Jory and Mira

2011-03-28T17:01:00.001-07:00

After school today we were winding down and Jory wanted to play 'School'. So he takes this new Roll-A-Rounds Gumball machine and he distributes the gumballs. He comes over with the machine and asks 'Which color gun-ball do ou want?' and you have to answerwith a color. He will pull the lever and see if the ball that comes out has the right color. if not, he will pull it again. If he remembers he will ask you for $16. When you finally get our color you have to eat it. After the process of getting and eating the gumballs, Jory decides its cleanup time. Everyone has to put the balls in the machine and I tell him we all have to cleanup. he tels me

Short Term Memory

2010-01-09T15:26:00.001-08:00

We all know that our Jory has his issues with food. His menu is limited and on top of that his desire to eat is just as bad. Tonight we took the family out to one of our favorite mexican restaurants for a change from the usual Friendly's or Johnny Rockets. Mira munches on the free tortilla chips and feeds me in the process because, well, mommy just doesn't eat enough. She nibbles here and there on her dinner, my dinner and Jory's dinner as well.

Jory on the other hand looks at his chicken fingers and immediately declares that he doesn't like them. No way is he eating them!! He eats a few waffle fries and thinks he is done. Us parents know he will be asking for potato chips or cookies as soon as we walk back in the door so we push and threaten and negotiate in order for him to get enough food to be acceptable. Every bite was a struggle and a tear. It was quite a scene and only a strong parent can deal with. I am sure many parents would have just left him sitting there and came back later. (if at all)

We finally gave up with the warning that he will not be getting anything after this meal. He will get his nighttime milk and it's bedtime for him. We pack up, take home the ice cream that he will never eat, bundle up and get back in the car. 4 doors close and the car is turned on. The next thing we hear is from Jory, "Mommy, can I have something to eat, please?!"

Short Term Memory

2010-01-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

We all know that our Jory has his issues with food. His menu is limited and on top of that, his desire to eat is just as bad. Tonight we took the family out to one of our favorite mexican restaraunts for a change from the usual Friendly's or Johnny Rockets.

2009-12-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

Facebook has become a pretty big part of our lives here in the Shapiro home. It is great to connect with people you haven't spoken to in a long time. See whats going on with others without the hassle of picking up the phone to call everyone which is great when you have little ones tugging at you all the time. The list of good things that come from facebook are endless. I really love the games that keep popping up on there. You can farm, fish, join a sorority, be part of the mafia, run a resturaunt and so on. And of course, all these games are highly addicting and suck countless hours out of your life.

My personal favorite is FarmVille. I have dabbled in the other games out there and really haven't gotten attached to them like I have the farm games. Jory discovered the fish games when I started to explore them. There are dozens of them. I was playing this one fish game, Fish World, when Jory spotted it. He instantly wanted to play so I let him. I earned enough coins to get his own tank that he can buy and sell fish, decorate and take care of. He wold constantly sell my fish from my tank without asking or telling me and I would get annoyed. So instead of getting aggrivated over this, I just stopped playing and gave him the gam to play. FarmVille, here I come.

So I haven't really been ontop of what he is doing all these fish games he has been playing, but I know he loves playing them. He tells his teacher about them in school. He draws pictures of him playing on the computer with Fish World on the screen. It may be borderline on whether or not his addiction to the game is healthy. It does keep him quiet and out of my hair when I really need the time, so I don't complain.

Lately he has been asking to get the special fish and decorations. These fish and decorations are what supports these games. There are a few nut cases out there that actually put in their credit card numbers just to get cooler items in their tanks and on their farms. Some of them you have to earn mad coins to get them or they are exclusive to people that give them money and that is the only way to get them.

Over and over Jory asks and I tell him when he gets his own credit card or when he is an adult or some other crazy thing that probably will never happen (well, in my mind) that he can put money into the computer and spend it on the games. This has been going on for days and I KNOW he really wants an algae eater or some other exotic fish and I just cant give it to him. I refuse to put money into these things!

The other day we had this fun blizzard and were stuck in the house. Jory jumped from game system to game system to play-doh to game system. He was good and played quietly throughout the day.

That night, after I get both of them to bed and I am trying to relax and play on my farm I hear a weird sound from my laptop. I shake it and I hear it even more. The I think, "Oh CRAP! Something is broken in my computer and I better back everything up!!!!!!" So I do this.

Who are you sleeping with?

2009-11-29T16:14:00.000-08:00

I believe we are going to have a problem with our little Mira. She likes to hoard things. She is unlike her brother who likes to collect things like dice and rocks and other sorts. He at least puts all his collections in containers and keeps those containers in his room. Mira, on the other hand, collects friends. For awhile I would have to bring with me, not only my daughter, but all her doll 'friends'. She would have to lug them along to school.

