Miriam, Joseph, and "Ba-buh"/"baby Miriam"

So it seems our family memories have ceased since I apparently have had nothing to blog about in over a month.... whoops. However that isn't the case. We have just been super busy and I have been taking advantage of the off time and been lazy as possible, even going days without facebook stalking (gasp!).
Here is a rundown of some things that have taken place in last month or more:
1. Lion King on Broadway - Josh's folks took us to Lion King and I wish so badly they would allow you to video tape because I wanted to video the kids, not the play. Watching them was way more entertaining than watching the play (not that it was a bad play, just that the kids were loving it and it was so fun watching them love it!) Even Joseph was mesmorized the whole first act. The unfortunate thing was the play was during nap time and so he couldn't stay awake for the second act. Miriam was in love. At intermission she said "I don't want to go home!" and then after the second act she wanted to go again. It was really sweet.

2. Weather issues - why can't it just be spring and stay spring?! The kids are so antsy (so are their parents) to play outside every evening. Last week, good ol' Nebraska weather gave us a thunderstorm, a snow storm, and 70 degree weather in 72hrs.

3. Miriam is 3 - terribly 3..... I was warned by a friend that the 3's are worse than the 2's and so far, a month in, I can totally vouch for that. She is still my little sweetheart and she is still an awesome big sister to her "baby Joseph" but 3 has made her very opinionated and very independent. Josh gets the worst of it when he has to wake her in the mornings and get her ready for daycare. That is when getting up at 5am to go to work is totally worth it for me :) He said the worst part is picking out clothes, because she doesn't necessarily care what she wears, she just doesn't want to wear whatever you pick out or suggest. And when it comes to eating dinner.... ugh. Same thing. She doesn't want to eat whatever Mama made for dinner, but then once you finally get her to try a bite after 2 hrs of fighting and now cold food, she realizes it isn't too bad... except that it's cold. So she cries about that. Her favorite things now are Cars movies, matchbox cars, coloring, and reading Brown Bear Brown Bear to "baby Joseph". Oh, and not wiping after going to the bathroom. Are you jealous now Grace? Not being potty trained def has its perks.

4. Joseph - or "baby Joseph" as Miriam calls him. He is a monster. His favorite things to do are run into hard surfaces and collect as many bruises, bumps, black eyes, and bloody lips as possible to keep his parents concerned that people are thinking us abusive. Oh and the few times we've gone to the park he always finds a nice chunk of cement to dive headfirst into. He loves answering Miriam's requests to "gimmie a hug" and then proceeds to take her down and turn it into a wrestling match. He is obsessed with cars and last time we walked around the block he stopped to pet every car we came across. He continues to eat, eat, eat. And his vocabulary has now expanded by 33%. He now says "Dada" "Mama" and "Buh!" (bus). Poor kid. His chatty kathy sister makes him look like a mute. He doesn't even try to talk. Although he still emits plenty of noise.... "ahhhhhhhhh!" as he flaps his arms up above his head. And blowing kisses is his new favorite thing. He is pretty good at it and it can melt anyone's heart.

5. "Ba-buh!" Joseph's attempt to say the word baby in regards to baby #3 coming this September. It has been a very rough pregnancy so far, I won't waste a paragraph or post on that, but that has also been a reason I have stayed away from updates.... didn't want to vomit on the keyboard or pass out and type a bunch of nonsense with my face. We didn't tell anyone until this past week, not even the kids really because we didn't know if Miriam would decide to run around telling everyone or not (she hasn't, I still don't think she really gets it). But when I ask her if she wants a brother or sister she says "I already have a brother, baby Joseph!" So then I say "Do you want a sister?" "Yes" "What shall we name her?" "Ummmmm baby Miriam, and she'll be cute!"

It will be a very exciting Fall for us, with Josh due to graduate with his PhD in August, then the baby in September, and then moving whereever he gets a postdoc position, so between Aug 10th and Dec 31st. I'm hoping we can stay and have the baby here and I don't want to move halfway across the country at 37wks pregnant with 2 toddlers. But we will see what our future holds!

"I'm freeee!"

"Miriam, how old are you?"

"ummmmm 2!"

"No you aren't, you're 3!"

"No I not!"

"Miriam, when's your birthday?"

"March 9th"

"And what day is today?"

"ummmm I dunno"

"Today is March 9th! Today is your birthday! You're 3!"

"I'm freeee?!?!"

