Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Social Smile

What a difference a week makes! This is Eli last Tuesday. I know, it's pretty pathetic.

And this is him today.

I don't know if he was ready to socially smile last week and just didn't feel like it, or if it just hit perfectly, but he started working his dimple the day we got home from the hospital. He's also starting to talk a bit more. He likes to say "oh!" when we beep his nose. Yesterday he was sitting on Brent's lap on the couch with me and Miriam on either side of him and all of us were laughing at each "oh!" I remember when my sister Kelsey was a baby thinking how sad it must have been for Nathan, my oldest brother, to only have mom and dad to laugh at him. I'm so glad that Miriam likes Eli and thinks he's funny. I haven't done a scrapbook page for a long long time, but after a great photo shoot this morning, I put one together to mark this momentous day. Really it just means I get to show more pictures of my cute little boy without you having to scroll through them all. Never say I don't think of what's best for my blog followers.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Home Again, Finnigan

Brent called me this morning from the hospital to say that Eli was coming home! Hooray! He had been off oxygen the entire night and they never had to use the "deep suctioning," but just the bulb that every baby comes home with from the hospital but rarely gets used, in my experience at least. But I now know how to use it. I'll admit I kind of freaked out when Brent told me he was ready to come home - what if he got sick again? What if he needed to be deep suctioned again? I guess I'm the kind of parent that is cool as a cucumber when the kid goes into the hospital, but scared to death when he comes home. Is that normal? It was just that all of the sudden we, his parents, had to take responsibility of his health again and I wasn't sure I was ready to do that. But when I got up there and saw the little guy, I could tell that he'd made huge improvements even in just the night that I'd been away from him. He got home about 3 this afternoon and has had such a calm and peaceful time since. He's been happy or sleeping the whole time he's been here and has only needed to be cleared out once. Welcome home Elijah!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

March Madness

And this time it's not basketball. Things have been CRAZY lately. You can tell the state of my mind when I posted yesterday by my title. I tried to do a clever little acronym with the RSV thing, but Really Very Silly would be RVS. Which is... nothing, really. RSV is what we've got going on and, sigh, Really Silly Very doesn't make much sence. Anyway, Elijah is a star. He produces lots and lots of snot for the nurses to suction out. It's pretty gross but cool in a strange sort of way. He is still on oxygen, but it's a really low level. The doctors say that he should be off of oxygen for 12-24 hours before they let him go home so we're still just hanging out here. And here is a good place to be. Primary Children's is seriously the best hospital I have ever had anything to do with. Great nurses, very friendly and personable care. I feel that they actually know who I am and want to help me and they take the time to know me and Elijah. So thanks for all of your Pennies By The Inch donations. I'm reaping the benefits. I'm at the computer station in the Parent Support Center now, but I'm heading back upstairs to check on my little guy. My mom got here this evening so she's rocking him now. Miriam loves being here, but politely requested to stay home and play this afternoon, so Brent's with her. WHAT A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD!

Monday, March 23, 2009

RSV: Really Very Silly

So last week Miriam came down with a terrible cold. She was snotty and coughy and sneezy and just gunky. So of course Elijah got it too because Miriam is such a good sharer. Thursday and Friday nights they both just coughed away and it was kind of pathetic at our place. Saturday night Eli felt really hot so I checked and sure enough we had a temperature of 101.4. Wait... for kids this little, they care after it hits 100.4, right? So I called the doctor on call and she said to not worry but call the office Sunday morning and schedule an appointment (of course she said that... why do they even have doctors on call?). So Sunday I took Elijah in to the doctor's and sure enough, he has RSV. And they want to hospitalize him. At Primary Children's. And they want to take him there in an ambulance. They didn't want him to be off of the oxygen, see. So they strapped my little guy onto a stretcher and toted him off into the ambulance. I know that RSV is serious, but it's also pretty routine, so I was able to enjoy the whole thing without needing to worry. In fact, it was absolutely hilarious! This tiny bitty guy was strapped into his carseat and the carseat was strapped onto this huge stretcher and it took two big burley guys to get him into this huge ambulance just so he could have a little fan on his face. Okay, it was 100% oxygen coming out of the fan, but still it felt a little like overkill. I laughed the whole time. Inside at least. Outside I politely answered all of the questions and was the picture of a concerned mother. He was just so dang cute! I wish I had my camera, but at least I have a little one on the phone. My favorite shot is the one inside the ambulance where he's waving his little hand. It looks like "Hi mom! I'm in an ambulance! How cool is that!?" It was my first time in and ambulance and the whole time I felt like Tom Hanks in The Burbs when he crawls into the ambulance and says "I'm sick! Take me to the hospital!" Anyway, we made it to Primary Children's and he made it through to our little room and we've been there ever since. He's still on the oxygen and they come in and suction him out every few hours. It helps a lot and he breaths much better for the first few minutes afterwards until he builds it all up again. Because it's a virus they really don't have a medicine they can give him. It's just take care of the symptoms until it runs its course. Which could be two days and could be five. I stayed with him last night and now Brent is with him while I came home to put Miriam to bed and take a nap myself. So although I could elaborate on the story a bit more, I'm just going to go to bed.