Just before bedtime I took a snapshot of her bed all setup for the night. She MUST sleep with all these friends in their very specific spot. If they are not in their spot, she gets annoyed and immediately puts them in their proper place. If someone is missing, we cannot even get into the bed until he/she/it is found and put in their place. If there is someone in her bed that doesn't belong, they are quickly thrown out and onto the floor. But it's not only that she moves and removes these friends. She will point and say with a stern voice that they were misplaced and make sure whoever set it up, doesn't make that mistake again. Oy!

So this is the setup:

This all started with these two friends. Monkey always had to be in the right corner and Elmo had to be in the left. No IF's, AND's, or BUT's!

Then a few weeks ago we went to a diner nearby and she got her Pink Teddy Bear. She carried her around until a week later when Jory insisted we go back to get him a Teddy Bear (which has since been lost) and Mira got her own Blue Teddy Bear.

For awhile they slept in Mommy's room. But on Halloween Aunt Jill brought Mira the Orange Candy Bear and now the Teddy Bears must sleep in Orange Candy Bear's lap, right next to Elmo.

We had this small beanie cat for awhile. Last year she was nice enough to ask Ms. Rita at her school if she could hold it, and well, the cat never made it back to Ms. Rita. It's a good thing that Ms. Rita is smitten by Mira's cuteness, or we would have had a pretty big fight on our hands. Thank you!

Then this dog and Ms. Rita's cat used to be placed outside her door just before books/bed time, but they did eventually make it into her special lair of her bed.

Suddenly at a trip to Toys R Us she promised she would replace all her friends that she had to sleep with AND take everywhere with this very soft Webkins Jr. Cat. Soon did I realize that I was scammed and she was just added to the gang. So I guess she figured an appropriate place for her is holding Ms. Rita's cat on top of her by the pink monkey.

Just the other day she picked up this cute Bulldog at CVS and just couldn't put it down. This was his first night joining the crowd, but I soon learned that he didn't make the cut and sleeps on the floor with the other bed rejects.

Now just imagine in the mornings when I come and get her out of her crib, she hands me every one of these friends (and makes me pick up the bulldog off the floor). I have to carry her and them in my bed for her morning show. It's quite an ordeal.

Caught on Video

2009-08-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight as Mira was having a late evening snack of healthy Froot Loops, she started to play with her food and babble to herself. As we started to pay more attention we realized she was actually saying something understandable to an English speaking person.

Mira says the alphabet from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

Will do anything for caffeine

2009-07-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Today Mira didn't take much of a nap. She has a bit of a cough and it was disturbing her sleep. She decided to play outside while we wait for Jory to get off his camp bus

Rolling Bears

2009-06-21T16:37:00.000-07:00

A recent conversation I had with Jory... Some backstory: he's been collecting dice. Yes, dice. After we found some in the house he saw how excited I was because as he started rolling them I was calling the outcome like a casino croupier. Now he just likes counting the pips and asking whether that roll would have made me any money. Anyway... (I have scaled back on the Craps lessons....)

J:"Oh man, I just rolled a hard 3"

R: "You can't roll a hard 3, you can roll a hard 4,6,8 and 10"

J: "Well, rolling bears is hard..."

I had to pause for a second at this comment... It then occurred to me that some of the dice I bought for him were from the hobby shop "scrap dice bin". A specific pair of dice that caught my eye had little bears instead of 1's. I have no idea what game these are from, but whatever, I knew he'd get a kick out of them.

R: "You're right, rolling bears is hard!"

(I found the game! Link)

Pre-School Graduate!

2009-06-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

After 3 years our baby boy is a preschool graduate! On Thursday Ryan and I attended our first of many graduations for our Jory. He was so adorable wearing a handmade graduation cap and marching around with the rest of his classmates. They sand a few songs and each child's name was called out and given a diploma. It seems like yesterday he was a little baby and now he knows all his letters and can even do a little reading.

He really has come a long way in all this time he has been there and we couldn't be any more proud of him and his progress. Kindergarten is a big step and although he seems a little weary of it, I am sure he will do great!

Purim 2009

2009-03-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

Friday was Jory's Purim party for the parents at his preschool. They put on a little singing show like they did for Hanukkah. Notice the similarities of how well he performed! Ill tell you this, he will most likely never be an actor or a musician. He sure doesn't like to sing, either. This time he actually looked bored towards the end.

Purim 2009 from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

How do you make love?

