It is summertime!

I've been on summer vacation for almost a week now and Miriam and I have been having a lot of fun.  Although the weather has mostly been cold and rainy, we've been keeping busy indoors with lots of fun activities.  We've been painting, doing sticker activities, doing lots of baking, playing cars, puzzles, hide and seek.  Miriam has also been enjoying her new roller coaster (a toy that has a riding car, it goes down a roller coaster ramp) that we currently have set up inside until the weather gets nicer.  (The first morning she woke up and we had the roller coaster set up, she exclaimed "I love it!")  We've also been running errands and meeting friends for play dates, mostly at indoor playgrounds due to the rain.

Last weekend we had a gorgeous weather day on Saturday and the 3 of us spent the whole day outside.  In the morning/early afternoon we met some friends up near Lake Washington and played in the sand, had a picnic and enjoyed the playground and the sunshine.  Later that day, after Miriam took a 2 minute power nap on the way home, we spent the afternoon lounging in the backyard.  Miriam has a couple of outdoor toys, a small pool and a water table, and she goes back and forth between playing on those and doing whatever we are doing (Mario was weeding the yard and I was reading a book).  She's somehow gotten a fear of spiders (Mario claims it isn't from him!) and always makes us check her playhouse for spiders before she'll go in it.  I know I shouldn't laugh, but she does this hilarious whole body shudder whenever she sees a spider, before backing away and saying "icky, spider!"

I've been enjoying having more time to read now that summer vacation has started.  I've read a couple of good books lately (Shantaram, An Ordinary Man, and The Kitchen House among them) and am looking forward to reading and relaxing more at the lake.  Miriam and I leave next Monday morning (July 1) for Minnesota, and we are both looking forward to it!  We'll miss Mario, but I'm excited about the house projects he'll be working on while we are gone, most importantly the complete renovation of our upstairs (main/master) bathroom.

Here are some random pictures from recent weeks:

Big girl, eating cereal on her own

"Where's Miriam?"

"Does anyone know where she is??"

"Here I am Mama!" 

She insisted on putting stickers on her nose (and on mine as well).  

Miriam's first glimpse of her new roller coaster...

First ride....

Whee!! 

Tired girl! 

"Mama's flower - is broken!"  (One of my flower plants broke in the wind last week, so we pruned it down and Miri got to keep the flower.) 

This is how Miriam shows love to Bella...surrounding her with toys.  

If you look closely at the picture, notice I labeled the different scribbles.  She would draw a "picture" (scribble) and then point to it and name a person.  (She also included her teddy in her pictures.) 

A collection of Miriam pictures

I've been up since 4:15 this morning mentally planning for our garage sale today, so I've been spending some time going through recent pictures of Miriam.  She's such an amazing, funny, full of life and personality child.  We went car shopping last night (long story, more below) and she ran around the car lot following Mario and the salesman, shouting "I following Daddy, I following Daddy!"  She was super cute with her pigtails and her balloon bobbing up and down.

She's also little miss independent...some of the things she likes/wants to do on her own:
-put on her pants, socks, shoes, coats and pajamas
-unlock the house (which takes forever!!)
-water the flowers/bushes in the front yard (along with her parents, if we are in range of the water!)
-feed the cat, both food and treats
-push the cart at the grocery store and Costco (and she tries to tell us "no help!")

I've only got 3 days of school left and I'm really looking forward to some time at home with Miriam.  We will only be around for about 1.5 weeks before heading to Minnesota, and I'm hoping we can make it to the zoo and the park at least a couple of times.  Mario also got a new "big toy" for Miriam for the backyard, so we'll be spending a lot of time out there.  She loves it and was watching him pressure wash every piece, waiting for him to put it together.  It is pretty cute...he searched for weeks and weeks to find one for her, and I know she loves it!

We've had some problems this past week with my car, and ended up taking it to the shop on Monday afternoon.  The rest of the week the 3 of us carpooled in the morning, which has been fun to spend that extra time together.  We found out at the end of the week that my car will need a new transmission, so we are going to get that replaced and then decide what to do.  We are having a casual conversation about replacing my car, either this year or in the next couple years.  I think, at that point, we'll end up getting a minivan.  I'm not anxious for a minivan necessarily, but the ones we saw have a lot of storage space and will (eventually) make sense for our family.  Plus, it makes me giggle a bit to think of Mario driving a minivan. :)

Here are some pictures of Miriam from recent weeks, along with pictures of our (newly organized) living room:

Trying out her hew rolling backpack (for our upcoming trip)

Helping Mama make muffins

She always sniffs the ingredients and then says "yum, is good!"

