It's Hanukkah Time

It's that time of year and Jory's school has a special show for the mommy's and daddy's. This year they made themselves little candles and sang a bunch of Hanukah songs just for us. Our little pride and joy was the star of the show. He sang so wonderfully, we are going to sign him up for American Idol! (...just kidding)

School Hanukkah Party from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

Tell us what you really think

Mealtimes are not very exciting for Jory. He eats a few bites and then asks to be excused. It's more like "I'm done, can I go watch TV?" We usually make sure he ate an acceptable amount of food and let him go especially if he asks nicely. At dinner last night he was being particularly antsy and we secretly were happy to let him go off to the other room for a few moments of peace while we finished our meal. Just outside the kitchen is a small wall where the wallpaper is slowly finding its way to the recycling bin. Jory had the brilliant idea of taking his sleeves and whack the lifting wallpaper to help it on its way. After many attempts to get him to stop and to get him to go watch his show, Ryan yelled out to him, "Stop Jory!!! Where do you think you live?"  Jory responds in a very quick, very sure, "A Barn!"

Table for...

The lack of posts from yours truly is not due to the kids not being funny.  In fact, they continue to be funnier every day.  But I get lazier.  Anyway, here's a couple of funny Jory-isms from tonight. We went out to dinner and we're on our way home.  Jory wants to change movies in the back seat theater and asks "What's N-O-D-I-S-C mean?"  It took us a second to figure out what he was spelling.  It's what the display shows when there's no DVD in the drive.


Then out of the blue he says, "There's four of us.  1, 2, 3, 4.  Yep, there's 4 of us, right daddy?"  I have no idea what he's doing.  "Yeah, there's 4 of us" ...  "Not 3 and a high chair like YOU said, you always say that daddy but there's four of us."  Once I stopped laughing I explained that Mira needs a high chair or she would not reach the table.  He suggested I just tell them we're 4 and a Mira.

DON'T play doctor with her

Mira has this funny habit of putting her finger in her ears. For the past 16 months I would constantly think that she had ear infections. I would trek her in and then get laughed at because her ears are absolutely perfect and clear. One doctor even jokes with me that she is trying to drive me crazy, already. I think she is right!

As Mira learns how to walk better and better each day she likes to do things with her hands. You saw a couple of days ago how she likes to carry evening purses on her arms. Sometimes she will walk around with a half eaten apple, dirty laundry (or clean; whatever she can get her hands on), cups, books...whatever. The past day or two she keeps sticking her finger in her ear while she is walking (and playing, but walking is what she likes to do most). Then she will try to put things in her ear like pretzel rods, toys, another persons finger. The list goes on.

After a long day, we were sitting on the couch relaxing and watching Yo Gabba Gabba. She turns towards me and yanks on my ear. She wants to see it. Ok, ill play along. She attempts to stick her finger in my ear. I turn my head and say NO! I continue to watch the show and she grabs my nose and pushes my head so she can see my ear again. I say NO! again and turn away. This time she uses all her might so she can see my ear and I, again, said NO! She gave up for a moment and found a toy 'shooter' from one of Jory's action figures. It has a 2 or 3 inch sword or spikey thing. She attempt to try it out in her ear and I looked at her and said NO! She put it down right away. The then turns my head with everything she had, and a few nails to make sure it happened, and tried to put the darned thing in my ear. That was it! Sword thing is gone and I will never let her be the doctor when we play.

Snuggles

Jory is a great sleeper once he is asleep. Even the late night screaming and the early morning whaling of his sister can't wake him. He does wake up for a brief moment sometimes when I go into his room before I go to bed to tuck him in and give him one last hug for the night. He does say something cute or often something simple like 'I love you, too, mommy.'  He always finds a way to melt my heart, even if he is talking in is sleep. 

Lately, at bedtime, Jory has been trying to find every way possible to get out of his bed and not go to sleep. He will say he hears dogs barking that sound like scary wolves or the shadows in his room are going to get him. He may even pull the rare 'I'm hungry.' No matter what, it's a ploy to keep himself from going to sleep.

Tonight he was having a particularly difficult time staying in his room and going to sleep. After the 'Im scared' trick and 'I want to sleep in your bed because it's more comfortable' and even the 'I'm thirsty' he finally came out of his room again. He was looking for me to show me what he had done to his light stick that was supposed to protect him from the dark. He somehow took the cover off, but that is not the point. I lead him back to his room and tucked him in. I gave him more hugs and kisses. He smiles at me and says to me, 'Guess what mommy? You get to give me extra snuggles now!'

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's superkids!

The other day was Halloween and of course, we did the yearly march of ringing doorbells and getting candy! The best part is dressing up. Jory and Mira were both Super kids. Jory was a handsome Superman. Mira was a very adorable Superbaby as her big brother would say. Although she can walk, it was definitely not on her agenda. Especially since she was up since 2:30am the night before with only an hour or so nap. At over 12 hours later, all she wanted was Mom-mie!Ryan came home early to man the house and do the important job of giving out candy. I took the Superkids out to fill Jory's pumpkin bucket with as much candy as possible. We went with our neighbors that we go with every year. It was lots of fun except for when I had to remind him that we get what we are given and we cannot ask for candy, especially M&M's. It gets embarassing when your son is asking everyone for them and all they have is Kit-Kats. Deal with it, kid! its candy!  








Halloween March from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

Walking update

Mira is starting out real slow. She doesn't seem to have the confidence to walk all the time, but I am sure she will get there soon enough. It takes her awhile to warm up to do it but once she does, there is no stopping her. She loves to walk like it was a brand new toy. When we are at home, she found these 2 beaded evening purses I had and loves to put them on her arms and walk around. She looks like she is ready to go shopping, especially when she decides to carry around her carnival doll. The black and white friend will be sure to tell her if her butt looks big in those new jeans.


