Caught on Video

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.

Purim 2009

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.

The grass is always greener...

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

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.

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

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








Halloween March from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

Walking update

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


Practicing walking from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

Finally at 16 months and 3 days old...

Mira's First Steps from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

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

Put on your poncho

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

Straw drinking from Randi Shapiro on Vimeo.

It just never ends!

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

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

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

Mira's 1st Year Video

If I were you, buy stock in Cheerios

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

Who is he talking about?

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

Instant happiness

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

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

Family update

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

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