So, I think this will be pretty random because I just want to attempt to document Myra at this age. I hope technology is kind and Myra is able to read this when she is older, so it will be addressed to her. Prepare for proud mama gushing.
My last pregnancy update with Myra
Myra's Birth Story
Myra's First Week
Myra at One Month
Myra's First Birthday
Myra's First Birthday Party
Myra's Second Birthday Party
Myra,
I can't believe two years have passed since you joined our little family. It's getting harder and harder to remember what life was like before you came along. All day yesterday I was thinking about the day before you were born, two years ago exactly. I had a doctor's appointment, was 3-4cm dilated, had my membranes stripped, and went home. We were trying really hard to get the basement finished up, so Daddy was hard at work and I was doing what I could to help by painting trim. I remember lots of intermittent walking on our treadmill, too.
You are so smart! Your gears are always moving in a very obvious way and you got your mama's killer memory. You remember words no one can ever recall teaching you (earlier this week you pointed out a hippopotamus in a book-you even said the whole word, where did you learn that???). You know all of your colors in English and most of them in ASL. You consistently count to 13, occasionally skipping the number 2, and sometimes you can get to 15. You know the difference between 1, 2, and "many." When you see two of something, you tell us. Examples: two people sitting down is "two sits" and when Daddy and I drink milk at supper you say "two milks, daddy one milk, mommy one milk, two milks!" The first time we noticed this was at Christmas. Both your Grandpas were in the same room and you looked around, thought for a second, and said "two Grandpas!" completely randomly. You know many shapes (circle, square, triangle, star, heart, and some of the others are hit or miss). And you combine all these things-for example, "two blue stars!" You have quite a few favorite books and have much of those favorites memorized. You also know most of the songs you sing at school (Tiny Turtle, Twinkle Twinkle, etc.) and some "normal" songs (I listed your favorites later). You know a handful of letters (M for Myra, M for Minnesota-you know how this one is different for the U of MN logo, A for Ali, B for Baby, R for Rowdy, D for Daddy) and can recognize a few words by sight (Myra, pop, Army, Mommy, Daddy).
Speaking of all that, your vocabulary is incredible. You know so many words in English (no joke, SO MANY WORDS), a lot of ASL, and some Spanish (though we could be better about this one, you catch on so quickly!). Knock on wood, we have yet to have *any* tantrums and we agree it has a lot to do with your amazing ability to communicate...and your generally easy going temperament. You remember what people say (Grandma says, "hi lovey," and Daddy says "hi punkin"). You remember events like crazy. We went on a few rides at the Mall of America with Jon, Moe, and Ernie over a month ago and you still talk about it probably five days out of the week. You went in the combine with Papa Jeff and Grandma in October and you still remember and talk about that, too. The other day you said something about Daddy being at school and I said he would be home soon because he was driving. You said "Daddy driving silver car." You copy me when I am on the phone. I've spent half my life lately on the phone with the clinic so it's a lot of "okay....okay....yep...sure.....yes..." and trying to keep a straight face with your cute little voice copying me in the background is difficult.
You are so kind. You are consistent with saying please, thank you, and you're welcome-you even remind other people to say it when appropriate. You enjoy sharing things with others, especially food, and if we say "no thank you, that's for Myra" you say, "nice offer though!" When you toot, you say, "Myra tooted. Pardon me." The same goes for when someone else toots, "Daddy tooted. Pardon me." When you hear a baby cry, you ask "matter baby?" as in "what's the matter, baby?" And when someone says they are sad, you say "problem?" as in "what's the problem?" You love to help, especially when it comes to putting things away. You'll tell us "together, mommy myra teamwork." If you find garbage or recycling (you know the difference), you'll bring it to the right place. We rarely struggle to get you to put your toys away. We almost always help you do it, but you don't put up a fight. You seem to understand the concept of sharing. When you give something to someone else, you say "nice, sharing." And, because you're hilarious, you use it to your advantage, too. You love to drink out of my water cups. Sometimes I tell you "no, that's mommy's." You quickly smile and say, "Mommy sharing. Very nice." as you take a big sip. You know when you do something you shouldn't have either because it was "naughty" (though we don't use that word) or just weird. You say "why do that??" Like when you take off your socks then try to put them right back on, you'll say "why do that?? mommy help?" Or when you splash to much in the tub, "why do that??" You make this adorable squinty face, usually when you have done (or are about to do) something you shouldn't. You'll splash around in Rowdy's water dish and when I notice you freeze and make the squinty, cheesy smile face. We have to be very intentional to not give you positive reinforcement on that one because it cracks us up.
You sleep great! Who would have thought? I mean, if we mess with your schedule, you will sometimes wake up once at night, but really nothing dramatic and you go back to sleep easily. You go to bed at 7pm and sleep until 6:30-7:30am, but you're so quiet in your crib in the morning I rarely actually hear you before 7 (the monitor alerts make me think you're up a bit before then though). You also GO to sleep very well. We do pajamas, brush your teeth, read a couple books, sing the ABCs as we turn on your fan and sound machine, then put you in your crib. We say goodnight, "I love you" to you and your babies, then you say "bye, Mommy" and off I go. The end. You take one nap a day, around 12:30 or 1, and sleep for an hour or so, occasionally 2 hours. Just in the last few weeks you have been requesting more and more animals sleep with you. Right now, you sleep with your baby (THE baby), another baby, an Otter Beanie Baby, and an old bean-filled Moose that used to be mine. Sometimes you want your stuffed bunny or orca, but we try not to get too crazy. You sleep with a pillow and blanket, but you're super crazy in your crib so you rarely end up with either of them by the end of the night. Sometimes you actually curl up and sleep right on top of your whole pillow. We can hear you banging around into the sides of your crib at night sometimes, but you don't actually wake up so...whatever. [I have a couple screen shots from our video monitor that I will try to remember to add here.]