Practicing walking from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

Soccer Hero

Jory led his team to a 5-0 victory today by contributing 4 goals.  We are very proud of him!  Check out the pictures over at: http://picasaweb.google.com/techmoments/Soccer

Finally at 16 months and 3 days old...

Mira's First Steps from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

Its been months that she will only walk while holding onto some ones finger. She is not fond of any of the toy walkers. Suddenly, today she decided to show us she really can do it!

When you think you are alone

I am never alone when I take a shower these days. I am always rushing and squeezing them in between soccer practice and music class. Usually I put Mira on the floor outside the shower and put a gazillion toys out for her to play with. You would think that in the 5 minutes it takes me to take a shower, she would be well occupied. She always seems to get bored enough that the toilet paper is the only thing that she wants to play with. The other day, I was rushing my shower and trying to play with her as she opens and closes the shower door with a few face squishes against the glass.  Can you say multitasking? I am rinsing my hair and then I hear her. Her voice sounded a little louder than usual and she was super happy. I turn to shut the door and see what she was up to. I was thinking for that split second that she took the whole roll of toilet paper and put it on her head. Nope. She was sitting right there in my shower, putting her hands out as if she was feeling the rain. I was quite stunned at the sight of my freshly dressed baby soaking wet in the shower. I have to say that stripping an already wet baby is no picnic. She had a blast in there while I got out and dried off. I have a feeling I will be sharing my daytime showers with her more often.

Put on your poncho

Mira loves to drink out of straw cups. Why not? It's how her big brother drinks. But beware, she has a new trick! 

Straw drinking from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

It just never ends!

We have started a rule in our house that a child, particularly Jory, cannot come into Mom and Dad's bedroom before the first number on his clock reads a 7. We even ran to Target 3 or 4 times before we got the right one. He has actually been pretty good about it. Trust me, a wake up call from him at 6 in the morning is NO treat. 

Jory has been sick with a pretty high fever. You wouldn't know it if you walked in my home and saw him jumping off the couches or down the stairs. Honestly, his fever was pretty bad. A few days ago the fever broke and he slept really, really late. I guess his body was catching up and getting as much rest as it could. It was about 10:30am and I start to hear sounds out of his bedroom. I realize he was singing one of his songs that keeps him occupied until it is time to get mommy or daddy. For some reason it just went on and on. I mean, it was way past the hour of 7 so I was just waiting for him to jump out of bed and get me. This never happened. Finally. I decided to record his wonderful singing while I went in to get him. 

Untitled from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.
I guess it would have paid for him to be able to tell time or at least know that the number 10 is way after the number 7. I just got lucky that morning and had quite a bit of peace.

Take the good with the bad

Lately Jory has been quite open about his bodily functions. He will tell me just after a belch that he burped. Laugh and then tell me, "That made me laugh so hard, I cant even stop laughing." 

I was playing with his cars and tracks today. In the middle of a race we were having, he gets up and goes to the bathroom to pee. I was so proud that he did this on his own without any prompts. I was ready to praise him tremendously when he got back to what we were doing. He starts to pull up his underwear and shorts and farts. He comes running into the room laughing. Immediately he tells me, "Mommy, I farted in my hand and no poopies came out!!!"  

Wow, how do you respond to that?

Getting Picky

I am sitting here at lunchtime trying to feed Mira a healthy lunch. I gave her a half of a mini bagel with butter on each of the sides. She did ok with them. She started off by eating it from the bagel and then started to pick little pieces with her fingers and putting them in her mouth. I gave her 2 raspberries and I don't think she liked that. She just stuck her thumb in them and mushed them all over the high chair tray. Then I went safe and gave her cut up grapes and some honeydew which she did well with. I started to make myself a sandwich and attempted to give her a slice of munster cheese. I even rolled it up so she can hold it as she bites into it. Nope. I actually didn't know that cheese can be made into so many pieces and they stick to the floor (and your foot) once you accidentally step on it. Yuck. Last, but not least, I gave her a strawberry for the first time today. She inspected it as if something was going to pop out of it. Then she tried to get all the seeds off of it. She touched it to her mouth and gave me a grimace. OK, so it was a little sour. I gave her another one and cut it up this time. Those all went on the floor, too. Just know that strawberries stain old wallpaper. At this point, I gave up. I think she got enough and I am sure I'll give her a snack of goldfish or grahm crackers later. I forget that I was baking cookies and I get them out of the oven. They cool off as I am eating my sandwich and trying to get Mira to drink milk. I figured, why not? Whats the harm in a mini cookie? So I give her one. She grabbed it out of my hand and recognized it. She ate it before I could sit down. She starts to point and squeal like the cookies were being stolen out her very hands. She doesn't let up until I give her another. Yup, thats what she wanted. She scarfed that one down and now I am trying to hide the rest of the batch. She certainly knows what she wants!

Mira's 1st Year Video

Its official, Mira is ONE!

This past weekend we had her first birthday party. Mira is officially one now that she had dug into a birthday cake and opened presents. A year ago I couldn't even imagine that I would be planning a party for her. Now, I can't even fathom her turning 2, or 16, or 21 OH MY!
Here are a few pics from the special day. 

The birthday girl:




This was her cake. It was so georgeous and perfect, I started to cry when I picked it up.



Our little piggie couldn't even wait till after the candles were blown out (or lit) before she started to pick everything off of it and eating them. (notice her hand is on the cake here)

"Look Mama, I'm almost done! Gimme more!"


"There has got to be more here somewhere!"


"That's MY toy Daddy! Give it back!"


And here is big brother Jory recruiting his 2 girlfriends to help him catch butterflies.


Stay tuned. Mira's 1st year video will be posted soon!

Happy Birthday baby girl!

