I am too smart for this weather, and I know it's not going to last. We will still battle cold days for at least another 2 months. But the weather for the past 2 weeks or so has been nothing short of amazing! And it has been a preview of how much fun this summer is destined to be. Our little girl loves being outside, so much so that she often cries when it's time to come in. Understandably, we have all been spending as much time outside as possible. Here are some pics of us enjoying the lovely weather.
Miri getting ready to go down the slide at Kinderberg park. She LOVES slides and refers to it a lot of the time as a "whee!"
Swings are a big hit too!
Running on the big hill at Kinderberg Park with Daddy
Playing ball with Grandpa
Looking at the cows at the zoo with Mommy on Monday
Watching the birds fly overhead at the aviary at the zoo on Saturday
And a little video of Miri saying the words that melt her daddy's heart the fastest...
Allison and Prescott (whose 5th anniversary as a Bashaw is tomorrow, 3/18/12)
Dinner outside at the Highland House to celebrate St. Patty's Day... and Gammy and Grandpa's 34th wedding anniversary! Happy anniversary to the Rymers!
One of Miri's new favorite activities... "cheers"-ing! Slainte, baby!
Perfect bib for our Irish lassie!
Hope you all enjoyed this beautiful St. Patrick's Day!
This week we celebrated both my girls getting a little bit older. Two days ago, March 6th, was Alli's thirty-somethingth birthday (I am a true gentleman, and a true gentleman never reveals m'lady's age). Unfortunately, this year it fell on her least favorite day of the week (her most stressful day between work and a hectic evening routine taking care of our family-- don't know what we'd do without her!). Anyways, kind of a quiet one this year-- pizza, cake, and family. Futher celebrations to follow... this woman deserves to be spoiled!
The Birthday Girl and Miri
Only one year earlier!
So that little comparison brings us to our next big event this week. Today Miri turned 18 months old! One-and-a-half!! So what do you get a girl when she turns 1.5? How about 3 shots in the thigh?! Yup, today we brought Miri in for her eighteen month appointment. The nurse struggled a bit against a very upset little baby...ahem...toddler, but was able to confirm her at 30 3/4 inches tall and 19lbs 14.5oz...and in case you're tracking, a 46cm head. After that, Miri calmed down as the doctor told us she was right on track with her development...or even a bit ahead, as he said she was "talking like a 2-year-old!" That's our little smarty pants!!
The winter blahs have set in the Bashaw household lately, likely because we've been battling illness for the past few weeks. In the past few weeks, we've had 2 colds (me and Miri), 3 cases of pink eye, 1 ear infection (Miri), and 1 case of peri-orbital cellulitis (the bacteria from Miri's cold/ear infection also invaded the tissues of her eyelid). We are now all on the mend, thank goodness. Miri is finishing out her last few days of antibiotics for the cellulitis, but her eyelid is totally back to normal with no swelling and she's in her usual great spirits.
Jason has been busily working on our "main" bathroom. Within the past month or so, he has ripped out the useless laundry chute (it became unusable when the previous owners finished 25% of the basement, as it leads into the ceiling tiles of the finished portion), ripped out the toilet paper holder that was affixed to the wall (it was located on the wall ACROSS from the toilet, which is not an issue for someone with adult-length arms but would be not accessible for a small child), dry-walled both those holes, prepped the bathroom so it looks like a Dexter scene, primed the walls, and is just now mixing up the paint. We have been very proud of all his hard work, and even though Jason actually LIKES these home projects, I think he'll be ready for a little break after this one. It's been keeping him quite busy! Here's a picture of Miri critiquing her dad's progress today.