Monday, March 16, 2009

My Favorite Things #4


Every March, the Girl Scout Cookies get delivered. Oh how I love Girl Scout Cookies. As a side note, I was the biggest cookie seller in my Brownies troop. Two years ago, I discovered Girl Scout Cookie Ice Cream. Now, I'm not a huge ice cream fan. I like my fair share of soft serve cones, but otherwise it's just a dessert. But I have found my VERY FAVORITE ICE CREAM of all. Thin Mint Cookie Ice Cream. It is a chocolate mint ice cream. BOTH chocolate and mint. Then it has thin mint cookies crushed up in it. They get all chewy and kind of taste like a mint brownie. Oh it's good stuff. Two years ago I was thrilled to discover it, and bought a half gallon of it each time I saw it at the store. Then the "limited time only" expired and I had to wait for the next year. Last year, I bought the first half gallon I saw only to be disappointed that it was merely chocolate ice cream with the cookies in it. Good, but not delectable. Later that season I saw a half gallon that was white mint ice cream with the cookies in it. I didn't even bother purchasing. I wrote Dreyer's Ice Cream a mild complaint in the form of the question "is there anywhere I can buy it with chocolate mint ice cream this year?!?" They sent me a coupon for a free half gallon of ice cream which I gave to the neighbor boys when they watched Miriam one day while I went to pick Brent up from work. I'm sure they enjoyed it. But no response to my chocolate mint ice cream question. This year, however, the Thin Mint Cookie Ice Cream has chocolate mint ice cream in it! HALLELUJAH! What joy! Brent wondered how much of the proceeds the Girl Scouts get from the Dreyer's ice cream sales. Whatever it is, add it to the cookie sales they get each year they've got to be making a decent profit. After purchasing a $5 Scout-a-Rama ticket from the same neighbor boy who got our ice cream coupon last year, Brent decreed that the Boy Scouts need some help. I'm just going to stick to my ice cream.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Give peas a chance

Miriam most repeated creative creation is "Funny Man." I'm not sure where she got it, but she draws him, colors him, makes him with Play Doh, and organizes her toys to be him. It amazes me to watch her identify eyes, ears, feet, and the sundry other body parts she thinks are important enough for Funny Man to have. The other night we were having lasagne with a lovely side dish of peas. Miriam decided to make Funny Man right there. She took two peas, deposited them into the lasagne and declared "eyes." Then she took another pea and said "mouth." And another for "head." Not sure if the head was supposed to be big enough for the eyes and the mouth to be on, or if head is something else in her mind. She continued on until she had a complete Funny Man. She didn't eat her lasagne that night, although quite a few of the peas made it into her mouth. She gobbled up the leftovers, however, when I served them without the peas. Maybe the creative pull of the pea is just too strong. I know most all kids play with food, but thanks for indulging my belief that my daughter is an especially creative genius.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A Month of Elijah


Eli turned a month old on Monday. I tell you, I simply adore this kid! For the most part, he's pretty chill. Yesterday Brent had city council so I was doing the nighttime bath books bottle bed routine alone. At one point, I had a post-bath Eli on the couch getting his pajamas on when a supposed-to-still-be-in-the-bath Miriam came running through the room. I set Elijah up with some homework and made sure he could see the window blinds (perhaps his favorite thing in the world to look at) (besides his mama, of course) and went to finish cleaning Miriam. Including a face wash and hair shampoo. Eli just laid on the couch taking it all in. Amazing. Anyway, he's a wonderfully amazing little boy. He usually has only two or three short wake-ups in a night. And although the past few nights have been the exception, I'm going to say that they're the exception and not the new normal. He fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, is no longer in the running for World's Homeliest Baby. His receding hairline has receded enough to make him look pleasantly bald and not the malnourished thin and scraggly look he had for a while, his cradle cap has mostly all flaked away, his baby acne is clearing up quite nicely and if we're lucky won't scar (it was really bad for a while). He adores his mama and daddy, and knows when they are in the room. He also knows when Miriam is in the room and loves her too. He's also very forgiving when her love and adoration are a bit too smothering. I love that I can hear his humming and squeaking whether I'm rocking him or he's sleeping across the room. I love his eyes, his facial expressions, his hand control, and mostly I JUST LOVE 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


