No more baby food!

Miriam has progressively decided this week that she wants nothing to do with baby food anymore. It may have started when I gave her a piece of Ritz cracker to see how see would do with it and she loved it gobbling it up. The next moring she wouldn't eat anything so she got a teething biscuit for breakfast. Since then I had to "prime the pump" so to speak to get her to eat anything. Something she can munch on then give her baby food. Just now Iwent to giver her bananas she refused so I decided what the heck and gave her a whole banana which she ate but any baby banana she refused. She likes the finger food so much she'll still out of your hand inculding grahams from other babies! She can be such a bully.

Miriam's First Present

Eric's parents came yesterday delivering presents because 2 of us are going out of town for the holidays. Deb told Miriam she could open one of her presents and play with it if she wanted. If Eric had been there and Miriam hadn't have been in the middle of nursing I would have let her grandparents watch her open it. Lator when Eric was there she opened it, I feel bad we didn't capture it on vidoe:(. First, she looked at it, beat it a couple of times, then Eric got it started ripping. She looked a little hesitant (after all I've got upset at her for anything else she's ripped) but tore it a little, went back to beating it. We got one end open then she tore the rest away. She looked so pleased with the gift-the Fisher Price Nativity set. She hugged it and beat it some more, it was really cute.

I had asked Deb to get it for her so she could get used to the real Christmas story. She seems to like it, exploring all the figures and making the star light up and sing. Thank you Grandma Delta!

Christmas Pics

When we were in Idaho my mom wanted to take pictures of Miriam for her Christmas card- here are some of the highlights. With Aunt Heather's Christmas present, in her adorable dress, with the bears beard, looking at the tree, and so forth. Needless to say we always have fun taking pictures of her.

Trip to ID

My sister graduated last Fri from BYU-I so I decided to take Miriam up to it. So she wouldn't be traumatized from back to back 5 hr drive we went Tue and came back Sat.The other benefit was Eric could concentrate on wrapping up all his projects without us to distract him. Miriam travelled ok, sleeping the first 3 hours or so. She had fun playing with all G-ma's cool toys.

We also got to help decorate the house and the tree.

She had a great time playing with Grandma, Granddaddy, and Aunt Jennifer. She played with hair, cards, sat on shoulders, helped cook and got in giggling fits from Granddaddy.

Finally the big occasion of Jennifer's graduation. Pres Clark spoke and President Uchtdorf. It was really nice. Pres Uchtdorf urged us to reflect on the Olive Leaf discourse in the D&C during these troubling times. Jennifer sang with the graduate choir which was cool.

GRADUATION!!!

Today my HY-8 project write-up was accepted by the department and I'm now cleared for graduation! It feels very wonderful to have it all pretty much done...

Climbing Stairs

Miriam loves to clilmb stairs for some reason which is particularly interesting to me because we don't have any she can climb! We first learned she could climb at church. We were really late so we sat on the front row, this was back when she decided she liked to move more at church and headed straight up the steps to the podium without any hesitation. She next got to practice when we went to hear Eric give his graduate presentation- it was in a stadium style classroom which was perfect for her (shallower steps and longer landings). She experimented a little with going down but went face first and bonked her nose. Since then whenever she sees steps she wants to climb them and shes getting really fast.

Today we got invited to go watch my cousin Danielle perform with BYU festival of trees- international folk dances mostly. She did really well through the excellant production. After it I decided to put her down as she had been on my lap mostly for apx 2 hrs and she took off up the Marriott Center stairs from lower level to the doorway. She did it twice and didn't hardly pause, of course her knees were black after, but she had a good time.

Elementary my dear mother...

No, we didn't really give Miriam a pipe, but the picture was too tempting not to add it by digital means-- even when I'm so busy finishing up the semester... Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

I love the Turkey!

Miriam in her cute thanksgiving onesie. It says Baby's First Thanksgiving and has 3 jars of baby food: sweet potatoes, green beans and turkey.
Everytime we go outside Miriam whips around looking for it. She loves pulling on it and feeling it. It is so funny to see her eyes light up when sees it.

