How We Celebrated our Day of LOVE

Cute hot lips from Madison and Marcus.

Fun books and cute cards from Grandparents. Miriam loves all of them, her favorite Valentine book is now The Day It Rained Hearts but I am so glad we got a copy of Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch. Her favorite ballet story is Swan Lake followed by Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker. Mine is Coppelia, I have never heard that story before, Giselle is quite errie.

Miriam and I made heart fish valentines with Swedish Fish for her Joy School friends and Grandparents. She couldn't get enough of the glitter glue and goggle eyes. She now puts google eyes on everything. Her friend Caleb made her the valentine carrier. It is pretty clever, just two paper plates folded and stapled together into a heart shape. Very cute valentine project idea.

I have been hiding little valentine gifts for Darin since our first year of marriage. It's never extravagant, just little treats with a note hid in his coat pocket, book bag, and car. This year, as soon as he came to breakfast Miriam said "Check your pocket Dad!" "There is something special in your car!" etc...so he found every gift before work. We got him the chocolate covered Altoids, two thumbs way up in my book!

We had strawberry, banana crepes for breakfast. This was more a treat for me than anyone else since Darin doesn't really like to eat that early, and Miriam only likes strawberries and cream. Happy Valentines Day to me! I am worth fresh whipped cream so I went all out ha ha.

We gave Miriam the book Cookies Bite-size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators Jane Dyer. It's a really cute book about being polite using making and sharing cookies as examples. I made a plate of cookies to go along with it.

Darin came home with surprises for us, dried mangoes for Miriam, and the new Norah Jones CD/DVD for me. I was very pleasantly shocked, I love it! We had a breakfast dinner (eggs hashbrowns, sausage) because Darin loves breakfast but doesn't eat in the mornings, nor do I get up early enough to make that kind of a meal.


We all played a rousing game of Cootie, which was interesting with Miriam. She really could care less about winning, she just wanted the Cooties to get finished and go to a "Royal Ball". She went up to bed and Darin and I watched some episodes of Freaks and Geeks, which to us is the equivalent of a romantic comedy.

Many a man who falls in love with a dimple make the mistake of marrying the whole girl.

Evan Esar (1899 - 1995), Esar's Comic Dictionary

I just had to put that quote in because Darin has always said he was drawn to my smile (and his adoration for long straight brown hair, almost all his crushes beginning with Winnie from the Wonder Years have had it). I don't think Darin feels marrying me was a mistake, but it's a challenge at times I am sure! Thank Heavens dimples last forever.

I love my two Valentines!!

Build A Bear

Sarah was bringing her kids up to do Build-A-Bear so they gave Miriam a gift certificate for her birthday so we could join in the fun. The kids were so excited. Miriam said "this is the best day of my entire life", too bad she cried twice during the outing (once for a treat, once because I made her look around before deciding on her bunny's outfit). I didn't realize until seeing these pictures that Miriam is dressed like an 80's chick with her jean jacket, flouncy skirt and pearls. She has outgrown her winter clothes, it's still too cold to get the summer things out so she is stuck wearing whatever I can put together. The pearls I had nothing to do with, well, I did do the clasp, but it was her idea.

Final selection: Miriam a white rabbit, not my favorite but at least it wasn't the pink sparkle bear, Madison the endangered leopard, Marcus a brown bear.Miriam giving her rabbit good thoughts and a kiss, or something like that.

Marcus giving his bear muscle power (notice the Hulk shirt).

Madison trying on a wig. Cute redhead!

I should have gotten a picture of the finished products but right after we finished our bears the store became chaos. We had arrived and were leaving just in time for some huge Saturday rush, I wanted to get out of there and forgot to take a picture. Miriam made a "Cinderella Bunny" and that is also her name. Cinderella Bunny and Sleeping Beauty Bear are now best of friends and they sleep in her bed every night. Madison's endangered species had a very fashion forward outfit, and Marcus made a Superman Bear to match the Spider man Cat named "Sammy" at home. It was a fun day! Thanks Sarah, Madison and Marcus!