 

"I don't like birthday cake. I don't want to eat dis." she whined after this picture was taken

 

Alright dear girl, here is some current highlights in your life:

Favorite color: changes daily from green, blue, purple, pink

Favorite blanket: pink on one side, green and pink polka dots on other

Favorite books: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Hop on Pop, Brown Bear Brown Bear

Favorite pastime: coloring, tracing letters, doing puzzles

Favorite game in the car: I Spy

Favorite foods: crackers, Reeses peanut butter cups

Least favorite foods: anything homemade by mama

Sleeping habits: 10pm-ish til 7am with 2-3 20-30min wake ups in middle of night

Potty Training status: completely trained during the day, still PullUps at night

Favorite movie: Madagascar, Cars, Shrek (1, 2, 3), Lion King

Favorite songs: Home by Phillip Phillips, Whistle by Flo Rida, Gloria (at church)

Favorite person: Joseph (when you wake up in the mornings, you ask "Where's Joseph?")

Favorite teacher at school: Debbie ("I want my Debbie!" you'll cry out if she has a sub in the room)

 

At heart, you are a sweet sweet little girl. You are very loving, kind, and mostly gentle with Joseph. "Joseph, want to hold my hand?" and you'll grab his hand and "go for a walk" around the house together. You will also sit down and read him Brown Bear Brown Bear or make funny noises to make him giggle. You are helpful with letting me know when Joseph is getting into something.

But... you are a horrible sleeper. You thrash and wake up and have to have mama or dada holding your hand thru the night. You will wake up and be inconsolable for 20-30 minutes once or twice a night sometimes. You take a nap at daycare for 90 min-ish. On weekends for Mom and Dad you fight sleep and refuse naps which makes it harder for you to drift peacefully off to sleep those nights. That's pry your biggest con :) But we keep telling ourselves that the good thing is you have set the bar pretty low, so any child of ours that sleeps more than 4 hrs at a time at night will seem miraculous!

 

We love you dearly Miriam Goretti. It's been so fun watching you grow and seeing how much you love to learn. It's neat watching you work so diligently on your puzzles and then tell Joseph "See, this goes here!" You are, and are going to be, a wonderful big sister for your siblings. We look so forward to watching you continue to grow.

Happy Birthday my Love

 

 

"I love school"

Miriam came home from daycare yesterday and said "Mama! I love school!" ahhhh that just warms a mama's heart!
We have some good friends coming to visit us the rest of the week from Michigan and so Josh and I have been frantically trying to clean the house while the children frantically try to tear it apart. We decided that "Trying to clean the house while the toddlers are home is like trying to brush your teeth while eating Oreos."

Miriam and Joseph have this new game where Miriam will go stand a few feet in front of him and say "Joe! Come gimmie hug!" and he will back up a few steps to take a running start to run into her arms and give her a hug. It's soooo precious! But then 9 times out of 10 his next "sweet move" is to take her to the ground and wrestle her.....

Our plans for the next few days are hitting up as many opportunities to wear the children out before the 12-14inches of snow that is predicted hits us Thursday.

"Jo Jo"

Yesterday Miriam decided to start calling Joseph by a nickname and it melted both Josh and I's hearts. After picking them up at daycare, Joseph was fussing after being strapped in his carseat and Miriam reached across the backseat from her carseat and said "Jo Jo, I'm right here! Don't fuss!" Then all night she would chase him around and use his new nickname. It was soooooo sweet. Niether Josh or I use the nickname for him so she developed it on her own and that makes it all the more sweet.

Joseph now (finally) has doubled his vocabulary! He is now proficient at DaDa and MaMa! haha He has gotten quite chatty since beginning daycare but it is still all unintelligable words "dis!" "da!" "gah!" "issshh!" So we stick to the sign language.... where he knows one word "more". Go figure.... how else would he communicate to us that he needs his second and third servings of food every meal!? :-)

Pictures

The kids have excelled at daycare, it has been so fun to see them evolve. Joseph has done very well and he is now more chatty than he was before (although it is all still nonintelligable). He has become less fussy and better able to self-entertain. He also seems to not shy at the dinner table in front of the other children.... :)

Joseph's report on what he ate at daycare for lunch, apparently one serving is never enough!

 We were in the bath the other night and I couldn't get over how beautiful his eyes and eye lashes are. I was able to capture this shot with my phone.

Why is it that boys get the prettiest eye lashes?!

 Miriam enjoys going to "school" (not daycare Mama!) and her friends are Bradley and Sibella. She is quite fond of her teacher Miss Debbie as well. And her favorite thing to do is visit Joseph in his classroom. I love how they love each other.

When trying to get them stripped down for the bath, they decided that they wanted to put their shoes on and run some laps first.

7 QTs

Late quick takes: oops.

