Odd Child

Mira scraped her knee when we were out and about so I washed it with soap and water when we got home.  Well, apparently I didn't do a good enough job because she kept telling me it needed more water.  I disagreed, gave her a towel to dry it and wandered off.  She came out a couple minutes later saying. "It's soapy. I need more water." Half her leg was covered in suds.  What child LIKES to wash their owies?  Mine.

Danica still has a cow if she has to though.  I wish they would meet in the middle.  Mira will sometimes rub her owies so much (with a napkin for example) that I'm afraid she's damaging it further.

AND Mira usually doesn't like band-aids.  Odd.

Poor, poor creepy looking spiders.

Mira just walked by saying, "I need a jacket. I'm going to kill him." She was referring to a spider.  The other day I heard Danica convincing her sister to kill a spider with a shoe. I told her not to talk to her sister about killing.  Well I heard a bunch of whispering from the other room then Mira came in saying she "died" him. (sigh)

Happy 4th!

Father's Day 2011

Mother's Day 2011

Luckiest Mama in the world.  =)

George

Apparently George needed a matching diaper...

Lazy Easter

 Danica was gone for Easter. I had planned on coloring(with markers) eggs with Mira but...never got around to it.  She got to have dinner at the Dewsnups but that's all the celebration she got.  How terribly lazy of me right?! Oh well.  She's one. She can't have candy and I couldn't think of anything she could have that I could fit in eggs.  I hope to do an egg hunt with her next year. Maybe. She did however totally love eating a hard boiled egg.

 Grandma Julie brought over hooded towels for the girls for Easter. They LOVE them.  Danica asked about hers over and over while it was in the wash. Mira carts them around like a blanket. Thanks Julie!  (This pic was from this morning before school when they were dancing around in them.  I have silly girls.)

 I am SO proud of this girl!! She finished her first chapter book a couple days ago.  She's now reading My Father's Dragon.  You know how relieved I am she likes reading?!  I was terribly worried when she disliked it so much last year.  I wondered how my child could possible not like reading! She was really excited when she finished and told me about the story. Love it!

The things you think are normal...

Have you ever learned that something you assumed happened to everyone...doesn't?  For example, I learned last week that not everyone feels shortness of breath when they lay down.  I mean, I just assumed.  When I lay down at night I feel like I just got done jogging and have to catch my breath.  All I did was lay down! I also thought it was because I don't exercise that I was always huffing and puffing by the time I got up Denise's stairs.  I kept commenting that I couldn't believe she had to climb them all the time.  Well, that probably was partly due to me REALLY not being in shape.  =)  Anyhow. I've been bothered with fatigue and blacking out for years now. And there's actually a reason!!  I have mitral valve regurgitation.  You know how much I'm going to use this as an excuse?!  All the time.  "you know, my kitchen really could use a little cleaning(okay, a LOT of cleaning) but I'm just so FATIGUED that I don't feel up to it-can't really help it with the heart condition and all."  Depressingly I was reading an article on the importance of food choices to maintain energy levels.  You mean eating muddy buddies for breakfast, lunch and umm, at least one snack today is not going to help with the fatigue? So sad. Maybe I really should start eating right and exercising and see how i feel.  (sigh)

Anyhow. I realized its been ages since I blogged... Brynne gave me the crafting bug so I've been making stuff for the girls.  I keep finding new things on blog tutorials I want to try and my stack of projects has piled up way high.  I'm already predicting I'm going to burn out on sewing long before I finish them.  =)  I always come back to my hobbies though.  This one is probably better than when I immerse myself in video games for weeks!  What I really wish I would feel like doing is scrapbooking.  I am getting so far behind.  I have a plastic set of drawers with scrapbook supplies that is sitting on the shelf in my room.  It stares at me all the time.  I think I might just move it so I don't feel guilty about it.  Yea, that's the solution to my problem, Hide it!

Danica seems to be liking school all right.  It seems weird to think there are just two months left of her being in first grade.  I was trying to think of what she's been up to.  Really she just plays with her sister a lot.   Does anyone agree with me that two kids are easier than one?  I wait impatiently for when Danica gets home so she can entertain her sister.  Its hard to keep up with Mira sometimes. Hmm, maybe it would be easier if I didn't feel so FATIGUED!  See?! This is working already.  Of course, I bet 90% of the problem is that its 4:30 in the morning and I am still awake! Ok, that might be 98% of the problem.