Bunch of Thank Yous!

Miriam is still getting birthday gifts a week later lucky girl! I feel so loved when people do things for Miriam. I also tend to get more excited over her getting gifts than when I get gifts...what is up with that?


Thank You Pa pa! This dress isn't actually for her birthday, it was from Christmas this is just the first picture I have taken of her in it. I couldn't get her to smile because when she is in this dress she is in full character - royalty. She flounces and struts around with her eyes squinted in to what she must think a queen looks like (oh what those nursery leaders at church must think). This particular picture is the best one I could get.


Miriam received this Woodkin paper doll from Cristin and the Mississippi crew. It's very creative, you can make clothes for your doll by using scraps of fabric. Miriam loves it, and I had a good time experimenting myself. Perfect gift idea for little princesses.
Here is Miriam showing her Daddy how it works. Darin is such a sport, he puts up with lots of princess, dancing, girlie girl stuff. Miriam did show interest in remote control cars and nerf guns over Christmas so, Darin declared that next year she would get a few toys he could play with too.


Aunt Nonnie sent Miriam a pair of her old unused dancing shoes. Miriam is sleeping with them as I type this. She loves to wear them, but we explained they are to be hung on the wall and she seems just as excited about that. Thank for the beads too Nonnie! They are beautiful! Miriam said "Oh those are for little girl bracelets...little girls like....named Miriam".

Thank you Jill! She sent those cute "good mail" labels. I did take a picture but then I realized my address was in full view, and I don't know how to blur. Darin could help me, but he has so much to do. Thank you Jill, I love them and the first label just got sent to Brazil a few days ago.

Thank you Sarah Madison and Marcus. They gave Miriam a gift certificate to Build a Bear that we used last weekend....more on that next post!

Our Children's Place

I have wanted to post about Miriam's room re-decorating for quite some time, but was holding out for the windows to be completed. Unfortunately, I can't decide what to do in her windows so that is another project on hold for the moment. So, here is the progress so far.




This is just one corner of the room, but the whole room is just like this with the crown molding, spring green color, and alphabet cards (Thank you Mom and Dad for the help!). All the doors and trim have been painted white, the blinds are currently a cream color (not good, not good at all). I am having some businesses come out to measure the windows for new blinds just to see what my options are. The only decision I have made so far is that shutters are out at $400 a window. Any ideas would be welcome. The lamp was an $8 second hand find. It's the best treasure I have found, I don't get out to second hand shops too often.

This is Miriam's new duvet cover, it's hard to tell but those are different colored and textured ribbons. Since the new baby and Miriam will eventually share this room, I have a vision in my head of his bedding being all white with green, yellow but then blue ribbons in place of the pink, sewn on. I would like them to match so there is some flow to the room, the alphabet cards and duvet cover are a bit busy for my taste so I want to keep it clean and simple. Does anyone know where I can find plain white crib bedding?
Miriam's cousin Danielle (12) made the pillow for her for as a Christmas gift. It matches perfectly, thank you again Danielle! Then of course there is Sleeping Beauty Bear whom Miriam sleeps with every night (thanks again Mom and Dad).
I just had to post a picture of Miriam's crib quilt my mom made her. I love this quilt and wanted a picture of it in the room. The paint, alphabet cards, everything was chosen using this quilt as my guide. Ironically, by the time the room was finished, Miriam is now in a big girl bed and we are having a baby boy. I am now trying to match bedding to the room which isn't easy on a budget. I am learning a ton though, and it is fun, when it's not frustrating.

Organic Goodness

Although I would love to, I don't normally buy organic foods. Mainly, because I never stay within our grocery budget to begin with and I feel if I go organic I will go WAY over. Its not a skimpy budgeted amount either, I have no idea where the money goes. Anyway....I have been having lots of digestion problems with this pregnancy, I am also a bit anemic (and don't like red meat) so I have been looking for good foods to help out. My friend Fiona (healing foods guru) led me to Nancy's Organic Yogurt and I am hooked. This is why its so good for me.