Well, here it is. Today our baby girl is now, officially, ONE full year old! She is no longer in the class of 'baby' and is now considered a 'toddler' even though she isn't toddling yet. This year had to have been the quickest, most tiring and most rewarding year I have ever had. I always thought it was tough being a parent to one child. To have 2 in the mix, makes it that much harder. Different ages require different demands. It got easier as the year went by, but in turn, the year went so quickly. 

Mira was born a tiny little baby with scrawny legs and arms. Itty bitty fingers and toes. It didn't take her very long to beef up and turn into the biggest mush I would ever know. She has rolls after rolls on those beautiful thighs. She is very huggable and I always call her my juicy.

She has the most gorgeous eyes that no matter where we are or what we are doing, someone tells me how stunning they are and how beautiful my baby girl is. Her smile is still filled with only two bottom teeth. The others are coming and I thought they would appear by her birthday, but they have proven me wrong.

Mira has a great personality and is a very big people person. She smiles at almost everyone however, she is starting to show signs of stranger anxiety. She loves to play games like peek-a-boo and 'Where is Mira?' When her big brother does anything that she finds exciting, she will clap. If she hears someone else clap, she will clap. If she wants your attention, she will blow you lots of raspberries. If you ask her to put her hands on her head, she will. She likes to blow kisses and when I have hair dangling in front of my face she will try to blow them away. When she is tired and hungry she will climb up on her Mama and snuggle and suck her thumb.

Mira has brought so much to our family and we could never ask for anything more. She is a sister to the most loving brother. Jory loves to make her laugh whether he makes silly faces and/or noises or rubbing his nose into her belly. He gets silly and tries to place things on her that shouldn't be there like a matchbox car or his t-shirts. When I give them a bath together he always likes to help me wash her.

To me, Mira has helped fill a space in my heart that has been there for a few years. She is my mothers namesake. There will be moments where I will be sitting with her playing and I just feel my mom watching us and give out a big sigh. Although mom will never be able to meet this wonderful gift, she will be there with us always. On occasion when I feel like I really would like my mom there, I'll just pick up my baby girl and give her a great big squeeze and I know mom feels it too.

Ryan has met another that has made him even more complete. After stressful days he finds calm playing with her. She always has a way to make him smile and keep him amazed. She giggles at his kisses when he says goodbye in the morning before he leaves for work. Sometimes I think his beard tickles, but I know she loves the kisses.

One year has passed and she has grown so much. I can never imagine my life without her, just like I could never imagine it without Jory. I wonder what I will be writing about her next year on this very same day. It seems so far away, but I know it will be here in no time.


Please check back for Mira's First Year Video.

A day at the Zoo

Yesterday we went to the zoo with friends of Ryans and we really had a great time. It was a bit hot and sticky, but when you have so many cool animals to see, it doesn't phase you. I think Jory's favorite part was the Butterfly Pavilion. Lately he has been almost obsessed with catch caterpillars and butterflies that this was right up his alley. Of course the 'zoo' we have at home doesn't compare to a whole roomful of hundreds of beautiful butterflies. 






Jory really liked going to the badger holes (or whatever animal it was) and looking out of the ground.

and here he is watching a male peacock with his open tail feathers. Jory wanted to feed him so badly but the bird just didnt like what Jory had to offer.

Hello? Helloooooo?

It's about 4:30 or so on Friday and I received a strange call at work.  The caller id showed that the call was from Randi's cell.  I answer but hear nothing in response.  Then I am able to make out some grunting, perhaps some fiddling around with the phone.  Oh, she must have accidentally redialed her last call, and she's in the car.  With nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon, I listen in a for a while.  I figure she'll eventually notice and apologize and we'll both go about our day.  Then I hear more voices, but not really words.  OH, ok, Mira must have grabbed mommys phone and hit talk.  I can see that happening.  I try and get a response.  "Mira! Mira, it's daddy!".  Nothing.  Then I hear "Daddy?".  OK, so it's the other one...  The conversation continues.

"Jory, wheres mommy?"

"She's upstairs with Mira"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm watching Little Bill"

"How did you get mommys phone?"

That last question was ignored, as were countless others.  The conversation went back and forth for five or ten minutes with me interrogating Jory, trying to understand the scene unfolding at home.  Then I hear Randi in the distance..

"Jory, who are you talking to?"

"I just called daddy at work because I had to ask him a question."

Randi heard him talking but assumed he was talking to the TV, unaware that he could have been having a conversation with anyone in her address book!  Jory was very proud of his accomplishment.  I'll expect more phone calls in the future.

A photo story

Today we went to Aunt Amy and Uncle Mitch's for Cousin Kate's Masters Graduation Party. We all had lots of fun hanging out and relaxing by the pool. We got Jory a safety vest and he was super excited that he could swim without someone holding him at all times. He was more excited about all the worms and caterpillars he found, and of course, brought home with him. Here he is showing me he beautiful new friends.Mira had her first dip in a pool and wasn't too thrilled. But her experience of the day was a chocolate chip cookie! Yum Yum!!"Oh, man, this is so good! What is it?""A COOOOOOKIE!!!!!!!!!""Hey! Where did my cookie go? It was right here!""That was so good. I need a nap now."

Just over 11 months, seriously?