Mira is a little whirlwind.  She's always on the go, getting into everything, chattering at us nonstop and seeing what she can get away with.  I love it.  Such a great age.  My baby will be two in two months. =(  I should probably blog about the girls some other time when I can think.

Hmm, what else is going on... Neil got married and I now have the greatest sis-in-law ever. Rob is in his second to last term of grad school BUT his last term is going to be in the fall, not summer.  That means I have the rest of the year before he drags me away to Timbuktu. I'm crossing my fingers he'll take me someplace sunnier.  Okay, I LOVE Eugene but really-I want more sun! I worked a day last week and have a couple shifts coming up in the next month.  A very timely blessing. I am still teaching 8 year olds at church. Poor Rob currently has no obligations since the EQP moved away and the presidency got released.  He's been taking Mira to nursery since I'm overprotective and don't want her in there alone. I don't think he minds ;)

I get annoyed with trying to place pics on blogger so I am just going to make a new post that is full of pictures.

Pictures from the last couple months...

I let Danica do my hair and make-up sometimes.  I even run errands in that hair and make-up sometimes. haha.

 Danica has a camera...i looked through the card and found lots and lots of pics of her stuff, with a few pics of these two mixed in.

 Her first sewing project!  She made a pillowcase.

 These lucky girls are going to have another new Aunt soon!  Aunt Carrie even let Danica do her hair.  She's obviously awesome.

 Danica and I were playing with her Bling Maker. I totally made some bling-bling for my phone but Mira keeps attacking it =(  

 I bought a sheet for 99 cents at vv but hated it in this skirt....not sure if i should just chuck the rest or find a project i like it better in...

 Gift I made for a cutie little 3 year old.

 I made pj pants!  My stack of things to do before i burn out sewing includes about half a dozen pairs.

 Isn't it a little early for this?

 Caterpillars are extremely dirty creatures.  Rob ordered butterfly larvae or whatever they're called from Amazon.  I can't believe how quick the stages are!  All 5 made it to butterflies. The girls loved it!

 Mira's bunny.

 Danica's bunny.

 Mira dragged her stuff out and made a bed in the living room.

 Their owls!  Mira has a handful of things that she gets very distraught if they are not on her bed when I try and put her down..her bee(pillow pet) her owl, two bunnies and her snuggly. It's cute but crowded!

 I learned that Mira got ahold of my camera.

 I made a bag and tried out freezer paper stenciling...I think I'm going to have fun with that.  (the stenciling)

 Another 99 cent VV find...

 ....after i got done with it.

 Mira's nickname is meow-meow. I'm planning on a couple more things out of this material but I'm not positive what yet.

 Danica helping Mira get her boots on so they'd match.

 A few wedding pics!!!

 Sorry about the lame captions.  I'm tired, gonna go night-night now.

The grass is always greener...

At the beginning of the school year Danica was taking a sack lunch to school.  She kept asking to be able to get a hot lunch.(over and over and over!)  Well then she switched to hot lunch and now begs to be able to take a sack lunch.  (Way more effort on my part so I decline.)  Her half birthday was a couple days ago and as a special "treat" I packed her a sack lunch.  I love that something like that is exciting to a six and a half year old. (I can't believe I have a 6.5 year old!!)  Anyhow the next day I pick her up at the bus stop and she was excitedly telling me that she took a sack lunch. She packed it herself.  I get a feeling of dread and ask her what she took.  She starts by telling me "a cookie" (fears confirmed) but then she said she took a sandwich and water. Phew!  I was afraid she was going to start listing off a bunch of junk and I would look like a terrible mother for "sending" that lunch with her.
And why am I blogging about Danica's lunch even though I haven't blogged for over a month?  Nothing is going on!!!  Well, our car is having issues but hopefully I can post in a couple weeks about my handy hubby having fixed it himself.  Cross your fingers!

She's learning words!

I swear every couple days Mira surprises me with a new word she knows.  Today it was "boots." Lately she's learned sheep, hat, pizza, eat, stinky, sister, down and hello(which is really funny to hear her say).  She says "gook" consistently for milk.  I remember when Danica first started talking I was amazed at how quickly they pick up new words. And then she never stopped talking...


