Miriam's snow days

Over the last 4 days, we've had a lot of winter weather here. 

On Monday, we had a light dusting of snow.  We had maybe an inch at our house, but I ended up having a snow day on Tuesday. 

Tuesday during the day, it snowed a bit (morning) and then got warm (afternoon), so all the snow melted.  The weather kept talking about the "winter extreme" that was going to hit on Tuesday night/Wednesday. 

Starting early Wednesday morning (about 2 am...I know, because I was awake and checking...:) ), the "big storm" hit.  I had another snow day.  When I woke up at 7:30 am, we already had 7-8".  It snowed most of the morning, and we ended up with around 8-9" of snow.  (Considering the Seattle area generally gets 6" of snow a YEAR, that is a lot for this area.) 

Of course, I LOVE it!  Miriam and I went outside multiple times today, and I cleared off both cars and shoveled our driveway.  She seemed to really enjoy the snow today...lots of smiling, giggling and laughing.  She loved to stand at the front glass door and watch the snow outside.

Then tonight, I get a call that my school is cancelled again tomorrow.  We aren't supposed to get any more snow, but we've got freezing rain right now and 9" of snow that is turning to ice overnight.  Miriam and I will be enjoying another day home together tomorrow, and I'm hoping some of the snow sticks around so I can spend more time staring at it tomorrow!

Quick recap:  3 snow days, 9" of snow and lots of Miriam pictures...

Pictures - Miriam 10 months and SNOW!

As promised, here are Miriam's 10 month pictures, as well as pictures of us in the snow yesterday and some pictures of her playtime in this morning.  She's at such a fun age...always laughing, smiling, moving, playing and interacting.  We have such a great time with her!  She seems fairly interested in the snow, which is continuing to fall as I type.  She watches it out the window and shrieks with excitement (usually after she hears me ;) ).  

Miriam is 10 months old!

This post is several days late.  Miriam turned 10 months old last Wednesday, but she's been fighting a chest cold (she's finally getting better!) and I haven't had time to post an update. 

The latest, biggest news is that Miriam is mobile!  She crawls all over the place and pulls herself up on everything.  She walks around the living room holding onto all of the furniture.  She's still quite unsure about trying to stand on her own, but is very steady on her feet when she is holding onto something.  We've started to call her "babyzilla" at times...one of her new favorite activities is to pull any and everything off of a shelf or out of a basket.  She especially loves magazines, and likes to tear them up.  (Luckily, she hasn't decided she likes to tear up books, so those are safe for now!) 

She's still only got two teeth on the bottom, but we think she'll be getting a couple more teeth in the next couple weeks.  We can see some white bulges on her top gums, which we suspect are teeth that will break through soon. 

Over the holidays, we've tried starting Miriam on more "solid" foods.  However, aside from her "puffs" (which dissolve in her mouth), she doesn't want much to do with solid food beyond purees.  I'm sure it is something about the texture; whatever we give her, she'll chomp on it once or twice before spitting it out.  She is still loving her purees though and has expanded to eat yogurt and peaches. 

Miriam is still mostly bald.  She's slowly getting more hair, and if I wanted, I could make one tiny pigtail right on the top of her head.  (She probably wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a rubber band in her hair though!)

One of Miriam's favorite activities still continues to be "peek-a-boo", when we pop out from around a corner and surprise her.  She also loves to play "chase", when one of us holds her over our shoulder and the other one "chases" her around the house.  She pumps her legs up and down furiously (one way she shows excitement) and shrieks with laughter.  It is adorable! 

I don't have any 10 months pictures yet.  As I mentioned, Miriam has been sick, and therefore spent the last 72 hours in PJs.  We are hoping to take some pictures on this long weekend, so I'll post some early next week.  And speaking of early next week....we are predicted to get SNOW!!!  :)  I'm so excited, and it would be great if we get some on the ground so we could put Miriam in her snowsuit and take some pictures outside. 

Christmas in Europe

We left Saturday, December 17 for Germany.  Mario and I decided that it is worth it to spend a bit of extra money and fly a direct flight from Seattle to Frankfurt, which is only a 10 hour flight.  Miriam is a great traveler.  She loves to people watch and doesn't seem at all bothered by the take-off and landing pressure on her ears.  On both flights (there and back) she slept through the take-off, then was eating/drinking during the landing, so I'm sure that helped her ears. 

When we arrived in Germany, Mario had about 30 minutes to change clothes, eat a quick sandwich (and drink some coffee!) before he, my dad, my brother and my sister-in-law headed to a soccer match.  Miriam and I stayed home with my mom and took a nap, made cookies and enjoyed being in Germany!  (It was cold and looking like snow, so I was very excited about that.) 

That week before Christmas, we visited several Christmas markets, walked around various German towns, visited the base, wrapped Christmas presents, played games, baked cookies, played outside in the snow (!!!) and watched Miriam show off her increased mobility.  (She was starting to crawl before we left for Germany, but she really took off once we got there!)  Miriam had a hard time adjusting to the time difference (9 hours) and was often awake from 12-2 am, wanting to play and stand up on the bed. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas were both a wonderful time, although a bit subdued as about half of the family got sick.  (I didn't, but Mario and Miriam both got a bit of a stomach bug.)  Miriam liked holding on to wrapped presents, but wasn't as interested in opening the presents.  We got some great pictures of her in her Christmas dress, sitting in front of the tree (see below). 

After Christmas, we'd been planning to take a 3 day trip to Eastern Germany to visit some castles and go skiing.  With the illnesses, we decided to stick closer to home and just take day trips. 

New Year's Eve found us at a Chinese buffet, which has become a family tradition over the past few years.  Miriam enjoyed being the center of attention at the restaurant, as she let out many squeals of delight while we were eating.  In Germany, at midnight on New Year's Eve, they shoot off fireworks for hours.  (Even in the tiny village where my parents live!)  It looks, and sounds, like the 4th of July, right outside your window.  We were worried that Miriam wouldn't be able to sleep, but we luckily got her to sleep about 5 minutes before midnight.  With a little help from us (plugging her ears to help block out the noise), she thankfully slept through the fireworks, as we had to leave the house at 6 am the next morning to head to the airport. 

I'll update more about Miriam specifically when I do her 10 month old post next week.  For now, I'll leave you with pictures from our trip.  (There are a lot of them.  A couple explanations - my brother is on crutches because he broke his leg in Thailand, and we used the wheelchair to help him get around in several towns.  As a bonus, most of the time when he was riding in the wheelchair, he got to carry Miriam around!  The last couple pictures of her in a blue and white dress were taken the night before we left.  It is the first dress my mom ever sewed me, and I have pictures of me wearing it when I'm a bit younger than Miriam.)

Happy New Year!

We just returned from a wonderful 2 week vacation in Germany with Maran's family.  We haven't yet had time to sift through all the photos or write a detailed update about our trip, but we want to wish all of our family and friends a happy new year!  An update about our travels and Miriam's latest developments (which include much increased mobility!) will be coming soon.