I have officially joined the ranks of those who have finished the Twilight series. It took me a little while to join the bandwagon of this one. My sister Kelsey gave me the first book for my birthday this past September. Despite how much talk I heard about it I just hadn't gotten around to reading it before that. I am going to share my thoughts on the series, and while I'm not planning to write a summary, if you want to read the series without my opinions which may or may not be spoilers, then stop reading here. I'll be honest about the first book: I enjoyed it, but it made me frustrated. I didn't agree with the choices that Bella made and Edward quite frankly bugged me. He seemed to me to be incredibly arrogant, overly protective, and self-righteous in his opinions (meaning that he did what he wanted to and nobody else's ideas mattered). He knew he was gorgeous, he knew he was intoxicating to Bella, and he knew he could do and say anything and she'd just go along with it. Plus I thought it was creepy that he sat in her room at night and watched her sleep even before she knew about it. And Bella just accepted it all! Like it was fate! Oh I just wanted to give some gumption to that girl! I felt that she was just becoming Edward rather than developing her own persona. I am fully aware that as a person reads a book, she automatically may transfer her own experiences and emotions onto the characters, and I am also fully aware that I perchance have done this. But I dated a few guys like Edward. The kind who knew they could have anybody they wanted, and wanted a girl who would just to orbit them and tell them how wonderful they were. The kind who didn't take the time to find out about the girl's talents and potential and to help her become who she could be. Anyway, to say the least I had a hard time with the first book. I was telling my sister Erin about my feelings and she gently reminded me that the book was written for adolescents. Hmmm. It made me think, and I ended up requesting the final three books on CD from the library. The series definately got more interesting as it went on. It introduced Jacob (well, I guess he was in the first book but he wasn't a big player), who tried to woo Bella away from Edward and was initially moderately successful. I felt that Jacob was perfect for Bella and that she was an idiot for considering anything else. He was funny, down to earth, focused on her rather than on himself, brought her joy and happiness, helped her learn and become and develop, and in general trusted her judgement. I loved how he was confident, but not overly so. He made mistakes but moved past them rather than beating himself over the head with them. The saddest snippet of the book was when Bella saw her future as it would be with Jacob: happy, sunshiney, and with two dark haired kids running around. And she still turned and walked away from it. Sigh. Yes, things ended up fine and dandy for everybody involved, but I'm not one that likes to depend on fate. See, when fate chooses somebody for you, and unfortunate things happen (as they always will in any relationship), then all of the sudden you're stuck thinking "WHAT CRAPPY LUCK DO I HAVE THAT FATE CHOSE THIS FOR ME?" Rather than if you take responsibility for your own relationship choices, and unfortunate things happen, then you think "OK, what choice can I make now to improve this...?" And although Bella was happy with Edward, I think I would have liked Bella as a person better if she had become the person she would have with Jacob. And I think she would have liked herself better. So I think I've made my point in enough ways that everybody can see the reasons that I wish she would have stuck with Jacob. Although if she would have stayed with Jacob it wouldn't really have made as interesting a read what with forgoing the whole vampire/human relationship. But another great thing about the book is that just as I felt the whole shebang was nothing more than a twisted love triangle, the plot thickened and honestly became pretty interesting and intense. And quite satisfying. I became very intent in how things were going to end up and began looking forward to bottle-washing time when I could put my headphones on and hear what they were doing. I finished the final book just this week and was very satisfied with the resolution. It not only held my attention through the entire series, but the grasp on said attention was stronger in the middle of the fourth book than it was in the first. Needless to say, I've already requested the DVD from the library. As soon as it comes out, we'll be the 15th person to watch it. And since they usually get like 50 copies of movies, we'll probably be the 1st people to watch the copy we'll get! So exciting!!

Friday, February 20, 2009

We have now entered the video age

In celebration of the birth of Elijah, my family gifted us a camcorder. I was in tears at the presentation and still cry when I watch a lot of the clips we've taken. I am SO grateful to have another way to save memories! My brother Adam once said that men want to pass on wisdom while women are more concerned with memories. Now, I am as wise as the next one, but he may have a point here. Anyway, here are two of my favorite clips so far...
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

Things I am grateful for:

*That I don't have to worry about going back to work.

*That Eli is so much milder than Miriam was. With Mim, every thing (waking up, diaper changes, even eating) was extreme trauma. She was a happy happy baby, but needed a lot of maintenance to be happy. Elijah just takes things as they come. It is so much nicer to wake up to squeaking and sqwaking that escalates to crying rather than intense screaming all at once. Plus, when he is worked up it is much easier to calm him down. To give Miriam some credit, she was the first child and we did learn a lot with her.