1-5: pants, what! diapey(diaper), bups(bus)

18 Months Already?

I can't believe in a couple days we'll have had our little girl for 18 months already.  I haven't done the greatest job documenting things so I thought I should take this opportunity to record what she's like at this age before I forget.  Time moves much too quickly!
A few words she's "mastered"(I'm counting them if she uses them correctly), more or less in order:
mama
dada
uh-oh
duck
no

uh-uh(means yes)

Jesus (sounds like G-uh)

Thank you (sounds like D2)

meow

woof woof (she used to say this more pronounced)

quack

ee-ee (for monkey)

baby (pronounced bebe)
shoe
socks
key
poo-poo
ball
She is getting much better at mimicking words too.  Though she will NOT perform.  If I try to get her to show off words she will not have it.  She talks the most when going through books.  In one of her books we always count the "twiddlebugs" on the page and she points to them saying "three."  =)

Some of her quirks:
If she sees an empty tp tube she insists she take it to the gerbils right away.  She loves throwing things away for me.  It's amazing how much she understands.  I can ask her to point something out like if we're looking at a picture and she knows what plenty of things are even though she can't say the words.  I can tell her to go get something from the other room and she'll bring it.  She "roars" for dinosaurs =).  She LOVES having books read to her.  We have probably a couple hundred kids books and she has a selection that she likes hearing over and over. Her favorite right now is "It's not Easy Being Big." She likes testing her limits.  If she has something she knows she's not allowed to and you approach her she'll chuck it and run. She undecorated a chuck of our tree for us.  I gave up on putting the same ornaments back over and over.  It's kinda sad looking.  You can turn your back for half a minute and she will have pulled a handful of keys off my keyboard.  That's one of her favorite things to get into.  Tis annoying!  I'm currently missing one of the control and function keys.

Potty training?  Mira used to follow me into the bathroom and insist she get to use it first before I did.  (She would just sit down for a moment and then be "done.") So I got her potty chair down from the attic.  With the exception of a couple days she uses it a couple times a day, sometimes more.  I don't want to discourage it because Danica wasn't potty trained til almost 3 and I'd rather Mira just eased herself into it.  And then there's days like today.  Mira used her potty and then was just running around naked.  Frequent occurrence, sorry visitors. I went to clean up her spaghetti mess in the kitchen and she apparently used the potty just a couple minutes later.  She is very proud of herself when she does this and was bringing me the bowl part of the potty chair...yeah you can see where this is going.  It was empty by the time it got to me.  LUCKILY she spilled it in the bathroom. There were two puddles and her potty chair was sitting in one of them.  I sprayed the chair down with cleaner and was letting it sit in the tub before rinsing it off and apparently she had to go again because she went and peed on the floor where her potty chair usually is.  I think she got three baths today.  (sigh)

The child is the worst sleeper ever.  We gave up on her pack n play a few months ago(more like she refused to sleep in it at all) and got her a toddler bed.  That helped some but she is still constantly up and down.  For example it's 1am right now and she's up and about bringing me books and whining at her dad.  Rob and I seem to have opposite sleep schedules which I appreciate at times like this.  Or no one would get any sleep! She used to sleep a lot better. I guess she doesn't want to miss out on anything.

Danica tended to ignore her own toys and just play with whatever is in the big bin of her sister's toys in the front room.  Well Mira recently learned how to open the latches on the tubs of her sister's toys and they are now getting much more attention.  Her favorite is the tub of Cabbage Patch Lil Sprout toys.  I think Danica got them for her fourth birthday and played with them a couple times.  They now get played with multiple times a day. =)  She also likes playing with the Littlest Pet Shops.  Danica jumps right in and plays with her.  She is such a great big sister, which also translates to such a great momma's helper.  I don't have near enough energy to entertain little kids for very long.

Mira is still the pickiest eater.  It's particularly bad right now.  She has gone in phases where she will gladly eat a lot of fruit for weeks or veggies everyday but lately she tends to turn down whatever I offer.  Except meat,  maybe that's her thing right now.  Milk is always a keeper though!

Mira is a super sweet little one.  She gives lots of hugs and kisses and likes to curl up right next to you.  I LOVE it!  She was a super fussy baby and wasn't content to snuggle(she liked facing out and being bounced) so I greatly appreciate the turn around.