• Fully cultured with casei, rhamnosus, acidophilus, bifidum, thermophilus, and bulgaricus - making Nancy's the most healthful yogurt on the shelf
• Billions of healthy bacteria in every teaspoon, aiding in greater calcium absorption and better digestion

Darin loves it just as much as I do when we add Natures Path Flaxseed Plus. It is SO good. It has pumpkin seeds and flax oil (omega 3's and 6's) but most importantly iron for the anemia. Not only do I not like red meat, but as I mentioned above I can't digest it at the moment. I also don't like the vitamins with iron in them, it makes me queasy thinking about taking one. We bought it at Costco so the price was reasonable for granola.

I just ran onto Emerald Valley Organic Salsa on accident. I love chips and salsa anytime, but especially when I am pregnant. We bought the huge bag of chips and tub of this salsa from Costco and I love it! It's not as good as my Uncle Bruce's fresh salsa, nothing is better than that, but since Uncle Bruce doesn't keep me in a fresh supply this is a great alternative.


Just thought I would share. Happy Eating!

The Last Hoorah

Miriam's actual birthday was a casual event. We tried to keep things simple since she already had a wild bash. We met up with my friend Fiona and her "spunky nerd" (her words) darling daughter Ivy and dashing Simon. We love meeting up at the Market Street Grill, even though it's getting hard with the kids. With any more additions to our families we may have to start meeting up at McDonalds. Or leave the kids with Daddies...yea that sounds better. We let the little girls play at the Trolley Square Pottery Barn, and then made wishes and watched the fishies at the fish pond. Miriam and I took a 2 hour birthday nap when we got home which as heavenly. We woke up with just enough time to make the groundhog cupcakes which turned out really cute. They could pass for any rodent really, so if anyone ever needs to celebrate a Beaver Day these are the treats for you. They were from Family Fun magazine.

Darin came home with the traditional flowers for me. He totally surprised me on Miriam's first birthday and has given them ever since. I love it, and hope this is a tradition that will go along with all our children's birthdays (hint hint;).

My whole reason for not throwing a friend party was that I didn't want to babysit a bunch of 3 year olds (my home isn't large enough to invite kids and mothers). So, what do I do? I go and tell another friend I will watch her two kids that night. I thought about saying I couldn't do it, but then decided it would be fun for her to have a friend over. It worked out because Miriam asked that afternoon if anyone was going to come see her for her birthday. This family has been so good to us, invites to dinner, inviting Miriam over to play, bringing fresh bread, it felt good to return a little bit of the favor. I still need to have them over for dinner. I have such a hard time with dinner parties. I need to get over my unmatched plates, unfinished home improvements and, fear of a disastrous meal (undercooked chicken, or hair in the food HORROR) and be gracious.
We ended the day with a few birthday wish phone calls, and a check on family blogs to see all the fun birthday wishes. Thank you to everyone who called, blogged, and commented.


Miriam received a fun birthday gift from Aunt Lisa today. A knitted tea set that is so cute. We have played tea party at least 3 times today, and I am sure will play it lots more again tomorrow. Thank you Lisa it's a fun unique gift we will cherish!

*On a side note, if anyone is getting error messages on their links it could be that an extra slash mark was added to the link addresses. I had this problem occur when I upgraded to the new version. Just take out the dash at the end and it works fine again.

Our Little Groundhog Turns 3 (warning: long personal post)