2009-02-21T14:55:00.000-08:00

I was reading Jory a book tonight about giving a gift for Mom for Mothers Day. At the end of the book the boy gives his mother a box full of kisses filled with love. As I am finishing up the book, of course Jory knows the ending because I have read it to him a thousand times already, he asks me a question.

"How do you make love?"

Now this is not a question I was prepared to answer with a 5 year old and certainly not tonight. Of course my mind is thinking that I have to come up with something quite good to hold him over until he asks me again.

To my relief he tells me that love is hearts. You give hearts for love. Then he asks me if I know how to make love. Do "I" know what? Oh god, my heart was dropping. Then he asks if I know how to make love in a toaster.

A toaster? I asked him how?

"You take a long wooden stick and put a strawberry on it and put it in the toaster. Then it makes a spark and that makes love."

Phewww.

I guess that was better than him asking how he got in my belly to grow and how did he get out. And how did Mira get out of my belly. Oh, the questions.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T01:25:00.000-08:00

Nothing like a little heart shaped lollipop to start off a birthday party day!

Class of...

2009-02-08T03:53:00.000-08:00

The SCSD (Syosset Central School District) sends out newsletters every couple of months with blurbs and accomplishments about the neighborhood schools. Here is the opening paragraph of the Kindergarten Registration Reminder:

Syosset School Disctrict resident children who will be five years old on or before December 1, 2009 are entitled to begin kindergarten in September 2009. These children will form the Syosset High School graduating class of 2022.

Wait, what?! I guess I just never saw it written that way. Well, I graduated in 92, so I guess we're right on schedule.

3 am body parts check

2009-01-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

The other night started out very quiet and calm. The kids went to sleep with not much of a fight and Ryan and I were able to watch American Idol off the Tivo undisturbed. We were looking forward to a full night of peaceful sleep. I hear whining coming from Mira's room. Then crying and after that was screaming. This is when I mutter words of dislike to my offspring and she just screams my name. "MOMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYY!" I look at my clock, 3 a.m. "Ugh!" is all I could say.

I crawl out of my very warm and comfy bed with a very big, fat cat sleeping soundly above my head. She keeps screaming until I open her door and then suddenly silence. She looks at me and smiles, says a few unrecognizable words and then I pick her up to sit in the rocking chair. This time she did NOT want to sit with me.

As soon as I turned towards the chair she pointed with a fierce determination to the door and yelled "Da-yee!" So, she wanted her daddy and I was in no mood to argue with her. I brought her to our bed and plopped her on my beloved. She was wide awake and I think the two of us were hoping the other would watch her while we slept. She would have none of that! She likes to lay on her mommy. She requested her favorite friend Elmo a few times but the answer was NO. Then she decided that she was going to inspect her parents. Maybe she was trying to make sure we were the same ones she had before going to bed. She squeezed Daddy's nose. Yup! Still there. She touched her own and then came over to mommy. Nose: Check! Then she went onto the other parts she knows. Ears: Check, check and check! We all had those, too. Eyes, mouth, teeth and whatever else she could find. By then we were a bit baffled and even more exhausted.

When she was done checking the parent figures out, she insisted on getting out of the bed. So I put her down on the floor to see where she would go. I was figuring she was going to lead me to her room to read her a gazillion books or to the kitchen for another cup or a snack. I was even thinking for a brief moment that she may try to go to the den to see if Elmo was possibly available there. Nope. She bolted straight for big brothers room. I have never seen her walk so fast to get somewhere. I could have been so tired that it seemed faster than it really was but she was, once again, determined.

Oh no! We do not bother Jory when he sleeps. She was not happy that Jory's door was shut and not to be opened. It did take a gazillion books before she stopped checking all my parts once again and back to sleep.

Disrobed

2009-01-05T05:03:00.000-08:00

Today is a pretty busy day for me. I have a ton of calls and appointments to make as well as cleaning up breakfast and some major laundry projects need to be done or no one will have clothes to wear by the middle of the week. After I got home from dropping Jory off at his first day back to school after a long vacation and running some errands, I decided to put Mira in front of a Sesame Street so I can get things done. Of course she is happy as a pig in poop, so I know she is fine.

After a few phone calls and unloading and loading the dishwasher I get a visit from the little princess. She is happy and chatty and of course asking me for a cup and a cookie. You would think nothing of it. I turn around and I see this:

Then when she turned around to find me, I asked her, "What happened to your clothes?" and this is what she does:

There is never a dull moment here. Now I am beginning to wonder what Elmo is teaching her.

The grass is always greener...