Our little baby Mira is now in her last month before she turns ONE! I don't know if I am ok with this. I think I am going to need a lot of help getting through this one.  I just can't believe this is happening. First, Jory is no longer considered a toddler and then now Mira is no longer considered an infant. She is going to be a toddler soon. This is when I just wish I can freeze time and just snuggle them tight and tell them to never grow up. Mira is turning into quite a character as her personality develops. She still loves music and no matter how tired she is for her music class, she will always bop about and try to sing with the teacher. She is banging things together to make noise and is quite surprised at the sounds she can make with different objects.  Mira started to crawl on her knees instead of doing an inchworm type of crawl. I was getting a little worried because the inchworm will do a job on her legs when the weather is nice and she is wearing shorts. While surfing the floor, she picks up everything in her path and attempts to take it with her. She will crawl around with the most random things in her hands and get very upset if she cannot hold one or drops one on the way. I believe I see the beginnings of a pac-rat here. We discovered that she can make a kissing noise while sucking her cheeks into her gummy mouth and she looks like a fish while doing it. It's just too adorable. She has a whole new bag of tricks. She still waves bye bye, claps and hands up but now she plays peek-a-boo. She likes to see what will balance on her head. She even does a great job of placing a small object into a bigger object. This is not so wonderful when I am rushing in the morning and I find toys in my shoes. She points to everything and she has a slew of sounds that continuously makes us wonder what she is trying to say.  She likes to pull up on things but is not really cruising the furniture just yet. I don't think we will see a walker so soon however, she does try to attempt to climb the stairs. She has only accomplished one stair, but thats enough to make me nervous. 

 Mira has 4 teeth that are pushing and annoying her gums. In turn, she has been waking up at all odd hours of the night making momma a bit cranky. Maybe by her first birthday we will see more than those 2 bottom chompers. Her favorite food this month is watermelon and she cannot get enough of it. Yum yum! 


She still adores her brother and is now getting to the point of annoying him quite often. She likes to grab his matchbox cars while he is zooming them around. He gets so angry that he yells at her and tells me to take her upstairs. She still seeks his attention while we are in the car and when she does catch him, they laugh hysterically. I just love it!

A Stupid drinking game

I am sitting here waiting for Jory to finish his chicken nuggets and he is actually doing a pretty good job this time. 3 out of 4 is not bad at all. He starts to say something to me and just went on and on. I was just listening and quite amazed at how many times this kid can say the word stupid in such a short amount of time. He was so matter of fact about it and I actually think he was waiting for me repremand him. I guess he was testing his limits. Today, he got a lot farther than he normally would have. This is what he said. Now get your beer bottles out and every time he says the 'bad' word, DRINK! 

You know, stupid is a bad word. Did you know that stupid is a bad word? When someone says stupid, I yell at them and say stupid is bad word. You shouldn't say stupid because its a bad word and I don't like people that say bad words. It's not nice to say stupid. If you say stupid, you are a bad guy and I fight bad guys.... 

This is where I had to cut him off because the conversation was going in a different direction. See my previous post.  

Were you drinking?Is your bottle empty?  

Too smart for the coach...

We had soccer "practice" today.  I call it practice because 4 yr olds dont play actual games, they just do drills.  Jory always corrects me, saying he doesn't need practice.

Some of the dads prefer to help out on the field with the kids.  I call them "helper dads".  They get involved with the drills and help keep the kids in line.  Others, like myself, prefer to observe and see how their child does in a team situation with an authority figure like a coach.  We'll call these "independent dads".

Jory was having a great day.  He was really following what the coach was asking, and I didn't think he even knew where I was standing.  The next drill, coach Jeff yells out "OK, kick it down there to the daddys!" and points to the "Helper dads" downfield.  Jory runs the opposite direction and kicks the ball to me.  The coach quickly corrected him and said, "No Jory!  Down there!", to which Jory responds, "But my daddy's over here!"

There is always another way

Today while leaving Special Gym (OT) Jory tells me another way to get those bad guys. 

"I can make the bad guys dead with my shooter. I am a good shooter and I can make them dead with it. Right Mommy? When I am shooting, everyone thinks I am a Superhero because I wear a cape. Where is my cape mommy? I need to be a Superhero with super powers so I can make the bad guys dead."

What's your superhero name?

Mommy, are there bad guys in this world?

Yes, but Mommy and Daddy try to protect you from them.

I don't want you to protect me from bad guys. I fight bad guys.

Don't you think you might get hurt?

No, I'm a good fighter. Right, Mommy? 

Yes, but..

Are you a good fighter, Mommy? 

Of course I am.

I fight until the bad guys are dead. Can you do that Mommy?

{awkward silence}
I think your sister is up from her nap now.

Peas, oh the peas!

The other day just after I got Jory ready for school and on the bus by the bright and early time of 8 am I went to do my power food shop. I zipped through the supermarket and as quickly, tried to unpack the bags when I got home. As I am trying to put away all the miscelaneous items into random parts of the kitchen, Mira is crawling around exploring anything and everything I bought. She finds the frozen food bag and to her delight, she discovered a massive bag of frozen peas. Peas are one of the major staples of her day. She loves them. No wait, I may be so bold to say that she might even live for them. I am watching her explore this bag and at first, she tries to pick the peas off the picture on the bag. Very confused, she keeps trying to pick one up. 'Why can't I grab one?', she is probably asking herself. Frustrated, she realizes the little green balls are inside this baggie thing. She starts to whap at it with her hand. Maybe she was trying to hit it open like a pinata.  After many attempts at hitting the bag and not getting to the prize she decides to rip it open with her teeth. She starts to rip at the corner of the bag. With only bottom teeth she doesn't understand that this is going to be a lot harder than it seems. She gets very frustrated and starts to whine with every tug and pull on the frozen pea bag. I decide that maybe I should just give them to her. I place her in her chair and whip out the leftovers of her dinner. I don't even bother to warm it up. If she really wants to eat, then she will eat it cold. I dump a half a bowl of a corn, peas and carrot mix on her tray and she dives right in. She acted like I have never fed her before and that there will be no food tomorrow. When I was done unpacking the groceries I look over to see how she was doing and she ate all the peas. Yup, she left a plateful of yellow and orange and picked out EVERY SINGLE PEA!

A little soggy

Its been raining for almost 2 full days. It finally stopped with some really nice sunlight around Mira's naptime today. I decided that since Jory is a puddles' biggest fan that I would put on his rain boots and let him play in the lake that forms infront of our house. When I brought him in the house after his afternoon of sure bliss I believe there was more water on him (and in my living room) than we started with.
Here he is looking for worms!