I was in labor with Miriam on Super Bowl Sunday. My mom had told me not to go to the hospital until the pain dropped me to my hands and knees. That advice, along with not wanting to disturb my Dr. during the game made for a very short labor. Of course lots of craziness occurred, my water burst all over, there was a rush to get the anesthesiologist, Miriam was facing the wrong direction and was manually turned by my amazing 60-something year old doctor. However, in my mind I remember the lights being dim, with soft lulling music being played right after she was born. I tried to stay awake to watch Darin and the nurses give Miriam her first bath and remember thinking there was a soft light shining down on them as I drifted in and out. I realize this was probably not the case, but my mind has turned it into some sort of movie. It was a very spiritual moment for me.
I was expecting an Elisa clone because my family's genes are pretty distinctive, but everyone who saw her said "She looks like her daddy". Of course, since it was by then Groundhog's Day Darin made jokes about her peeking out and going back in for 6 more weeks.
Miriam didn't easily smile at anyone but Darin or I her entire first year. It's hard to believe now, but she really didn't. Our little attention monger didn't like to be looked at or noticed by strangers as an infant. It took her a long time to warm up to family and friends. You really had to earn her love. She had this wide eyed stare she would give people who tried to "coo" at her. It was a cross between "Are you insane?" and "back off". Sometimes even I felt stupid when she would stare at me like that.
When she was 9 months old her doctor called her "dramatic", and then a little while later one of her Grandpas used the same word to describe her. It was then that I started watching other babies and realized it was very true. To this day she can be a drama queen. Even at the park, she doesn't like to swing or slide for excitement sake, she likes a storyline to go along with why she is sliding. She likes to be the wicked queen or evil step mother just as much as she likes to be a princess, she sneers and glares like a pro (she had her whole first year of life to practice). She is very expressive. I wish I had a movie of her playing "Dead Princess" where she stumbles around before collapsing to the floor, or "Annabell babydoll" where she sits stiff with her mouth slightly open and open and shuts her eyes when you rock her back and forth.
Miriam's all time favorite toys are her books. She now likes dolls and such, but as an infant she didn't play with dolls, blocks, balls, or really anything except her books. She loves language and has always been a good communicator. Before she could speak she knew quite a bit of sign language, and after she learned how to speak she took off fast & furious in the verbal world. Her first roll play games were library and storytime. She use to set her books up all over her room the way I have seen other kids set up cars or animals. Just today she said I was "mezmorizingly beautiful" a phrase she heard from a book and remembered. All I can say is it's a good thing we currently don't have a tv or I don't know what would be coming out of her mouth.
Miriam is very sensitive to emotions. She notices subtleties in expressions, and tones of voice. She notices complete strangers and will ask why they look sad, frusterated, or angry. While driving in the car she has said things like "this song sounds angry at me" or "this song is dancing with me!" She has never been very physical. There are VERY few occasions where she has hit or pushed anyone so to deal with her own frustrations she clenches her fists and teeth, hunches her shoulders, shakes and says "ARGH". This reaction actually seems to scare other little kids more than if she would just give them a shove. Along with this sensitivity to others she is sensitive herself. She cries easily, gets scared easily, and at least once a day says "I miss so and so and it's making me so sad inside".
Miriam LOVES treats and sweets. Her whole first year I was so good about having her eat beans and broccoli and kept sugar to a very small minimum. It didn't do any good, the girl loves sweets. Chocolate pudding is one of her all time favorites. She detests sour candy and goes for the gooey, the creamy, and the pure sugar stuff.

We love our little girl and the person she is becoming. I can't believe how lucky we are to have her in our home. I know that we couldn't ask for a more loving little girl to be a big sister to the new baby coming (after initial jealously of course). Happy 3rd Birthday to our Miriam Love!

Prehistoric Adventures & Dance PARTY

Miriam and I left Darin to fend for himself this week and took off to my parents house. We are having a family birthday party for Miriam this weekend (which Darin will drive down for) but my mom picked M and I up early. It is SO nice to be here. Miriam adores her cousins, and is entertained every minute. That is so wonderfully strange for me, I feel so free. I have been watching Marcus (4) in the mornings while my sister works which is fairly easy. He and Miriam had nothing in common (he is all superhero, Miriam is all princess ballerina) but they will play well together if no one else is here. Miriam ADORES Madison (8) and tells her over and over how much she loves her. Everytime Madison has left this weekend Miriam has hugged her and said "I will miss you so much!". Madison is good to play with her, until she just can't take the adoration anymore, and then she looks at me apologetically and I step back into my activities director roll. Josh (5) and Ali (3 3/4) are fun to have over too, they all seem to mesh together without too much struggle. Miriam thinks Josh is HILARIOUS, and Ali love princesses just as much as she does. The only downside to our visit is that Miriam has just gotten her second cold of the entire winter, and it's a doosie. So not only will we be exposing all the cousin to mucus germs, sleeping with Miriam has been rough. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep last night.