2009-01-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we had a few days, maybe weeks, where eating was a battle with Mira. She would refuse to eat everything and anything that was on her plate unless it was a potato chip or something chocolate. (Yes, I think it's a little too early for PMS indulgences). So in my frustration, I decided that if she wasn't going to eat dinner, I wasn't going to try. After potatoes and chicken pieces went flying across the room, I took her out of the highchair and told her to go play. She went right over to her Daddy, who just a few minutes before we sat down for dinner walked in from work. Its so nice to see that she wanted to be with him. She insisted on sitting on his lap. We knew this from her persistent grunting and squealing. She finally got what she wanted, Daddy's lap. It turns out that it wasn't HER dinner she wanted.

Daddy's Dinner from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

It's Hanukkah Time

2008-12-22T13:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-03T15:52:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-13T02:07:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Its official, Mira is ONE!

2008-06-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-15T04:03:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-06-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-05-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-05-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-05-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-04-08T16:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-04T01:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T01:21:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-03-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-25T01:06:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-03-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-03-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-03-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-03T14:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-03-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

"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

2008-02-24T01:11:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-02-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-18T15:52:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-25T00:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-14T03:42:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

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.

Three strikes

2007-12-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

We start our bedtime stating that Jory gets 3 books read to him when he is ready and in bed. If he does something bad or unacceptable, we take one away. Three is a good number because it gives him 3 strikes. We still want him to get a book, so typically we will always try to find a way to read at least one. Last night as I was getting him ready for bed. Jory wasnt listening and was being very difficult. He has a new obsession with the word 'stupid'. He knows its a bad word and we certainly don't like him saying it. So, for saying that I stated that he lost one of his 3 books and will only get 2 books. Next he lost a book for making it difficult to get his pajamas on. We are not just saying he was not getting undressed, he was running away and jumping off his bed and even trying to run into homeplate from across the room. Strike 2. The last straw was flailing his arms and hands and shaking his head back and forth while I attempted to brush his teeth. The last book was taken away and I have to sit ontop of him while I pin his arms down with the inside of my knees. After this long and hard battle, I finally ask him to get into his bed and he does, eventually. So I give him back a book for doing that. I tuck him and his Tigger under the blankets. I hand him his sleeping cup and start to read his one book of the night. After I was done he asks me for more books. I told him very politely that he only gets one book because he lost his other 2 for not listening. He then asks me, "If I lost 2 books, then where did they go?"

Proof that Darth Vader is evil

2007-12-30T17:37:00.000-08:00

So Jory saw that I was watching a documentary on Star Wars tonight and said he wanted to watch it (the movie, not the documentary). Not to miss out on this opportunity, I laid out all the Episodes and asked him to pick which one he wanted to watch. He chose Empire Strikes Back, based solely on the attractiveness of the DVD Cover, perhaps it was the color of the lightsaber. He rarely watches live action movies, but for some reason this kept his interest.

Jory started to really test my star wars knowledge by asking about every character and droid that crossed the screen. After a ten minute explanation of the purpose of the probe droid, and why it had to be blown up, as well as the scene with the "bad snowman", we get to Darth Vader and the following bit of dialogue:

VADER: He is as clumsy as he is stupid. General, prepare your troops
for a surface attack.

Jory then turns to me with a smile and says, "He said stupid". I quickly responded, "That's because he's bad."

On his way to manhood

2007-12-30T12:21:00.000-08:00

I am in Mira's room changing her diaper. It was a simple pee pee diaper and she was playing nicely on the table after I was done. Jory comes up looking for us. He finds where we are an he brings a new monster truck he earned for being such a good boy today. He accidentally rolls it under the crib and works at retrieving it. While he is engrossed in his task, I bring Mira to the floor to play with her and Jory when he is done. I smell something and I ask Jory if he farted. Typically this question will bring him to the conclusion that he has to go to the potty. Instead he lets out a nice little new forced fart for me. He giggles and says, "Now I farted!!"

Happy Half Year- 6 month stats

2007-12-29T06:33:00.000-08:00

This past week, Mira went for her 6 month checkup. Everything checks out great. She is growing well and I have to admit, very quickly. She weighs 18 pounds, 12 ounces and is 26 3/4 tall. She has already moved from the infant carrier to a big girl convertible car seat. So this means easy transport of a sleeping baby days are over. I now have to do my errands around her sleeping schedule. She has been eating some solids and I am going to attempt to add another 'meal' to her day. I have noticed that she is starting to get bit mobile. Crawling? No way! While she is sitting she will rock herself so that she will get to what she was aiming for and fairly quickly. She shovels everything into her mouth and wants to sample everything: Cat tails, wrapping paper, maybe even a toy or two. Mira had a few shots and did really well. She was supposed to have her eye test but someone decided that the day I come in they wont be given so we will be back in a month.