Miri is totally acclimated to her new classroom at daycare and seems to be really enjoying her new teachers and especially the more structured play and learning activities in the toddler classrooms. Every week, there is a new theme, and the daily story time, song or finger-play, and small group activity fit the theme. She has done some really neat art projects; here are few recent ones. I hate to brag, but Miri once again seems to be a favorite of her teachers. I've had each of them tell me how much they love her and are enjoying having her in their class. She had to stay home sick with Daddy on Valentine's Day because of the cellulitis, but I dropped by her school on my way to work as I had volunteered weeks earlier to supply the fruit for the Valentine's Day party, and as I'd already done all the work of cutting up fruit for 16 kids, I didn't want my hard work to go to waste! So when I dropped by with the fruit and to let them know she was home sick, Ms. Gerri, one of her teachers, said "Oh no! Just yesterday I told Ms. Ginger (another of Miri's teachers)'Yay, tomorrow is a Miriam day!' We are all SO in love with her!" It makes me feel good that Miri has teachers who truly do care for her and enjoy spending time with her. The other day, Jason and I went together to pick her up from school, and we spied on her through the window for a few minutes. The teacher only had 4 kids left, so they were all sitting around a table. She had a big 3D tiered birthday cake made of stuffed fabric (kind of like a stuffed animal, but it was a birthday cake) and all the kids had several different shaped felt pieces to place on the cake to decorate it. It was amazing seeing these tiny little toddlers patiently wait their turn, and then put ONE piece onto the cake. Miri will do some structured things and turn-taking with us, but it was really cool to see her in a bigger group context doing something like this. When she did see us, she didn't even want to get up and come with us, because she still had one felt piece left to put onto the cake. So we let her take her last turn, of course! At any rate, it is just really neat to see her growing and learning at school.
At home these days, we read a LOT of books. She definitely takes after her mommy in that regard! My parents always talk about how, even as just a young toddler, I could sit with a stack of books, look at one book page by page, then move it to the other side of me and pick up a new one. And repeat and repeat and repeat. Miri does the exact same thing. Her books are probably her favorite activity these days. Here is a video Jason shot of Miri earlier this week in her room with her books. She is also much more interested in songs and finger-plays these days. Her favorites are Old MacDonald, The Wheels on the Bus, Row Row Row Your Boat, and Ring-Around-the-Rosie. I also need to ask her teachers at school if they've taught her a song about bubbles, because lately she has been frequently singing "bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, POP!" and each time she sings "bubbles," she moves her hands wider apart and then claps them together on POP! Jason and I have no idea where she got this from, so I'm figuring it must be a school song. She now has at least 63 words and is beginning to very occasionally put two words together, e.g. "Hi Daddy," "Mama read," "no-no Prescott", etc. She has mastered running and climbing and would desperately like to learn how to jump like Mommy and Daddy, instead of just bouncing on her toes and bending her knees. She is more and more interested in helping to dress herself, although sometimes this is what happens: (yes, those are her jeans on her head) She generally hates being spoon- or fork-fed by us and is usually very insistent on self-feeding. She is working on mastering her utensils, although she oftens decides to just use her hands instead, for efficiency's sake. She still loves her fruits and veggies, but she's unpredictable with her "main courses." One day, she will turn her nose up at something, and the next day she'll eat an entire portion of that exact thing she rejected yesterday and then ask for more. Overall, she continues to be a pretty good eater and has turned into a really good milk drinker, now finally drinking the recommended 16 ounces or more of milk each day. This pays off in good continued weight gain, at a time when many toddlers' weight gains slows drastically. At urgent care last week, she weighed in at 20.1 lbs (clothed). Even if she's not quite 20 lbs (they weigh her in just a diaper at the doctor's office), she's still clearly gained at least a good 2.5 lbs in the past 4 months since her last appt. Yay for a growing little peanut! We are such proud parents... Miriam is just such an incredible blessing, a true joy. Nothing brings me more happiness than simply seeing her smile.
Miri discovered her shadow today. This video is adorable.
Please excuse the fact that she looks sick because she is, in fact, sick. She has been running a fever x3 days with a cough and congestion. Late this afternoon, her eyes started draining yucky stuff like crazy. She actually otherwise appeared to be feeling better today vs the last 2 days, but by the time the eye symptoms started, she was exhausted. I decided pinkeye overnight isn't going to get much worse (both eyes are already draining), so we've put urgent care off til tomorrow, but looks like we'll be spending part of Super Bowl Sunday getting her worked up for conjunctivitis (and ruling out pneumonia or other infection while we're at it, since she's been febrile awhile). Ah, the joys of being a daycare kid in winter! Poor baby girl.