April 25th

I have been offline for a few days because of technical difficulties with my computer. It decided that it wanted to piss me off and go caplooey on me. We had to have Apple replace the hard drive and now I am working on getting back to where I was. That's not easy! 

April 25th was a pretty big day! First of all and most importantly, it was Daddy's birthday. Jory and I spent the morning baking him a cake. He likes to crack the eggs for me. Luckily we needed 3. He also likes using the power mixer~ What boy wouldn't? Then we went to the store and picked out cards, bought steaks for dinner and we had a great day. After dinner we ate cake and watched hockey together. Even Mira had a few bites of the cake (no icing yet). Of course she gobbled it up! 

It's also an important day because it marks the day my mom left us just 3 years ago. She always had a way to make sure I remembered her and what other day than my husbands birthday, right? Thanks Mom!! I was very glad that I got to spend the whole day with the kids because they keep me more than happy. And with all the activities we did, I wouldn't want it any other way. 

Last but not least, this marks the day that Mira has been breast feeding longer than Jory did. It's a great accomplishment and there could be nothing better than this for her! Lets just hope that she keeps it up! Go Mira!

10 months ~ Happy Earth Day

Yesterday Mira turned 10 months old. She is amazingly changing all the time. She started to pull up on things and reaching for anything. Those anythings always seem to find their way into her mouth. Speaking of that, she is still a great eater. She loves to eat waffles, grilled cheese, bananas and pears. She really dives into blueberries, too. She does really well with a sippy cup with water and still going strong with the breastfeeding. She has been breaking out in strange hives so I have to be careful of all things that could trigger an allergic reaction from berries to perfumes. Because its Earth Day I want to point out that Mira wears a Gdiaper about 50% of the time and it makes me feel good that about half of the diapers she wears is helping the environment and not hurting it. I would love to go 100% flushable, but with running around with Jory so much, it's very difficult for me. Here is a pic of the big brother just because I feel like adding it in. He wont let me take a good picture of him, so this will have to do. He truly is a cute boy. Honest! Mira has a few new tricks up her sleeve. Daddy discovered this morning that she knows her stuff. When you say 'Bye bye' to her, she will open and close her fingers. When you say 'Yay!' she will clap and when she sees one of our three furry friends she will say 'Ca'. We all know she already says 'Mamamamamama' because when she wants something, needs something or just wants to complain thats what she says. I guess I am used to it already. I am working on 'Daddy' in recognition of Ryan. I am hoping by Fathers Day she will do it. It did take Jory until past his first birthday to say 'Momma'. When she really wants something she will flap her hands real fast and holler until she gets it. Oh, boy! She REALLY knows what she wants.It has been really nice out the past few days so after naptime, I put her in the stroller and hang out until bedtime with Jory. I try to keep her occupied and the best way is to give her a few of her favorite Goldfish. While eating them she discovered a new friend and she loves it. Our neighbor has a mixed breed mutt dog that is as sweet as can be. He seems to love Goldfish just as much as our little lady does. When he comes near her she giggles so loud yo think she will never stop. She loves to try to touch him so sharing is not a problem.This winter I went a little crazy getting some really cute summer outfits for Mira. I cant wait until I can put her in them and try them on. I honestly never thought I would be like this with my little girl, but I am. I admit, I cant wait until her hair grows longer so I can try out all different kinds of bows and hairstyles. The one problem with our little lady is that any pair of socks that she wears, they always become loaners. That right sock seems to mysteriously become a toy rather than a piece of clothing. Thanks to Aunt Jilly, I have a new obsession with  these new shoes called Pedipeds. Unfortunately they become a great teether, but at least they are harder to get off.Mira had her 10 month appointment at the doctors and she is measuring a nice and healthy 21 pounds and 14 ounces. She is 28 inches on the dot. She is quite the juicy little girl because Jory at the same age was a few ounces less than her and a good solid 2 inches taller. I just love those beautiful thighs of hers. She is so yummy!

Mosquitos are NOT our friend!

Today was a gorgeous day and I decided it was time to plant some of my new flowers and bulbs in the back yard. Mira was sleeping peacefully after her doctors appointment so Jory and I were onto the task. I start to dig holes in preparation for the plants and Jory was grabbing any of the rocks he can find. The bigger the better! So I am planting and he is searching for his rocks. He keeps looking into the drainpipe to the gutters where there was a ton of yucky old water. I kept telling him to stay away from it and to leave that water alone. Being that there was water in it, Jory couldn't stay away from it. I finally said firmly to stay away.
"Jory, dont touch the drainpipe."
"Why?"
"Because the water is yucky."
"Why is it yucky?"
"It can attract mosquitos."
"But I like mosquitos."
"They will come and bite you and give you bumps that itch really bad."
"But Mom, mosquitos like Jewish people. I am Jewish!"

If we moved, you think he would find us?

Our little Jory can be quite a handful and definately can give us a run for our money. We know this and we try to be prepaired for the predictable crazyness if it arises. Tonight he went out to dinner with Pop-pop and Grandma and from what we were told, he was a perfect little angel. Of course we are always happy to hear news like that. He ate good, he played well, he was a good listener. What else could we ask for? 

In the meantime, Ryan, Mira and myself had a nice quiet dinner at the Cheesecake before I went on a mini shopping spree at Oshkosh and Carters. There is nothing like teaching your daughter to shop on a tight schedule. Because the grandparents and Jory were close to where we were shopping (and it was getting late) Ryan had them meet us at our car and drop Jory off instead of meeting us at our house. 

Somewhere between Nathan's with his grandparents and our car I suspect that he picked up some Speed on the corner of Merchants Concourse and Old Country Road. Ryan and I were trying to plan out how the bedtime was going to be while Jory was kicking the seats, screaming to try to scare his sister and throwing his shoes. I mentioned that Mira needed a bath and we needed to get Jory to sleep quickly because it was so late. 