Mira Zippora

2007-12-28T17:49:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday was Mira's baby naming. It went really wonderfully and it was such a great day. It meant so much to me because she is named after my mother. She was a difficult woman but she was intelligent, determined and knew what she wanted. The one thing I knew, from the moment I found out we were having a baby girl was that I wanted to share this experience with her and that she would have done anything to be a part of Miras life. Knowing that my baby girl will pass her name and spirit will keep her close to our hearts.

The food was great, the coffee was smooth and the company couldn't have been better. The ceremony was wonderful and the Rabbi was amazing. Cousin Ari told us his hebrew name and that it means Lion. Aunt Frannie talked about mom and how her name means bird. Jory was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd of people and was a bit clingy. That was resolved by giving him a paper cup and a handful of marbles. Oh, Grandpa Harvey does a good job of keeping him calm, too.

Here are some pictures:

All of us with Uncle Eric in the back there

Jory eating Nemo gummies at the ceremony table.

Mommy and Mira while she tried to get the flower of her dress in her mouth.

Daddy holding Mira's naming certificate.

A few people have asked me to post what I wrote for her naming so here it goes. Enjoy.
“…many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow." (From The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster)

We wish for you a perfect day. Bright smiles while you dance in the summer sun. Picking flowers just to throw them in the air to shower the world. Your heart filled with wishes that only a single coin can help come true. Chase fireflies and pretend they are Tinkerbell. Feel the kiss of a snowflake on your cheek. Tell a fairytale from the images the clouds paint for you. Build yourself a castle and name yourself Queen.

If you close your eyes, you can see anything. Put your arms out and dream. You can do everything, you can be anything. Never forget who you are. Your heart is filled with love from those you may not even know. You make your path by stepping forward. Always look ahead and reach for all that you dream. Find your inner strength. Be true to yourself and your heart. Surround yourself with those who love you and fall in love with what makes you happy. Your life is full of possibilities that no one can imagine.

You will always be watched by a very special star above. My Mom will never be here to hold you in her arms, but she is within you and will live on as long as she is remembered. All she ever wanted was a granddaughter. I know that deep down inside she gave you to us.

No question about it!

2007-12-24T02:41:00.000-08:00

Jory and I were having some male bonding time in one of my favorite ways:Playing Super Mario Galaxy. (the other is watching hockey) We were having a great time playing for awhile. I then turned to Jory and asked him, "Hey, you know who's my favorite?" He replies, "Mario?" I quickly said back, "No. My favorite starts with J." With excitement in his voice he immediately says, "Is it me, Daddy?" "Yep!!"

Dont know how to title this

2007-12-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

Im getting Jory ready for nap. I was asking about his day at school. I asked him if he went poopie at school? He replies that he did and that Ms Barbara wiped his tushie, too. Thats great. I am about to get him settled and start to read his book. He starts to jump around the room. Something was up. All of a sudden, in between his jumps, he starts to bounce like he has to poop. Oh boy. "Mommyyyyyyyy, I have to go poopieeeeeeee!" So I tell him to get to the potty and we get him ready to sit and do his thing. As I get him on the toilet, he says to me "Maybe I didn't go poopie at school today. I think that was a different day."

The classics are endangered

2007-12-13T11:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight, as we were winding down and watching a Legion of Superheroes DVD, the classic Warner Brothers emblem comes on at the beginning of the show. This one had Bugs Bunny leaning on the gold WB symbol chomping on a carrot.

"Daddy, who is that?"
"Thats Bugs Bunny."
"Who is Bugs Bunny, Daddy?"

Ryan looks at me with disbelief and whips out our Looney Tunes box set and tells me I have to educate our children.

The Honeymoon is Over

2007-12-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

There are many reasons why I decided to breastfeed my children. It's healthier for them, as well as me, its cheaper, natural and what we were meant to do, it creates a stronger bond between parents an child, its portable and I never have to remember to take it with me. The list goes on and on. One really great perk to an exclusively breastfed baby is that their poopies do not smell. I love this because I just cannot stand the smell of poopies. Especially when its a new smell to me. Mira started on some solid foods. She has been getting some oatmeal and just started with carrots and squash. I cannot say that she has been super excited about it. She gets it in her mouth and seems indiferent

Who needs tickets to the Philharmonic?

2007-12-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

Jory has been getting very good at singing and remembering songs. There was a time where he would refuse to listen or acknowledge a song. God forbid you should ask him to sing one. That was like asking him to pull out every hair on his head one by one.