Last Friday, Jason and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. In some ways, it seems like just yesterday that we had our fabulous destination wedding in Riviera Maya, yet at the same time, my life before Jason seems like a hazy memory, almost like it happened to someone else. Jason is just such a part of me now that thinking of not having him as my husband is almost like trying to imagine life without my right leg or something. It's just a given, ya know? At any rate, Jason and I decided that we would take a mini-trip to celebrate this milestone. So we went to the place where it all began... the city of love in the story of Alli and J... CHICAGO, of course! Our weekend was a blast... we ate at many of our favorite places, drank some fabulous wines and beers, got to hang out with a bunch of our old Chicago crew, enjoyed amazing massages at Spacio, rode public transportation like old pros but with a new appreciation, and just enjoyed being together. We also went to the Field Museum to visit one of the most famous Chicagoans, Sue the T-Rex. It was a great weekend! I really think it is important for Jason and I to be able to spend time together just as a couple and be able to take off the "mom and dad" hats for a bit, whether its for a few hours for dinner and a movie or for a few days to take a little trip. We are so grateful that we have family who support us in that belief and are willing to take responsibility for our little peanut for a few days. I think we missed Miri much more than she missed us... she was having tons of fun with her Gammy and Grandpa. Miri got to meet up with her friend Haley for a playdate (Miri first met Haley when she was maybe 8 or 9 weeks old), went sledding for the first time, and practically ate her grandparents out of house and home. She likes her Gammy's cooking, that's for sure! At any rate, as awesome as our weekend away was, we sure were happy to come home to our little Miri-boo. Sometimes we dream briefly about all the things we would do if we were still DINKs... still be living in the city, travel more, have more disposable income for fun stuff... but it's a very fleeting thought. There is NOTHING in the world as beautiful as coming back home after a weekend away and seeing this face and knowing that, together, you are lucky enough to be her parents. PS-- jason really needs to do a guest post on what is now "my" blog. There is too much sap, not enough sarcasm going on here. Hint hint honey! ;)
Jason is officially in his mid-30s, now that he's 33!! We had a lovely weekend celebrating this amazing man that I was lucky enough to catch. On Friday, Jason, Miri, and I had a special birthday-edition of our usual Friday night pizza. We drove into the Falls to get Papa John's, per Jason's request, and he picked out some special treats from Sendik's amazing bakery. That is a cupcake inside a waffle bowl and an Oreo torte; they were both fabulously decadent. Here's the birthday boy blowing out his candle: And here is our lovely daughter enjoying Daddy's birthday treats: The celebration of Jason continued on Saturday with a date night for us (we saw The Descendants-- awesome, amazing, totally Oscar-worthy-- and then out for dinner) and a very nice Bashaw family/ Rymer family lunch at the Highland House on Sunday. Yay for the birthday boy! I hope this year brings J all that he wishes for... he certainly deserves it. Happy birthday Jason!!!
And here is an adorable video of Jason reading Miri her Sesame St. "Shake a Leg" book before bed on Friday night. Miri's language skills are absolutely astounding to me. At 16 months, she's saying about 50 words on a regular basis and understands SO MUCH of what we say. She follows directions really well (when she wants to, she IS a toddler!), can receptively identify just about any object in the house, knows all her body parts, etc etc. Obviously as a speech pathologist, I have always been interested in language development, but WOW... it really brings it home when you have your own child and can see first-hand how truly amazing language acquisition is. She is just a complete sponge right now, constantly learning everything around her. I think this video really brings it home. Especially when you consider she's only had this book for about a week, and there is a lot of new vocabulary in it. And do I have to mention that she is sooooooo cute?!?!
Miri getting ready to go down the slide at Kinderberg park. She LOVES slides and refers to it a lot of the time as a "whee!"