Ryan: "You should give her her bath."

Randi: "Are you sure?"

Ryan: "Yea, I don't usually give her baths so you should do it."

Randi: "Well, if I give her the bath then you have to put him to sleep."

Ryan: "I should have told my father we were home already. "

Now its not alone

We finally see the first tooth's twin. Today all the little prickly, rigid edges are visible and there is some white. The skin is broken and there is another tooth. The doc told me many many years ago when I was struggling with Jory and his teething that they always come in pairs like Noahs Ark. The left seem to come first and the right come just after. Jory wasn't a terrible teether. He was fussy but always seemed to be in good spirits. Even when those darned 2 year molars came in, he never skipped a beat. I found them one day when I was tickling him and his mouth was wide open. What was that? 4 new molars?? No friggin way!!! Yup, his just sneaked up behind us. Mira on the other hand, she is not so good with the teeth. First of all she is starting later. Jory got his first at 5 1/2 months but right now she is 9 months and just starting to get them. The other day she woke up screaming so much you thought someone crushed her hand in a vice. I couldn't put her down and nothing, by no means, would calm her down but laying on her momma. You ever see that commercial where the mom was holding a 1+ year old and every time she went to put him down, he would start to scream? Yea, that was her. So, off to the doc we went. She is getting quite a few teeth all at once. I even think I see a bit of a new set. Now our babies toothless smile has 2, very small teeth. Now little Mira will be able to shred anything that she wants to eat! When do you think I should give her a chicken leg?

The Easter bunny is here

The other day I went to Target with Jory so I can get him something special. Mira was sleeping and I got our neighbor to hang out while I spent some time with him. I first have to mention that the something special was a 'Ball that opens with something inside'. So I figured, lucky me, its just after Easter and they will have a ton of the leftover filled eggs and I can cash in on a 'Ball that opens with something inside'. Since I was there and I knew I had a good hour and a half, we browsed the aisles. I picked up pink bunny ears that I was showing Jory how to wear them on my head, but he wasn't interested. I also  picked up a big jug of bubbles for the summer, some random small toys, a bag of M&M's etc etc.  My basket was getting pretty heavy and full by the time we got to the real Easter leftovers. Turns out that there was slim pickings and Jory was very upset that we couldn't find a 'Ball that opens with something inside'. A woman overheard us and found a few eggs that had cars inside. Jory was excited and immediately wanted to check out so he can open them. I did make him walk around a little more for a few extra things. At the checkout counter, Jory couldn't wait to get to the car so he can open his 'Ball that opens with something inside' and I was about exhausted. I did realize people looking at us and looking like they were saying 'Awww how cute is he.' I do get that often when I am with my babies. The checkout lady was looking at my head where I thought my sunglasses were and she gave me a really big smirk. Because I was uncomfortable with her looking at me like that, I  went to take the glasses off my head and there were 2 very tall pink ears towering over me.

Too much TV? Ya think?

So, the other night, Jory was being very chatty.  And why shouldn't he be, it was past his bedtime, and having conversations is how he tries to prolong the nightly routine.  Anyway, I overhear him tell Randi that we need a Space Bag.  I was like, what the hell is a space bag?  So he proceeds to tell me that it's a bag that you hook a vacuum up to and "suck the air out".  OH, THAT space bag.  This comes only a few days after he tells me he wants Pancake Puffs for breakfast.  Actually, maybe those aren't such a bad idea, we can hide some food inside the pancakes.  Anyway, the kids stations like Playhouse Disney and Noggin don't actually have commercials, but once you get into the late night stuff (like Jetix) all bets are off.

1 down, 19 to go!

Mira is now officially out of the toothless club! She finally popped her left bottom front tooth yesterday. Now the sister tooth is trying to follow suit. She, of course, will not let me in there to look at it. You have to get her in the right position and get her to either sing or laugh and you can see white. (or when she is chewing on a goldfish).

It's about time!

9 months in, 9 months out!!

Today marks a very important date. Mira has lived her whole life out of my belly just as much as she was in. To me its such an amazing concept. For 9 months I was only in love with the idea of her. What she will be like, how she will change our lives, what she will become. Now I am in love with her as a person. Her radiant smile, her unique skipping laugh, her massive and most juicy thighs and most importantly, her huggable quality.She is developing into a person with personality, choices, and preferences. This month she has decided that anything off of a spoon is unacceptable and will only eat foods that she can put in her mouth herself. I like to make a concoction  of different varieties of  Cheerios, Gerber puffs and Goldfish. I'll add anything else in that is a good finger food like that, but you get the idea. Jory likes to use them as food for his various trucks and cars. Mira loves to pick out the Goldfish. She will literally push aside everything else just to get to one. 

Mira has figured out how to get from her belly to a sitting position all by herself. At first you can see how proud she was of herself. She always seemed a bit surprised and then real happy about her new stance. Now it's like second nature. I guess she is on to the next stunt. 

We have a talker now. She used to be pretty quiet and only said something when she had something to say. She has discovered that if she makes a noise, someone will look or talk to her. I love to see her at the dinner table and make this loud sound and look intently at her daddy like, "HELLO!!! I am talking to you. YES! YOU DADDY!" And she wont take her gaze off him until he responds to her sound. She will make all sorts of noises while in the car with Jory and stare at him. She wont stop until he looks at her and responds. Usually it gets quite noisy back there. The best is listening to them laugh at each other.  
 
It looks like by the next update, Mira is going to have 2 pearly whites that we are going to have to start brushing. They are just about there and ready to show, but not quite here yet. 

One thing that is totally different from her brother is that Mira loves music. She hears the slightest beat and she starts to rock back and forth. She tries to sing when you sing 'la la la' to her. She will start 'la la la' back at you. It's so cute. What I really noticed within this past month is that she has the EXACT same tongue as my mom did. She would touch her upper lip on the right side with it but it would bend in an almost 90 degree angle. Then on top if that, the part that was bent was very triangular shape. Much like this picture. And on that note. I just cant believe its been 9 months already. She is so big and so wonderful it aches me to describe how much I love her.