Lately we have been listening to him on the monitor at all hours of the night after bedtime. Occasionally we will hear him in the morning singing before he thinks its ‘goodmorning’ time and is allowed out of bed. Anytime before the sun is up, he knows he has to get back into bed, so why bother, right?

Tonight after a long battle with his parents to get into bed, Jory started the concert. He started off with a very good rendition of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ and sang it a few times. I guess he got bored of that song, I know I do after singing it about 10 or 15 times over and over again, and he attempted to sing mommy’s alternate version of ‘Happy Birthday’. I know this was triggered because he went to a birthday party today, which will now start the everlasting flow of birthday parties until his in February. It picks up again in April and doesn’t end until the end of school. So, I digress, my apologies. He starts to sing in a very nice tone “Happy Birthday to you…you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey and you smell like one too”. Everytime he would sing it he knew he had messed up the words and couldn’t figure out the right ones so he would start over. And the, nope, it was wrong again, he had to start over.

It actually got to the point where I just wanted to sing it through the door so he would just get it right. NO, you don’t smell like a zoo and live in a monkey. It gets very frustrating after awhile. He gave up and moved on to singing the entire song of ‘Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel’ and ‘Baby Loves Latkas, Latkas, Latkas’.

He finally stopped and fell asleep. Its hard work to remember and sing all those songs!

Happy Hanukah

2007-12-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the first night of Hanukah. Its always a very exciting time around here. Jory has been learning every year that we light the candles and say a prayer. We add a candle every night for each night until there are 8. Gifts are supposed to be an afterthought but to any child under the age of 80 presents are very exciting.

While we were eating dinner Ryan was asking Jory about Hanukah. It was quite impressive how much he really did know. The one question that caught our attention was "How many candles do we light tonight?" Jorys answer was "The Shamos" in a plain-as-day tone. Ryan and I looked at eachother amazed that he even knew what that was and shocked at the unexpected answer. A few giggles flew across the room and then back to finishing dinner so we can get started.

We set out to the dining room to light the first candles and exchange presents. Ryan is all ready with a lighter for the candles. Jory picked 2 matching candles out of the assortment of Hanukah candles. Ryan lights the Shamos and gets Jory ready to repeat the Brochos after him. Ryan starts and says "Baruch" and as proud parents, we wait for Jory to say the same but instead he says "Ata". At that moment, Ryan and I hit the floor laughing. Since when does this child know how to recite the Hanukah prayer? How did he remember that? Who just said that? So, as Ryan is trying to suppress his laughter in an attempt to keep his cool and move on, he says "Ado-nai". We then hear out of a very familiar, unsure voice "Elo-heinu". After that we both lost it.

I think Jory was a bit confused as to why we were laughing so hard. After we had finally collected ourselves Ryan finished up the prayer with Jory repeating after him. I think he just didn't know after the Elo-heinu so he went with the flow. I guess he really is learning a lot in his school. I think next year, he will be able to say the whole thing without us even starting it for him. I'm thinking that if we start now, he may be able to recite the four questions.

Mira and Andre

2007-12-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

Photo_120107_002

Originally uploaded by BladeZ22

Andre is too lazy to move and Mira loves to grab his fur. They make a combination that I just had to share.

Of superheroes, real and animated...

2007-12-01T16:30:00.000-08:00

Photo_120107_001

Originally uploaded by BladeZ22

So, Jory has been interested in watching Superhero cartoons lately. Naturally, I jumped all over this and bought Justice League Unlimited Season 1 on DVD. This is a fantastic series, and while it might be a little violent at times, I think it's actually better than cartoons like spongebob. Superheroes don't act like idiots.
So, Justice League, for most of you reading this blog, is a cartoon containing tons of characters from the DC universe. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman all hang out and fight crime together. Combine this with a healthy dose of Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series on Jetix and you can easily see the scales tipping in the DC favor. Therefore, he was only allowed to watch X-Men Evolution this weekend. But, I digress...

So, Jory and I hit the mall today for the foam playground and to grab some lunch. Everyone was wearing Batman shirts. Apparently, it's too early for Santa, but not for Batman! Jory wanted to meet him. We went looking around Santa's neighborhood and it looks like we missed him.
After lunch we check one more time and what do we see. Batman came over to the playground to meet the kids and give out autographs. Well, Jory was terrified and confused as hell. He wouldn't go within a 5 foot radius of Batman. Being the terrible parent that I am, I carry him over and Batman was able to ask him his name and say hello. The great part is, this guy was a pretty convincing batman. He even spoke in a Michael Keaton-esque era Batman voice. Which, was a bit scary, but the older kids ate it up.
Since Jory wouldn't pose for a shot, here is Batman greeting the other kids in the mall.