*My Sleepy Wrap. We love it! I can put him in and go about my normal routine but have a humming and squeaking little boy right with me.
*How Miriam adores Eli. She loves talking to him, getting things out for him, helping to hold his bottle, and sharing her toys. She'll even offer her blankets to him, which is big.






*That Elijah was born healthy even with the cord wrapped around his neck three times.
*The way Eli's little head is warm and fuzzy when I kiss it.

*How my recovery from this birth is so much better than from Miriam's. I honestly feel like I'm a month after birth rather than a week and a half.

*That Elijah is man enough to use a pink blanket, a pink burp rag, or a flowered binkie. This picture is pretty mild: Miriam spread her blanket out on top of him after he was asleep. Sometimes he gets the total swath of pink. But he still looks like a boy.






*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.

*The way Eli likes to hold one of my fingers while he eats.

*That Gripe Water, an old-fashioned remedy for upset stomachs in babies, seems to help him so much. He's a lot calmer and sleeps better after a dose of it. No gripes here!

*That my mom stayed with us two days more than she planned on. Thanks mom!
*That Brent can take care of either or both kids without flinching. Here he is rocking Elijah and donning slippers on Miriam's request.
*He also gets up during the night as often as I do without complaining.





*Indoor plumbing and electricity. I can't imaging trying to clean up a dirty diaper in the middle of the night without at least a little light. And I just shudder thinking about doing anything with this sweet little guy without indoor heating!
*That Miriam loves having Eli do ANYTHING with her. She was extatic when we put his rocker next her hers.



*Just that I have such a great life!
*That I can't figure what's up with my font or my spacing but that I'm not going to worry about it!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Elijah Brent Moore

I got on to post this yesterday and thought I had... when I logged on this morning it was still in the editing phase. Stay tuned for more details!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Rock-a-bye baby

First of all, sorry to those who logged onto my blog, saw the picture of the gorgeous baby girl, and initially thought that Eli had come and was Eliza rather than Elijah. He hasn't, and he isn't. As an update on him, we are smack in the middle of our two due dates (the ultrasound lady said February 5th, the doctor said February 10th). If he doesn't come before then, we're heading in on Monday morning.

Secondly, I think we are finally ready for this kid. I've had everything except for his bed done for quite a while. But the bed caused some thinking for me. See, Miriam still sleeps in the crib and doesn't act like she's trapped in there, so I would like to keep her in there for longer. But I also remember that Miriam grew out of her bassinette superfast, so I wasn't sure if we'd have time to transfer both kids to their respective beds. I decided to get a cradle instead, thinking that it would be big enough to hold Eli for enough time for Miriam to transfer out of the crib on her own timetable. I looked on ksl.com and at Kid to Kid and other places and never found one that I liked at a price I was willing to pay. Remember, I'm a cheapskate. So I was telling my mom about my thoughts when she offered the cradle that she rocked five of her six kids in. She got it when Nathan was little and they were expecting Erin for the same reasons that I have wanting one now. So when I was home at Thanksgiving, I took a gander at it and decided it would be perfect. Mom and dad brought it here on Christmas when they made a spontaneous trip to visit Kelsey. It has since been sitting in the basement with me thinking that I just need to wash this down and sand it so that Brent can paint it. And I just kept thinking that. Finally I went down and washed it and sanded it. I don't think I sanded it enough, but I washed twenty five years of garage grime off of it. I also figured out how to reproduce a non-standard sized cradle mattress without utilizing the twenty five year old foam. No dust mites on my watch! Last week Brent hauled it up and onto the back porch when he carefully laid out some newspapers under and started to paint it. The first coat was spray paint and done in the virtual darkness. Miriam stood at the window and watched in fascination. The next day when Brent got home from work, she was not going to let him paint without her help. So Miriam got to paint. And she loved it. Brent had decided the second coat would be regular brush paint what with the round bars causing difficulty with the spray paint angle, and Miriam threw herself into the project with reckless abandon, holding a brush in each hand and layering on the paint like nobody's business, the whole time talking about how she was helping Daddy paint Eli's bed white. The newspapers only made it so that there is now a clean square amongst all of the white splatter on the porch. The resulting paint job has some cracks due to my not sanding and a lot of lumps due to her effective can-to-brush-to-cradle techniques. Brent said he got most of the paint he used off of the areas she took charge of. She stayed focused and energized the whole time and had to be pulled away to let the coat dry. Even as she jumped on the trampoline, she kept a close eye on the cradle to make sure it was okay. She went out the next day and helped with the final spray paint coat, then was thrilled when it got brought inside to mama and daddy's room. She was a little disappointed we didn't put it in her room, but it'll be there soon enough. Probably too soon in fact for her liking. Either way, this little girl is so excited for Baby Eli to sleep in his brand new white bed and she is fully aware that without her, the bed wouldn't be ready for him. And I love the lumpy paint because it shows how much she already loves him.