When in doubt, open the door

Jory has an obsession with anything that involves water. He puts water in anything that can hold it and calls it a fish tank. They are all over his bedroom and it actually gets out of hand. Aside from his homemade tanks he has toys that have water in them. Like the ones that you push the button and it swooshes a couple of rings and you are supposed to keep doing that until the rings hook onto a pole or something. Daddy put him to sleep and he seemed to do ok. He took a little nap today so I knew he wasn't going to go to sleep right away. Typically he will play in his room or in his bed. Eventually he falls asleep. After I got Mira to sleep I started to hear odd clicking noises coming from Jory's room. I stood there trying to figure out what it was he could possibly doing. After a few minutes of being totally stumped to what he could be doing I decided to go into his room to check out what was going on. He was sitting up in his bed and he gives me a big smile It wasnt a 'im happy to see you' smile, but a 'oh crap, she is going to be pissed' smile. So I go up to him and ask him what he is doing and he just looks at me. He then shows me his water game (the one where you push the button and swoosh the rings) and its empty. EMPTY! Then I notice he as one of his containers and that was empty. UGH! I throw his blanket off of him and feel the bed. It soaked. I mean worse than when he pees while he is asleep during naptime.

What do you do when on the potty?

Ever since we got Jory to poop on the potty, it's a big event. He comes running over to me or Ryan and announces, "I have to go poopieeeeeeeeeee!!!" So one of us, typically me, runs him to a toilet, gets the kid seat on the toilet and props him up so he can do his thing. You would think a child like him would want to poop and get on with life. Nope! He likes to sit there and sit there........ and sit there. Somehow he finds a way to entertain himself. Sometimes he will use his hands, which are really his convienient toys that he calls spiders, and pretends they are on rocket ships and fly in the air. Or they are Superman and they save each other from a fire. A long piece of toilet paper becomes a snake and slithers around his body. He can get quite creative. It's also a nice little break where I know where he is and he is safe. Occasionally he will 'accidentally' drop something small into the toilet and I get the lucky job of fishing it out. Generally, he will sit there for a good 10-15 minutes. He probably would sit longer if I let him.
 
The other day he was doing his thing and I went to go check on him. As I peeked into the bathroom I find him like this but with the entire roll done and holding the brown roll in his hand. 
I asked him in a very unhappy voice, "What happened to the toilet paper? Why did you do that?" and he answers me, "Because I need the roll for Ms Ilene {his teacher at school}. She likes it when I bring them to her in class!"

How thick is moms head?

Today we went to a Bat Mitzvah of our neighbors. We tried to get all sorts of things that they hand out that light up for Jory. They had rings, necklaces, cowboy hats. We were able to get our hands on a light up tamberine. This is not exactly a toy of our choice, but we took what we can get. Jory was playing with me as I was laying on the floor with Mira. She was climbing all over me trying to look at my earrings. Jory takes he tamberine and was pretending to cut all of my hair off with it. He then lays my head on the glowing tamberine, looks at me and then grabs my nose and my chin with both his hands and opens my mouth. As he does this he asks, "Is your mouth lighting up?

See, Cheerios do make you do great things

To our surprise, our little Mira has figured out how to go from laying down to sitting up all by herself! How cool is that? Soon she is going to be running and chasing boys. (Can you see the 20 hairs that just turned gray as I wrote that?) When I went to get her this morning she was sitting in her  crib with a big smile. I think she was very proud that she got herself to sitting all by herself and all before mommy came in to get her.

If I were you, buy stock in Cheerios

Within the past month I started to give Mira Cheerios and other hard mini finger foods like puffs and Gerber cookies. It is quite a show watching her eat them. I will put a small handful infront of her on her highchair and if you didn't know any better, you would think that this child is never fed by the way she dives into them. When the Cheerios hit the table, her hands move like the speed of light to grab each and every one. We are not talking one at a time, but she tries to grab all of them in the two, very uncoordinated hands that she has. After she has as many she could possibly hold, she attempts to shove them all in her mouth. Its amazing to watch her try so hard and only get a few in her mouth of the bunch placed in front of her. The rest either find their way on the seat of the chair, on the floor or within her clothes. The ones that she actually does get in her mouth but somehow fell out of her death grip always seem to get stuck to her clothes and it practically takes a crow bar to get them off. When you take her out of the chair the hail storm of little round O's is unbelievable. Its always fun to change her clothes and have a slew of cheerios fly out at you and all over the floor. She has recently discovered the art of jumping cheerios. When she is done stuffing her little mouth with them and wants a little break, she likes to bang her hands on the table and watch them fly in the air. This, to her, is quite hilarious. My dustbuster has been getting quite a workout these days. 

You just have to pick your battles

"Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Yes, Jory?"

"Mom, I just called you Mom, not Mommy. Ok?"

"Ok, but why?"

"You are Mom and not Mommy because I am 4!"

8 Months and 3 days ~ I'm a little late

Mira is now 8 full months old. She is getting really good at her form of crawling and can get from point A to point B in an unexpected amount of time. Its funny how sometimes I will put her on her floor while I run into Jorys room to get him dressed and we suddenly see this little cface at his door peering in at us saying "Hey, I want to join the party, too!"She started to eat puffs and cheerios and I swear you couldn't put enough infront of her. She will attempt to shove everyone in her mouth as fast as she can. She is alway suprised when she finds one stuck in the grasp of her fingers. She is still reluctant to eat as much solid foods as the docs would like, but we are still in the 'breast is best' stage of her life.She is growing up so quickly I barely want to blink. She is now 20 pounds 4 ounces and 27 1/2 inches tall. She is almost the same as her big brother at this age. He had an extra 1/2 inch or so on her.She loves her big bro and no matter how much he tortures her, he always seems to make her laugh. She loves to look around and explore. You can never get her attention in one spot because the world is so interesting She will look at the tiniest thing and use her pointer to touch it very carefully and if it is mobile, it will wind up in her mouth. You wouldn't believe the fun things I have dug out of her very inquisitive mouth. She absolutely loves the bathtub and splashing the water

Who is he talking about?