Happy Thanksgiving

We went to Delta Tue afternoon for our Thanksgiving break. We got to see Nate, Audrey and Zayda Tue night. Wed I had to keep Miriam from terrorizing Joe, whether she really like him or just his Lego's I'm not sure, and Daniel from terrorizing Miriam. It seems that each family amongst Eric's siblings one kid likes the babies more. Daniel is it in Candi's, but he doesn't quite know how to be gentle or in other words doesn't know his own strength. Myles is it in his family as the two of them played together while the rest of us ate our Thanksgiving dinner. Miriam enjoyed chasing the trains around Thur afternoon.

Who's Who?

Today I kept thinking how much Miriam looked like this picture of me. Especially since last night we were with Eric's family who all kept saying she was looking more and more like a Jones baby ie blond hair. Anyone want to take a guess as to which is me and which is Miriam?

Today we were getting Miriam dressed for church, and she was still carrying around a measuring cup (she will pick up random things and hold on to it for quite some time). Jessica held up two dresses, "Okay Miriam, which one do you want to wear today?" Of course it is a question asked without expecting a response, but just to make it easier I added, "Just point your measuring cup to the dress you want to wear." and Miriam paused a moment while looking at them, then very obviously pointed the cup to the center of one dress! While it is hard to believe she was able to understand everything I said, it is equally hard to believe she would point the cup to a dress as obviously as she did after the question... So we both had a good laugh over that.

Another thing that has been a pretty nice development is that she is now tall enough that while walking, she can reach my fingers with me having to hunch over all the time (sometimes yes, but not the whole time).

Open Wide!

Thats what Miriam is doing to everyone lately- trying to stuff her finger(s) in their mouth. We're trying to decide what the fascination is, whether she is aspiring to be a dentist or what. Though she doesn't always look while she's doing for instance her wandering hand will find its way while shes nursing! We do think is teething again yet no sign of where the next tooth will pop up. We also are starting to call her little pointer finger her ET probe as she is always using it to touch things and explore. BTW like our matching clothes. ;)

Peek-a-boo

Miriam loves tro play peek-a-boo and has for several monthes. She will laugh uproarously and get quiet while she's waiting for you. She has been getting more and more into it. Yesterday she actually moved a wash cloth over her face herself and when we play in the recliner she will stretch herself so high so she can peek first! It is a grand distraction when she is fussy.

Aquaveo

It is official: I will be working for Aquaveo in software development and consulting. Specifically I'll continue to maintain Watershed Management System (WMS) and Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) for HY-8 (culvert software) and Hydraulic Toolbox. So now we are casually looking for home in Utah County. The next step in our life is graduation...

That's pretty much it for now--

Baby Bird

Last night after I finished nursing Miriam mom handed me a slice of banana bread. Miriam reached for it and I moved it away from her as she tried to grab it. I took a bite and she followed it with open mouth trying to eat it all the way into my mouth! It was quite the sight seeing her wide mouth aiming for my mouth. She did the same thing to mom tonight trying to eat an olive. I did get her some teething biscuits- something she could chew on. She seemed to enjoy it immensely.

Walking

This last weekend Miriam started to venture to walk to me a couple of steps. We went to the Hurst (Mom's moms side) Family reunion. Here she is with a chair just her size. She kept it up the next day when we went to Ogden for my cousin, Sam's (Briscoe side) farewell. At my Uncle Gordon's she had a great time going up the stairs and chasing their dog! She certainly charms everyone she sees.

Happy Fall!

Sat after Halloween I didn't quite want to be done with all our cute Halloween clothes and I had wanted some cute pic with leaves. After a trip to Costco we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and do some yard work. Hard to believe we bagged up 3 bags of leaves cause the next day it blew and rained really hard so it doesn't look like we did anything. Also I put the camera on the porch edge after I did Miriam's photo shoot and it got forgotten till Eric saw it Mon morning going to work, luckily it still works.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our family- 2008!

Our Halloween started much the way it does every year- decorating. Then I found an adorable first Halloween outfit for Miriam, she and I dressed in our holiday clothes as much as possible (including the day after). We had our wards Halloween Primary carnival which we showed up mostly to see and be seen since Miriam can't do many of the activities yet. Our family also chose to go simple on the costumes!

On the actual day Eric went and voted, Miriam and I went grocery shopping. I realized how long it has been since I've been around a lot of trick-or-treaters as I saw hordes of them around Springville and Provo downtown areas. We had pizza from Costco and watched Monk episode. I carved a watermelon (glows red!) and answered the one trick-or-treator in our neighborhood. We had decided that Miriam didn't know what was going on and since neither she or I could eat candy we would fore go that experience this year, we'll have to see about next year.