This is her first energetic swipes when I thought I'd better get a picture before she lost focus. I shouldn't have worried.

This is about fortyfive minutes later when she finally consented to take a break. I love the casually crossed ankles and the impish smile as she continues to dip the brushes. And I think Brent is pretty handsome too.

Monday, February 2, 2009

TWO!

My baby girl turned two on Saturday. My, where has the time gone? Here she is at five days when we finally got her home from the hospital. We were so glad to get out of there we forgot to wash her face before we left. Oops.
By her first birthday she was walking and talking and laughing and loving life.

















But two is an entirely new story. Miriam is an AMAZING little two year old girl. If you'd like to know all the brilliant and astounding things she does and can do, just keep reading.

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!

Just in case you were wondering if I've been quoted in the paper lately...
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

Here are three moments from this week that didn't get their own blog post, but I love the memories, so they are going to be here, in a "Week in Review" post. When you have a week where I, the blogger, am fixated on the croup and a broken-then-fixed washer, some things just get missed.

First, Wednesday, January 20th was Inauguration Day. Although I did not vote for him, I think that President Obama will be an excellent leader and hopefully will be able to accomplish many of the things he wants to. I am excited to see where the next four years will go for this country. Miriam has been able to identify President Obama by a verbal question. I'll ask, "Who is the next president?" and she'll say "OH-BAMA!" Although we'd talked about it, I didn't know that she could also identify him by picture. But as we were watching the Inauguration, I asked, "Who is that?" She looked at the television and said "OH-BAMA!" I was proud! She sat on my lap and watched as much of the speech as you would expect a two-year-old, albeit one who can identify the newly sworn in President of the United States, to focus on. Then she was off. But I loved the attention she gave it, seeming to know that it was an important moment.

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!

The third noteworthy-but-not-yet-noted event happened yesterday. Miriam found her babydoll stroller and was dead set on taking her babydoll for a walk. So we bundled up and headed out. She headed straight for the middle of the road, and I guided her back to the sidewalk, pointing her in another direction. She walked her stroller that way until there was a break in the foliage, where she again headed out to the middle of the road. We asked if she wanted to cross the street and she gave a resounding YES! Unbeknownst to me, she was making a beeline for her favorite winter-walk destination, the amazingly decorated-for-Christmas yard across the street that still has a few Santas up. She walked her little stroller there, then stopped and pointed all the Santas and snowmen out to her babydoll. When she was done, she went back to the place to cross, waited for us (thank goodness), and went back home. It was so dang tender I couldn't stand it! This picture is when she's heading back home after showing the baby all of her favorite winter things.

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

Has it been long enough since I wrote about the glories of the public library system that I can do it again? After such a sick day yesterday, Miriam had a great night. She only woke up between 3 and 4:30, then slept again til 8:30! Wow! What a girl! And although she was coughing and breathing raspily, she was pleasant and happy and was playing with her stuff and asking to eat and watching her movies when she politely asked for Little Einsteins. "Mimi watch Einsteins please?" Uh... we didn't check out a Little Einsteins last time we were at the library. Oops. Usually when she wants something we don't have, she understands and chooses something that we do. But not this time. She was sick and gawldarnit she wanted Little Einsteins. So we went to the website and saw that it listed a copy of Little Einsteins at our library. But that's been wrong before. So before I packed up a much-better-but-still-sick kid, I called Miss Kami and gave her the scoop. She went and checked on the shelf and pulled not one, but TWO dvds of Little Einsteins for Miriam. Oh hooray! So I packed up my much-better-but-still-sick kid and drove down to the library. Miriam was so excited to see Miss Kami AND get Little Einsteins that she just couldn't keep calm. She bounced her way to see Miss Kami, received condolences along with her stamps, and we picked up our two Little Einsteins. On one of them there was a taped get-well-soon note from Miss Kami adorned with the stamps Miriam gets every visit. I am so lucky to have a librarian who loves my daughter! Miriam was thrilled with the movies and we watched them as soon as we got home, then after her nap, then before dinner. She was so excited about it that she didn't even want to stop for fries on the way home... just get there and watch Einsteins! Below, you can see Miriam hugging the box as she watches the movie, and a closeup of Miriam pointing to Miss Kami's note. What service! And I didn't have to spend a penny! Hooray for the library!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Liberation on all fronts!