Today I took Marcus and Miriam to the CEU Prehistoic Museum. It was so wonderful! After living so long in the "big city" and putting up with 30 toddlers at storytime, at least that many at any given park, and sharing all museums with the masses, I was amazed that we had the musem TO OUR SELVES! Well, at first there was a father and son there but they left really quickly. Funny side story, the museum cashier thought we were a family (the three of us and the father and son) and took my $ thinking we were doing the family deal ($10 rather than $4 for adults and $2 per child). She dropped $10 in the donation box, gave me $10 back. I started to say something but the guy just shook his head and handed me a $5 with a wink. I couldn't make up my mind whether that was okay or not so we just walked in. We spent 45 min looking at dinasaur bones and fossils (they have an amazing collection) and then another 45 min in their kids playzone. We uncovered bones, put together a huge puzzle, read stories, and played with hand puppets. I can't believe I left our camera at home! I love the choices I have living in a big city, but this small city living has its charms.

Update 1/27/07: M's 3rd Birthday Party


We had Miriam's birthday party at Julia's dance studio (aka Miriam heaven). Julia did some dance & parachute games with the kids. She is amazing with little ones. I can't believe she puts up with whole classes full of 3, 4 & 5 year olds almost daily. The cousins and friend Hadley loved it. After the dancing Darin tied some balloon animals (he can also juggle, but good luck getting him to wear a clown outfit), and then the traditional cake, presents etc went down. To end the shin dig, we had party favors with punch balloons. We let the kids go hog wild in the studio while the adults sat adoring baby Claire and talking. It is so amazing to have a room where kids can go nuts-O and be removed from the rest of us. Thank you family (and Amanda) for coming, and especially thank you Julia!!!!

Miriam, Madison and Marcus decorated the cupcakes. I am going to make the darling groundhog ones for her actual birthday (for just Darin Miriam and I), but since this party was a week before groundhogs day it just seemed a little silly. I focused the camera on the cupcakes rather than on Miriam in the candle blowing pictures (ARGH) I made the same mistake last year.

We just had candy dripping cupcakes (yuck) and fruit for the eats. We went out for Chinese later that evening (thank you mom!).

Last picture of the day, Miriam in the costume Grandma and Grandpa bought her (with matching shoes and crown). She pranced around the studio while the other kids were whacking each other with punch balls. She couldn't take her eyes off the mirrors and kept saying "I look beauuuutiful!". My mom told us later that on the way home Marcus said "That was a wonderful party Miriam" and a few minutes later Miriam said "That was a nice party." So my two goals for the party were achieved. #1 I didn't have to babysit anyone else's kids and #2 the kids had a wild and crazy time without destroying anyones home (the studio is made for rough play).

Toxic Bubbles

While perusing the dollar store for quirky nonsense to send my brother in Brazil (along with some necessities), I came upon these toxic plastic bubbles. I remember Kristi posting awhile back about how much fun her girls had with them so I picked up a pack. I was quite excited about the fun Mark would have until Darin reminded me that you can't send flammable material through the mail. DRATS! So we had a fun Family Home Evening with them. We don't recommend the glow in the dark ones. They are much more fragile than the regular ones, and don't really glow in the dark.




I picked up Angelina's Baby Sister to give to Miriam when the baby is born. We have the baby Polly doll and stroller (perhaps carriage or pram is a better word? It is a British book after all) to give along with it. I am guessing that Miriam will have a bit of a struggle when the baby comes. She is very excited, and will be a wonderful helper, but she is use to having all my attention everyday (except for an hour of quiet play time...which I am struggling to enforce). Does anyone have any other good book ideas for big sisters? Actually, I am open to all suggestions and ideas to help Miriam with the transition. Help!