A few days ago Jory was putting on a monster truck show for me. His new obsession are these trucks and he growls and zooms and drives me up the wall with them. So as he was putting on this show, I had Mira on the floor and she was crawling away. Unfortunately she was heading straight for Jory's show. Now when you watch this video, do you know who he was talking about? 

4 Years later and this is what we got!

Today is our baby boys 4th birthday. It seems like yesterday that he was in my belly kicking the life outta me (we should have been known this as a glimpse into our future). Then a tiny little 7 pound, 10 ounce baby in our arms. That's not even as big as our smallest cat.  


Jory is now past what is considered a toddler and now a kid. He measures at 42 inches and 36 pounds. I have to recheck all the carseats to make sure he hasn't outgrown any of the limits. He is tall and thin and still (and will always) be one of my favorite people to squish hugs out of.

He loves to play with water, zooming his trucks and cars all over the place, andmaking anyone laugh. He loves it when I tickle him all over. He uses his towel as a cape and pretends he is Batman. His best friend is Josh and his best girlfriend is Elana. He loves to take the bus to school and his favorite after school activity is gymnastics. His favorite foods are cereal and munchkins. He loves to brush my hair and put all sorts of clips and bows in it. He is really good at playing on the computer like his daddy and he loves to make projects and is very creative when he wants to be much like me.

My baby boy is sweet and loving. When he is on the mood, he loves to give hugs. I always cherish when he wants me to snuggle him. He cares so much about the people around him. He will get sad and try to comfort when I am crying because he whacked his knee into my nose or he will tell me that I have to sing to Mira when she is fussy.

I just find it so amazing that this little tiny person has been in my life for only 4 years and he is one of the most important people I know. Happy 4th Birthday, Jory Seth!

Instant happiness

Every baby has a switch. Most of the time this switch will work and on rare occasions, it will have no effect. Mira's switch is our big fat blob of a cat named Andre. If she is hysterical, I can always just walk into the room that Andre is in and she will turn into the happiest baby in the worl.  You would have never known she was crying her eyes out just seconds ago. He is a hefty 22/23 pounds, black and lazy as can be. The two of them are competing in weight, however, Mira has gotten to a point of being able to take him on.  

When she naps, she usually sleeps on my bed and wakes up to her furry friend at the foot of the bed. She actually wakes and looks for him because he is most likely there. She will spot him and look at me, smile, and then head straight for him. With all her might, she will get to his fur coat as fast as she can, giggling the whole way there. When she finally gets there you would have thought she just conqured Mount Everest. Happy as a dog with a jar of peanut butter she will grab and torture this poor animal. The funny thing is, he will go to snip at her to get her to stop but he wont move. (or hurt her) 

Family update

We apologize for the lack of posts around here. This family has been under attack by almost (and I really mean ALMOST) every germ out there. For awhile it was one germ at a time and then this past weekend we got hit like Hiroshima. Hopefully we are all on the mend and there will be no more sickness here. Mira has been the healthiest of all of us (most likely due to her great breastfeeding skills) and here she is to tell you the whole story. 

She was in the middle of dinner when she decided to speak up. Nothing like a little squash to spice up the story.

An unexpected achievement

Just before bedtime yesterday Jory was playing with Mira and trying to make her laugh. Its one of his favorite things to do with her (besides hugging her so hard that he knocks her over and into something). While he was playing with her, she did something I didn't quite expect her to do just yet. Take a look: 

After my initial shock and thinking that from here on out we are officially screwed (she is stronger that I thought and I have to move the crib mattress down) it occurred to me that it made sense. She has been working really hard at crawling and that takes the whole body to do. Plus swinging at the cats as they run past is not easy either.

Sequence of events

Jory si always quite particular abot how certain things are done. His milk cup has to be placed exactly at the top right corner of his cereal bowl. You have to sit on a specific cusion on the couch.

Name spotting

When we got pregnant with each of our kids we tried really hard to find a name for them that was different but not outrageous. With a pretty common last name like ours, this is a way that they can say there is no one else with that name. Unique was our goal and I believe we have achieved that.  However, in the spirit of being different we didn't want names that people would question if we were on drugs when we chose them or if we just flipped through the naming book and closed our eyes and pointed. You would be surprised what kind of odd names are out there. Because the names are on the 'different'  side I always get excited when I spot someone with one of the kids names. I know there is a character from a novel and a musician named Jory. Once in awhile I'll email someone with the name Jory just to see if they like their name and how they got it (if they know why their parents gave it to them). I typically get good responses if you are wondering. Even last year, a girl on American Idol by the name of Jory made it to Hollywood. She didn't make it too far, but still, her name was on TV. The other night after I got Mira to sleep I was watching my usual detective shows that help me wind down from my hectic day and I started to watch a new episode of Psych. I had to watch a particular part where they mention some ones name about a dozen times before I settled that I did hear it right. The name was Mira. The episode was called "There's something about Mira". I was so excited that I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to tell Ryan. Other than the actress, I have never heard the name before. Pretty exciting.

Anyway you can get there

Mira is on the move. She is not on her hands and knees doing a crawl. She has found a new way to get where she wants to. Because she is an expert sitter, she has figured out that while in the sitting position she will rock herself that she can move foward. She is not very quick while on the carpet, but on New Years Eve while we were eating some pizza Daddy was trying to entertain her. Well, she is quicker than we thought.