1. We survived the first week of day care!

2. The report on Miriam was that she is a very picky eater (no surprise), she pottied successfully in the toilet all week (Whoot whoot!!!), she loved the dramatic play area and painting, and she is "very smart". She only cried Friday morning when Josh dropped her off (partially because she only slept 5hrs the night prior I believe), but as soon as the teacher redirected her she was fine. Her teacher said that she made friends very easily and loved working with the other children. She was excited to report to me when I got back into town Friday "Mommy, I learned lots at school!"

3. The report on Joseph was that his big beautiful eyes are Trouble (note the capital T). His teachers say he will walk around and pull toys off shelves or knock over towers, then smile and flash his big eyes and melt their hearts. He is a fantastic eater (no surprise). He likes to climb in their indoor playground (also no surprise) and he is actually pretty cooperative with the other [much smaller] children his age (surprised!).

4. Both of our children are physically very large for their classrooms. And Miriam is even in the older classroom! The teachers when I first toured without Josh commented "Your husband must be very tall!" Then this week when they met him and his 5'10 frame, they said "Oh! Your extended family must have some height!" hahahaha Josh hates comments like that. Poor guy!

5. My training in Hays KS was uneventful and boring. Good news is I get to go back again the week after next for another round of training! One of the girls I met is a Mary Kay salesperson and she is going to bring her facial kit to treat the rest of us next time.

6. I went to sit in the hot tub at the hotel one evening and realized that my 10yr old swimsuit bottoms (that I haven't worn in at least 4 yrs) DO NOT fit. hahaha luckily no one else as present but note to self.... saggy bottoms are only (kind of) cute on kids in diapers.

7. Today is my birthday! 26! Josh treated me to my favorite local bakery's cinnamon roll in bed this morning and he did the dishes before leaving for work for the day! I also got a handheld vacuum (you know you're old and lame when you are honestly excited and relieved to receive a gift such as this) from the in-laws and a delicious birthday cake from the same local bakery! Happy delicious treat filled day to me!

1st Day of Daycare!

Holding up #1 for 1st day of school!

Ahhhh this picture and these two beautiful children make my heart melt! Today is the day that they started their first day of daycare. They are attending the daycare facility at the hospital that Josh and I both work at, so they will be close and parent visits are always welcome. I have the upmost confidence in their teachers and the director at the center. And I believe that the kids will come to love playing with the other children and learning new things and how to play well with others. Still... I'll admit, I shed some tears leaving them off. Joseph (surprisingly) did well and when we dropped him off in his room he went to go play with some toys and didn't notice when we were gone. Miriam was so excited "to go to school and learn new things! and meet friends!" And when we were dropping Joseph off she was so excited to go find her classroom. When we got there however, I think she sensed that something was about to go down because she became very interested in holding my hand and being quite. The teacher asked a little girl (named Jenna) to take Miriam's hand and go show her some toys so as soon as she did that, Josh and I snuck off. We spoke with the director on our way out and that's when I started shedding my tears. The director assured me that I was like every other mom :)

These kids are my life and Miriam has been my little buddy for the last almost 3 years! And Joseph has been my tag-along for 14mo now. It's been such a blessing to be able to find ways to have a parent with them the majority of their time. Unfortunately with my new job schedule, daycare was our only option but hopefully it is just temporary, until Josh finishes his PhD and we move away for his PostDoc.

When Josh and I started talking about starting our family, we thought about having me stay at home and possibly home schooling the children. I don't know if I could do that. I don't have a teaching degree or background. I am not the most patient person in the world. And I like bringing home a paycheck. I like my time in the adult world. The thing I have missed being home Mon-Fri with the kids and then working on the weekends has been adult-time. I would need to have recess time with other homeschooling moms I think. (That's one reason I've appreciated the blogging world these past few months! An adult connection!)

I've continued to explore and research various homeschooling options. Thankfully we have time yet to consider and decide. We both agree though that children need their parents. And as much parent time as we can provide is optimum for them. Education is invaluable and if we don't feel we can provide the best for them, then we will look to other schooling options. And we both agree that the outlets that high school can provide through extracurricular activities are a great resource for expanding ourselves so we would probably only home school through middle school. Again, we will always be reconsidering and educating ourselves. It will be exciting to see how Miriam and Joseph adapt to daycare setting. Miriam got placed in the pre-K classroom because she is ahead of other 2yr olds so I am excited to see how her mind is challenged.

I will continue to update how we are all adjusting!
Pray for my safe travels as I travel out of state for training again all week! It was a double goodbye today! Kids to daycare and mommy is going out of town for 5 days! Pray for us all!