eyes and not her hands), do a wobbly walk, a cold walk (crouched down with her hands shaking), and adapts other animal walks at random times. She does a great horse impersonation.
She knows that if she gets up in the night, she can't watch TV. Or read books.
She knows Baby Eli is coming and is so excited. She's helped with his bed, his mattress, and his clothes. She remembers that for Christmas he gave her the set of Baby Einstein books she loves, and calls them her "Eli books."
She loves french fries and brown juice (root beer). She also loves green beans, peas, and broccoli. And chocolate milk. And even if she doesn't eat them, she'll still say she likes them.
Her language skills are great. She does have a tendency to put Ts on the front and/or end of words. "Milk" is "mit," "cat" is "tat," "stuck" is "tut," as is "truck." And sometimes she drops the Ts out of the middle of words. "Letters" is "ay-yuhs." But she's understanding how to string them together and create some great sentences. Tonight's big one was "Bubbles taste gross." You've gotta learn it sometime. The longest sentence I've heard yet was 6 words. "Big green truck take Mimi's diapers." Initially, this was traumatic but then she realized she didn't WANT her old poopy diapers and the garbage truck could have them. We now thank the big green truck when it takes Mimi's diapers.
She has a sense of humor that makes me laugh. She knows when she's doing something funny, and she'll keep doing it just to make us laugh. Sometimes she thinks things are funny when they're not, like running around the car in the driveway three hundred times instead of getting into her carseat. Or kicking her feet while her diaper is getting changed. But we're working on that.
She knows a lot of her shapes. She always gets circle, square, triangle, and star. She's a little iffy on oval and rectangle, but sometimes she remembers them.
She loves letters and numbers. She knows most of her capital letters and quite a few of the lowercase letters. She knows that her favorite letter is M, for Miriam, and dad's favorite letter is B, although I don't know if she knows why. She can count to twelve on her own and to 20 with just a little help. She can identify the numbers up to 10 (I haven't really tried her on the double digits), although she sometimes understandably calls the 9 a 6.
She totally understands the potty and the diaper and even tells me when she just went peepee. She gets marshmallows when she sits on the potty and fruit snacks when she peepees or poops in the potty, but because of Baby Eli, Mama decided to put off the serious "potty training" until a bit later.
Most of all, she loves her Mama and Daddy (although the other day she just called me "Mom" and it made me just a little sad), Baby Eli, and Zeke and JoAnn.
And most of all I just absolutely adore my little two year old!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious!
http://www.sltrib.com/midvalley/ci_11565910
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Going extinct

So the big SWITCHOVER from analog to digital is coming right up. Is anybody else worried that their television reception is going to take a hit? Don't get me wrong, digital is MUCH clearer than the nondigital, and usually I highly prefer watching in digital. But it's also much harder to get it to stay. Here's the thing. After the television that my sister Erin gave to us instead of the DI (for which we are grateful, and which was made by a company that quit making TVs in 1983) finally gave up the ghost, we purchased a brand new television that has the digital option. So we're good, right? According to all the question/answer websites, we are! But what about the fact that the digital side of things only comes in half the time? Even when we balance the antenna just right and get it to come in clearly, if somebody walks through the room it blanks out. Or even if somebody just moves from one place on the couch to another, it freezes. Or if the microwave is going or a cell phone rings, it gets shuddery. Even Miriam recognizes when it gets jagged and she puts her arms out and says, "what's up?!?" That's my question too! Anyway, once they cancel the analog, is the digital reception going to be easier to get? Or are we going to be forced to decide between downright nondependable reception or actually paying for cable? Does anybody else have issues with their digital reception? Has anybody else solved their issues with their digital reception? Help! Time is running out!
And just because I like it...

Sunday, January 25, 2009
Week in review

Secondly, Brent's birthday was Wednesday the 21st! Happy Birthday Brent! Miriam had a great time helping to make the cake, and talked about it being dad's birthday all day long. She chose the number, color, and placement of the candles, but was a little overwhelmed when we lit them, as you can see. I guess it's a good thing that open flame bothers her. Anyway, we had a fabulous day, and I think Brent did too. It is really good timing to have Brent's birthday just 10 days before Miriam's, because now she completely knows what a birthday is. She's already talking about how daddy had a brown cake, but she wants a pink one. We'll get it for her!
Hope you all had a great week and here's hoping for another!
Friday, January 23, 2009
We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Liberation on all fronts!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Perseverance

Monday, January 19, 2009
Great men

Friday, January 16, 2009
Today's project

Thursday, January 15, 2009
Held hostage
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I'm getting better at this...



Sunday, January 11, 2009
Miriam in Miseryland