Miriam the ghost! I was distracting/playing with her by doing the same to her and she thought it was super funny!

Miriam: Ahead of her game

Ever since Miriam was born she has been cruising through life wanting to see and do more. From Day one she could hold her head up. In the hospital when checking her and she was on her belly she looked like she was ready to crawl off. She has always tracked sound really well. I know now she definitely responds to her name but I'm not certain when exactly she started to.

This was taken at 3 days old and all I'm doing is holding her sides so she doesn't fall over! Just one example. Looking back it sure is hard to remember her that size! Also in the beginning she didn't like to be flat on her tummy, propped up on the nursing pillow was fine but otherwise no way! Well just a couple of months later when she learned to roll we couldn't keep her on her back! She would compulsively roll over every time we put her down. Sometimes she would then start to complain like how did I get here!

Here she is in May "reading", I have great hopes for her! Her book is her first book, one of black & white baby animals. This book is what truly showed us how well she could track I think the colors distracted her otherwise. I also have read to her since the womb, mostly Book of Mormon but also I'm working my way through the "Little House on the Prairie" books. We mostly read during nursing. Now she likes to 'see' mommy's books and play w/magazines ;)

Intro

Yes, I've been pestering Jessica with the idea of setting up a blog for awhile now… The bloggish contraption we setup on our website wasn't working out too well—It is fairly easy to update, but I have to be the one to update it… so it doesn't happen very often, or much at all. The other drawback is that it isn't formatted or programmed as nicely as this one. I think it also makes sense as Jessica is around Miriam more and can blog about those daily events, happenings, and quotes…

If history is a good teacher, my posts will probably be infrequent and short, with few pictures (you can go to our website for those). But with both of us contributing, I'm guessing we'll have regular updates to the blog.

So my current update on life is that I will graduate with a master's in Civil Engineering in December; I have finished my project, will present on my work today, and then I focus on finishing the writeup. I have the first rough draft completed, so now I just need to go the rounds on my committee and get it accepted by everyone. Currently I work at Aquaveo developing the Watershed Modeling System (WMS), HY-8 (culvert design software), and Hydraulic Toolbox (a simple calculator for hydraulic structures). I am looking at a few different companies as opportunities for employment after I graduate, but Aquaveo is looking the most promising at this moment of time.

Miriam is growing bigger, faster, and more fun every day. Somewhere between Thursday and Saturday she developed a lot more speed and confidence in her crawling. Until then we could put her down, leave for a few minutes, and expect that she wouldn't be more than 5 feet from where she started. Now she covers that distance in seconds! And it changed in just a matter of days! Then while we were at church on Sunday, we put her on the floor, and she took off towards the podium, and climbed the stairs as if she had done it hundreds of times, no hesitation, and didn't slow down from crawling—it was the first time we had ever seen her climb stairs! It seems she has a certain fetish about eating hair—but more than just mommy's long hair, even daddy's short hair—or anyone else's hair that strays too close, even another baby's… We have also been locked in a vicious circle: Miriam will come and give me kisses somewhere on the face (generally open-mouthed and very slobbery) but the whole thing makes me laugh, which than makes her laugh, and often will encourage her to do it again, which then makes me laugh harder… Hearing her laugh alone is contagious… Last night was a night filled with laughter—I don't recall the last time I laughed so hard or much. She is so fun to have at home. She brings so much joy and love.

The Beginning

So Eric has finally convinced me to start one of these things. I finally gave in because I enjoy reading others and would like to share our stories more easily. I thought I would give a history of our family for kicks and grins.

Eric grew up in Delta Utah and I spent most of my life in Rigby Idaho. We got together in the Provo MTC on May 23, 2001. While there we decided we had a lot in common and decided to write each other which we did. We started dating as soon as Eric got back in the end of May 2003. After some long distance dating we became engaged the end of Sept to be married December 27, 2003.

We lived in Provo from Jan-Aug 2004 while Eric went to BYU for a civil engineer degree and I substituted while looking an elementary classroom. I had graduated in Dec.

We then moved to Springville where we currently are living and renting from my Aunt Jamie and Uncle Craig (which we are eternally grateful for!). Life continued much as before until the end of July 2007 when we found out we had a dream come true we were expecting! After a mostly uneventful pregnancy we had Miriam Afton join our family on March 23, 2008- Easter.