A picture of Daddy

2007-12-01T05:49:00.000-08:00

An original work of art titled 'Daddy'

If you look on the bottom, Jory attempted to sign his artwork with writing an R and part of a Y. Or maybe he was trying to title it 'Ry'?

The hooded piglet

2007-11-29T08:26:00.000-08:00

Every month I try to take a photo of our growing princess in the same setting. I tried to do this with Jory, but life kinda got in the way. Its a great way to watch how they grow and how much they change. This is Mira's 5 month shot.

This may pose a problem on a date

2007-11-25T15:49:00.000-08:00

Tonight while we were eating dinner, I decided to indulge myself and feed Mira some oatmeal. She has been getting some here and there, but I haven't been very consistent with it. I make about 2 tablespoons and I give her a spoonful between my bites of dinner. I soon noticed that between every spoonful of cereal she would get, she would immediately chase it with a mouthful of her left thumb. She wouldn't give me even a second after her spoonful so I can wipe her dribbles. Whatever didn't get into the mouth wound up getting smooshed all over her face from her thumb. I then attempted to place my feeding hand in the way of her thumb sucking hand (the left). That did stop the thumb chasers but she wanted to dive right into the bowl of cereal. The right hand was exploring the mushy stuff that somehow made its way into her mouth. That was quite a cleanup job.

My Fatty Patty- 5 month stats

2007-11-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

Mira had her 5 month appointment today. Her physical abilities are well into the average of 6 month olds. Her fine motor skills are average. The one thing we notice is that she doesn't talk so much. She is good at getting our attention and chats when she feels like it. This, she probably gets from her daddy. All in all, she is doing perfectly!

She is now a good 25 1/2 inches tall and a hefty 17 lbs 4 ounces. She is 95% in weight and 75% in height. She got 2 shots today and maybe she will give mommy a good nights sleep by sleeping through the night for once.

I don't know Jory's stats for 5 months because the papers probably got lost in the mess of the fire way back when. She is actually falling in the same weight range as him but he seemed to always be a good 2 inches over her in comparison. Our little Mira's thighs can show for where that extra weight is. She has the perfect little turkey thighs, appropriate for Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Cookbook

2007-11-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

Jory's class has been doing all sorts of Thanksgiving activities and crafts these past few weeks. He has been sent home with a turkey hat that he can wear on thanksgiving, turkey drawings and the ever so popular fingerprint turkey.

Today I was very surprised to see in his backpack a cookbook. It was titled 'Rainbow Fish Complete Thanksgiving Cookbook 2007 ~ All you need to cook a foolproof dinner'. I was expecting to find simple recipes that I could possibly do with Jory for the holiday. As I open the book I find what the kids were asked they will have on Thanksgiving and how it is made.

Jory's Thanksgiving dinner is said to be French Toast. How is it made? This is what he said: Get sugar, 4 eggs, flour and fruit juice. Mix it together so it looks like banana bread. Cook it in the oven so it can get hot. Then take it out and eat it with a fork. Yummy!

An observation

2007-11-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

"Daddy, why do you play video games allllllllllll the time?"

Live in Concert

2007-11-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

Before the hockey game started, Ryan wanted to play a little Guitar Hero. So after dinner he rushed down and started to play. Which system and which version is beyond me, but I know he loves to play. When Jory finally finished his bowl of cereal he ran down to play with daddy and the ‘violins’ I leave Mira with them on the couch and hurry to gather some laundry. I come downstairs with a pretty big load of wash and I was caught off guard to what I was witnessing.

Daddy was in familiar character to me but Jory was strapped up with his guitar in hand. His right hand on the soundboard and the left holding the fingerboard. Of course his hand was grasping from above instead from the underneath but you can tell he got the idea.

So there I was, watching the two males in my family playing (or pretending to) Guitar Hero. They were jamming to Poisons’ Talk Dirty to Me. Jory, was not just playing, but dancing around like C.C. DeVille in a concert trying to impress someone with his fingerwork.

The kicker in this scene was not my son trying to be a rockstar but my daughter sitting behind them on the couch rocking herself in excitement like their own personal backstage groupie.

