Quick update (mostly pictures...)

Here's a snapshot of our last couple weeks, mostly in pictures.  Miriam is walking everywhere and talking up a storm.  We counted tonight and she can say about 10 words, and sign 2 more.  She definitely knows what she wants, and doesn't hesitate to communicate to us.  :)  And if she can't make herself understood, she points at what she wants and says "dat" (that) until we understand. 

Without further delay, recent pictures of Miriam.  (And let me just say, what a wonderfully FUN age she is right now.  We are having so much fun watching her learn and grow and change every single day!)

Riding her "car" on the tennis courts...

At the zoo again.

Trying her first ice cream cone...which she loved. :)



"Mama, you beter not eat all of my ice cream cone..."



Water table fun in the sun!

"Splish splash....

...right into my eyes!"

"I love Daddy."

"Yummy, PB & J!"

"All this eating Mama's food is hard work."

"Who, me?  I didn't eat anything..."

The adventures of Miriam - the zoo, the park, and walking!

It has been a while since I posted an update and recent pictures of Miriam.  Life has been extremely busy here, and we've been trying to get back on track since Miriam was sick.  It is amazing how little you can easily get done with a little one around the house, and even more amazing how nothing gets done when that little one is sick. ;)

We've had some nice spring weather here lately, which has allowed us to spend some wonderful time outside.  We took Miriam to the zoo last weekend (on Mario's birthday) and had an amazing time!  Miriam loved it.  I'm not sure what part she liked the most...riding in her wagon, people watching, looking at the animals, or getting out of the wagon and walking around the zoo.  We spent over 3 hours there and she never complained or got tired or cranky.  She didn't seem extremely interested in all of the animals (some of them she had a hard time spotting), but she did like watching the fish and some of the bigger animals that she could see.  She's gotten quite good at waving and happily waved at lots of passing people. 

Miriam also loves to go to the park, and we discovered a great park relatively close that is geared towards toddlers.  It has small swings, small slides and other toddler activities.  She has always loved to swing, but this past visit to the park we discovered that she also loves the slide.  She definitely wishes she could climb up the slide as well, but in lieu of that, she'll allow one of us to pass her up the slide so she can slide down to the other one. 

A recent exciting note is that I think Miriam is officially walking!  She's been taking steps for a while now, but now she is definitely walking more than she is crawling.  She's still a bit slow sometimes, but is definitely comfortable walking and does it to go from place to place now, instead of dropping to her knees and crawling.  We are excited about this recent development but are still in a bit of disbelief about how quickly she's changing into a little toddler.  She talks, walks, has a definite personality...she's a little girl!  (On a side note, about the talking...she has starting signing "please" and saying "hi", as well as continuing all of her vocabulary from before.  She knows to say/sign "please" when she wants something, and often expresses her desire for some food or drink we have by signing "please" to us.  Pretty cute!)

And now, here are (a lot of) recent pictures of Miriam.  Enjoy!  (I forgot to explain about the cake pictures.  Mario's birthday was last weekend and Miriam got to enjoy some of her Daddy's birthday cake...and enjoy she did, as you will see in the pictures. Ha!)

"Daddy, look at the ducks!"

"Mama, did you know there are reindeer in there?"

"Yes, I do want to walk down this entire hill by myself!"

"Look, I'm driving with no hands!"

"Yum, cake!"

Exhausted after Easter

13 months old!

Miriam - first steps and first (bad) cold

It has been a while since I've updated about Miriam.  She's (slowly) starting to walk!  She's up to about 9 or 10 steps, but has definitely realized the crawling is still faster, and most of the time crawls if she wants to get somewhere in a hurry.  She's fairly steady on her feet when she does walk, although she moves quite slowly.  We have yet to capture any of her walking on video yet, as she quits walking as soon as she sees us getting out a camera. 

In other news, Miriam is still recovering from what has been her worst cold/cough yet.  Last week she suddenly developed a horrible cough (almost overnight), and we took her to the doctor, who diagnosed her with croup.  After some meds (which she really disliked taking, of course), her croup slowly got better, but she's still had quite a bad cold and cough for about a week.  She just yesterday starting getting her appetite back and had energy to play a little bit.  She's such a sweetie, even when she is sick.  She lounges around a lot more, doesn't have much of an appetite, but lets us cuddle and kiss her a lot. 

Miriam has recently been adding some new words to her vocabulary.  She says "all done" now, correctly.  For example, this morning I was trying to clean her face, and she kept pushing my hands away and saying "all done!"  Ha.  She continues to say "idada" (Hi Dada) and "itty" (Kitty).  She also says uh-oh a lot, whenever she drops something or something falls on the ground.  She uses this correctly, especially when she deliberately drops something.  ;)  We are working on identifying parts of the body now (she knows nose, but can't say it) and on having her say and/or sign "please". 

I don't have many recent pictures, since she's been sick and we haven't been taking any when she isn't feeling well.  We'll try to get back into taking more photos of her now that she's feeling better.  Here are a few recent ones that we do have:

Sick baby, sleeping in daddy's arms

Peek-a-boo!

Dressed up for a birthday party!