"Nummy, corn in my tummy!"

She likes us to do synchronized eating, where we all take bites at the same time...

My favorite part of our new living room....tubs and organization! 

Independent girl, putting on her own shoes! 

Miriam's big toy

 

Skittle update and pictures

Well, we had our big 20 week ultrasound today!  It was such a great gift to get to see more pictures of our little Skittle...we haven't seen him/her since he/she was 8 weeks.  It was a bit of a different experience this time since we didn't find out the sex of the baby, so we had to close our eyes periodically throughout the ultrasound so we didn't see anything revealing.  Regardless, we still got to see our sweet baby flipping and wiggling and waving all around.  Skittle was very active during the ultrasound, pumping fists and waving legs.  I think the baby's nose looks similar to Miriam's (and therefore similar to Mario's!) and the baby has long arms and legs, which doesn't surprise us.  Skittle weighs about 13 oz. right now (60th percentile) and is measuring right on track!  His/her heart rate was 144, which is around the normal range (140s-150s) that it has been every other appointment.  We got a couple of good profile pictures of Skittle along with a shot that shows a (very long) leg.  I can't believe that I'm already halfway through the pregnancy!  October will be here before we know it and we'll not only find out the sex of the baby, but get to name the baby as well!  (I think the naming discussion has been harder this time around, since we are trying to narrow down names for both sexes.  We've kind of been slacking on the name discussion, but I recently got out another baby name book, so perhaps the discussions will be starting again in earnest soon!)  We can't wait for October so we can meet our sweet baby and see Miriam as a big sister. Here are the pictures from today:

Baby foot! 

Profile shot

Clearer profile shot, especially of the nose

I am very blessed.

I am very blessed.

Tonight, as I was doing the dishes and listening to Mario and Miriam start the bedtime routine, I spent a lot of time reflecting on how blessed I am to have those two special people in my life.

I listened to a conversation that went something like this:

Mario:  Miriam, what is that?  (pointing at a picture in a book)
Miri:  Airplane!
Mario:  That's right!  What else is in the sky?
Miri:  The moon!
Mario:  Yes, the moon is in the sky!
(Meanwhile, I'm out there, a proud teacher mama, proud that my 2 year old is making connections, and proud that Mario is helping her and expanding her understanding and background knowledge...yes, I'm a nerd!)

And then I got to thinking....how lucky am I.  I have a wonderful daughter and an amazing husband, and I just felt the need to share.  Miriam is such an amazing, fun girl, who lights up the room whenever she enters.  She smiles all the time, makes us laugh, loves to play jokes (she chased me around the yard tonight trying to squirt me with a hose!!), is already careful and protective of her little brother/sister, and is soaking up everything like a sponge...she can count, recognize letters, has a great memory, and can speak in full sentences.  She brings smiles and joy into my life every day, and I'm so thrilled to have such an amazing child as my own.

And then there's Mario.  I have to say, when we were dating and got engaged and married, I knew how lucky I was to have met someone like Mario.  He's calm when I'm not, we laugh and have a ton of fun together, he's relaxed to my organized personality, and he treats me very, very well.  I could have predicted, knowing the kind of man he is, what kind of a father he'd be, but it is one thing to guess and another thing to see it in action.  I don't know that he had a lot of experience with babies or little kids before we had Miriam (and I know he'd never changed a diaper!), but he fell into it as naturally as if he'd been doing it forever.  He is such an amazing father - caring, attentive, fun, and he gives Miriam his undivided attention.  She (and I) know how important she is to him, and you can tell from their interactions that they have a very special relationship.  A lot of times, when I hear Mario and Miriam playing together or having a conversation, I pause for a moment and think about how lucky I am to have married someone who is an equally amazing partner to me and parent to our child(ren), and I think about how lucky Miriam (and Skittle) are to have such an amazing, caring, fun father.  He works so hard for our family, and I appreciate and love him more than I can ever explain.

I am very blessed.