Miriam

Miriam joined our family, and I became a mother. It was one of the most wonderful days of my life. She was asleep, and they woke her up and handed her to me. She was so sweet and so beautiful.... and she still is! I could not have asked for a more wonderful or perfect daughter. I love you Pookie!

Miriam did it. She read her first word today!! Brian wrote "eggs" on a piece of paper, held it up, and ask, "what does this say?" She immediately answered, "eh-guh-guh-sssss".  Brian said, "put it together." And she said, "eh-guhguhsss...EGGS!!!
I'm so proud!!

It is with a bit of sadness that I report one more piece of evidence that my baby girl is growing up. Miriam can now correctly say her name. So good-bye "Mee-uhm", I miss you alrerady.

I'm really almost afraid to say it.... BUT Miriam is finally daytime potty trained.  Praise the Lord!!! WOOOHOOO!!

Last Monday night she just decided she wanted to sit on the potty and she did every 15 minutes for about 2 hours... then SUCCESS, for the first time since that wonderful day the end of June! The rest of the week she went at least once or twice a day, but we also had a few accidents and I didn't think she really knew when she needed to go. Then Saturday the light went on... she went to the potty all by herself. I didn't even know she was in there until I heard "MOMMA!! I PEED!!" Then half an hour later she also put poopoo in the potty all on her own.  We have not had an accident since then.

Poor Evan.  He learned his first lesson about female behavior today.

Miriam woke up today rather grumpy.  Evan had two books of hers and was running around with them.  I asked him to return them to her room where they belong.  As he was doing this, she called after him, "One book, Please!!"  He kept going and yelled "NO!!" over his shoulder.  Immediately, she turned on the tears... full out fake crying!  Poor Evan fell for it.  He came back and offered her both books. While she DID stop crying, she humphed and turned away refusing to take either book.  Evan offered each book in turn and each time she humphed and turned away.  Poor Evan. He looked at me with a look of complete confusion and exasperation.  Sorry dude... it just gets worse.  As your father said, "You're never going to understand and you're rarely going to win!" (Hummm... should I be offended by that???)

Because I'm a bad mother a bad blogger, I am just now writing the kids' 2 & 3 year updates or as the case really is 2.2 and 3.2 year update!

Evan at 2 (and 2 months): weight 33 pounds ( 94 percentile) and height 34.5 inches ( 46 percentile).  Evan is starting to talk more finally.  I really think he just has no need to talk with M always talking.  He is now saying two word phrases/ sentences on a regular basic and will repeat things for me now if he's in the mood (ex. tonight I got him to say "napkin please").  He understands about anything I say to him, and he is Momma's little helper!  He is in a whining stage which I will be very glad to get through!! He runs around like a crazy boy and LOVES to jump. He'll go anywhere Sissy goes. :)

Miriam at 3 (and 2 months): weight 34 pounds ( 75 percentile) and height 39.5 inches ( 88 percentile). This girl is nothing but TALK, TALK, TALK! She also has quite the imagination these days and loves to pretend things. She also likes to tell her brother what to do and even tell him what he is feeling! She is getting more and more independent.  She still loves to read and sing and now dance.

So after recovering from the charlie horse from Hell (I could barely walk for 24 hours!), I decided it was time to take back my garden from 2 weeks worth of unchecked weed growth this morning.  So M & E and I headed out the door. Things were going well until I realized they were doing more then "just resting" under the apple tree. The little rascals had helped themselves to the green apples and had taken bites out of 3-4 each before settling on one that was not quite as sour and eating 1/3 of it! Sheeeeee.....

So out of the blue Miriam has started biting! Last Friday we were out in a public place where she couldn't run loose like a wild animal, so I made her hold my hand.  She got tired of the "dead weight game" not working and bit me! Then yesterday she bit poor Evan on the cheek. He came to me crying and holding his cheek, saying "Sissy bie!! Sissy bie!!" And there was the proof of what he was saying for all to see! Then today in the space of 10 minutes she bit him twice, once on the cheek and once on the back! Where did this come from??

at the end of the potty training tunnel!  Oh, please, PLEASE, don't be a train!!!

Miriam kept her panties dry all morning with three pee pees in the potty!!  To be fair, this was the result of Momma putting her on the potty every hour to hour and a half, BUT in the past that never worked. ALSO, she asked to sit on the potty and 5 minutes later we had our first EVER poop in the potty!! WOOOHOOOOOOOOO!! Oh, please let this keep up!!