Mira, my Mira

I've been thinking a lot about my precious little Mira and how much I love her and want to eat her up. I'm not sure exactly what to write, though. I guess I'll just start rambling and see where I end up.

Today she was walking around the kitchen saying, "Oooooooo. Oooooo. Ooooooo." At first, I thought it was Judah. I'm used to almost all of her sounds ending in "ah."

She has several recognizable syllables now.

"DEE-yah-da!" means "Daddy's home!"

"BAA-baa" means "brother"

"Muh-muh" means "Mommy, come get me."

"KEE-kee" means "kitty cat"

"Bo!" means "puppy doggy"

"Eh. Eh. Eh." means "I need that."

"Bah?" means "Will you read this book to me?" This one is followed by her turning around and backing into your lap. It's especially cute when she does it to Judah. Even cuter when he "reads" her the book.

Judah hasn't had much exposure to negative attitudes toward siblings (or any family member, for that matter), so he actually thinks it's cool when she wants everything that he has. I tell him that she learns almost everything she knows from him, that he's a wonderful teacher, and that she wants to do everything that he does. He'll often ask me, "Does Miriam want to do everything that I do?"

Today I was downstairs with Miriam when Judah went upstairs to his room to sit down and look at books. When I came up, I asked if it was OK to bring Miriam. He said yes. I told him I wanted to be sure he was all right with her being in there because she would want whatever he was playing with, and sometimes it's nice to have a little privacy. He said, "I picked up this book so Miriam could look at it." Then, he graciously gave it to her and looked for something else to play with. It doesn't always go this smoothly. Sometimes we have a little tug-of-war first, but for the most part, Judah is happy to let Miriam have whatever he has. He knows she'll only play with it for a second, drop it, and then it's all his again. I love that he's actually getting concepts like that! Oh, and he loves to remind me to praise him. He'll say, "Are you happy that I let her have that?"

Of course, I set out to write about Miriam here, and now I'm writing about Judah.

I wish I could take an all-day video of Miriam to try to capture the essence of who she is right now. She's so expressive. She doesn't laugh often, but when she does, her giggle is the sweetest. Judah is almost always the one who gets her to laugh.

She enjoyed sitting on Judah's tricycle today and being pushed around. She loves to climb up on chairs and just sit up high. I watched her for several minutes last week, taking books off the bookshelf, putting them on the chair, climbing up (this took a little time since the chair was made for an adult), taking the book in hand, and flipping through it. After a few minutes, she'd put the book down, climb back down, and do it all over again.

She likes to sit on the kitchen counters and bathroom sink. Being up high is the next best thing to being held. Fortunately, she still doesn't quite weigh 20 lbs, so I don't mind carting her around too much. I love to watch her walk. She's such a little peanut that it doesn't seem like she should be walking.

Whenever I tell her no, take something from her, or say, "That's not for the Baby Girl," she makes the saddest face and starts to cry. Judah did almost exactly the same thing. I guess I have really sensitive kids.

She's responding to commands now. Last week, both kids had taken a bath together. I took Miriam upstairs to get her dressed, but I still needed to bring Judah a towel. Miriam started to follow me downstairs, so I said, "Mira, why don't you play with your (I forget which toy) while I help Judah?" She turned around and started playing. I couldn't believe it.

Judah and I were singing, "If you're happy and you know it," and Miriam was doing all the motions with us. Because of her, we add "pat your head" and "twirl around." Whenever we put music on or simply start singing, Miriam starts dancing. It's so precious. She walks around in circles and sways her head back and forth. Sometimes she raises her hands. I really could just eat her up.

She's smells so sweet, and her cheeks are so soft, and her little curls just make me happy.

Anytime the door opens, she's right there to escape. Anytime the fridge or freezer opens, she's right there to drag something out of it.

She doesn't like to step on things that hurt her feet. Judah never paid much attention to what was stuck to his hands or feet, but Miriam will actually offer me her hand to wipe it off. She'll stand still and whimper if she needs help with her feet. Reminds me a little of my cousin Chelsea who had to stop every now and then to take rocks or dirt out of her shoes when she was two and hiking through the woods. It drove everybody crazy except me because I would take my shoes off and fix my socks several times before they felt right. I'd often turn my sock inside out so I wouldn't feel the seam against my toes.

I think it helps me to remember all my quirks to be able to have grace for my children. For example, I can remember Judah trying desperately to put puzzles together and getting terribly frustrated. I'd just sit back and watch, and if he seemed to wear down a bit, I'd say, "Do you want some help?" Then, I'd wait. I wouldn't do a thing until he asked for help. I remember wanting to do things myself and having someone else come along and do them for me. It was so frustrating! (I used to dump out my sock drawer and re-fold everything and organize it all by color--this never happens anymore!) I like to give my kids the space I would have wanted--to a degree. We do choices all day, but they're choices within limits (for example, Judah's going to get clothes on: Do you want to put your pants on yourself or would you like me to help you? The clothes are going on--he just gets to decide how they get on.)