You are
potty trained! You still wear diapers for sleeping but we'll deal with that in a few months if you haven't worked it out on your own. When we put a diaper on you, you remind us "only sleeping, learning." You did have a few accidents in your car seat right around Christmas, but we actually ended up pretty darn busy, messing with your bedtime and naps, and driving more than usual, so we just washed your car seat and tried to be patient. (Edited after bedtime on your birthday: for some odd reason you decided today would be a good day to pee your pants twice then pee on the rug once after we just left you naked. You also pooped your pants today, but that's actually a bit of progress since you usually poop in your diaper right after waking up from your nap. Thankfully this has not been an issue since, like, day 3 of potty training, but uff da! Tomorrow is a new day...)
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| Sorry, couldn't resist. This photo is from the first few days of potty training. |
You are Rowdy are pals. You like to throw things for him to fetch, sit on his ottoman and look out the window with him, and climb on him. He is such a good sport. You feed him almost all of his meals. We scoop his food out of the bucket then give you the cup. You carry it so carefully to his bowl while saying "only Rowdy" (as in, don't eat it!). You dump it for him and we say together, "good boy, get it!" and you are so proud. He loves to bark at people when they arrive, or even the neighbors, and we just say "Rowdy, you're so loud!" and now you say it, too.
For real, I'm trying to think of some complaints, but I don't have much. You've had a few moments of whining for no apparent reason, but truthfully, we just ignore you and you get over it pretty quickly. You sometimes wake up in the middle of the night (nightmare??) which is annoying (especially since I am 37 weeks pregnant right now) but we have dealt with WAY WORSE and you go back to sleep super easily. You get all sweet and cuddly and ask for "rock rock" and sometimes we give in if we are tired and other times we gently tell you it's time to go back to sleep and you don't usually fight us on it. I am much more hardcore in this department than Daddy. He gets a bit grumpy as he's getting out of bed in the middle of the night, but he just melts once he gets to you. He loves the snuggles. Just last weekend you randomly started saying "don't!" I don't know where you picked that up. We're okay with you saying it, but have redirected you to say "please don't" instead and so far that is working well.
You're still
rear facing in your car seat and will be for quite some time yet. You don't mind one bit and you are an excellent travel companion. You're so sweet you even notice when we clean our cars "ooh! clean car!" You have recently joined us at the table for meals. You were always right up next to it in your booster chair with attached tray, but we seem to have finally ditched the tray and moved you to the table with a place mat. I guess that could be one complaint. You prefer to dump your food on your tray/place mat rather than eat off a plate or bowl. You used to dump it on the floor when you were done eating, but we have mostly nipped that in the bud. We were able to teach you that dumping your food on the floor is "rude" and that telling us you are done and handing your plate to us is "so polite" which made you happy. I already mentioned sleep, but you're still in a crib. It works, you don't mind, and you don't try to get out, so we're going with it. We borrowed another crib for this new baby, so we shouldn't have to force you out of yours anytime soon.
I won't get into your diet and food since I have enough posts about that. Your two year check up is tomorrow, so I will come back to record your stats. I'm guessing you're mid to upper 25#s based on your last weight check. [Edit: You are 25# 13oz, 35" tall, and I will have to check online for your head circumference once it's updated.]
Things you like: your baby (good thing we have triplets of her), books, going places in the car, jumping, dancing, water (bath, shower, water table, rain, Rowdy's dish, doesn't matter), sparkles (glittery shoes, clothes, headbands), any headbands (pretty!), art stuff (coloring, stickers, do-a-dot markers "dot dots"), dolls and real babies, helping, bubbles (blowing bubbles, soap bubbles, bubble baths, bubbles in books...), snow (especially eating it), school, blocks, sign language DVDs (rare, but exciting for you), ice water (yes, specifically ice water), drinking "coffee" out of your plastic coffee mug, blueberries, people (you're a total people person), airplanes (you point them out whenever you hear one and mostly know the difference between airplane sound and helicopter sound). Your favorite songs:
Hey Jude by The Beatles, Imagine by John Lennon (piano),
Same Love by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Mr. Tembo by Damon Albarn, Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, Shake It Off by Taylor Swift,
I just wish I could video you for a whole week and put that on the blog. I am sitting here typing thinking I am missing so much of your personality, but I don't know how to capture it all in writing and a few photos. I've been making notes about what to write on this post for a couple weeks now and part of me wants to keep it as a draft so I can add more and more to it. I feel like a few paragraphs just can't do you justice. Though we had
quite the journey and wait to meet you, you made it known from the very beginning when the time was right.
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| Jon & Moe's wedding, less than 24 hours after finding out you were in my belly. |
You are just weeks away from becoming a BIG SISTER. I know we will have our challenges and it won't be all magical fairy tale land, but I really think you will adjust quickly and be great. You love babies (real ones and your dolls) and you love to help. You've done a great job learning to be "gentle...nice..." and are overall a really great, easy kid. I have the typical soon-to-be-mom-of-a-subsequent-kid fears about spreading out time, giving both kids the attention they deserve, how on Earth could I make room in my heart to love another as much as I love you, etc. I know everything will be just fine. My heart will grow to accommodate the new love. I'll be tired. We'll all have moments of frustration. Though I will no longer have as much one-on-one time with you, you will have a sibling and that definitely counts for something. I know we made the right decision and the timing will be excellent. I'm excited for myself and definitely excited for you!
I often wonder if your birthday might be just as special (more?) for me as it is for you. It is the day you made me a mom, the day we waited and waited and waited for, the day I saw your Daddy become a dad.
Happy Birthday, sweet girl! We love you more than a rambly, mushy, braggy blog post could ever show!