A new perspective

2007-11-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

Strength seems to be a big feature in our babies. When Jory was born, he was holding his head up for brief moments and were amazing his doctors. Mira was able to do mini pushups from 2-3 weeks. She had no head lag at her 2 month appointment. At her 4 month appointment the doc told me that she wouldn't be surprised if she was standing on all fours by her 5 month appointment. Today she started to do something that we didn't expect, but certainly makes a ton of sense. This morning while I was playing with her, she sat unsupported for a good 30 seconds. WOW! I thought it was a fluke. Maybe I was able to get all her rolls positioned in such a way that she could sit upright. Then this afternoon while I was putting Jory down for his nap Daddy was playing with her. Turns out the upright position was not a fluke. She was sitting up, happy and proud watching her Ocean Wonders crib toy. How exciting!This does make sense. She will rock herself with her belly muscles all day if she could. When you hold her in your lap, she will swing herself back and forth with great strength and excitement. Then tonight as we were playing in the den, she did it again. She sat in her new position for a good 3 minutes at a time. And then while waiting for her bath to be ready, daddy had her watching her ocean wonders toy again and sat almost all the way through. That's a good 10 minutes. We even witnessed her compensating when she started to lean to one side, she would correct herself and lean the other way to get herself upright. What a strong little lady we have.

Trying to get to the moon

2007-11-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

I believe that Mira's favorite place to be is in her Jumparoo. As soon as I put her in it, she jumps like there is no tomorrow and she smiles brighter than the sun. Today I tried to capture her and how high she can go. I discovered that she taught herself a new trick by rocking herself when she gets tired of jumping. When she gets jumping again, she jumps so high that sometimes I think she may jump right out of it. See for yourself:

The more, the better

2007-11-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

After school today, the three of us trekked to the doctors office for a flu shot for Jory. He tells me he didn’t like the ‘pencil’ because it hurt him, but he was very proud to be wearing 3 band-aids when he left. One was a random one that we placed on his leg because he had a make believe boo-boo a few days ago. He had one on his finger because we found a blister on his pinky and one on his arm where he got the vaccine.

He kept asking me why he got a flu shot and I kept telling him because I don’t want him to get the flu. Over and over again this went on. Finally he tells me that its ok that he got a flu shot because NOW he has three band-aids.

Trick or Treat

2007-10-31T17:06:00.000-07:00

We did very well trick or treating today. Jory was excited to go as a pumpkin and Mira, well, she didn't have a choice, but she looked so cute as a butterfly. Here are a few pics.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T09:59:00.000-07:00

Jory and Mommy made a jack-o-lantern that will surely frighten away the trick-or-treaters!

The never ending battle

2007-10-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

Mommy: You had an accident at school today? Why didn't you tell the teacher you had to go to the bathroom?

Jory: I didn't have an accident, I just forgot to tell the teacher I had to go.

Yup, five on each side

2007-10-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today Mira and I went to pick up Jory at school. He was his usual self and cute as always. When we got home she was sleeping soundly in her carrier so I let her be. In the meantime I attempted to give him a second lunch because he doesn’t eat the lunch served at school. As I was sitting at the table looking at a very delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I hear the kid counting to five over and over again in the living room where Mira was sleeping. I keep calling him to come eat but he tells me he is counting her fingers. He asks me to come see and I simply reply that he needs to eat his sandwich first.

Jory decided that I needed to see him count her fingers right at that moment so instead of fighting me to come in there, he dragged her whole carrier into the kitchen, baby and all. He then proceeded to show me how many fingers his sister had on each hand.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich never got eaten.

Some pics from today...

2007-10-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

For some reason, Jory actually sat still for a photo with his sister. We were all so amazed I had to share it.

Nouns

2007-10-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Jerry: Do you think she knows her name yet?

Mommy: Not sure. Although she would probably think her name is “The Baby”.
Don’t touch The Baby, watch out for The Baby, don’t step on The Baby.

Brace Yourself

2007-10-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

1.44 MB

2007-10-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

So, we were out to dinner last night and I grabbed a few things to keep Jory occupied. One of them was a pack of flash cards. These are just pictures of various every day objects. He can probably do the whole deck as this is obviously designed for much younger kids. He is flipping through them and announcing each one as he goes. Then he announces "I don't know what this is". I'm expecting it to be some kind of farm equipment, but instead see the picture below.

Jory: Daddy, I dont know what this is.
Me: And you'll probably never have to...

Welcome to Jory and Mira!

2007-10-27T04:49:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Welcome to our WordPress blog for Jory and Mira. We haven't been very good about sharing photos, and the stories we have are too funny not to tell everyone. Check out the site regularly, or subscribe to the RSS feed for instant updates. It's amazing what a 3 year old mind can come up with, and Mira doesn't need to say much to make anyone smile. Bear with us we pretty up the site, but let's get started with our first photo and a story...