I feel like the constant choices and shared control make him much more agreeable all the way around. He's become so quick to offer help recently or to say, "I'm sorry, Mommy. Mommy, I'm sorry." Sometimes he'll take my face in his hands or he'll gently touch my arm while he says it. It makes it so much easier to forgive him.

Today, he was standing on the stepstool in the kitchen waiting for me to return from the bathroom, and I walked up behind him and kissed him on the neck. He said, "I love you, too." I said, "How did you know that meant 'I love you?'" And he said, "Because you tell me 'I love you' a lot of times."

Here I am again, talking about my Judah.

He asked me today, "Mommy, what's a demon?" I said, "It's a spirit that bothers people." And he said, "It's somebody that's sent from Satan to kill people and bother." Later tonight, he asked me, "What does bother mean?" He's very interested in words and what they mean.

Miriam is interested in tigers and cats. She gets more excited about them than any other animal. Dogs take a close second. She's not afraid of them, either. She has no problem petting big dogs. Neither did Judah.

Tonight, I took her upstairs to change her diaper, get her into her pajamas, hold her in the dark and sing our good-night song, pray, and put her to bed when I realized I wanted to brush her teeth. She went along with it as if we had been doing it every night. I took her in the bathroom, held up the toothbrush, and she said, "Ah." I brushed her little teeth (all 9 or so of them), and we went back to our routine. She lays her head on my chest while I'm singing and praying. Sometimes she'll reach for the crib. I'll lay her down, she'll just stare at the ceiling looking sleepy, then as soon as I shut the door, she'll usually whimper for a second. Most of the time, I don't hear from her again until 6:50 a.m. Yesterday she didn't wake up until 7:20. I felt like I slept in. It was wonderful--except that I had to be somewhere at 9:00.

That reminds me--I'm going to be teaching writing in the fall. It's the first teaching gig I've agreed to since right after Judah was born. I taught one more year at New Song (part-time) before I realized that I just didn't have it to give anymore. I'm in a new season and really looking forward to having one day a week with 7th and 8th graders while Miriam hangs out in the nursery and Judah goes to preschool for an hour.

He shocked me on Tuesday, the day that I went to observe a class at the tutorial where I'm planning to teach. He finished up his craft, and the teacher asked him how he spells his name. I was fully expecting him to offer a random mix of letters, but he spelled Judah! All the way home, he sang J-U-D-A-H to the tune of B-I-N-G-O. It's amazing what they pick up.

I haven't done much "formal" pre-K training. I just look for the things he shows an interest in and enterprise on the moment. Right now, he's really into reading the Narnia books. So that's what we do. Miriam goes down for her morning nap, and we sit on the couch and manage to get through a couple of chapters. Today he asked me, "What's a scimitar?" and "What's a Tarkheena?" (Both are from The Horse and His Boy).

Oh, Miriam, Miriam, Miriam. I think that I feel more than I observe with Miriam. I love holding her and squeezing her and watching her interact with Judah (who LOVES picking her up and taking her places). She is so resilient. I'm amazed at how much she'll allow him to do before getting upset.

I took them to The Monkey's Treehouse on Tuesday afternoon, and we spent approx. five hours at this fabulous new indoor playground. Miriam even took a nap. I was so thankful that she was able to sleep in the midst of a lot of noise and activity. She's been a much lighter sleeper than Judah. She also sleeps a lot less. She takes a 2.5 to 3 hour nap from approx. 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and that's usually enough to last her until bedtime, which is roughly around 8 p.m. Tonight, she had a late, short second nap and went to bed at 8:45. While I was feeding her in the kitchen, Judah fell asleep on the couch. He can still take a 3 hour nap during the day and sleep from about 9:00 at night until 7:00 a.m. He definitely has a much higher need for sleep.

I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to revise and edit this post before I publish it. My battery is wearing down on my computer, and it's starting to get pretty late. I hope I was able to get a little bit of a picture of my sweet Miriam on here. So much of who she is and what she does revolves around her interactions with Judah, so I end up needing to write about both of them.

Oh, this week, she finished eating some fruit, picked up the plate, took it in the kitchen, and raised it up toward the counter. I helped her put it up, and she clapped. She LOVES to help. If I say, "Good job, Miriam," she claps. She helps put toys away (she loves to drag them out, too), she helps put books back on the bookshelf, she helps me brush her teeth . . .

She's only 15 months old, and she already likes to do everything herself. She drinks from a cup (not a sippy cup either!), she holds her own cup and drinks from a straw, she self-feeds as often as possible . . . she's already little miss independent. I have no idea where she gets it. :0)