It is finally Thursday, January 22nd. Finally the washer guy was scheduled to come to our house sometime between the hours of 8 and 12. Hallelujah. For those who had the image that Miriam's clothes were getting moldy sitting in gross water for the past week and a half, please let me clear up the misconception. The fatal door lock occurred before any water was let into the wash drum. The clothes were fine and dry, just dirty and locked in the washer. So here's how it went down. Last night Miriam was coughing and had a scratchy voice. She thought it was pretty funny, but ended up coughing quite a bit throughout the night. She woke up about 4:30 and was definately sick. She struggled to breathe, coughed every time she took a deepish breath, and choked herself awake anytime she did get to sleep. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse until I honestly wondered if she was getting any oxygen at all. I called the doctor to see if they could fit us in today and she set an appointment for 10:20. Great for Miriam's health, not so great for Miriam's clothes. I called the Sears repair place where, after some explanation and waiting, the repair guy called me back and said that we were pretty far down the list and he probably wouldn't get there til after noon. So far so good. We headed into the doctor's, where after a few stethoscope listens to her breathing it was decreed that she did indeed have the croup and needed a steroid mist for 20 minutes followed by a three hour "watching period" where they could see if the steroid mist would help for the long term or if they needed to do something else for my poor little girl. So I called Brent who said he could come home for lunch if the Sears guy called and we got the steroid mist in a face mask thing, the entire time Miriam was yelling "Mimi house please!" over and over with tears pouring out of her eyes. Add that trauma to her already fever-stricken and chafed face and she looked pretty pathetic. Poor little girl. She was simply miserable. After the treatment was over and we were in the waiting phase, I asked if I could take her home and just bring her back in three hours, but that wasn't good enough. We moved to a chair in the waiting room where were sitting by the fish tank and could see the television and Miriam finally calmed down. I can't remember the last time where she sat so placidly on my lap for so long. It was nice, but made me realize how terrible she must feel. Anyway, after getting her breathing listened to every half hour for a long long long long time, the doctor told me that the nurse who was helping us had to take her own daughter to the doctor and he had some errands to run. So they were going to head out for a little but they'd be back before our waiting time was done. Sure, THEY can leave and come back but we can't?!? ARGH! Anyway, to make a really really really long story a little bit shorter, the steroid mist seemed to work great on Miriam. Every few minutes she'd get more energy and be more herself. When she asked for fries (after denying any sort of caloric offerings all morning), I knew she was swinging in the right direction. Being at the office, all we had was a vending machine so she took Cheetos as a consolation prize. The doctor finally came back and cleared us for takeoff, telling us that the croup is always worse at night and she'd probably have another night or two of rough times. Got it. When we finally got to the car, it was 2:30, an entire FOUR AND A HALF STINKING HOURS since we had left our house. Still I imagined that our finally leaving the office was comparable to those clothes finally getting out of the washer... THE CLOTHES! I had forgotten! Once I got home and Miriam set up comfortable with an Elmo movie, I called Brent. No Sears guy. No call. No free clothes. It was after 3 by this time and I was a bit discouraged but decided to just not worry about it. I'd taken care of enough today. Then at 4:30, Jack from the Sears Repair Center called and said he was on his way! HOORAY! He opened the washer door and showed us how to do it through the top panel. He diagnosed that it was merely a power surge that had put the electronic portion of the washer on hold and told us to get a good surge protector so it wouldn't happen again. After looking at our paperwork he said that we were still under the warranty time, so the whole thing cost us absolutely nothing unless you count the week and a half that we were washerless. Which I don't because I didn't have to pay any real money. So Jack saved the washer and the doctor saved Miriam and both Miriam and I made it out of the doctor's office finally and all of Miriam's clothes made it out of the washer finally and are nicely folded on the table (look! socks that fit! pajamas that don't stretch at the neck when we put them on!) waiting to be put away tomorrow after Miriam gets up. After sleeping in late, I hope. It's not July, but I'd like to wish everybody a very Happy Independence Day!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Perseverance

I know I've done a lot of digital scrapping posts lately, but since this is my blog and you can stop visiting any time you want, I'm going to put another one up that I am particularly fond of. If you're getting bored of them, just think of how many I'm NOT posting and be grateful. I was really excited to figure out the overlay thing of putting Miriam's face into the background. Fun stuff! This is actually a layout of some pictures from a blog post back in the day so I thought you might enjoy them. If you for some reason don't remember, you can refresh your memory here.


And for those who were wondering, Elijah has not yet arrived into this world of air and light. He's doing great at 37 weeks and we're just waiting on him. I think he realizes we're in the middle of a streak of red days what with the smog and inversion and is waiting for it to be cleared out before he has to start filtering his air on his own. We're planning the 9th of February - I quite like the sound of 2-9-09. When he does get here, you'll surely know. If you can believe it, I already have a scrapbook layout just waiting for his picture!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Great men


Miriam has developed a great interest in money. I have a coin jar where I throw all my loose change, and she knows where it is and how to get it down to play with. She puts the coins in the bathtub, under the rug, in the couch, and everywhere else. She also remembers where they are and can show you. She thinks its really funny to say "where money?" and then lift up the rug and say "there it is!" She loves it, and I love hearing her say "more money please?" when she gets to the bottom of the jar. I know just how she feels. Anyway, yesterday Brent and Miriam were playing money. He held out a nickel to her and asked her whose picture was on it. Not having discussed this with her previously, I was interested to hear her response. She looked at it carefully and solemnly said, "Jesus." They only put Very Important People on coins, ya know.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Today's project

I really like this one. It's actually a collage of seven separate pages that I put together in one happy collection. Here's my critique... In doing it again, I would make the "mood words" darker so they could be more visible when shrunk down. I would also just do without the place and date words. You probably can't see them anyway. I also think I would do less "background" stuff in the small pictures and focus more on the pictures themselves. But this series didn't start as a collage, so what can ya do? Other than that I think it's perfect!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Held hostage


After a week of doing only two loads of necessary laundry, I woke up Monday ready to tackle all of the dirty clothes, towels, and other sundry dirty items in our home. I started with Miriam's, put the load in the washer, shut the door and poured some detergent into the drawer thing. Although unfinished and slightly frigid, the newly cleaned and organized basement is one of Miriam's favorite play areas, so we ended up by her little kitchen cooking all sorts of plastic delicacies. After a bit, I realized that I was hearing no washer noises. I checked to make sure I had started it, and the outprint box was flashing "F-22." I turned it off, went through the startup sequence again, and again "F-22." I decided to start from scratch and went to open the door hoping to reset the thing. The door was locked. And nothing I could do would open it. I unplugged the machine, I pushed restart, reset, I tried to start at the rinse cycle... nothing. I dug out the troubleshooting portion of the handbook. F-22 is a call-a-repairman code. Argh. So I called Sears where I hope we still have a warranty (we bought it in July) and felt like I was on hold for an exorbitant amount of time. So I went to the online repair scheduling schedule and the first time somebody could be here was Thursday. Okay, I thought, Miriam's favorite clothes and blankets might be locked in the washer, but she has others, this might be a good chance to see if any of her off-the-bench clothes should be moved up or gotten rid of... so I took it. Like I had another choice. I did gather up some things that I felt couldn't wait until Thursday and washed them at my friend Shauna's (thanks, Shauna). Then I set out to live life as normal until Thursday when, after the repairman came between 8 and 12, I planned to spend the day doing laundry. Yesterday, the day before washer-fixing-day, I was tidying up the office and picked up the printoff of the appointment. I glanced at it and was shocked to see that the appointment was for Thursday, January 22nd. Due to the lack of being able to capitalize numbers, I'll do it this way: the TWENTYSECOND! As in NEXT week! Not today, but NEXT WEEK! I was so sad! I can resolve most of my laundry woes by just giving in and doing some wash loads at the laundromat down the street. I have many happy memories of laundromat times in my college days, so although it would be a pain it wouldn't be that big of deal. Our dryer still works, so I'd only have to do the wash cycle and then come home. Not bad at all. But remember Miriam's clothes? Locked in the washer? Where I can't get to them? I'm just lucky that she hasn't asked for her soft blanket specifically this week. Or that I've not had an overwhelming desire to dress her in her/my favorite jeans or shirt or coat... I'll get through this, and trust me I know it's not a big deal but GOSH it's been a sliver in my side this week. You will notice in the picture that the F-22 code is thankfully no longer flashing. Now there's just the bright red light on "DOOR LOCKED" that seems to mock me every time I venture down to look at it. Even though it's been since Monday, it seems like a fresh wound because I had planned on it being fixed today. Oh well. If anybody knows how to clear an F-22 error code on a Kenmore HE-2 washer, please let me know. An entire load of Miriam's cutest clothing hostages and I would be ever so grateful!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

I'm getting better at this...

I finally sat down and watched some tutorials about my scrapbooking software and I feel so much more competent and so much more able to do things. Funny how a little education will make that happen. I've figured out things like "actions," which brighten a picture or make it sepia toned or black and white. I can add "elements" and feel like I have seen enough to not make them feel awkward but rather that they accentuate the page. I've downloaded freebies from other sites and incorporated them into my doings. I really have had a lot of fun. And I really need to start setting a timer when I sit down to work on it because I could keep doing different things and dig into old pictures and just spend forever if I could. But I am going to post a few of my favorites that I've been doing lately. The first is a very simple page of when Miriam was a baby. In the sake of full disclosure of copyrights, the background is a freebie from simplementscrap.free.fr. The second set is the first of my version of the "365 Project." The idea is to take a picture a day and get the "daily living" portion of life instead of the highlights like scrapbooking usually does. I've kind of changed it to a photo scrap journal. I don't worry if I miss a day :). It's desiged to be side by side pages, but I don't know if they'll post that way. You can get the idea though, from what's here. The backgrounds and some elements come from the "It's a Boys World" kit from sweetblossomdesigns.blogspot.com. The rest of them came with the My Memories Suite Software. Enjoy! I certainly have!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Miriam in Miseryland

Yesterday Miriam had her first empathetic emotional experience. It was actually quite traumatic. She had checked out "Elmo in Grouchland" from the library and put it in to watch. For those who haven't seen it, it starts out with Elmo dancing around his bedroom looking for his blanket, who is also dancing around and teasing him a bit. Miriam loved this because she, like Elmo, loves her blankets. In fact, I have a half-composed-in-my-head post of "Miriam's Favorite Things #2" about her blankets. Stay tuned for that one. Just know for now that she does have an emotional attachment to her blankets and was totally getting into Elmo and his blanket playing peek-a-boo. Elmo and his blanket then went outside where they found Zoe, who was really sad because her dad was working and couldn't take her to the zoo. Elmo put the blanket down and started pretending to be different animals to cheer Zoe up. It worked a little bit, but Zoe picked up Elmo's blanket and wanted to use it. This made Elmo very nervous and after numerous grabs to get it back, the blanket fell into Oscar the Grouch's garbage can. At this point, Miriam began to be extremely worried. She kept repeating over and over "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." in a very tense voice. She climbed up onto her dad's lap and peered out to see what Elmo would do. "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." So Elmo climbs into the garbage can and sees the blanket falling down a psychadelic rainbow tunnel. Elmo jumps in after it. "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." We both kept telling Miriam that Elmo was going to go save his blanket and that everything would be okay. It was actually pretty funny because at this point the movie action stops and Ernie and Bert show up on the screen. Bert is all worried about the blanket but Ernie assures him that Elmo won't give up until he gets his blanket back. I wonder how many kids were freaked out by this part during pre-screenings to make them put in the Bert and Ernie segment. Anyway, during the fall, the blanket goes through one tunnel and Elmo through another. Elmo lands in Grouchland, which is populated by, you guessed it, Grouches. It's actually pretty funny... the carwash slaps slime and goop on all the cars coming through, the hair place is called the "Ugly Parlor," and the streets are paved with mold. Miriam calmed down a little while Elmo looked around for his blanket. Then came the tragedy. Mandy Patinkin, the guy who plays Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, showed up with the lost blanket. Miriam watched in horror as he sang and danced around teasing Elmo with the blanket. When he threw the blanket into a chest in his airplane and flew away, she absolutely lost it. Shudders, sobs, and tears poured forth from my little girl as she collapsed on her dad's shoulder. "Elmo blanket back! Elmo blanket back!" Ernie and Bert showed up to reassure us, but it was way too late. I told Miriam that we were going to fast forward the show and see what happens. We put the DVD onto the 8x forward and narrated the show through the flashes of pixels that we saw. Elmo is brave and going to get his blanket, Big Bird comes to help, even Oscar shows up. Still Miriam is bawling and shaking. She has switched from dad's lap to mine and my arms are positively wet with her tears. We get to the end where Elmo finally gets his blanket back and is safe on Sesame Street. They start singing the happy "Together Forever" song, and Miriam finally calms down. She's still crying, but finally laughing and smiling a bit through her shaky and shuddery breathing. Ernie tells Bert that he shouldn't have worried, that Elmo of course was going to find a his blanket. Yeah, thanks Ernie. A lot of good that did us all. As soon as they cut to the credits (where Bert was excited to see who the caterer was because GOSH those sandwiches with the crusts cut off were so good), Miriam started crying again. "Elmo blanket back? Elmo blanket back? Elmo blanket back?" So we had to watch the closing segment a few times before she calmed down. I think it was emotionally draining for all of us. This morning, Miriam again asked for Elmo. She shuffled through her stack of movies and pulled it out. I didn't want to tell her it's too scary or make her think that she's not tough enough to watch it, so we tried it again. Same thing. This time, though, she knew that the guy wouldn't give the blanket back and she started crying as soon as he came on the screen. Ernie and Bert certainly couldn't handle this one. We fast forwarded it, sang the happy song a few times, and put the movie up. It's going back to the library where it can haunt some other poor little child. I was planning on getting "Elmo's Potty Time," thinking that it would be an enjoyable romp through the potty world. But now I see that it's "Not Rated." Seeing as though "Elmo in Grouchland" is G, I just don't know what a "Not Rated" would do to our otherwise happy and well-adjusted little girl...