Miriam Jan Update

Miriam had her 9 month checkup on Jan 6 but I'm having a hard time keeping up on everything right now. Anyway she weighed in at 18.5 lbs (35%), 28.5 in long (75%- though mom doesn't feel it was very accurate, she was with me this time), and 17.5 in for head circumference (60%). I've stopped doing my record of eating, diapers, and sleep when we went to ID so I'm not capturing those firsts very well anymore. She is walking almost all the time now and is pretty stable, I even noticed last night that she doesn't hold her arms out in front all the time now either. She is still mostly babbling and getting louder plus more demanding. I think she has managed to wave bye bye mostly. I think the first time was last Wed when Eric and I went out to eat. Also she has gotten really cute clapping her hands flat and does it a lot. Unfortunately no change in the sleeping category. She's eating a lot of cheerios and grapes lately. She also finally figured out how to hold her sippy cup and tilt it back so she actually gets water! Way to go Miriam! Wearing size 5-7 ie in the transition time between sizes. When we dress her she is starting to help take off her clothes, probably won't be long till we have to watch that she doesn't strip when we don't want her to. ;) She is also getting better and better at pulling things out- I think my whole house will be backward soon, the dishes in the bathroom and all the bathroom stuff in the living room, etc. Thank goodness she's so cute!



One of the places she can get to now. She sure makes life interesting!

Christmas Vacation Part 2

Christmas Eve was spent getting ready for the festivities. It was nice having 5 other adults to run around after Miriam, I definitely got a vacation from her! She was helpful wondering around and as shown giving Daddy a back rub. Eric spent most of his time with her.

We had our usual nice ham dinner with my Briscoe grandparents then began our program. We acted out the Nativity with Miriam starring as baby Jesus. As we went through it I decided I would like to write a script with the appropriate songs interspersed (it seems most hymns are about the angels and shepherds somehow).

Then we read "Teach the Children" with necessary props finishing up with birthday pie for Jesus(we gave up on the angel food cake years ago when we realized no one really liked it).

We got ready for bed and headed down while the rest got the stockings stuffed with care. As tradition we all slept downstairs but unlike past years for some reason Ryan and Jennifer moved right back upstairs the next night- could it be Miriam woke everyone up every few hours? About 6 or so we were all up for the day and also as tradition we waited for my parents. Ryan did go up to put the breakfast casserole in to cook so I wouldn't perish with hunger and then we played Bamboozle while waiting. Between 7:30 and 8 mom finally wandered down.

As tradition we prayed then went up to check out our loot. We went through our stockings, then started opening presents. Miriam got to go first as we took turns going youngest to oldest. We also made it so the one that gave Miriam her present helped her open it. She did pretty well opening and enjoying the presents.

Miriam's favorite present was a musical dog and she got really good at pushing the button always looking so pleased with herself. The rest of the day we played games ate and took a nap. It was really fun to have us all together for the first time in about 4 years. The last two years Jennifer was in Florida on her mission and we didn't come up the year before.

Will finish up next time. Still taking care of Christmas decorations, and mailing our Christmas letter our so forgive me.

Miriam Eating Fads

Miriam is a difficult stage where I constantly am trying to figure out what she will eat. Often it is a case of I want to do it myself. I think she is going to turn into a cheerio pretty soon and she is remarkably adapt at finding and eating them. Yesterday the box was on the floor and she tipped it over happily eating cheerios till I finally said enough. Later she decided to empty her diaper bag where she found a sandwich bag of cheerios which again happily munched away on and so it went. She is convinced she can have anything we have including popcorn kernels, ice cream, and chips. She is most persistent in reaching these forbidden items. We went to Delta this last weekend where she hunted up her cousin Mason jelly bean stash (he likes to pretend their coal for his Thomas trains) she was sneaky about it to. When she found the stash she didn't eat them all at once she would eat a few and come back later for more. Also in Delta was another cousins kitty Gary, Miriam decided Gary's food looked like cheerios and tried eating some of that too. The other hilarious thing she does is pretend to dip her food. Sat we had pizza where she got the crusts, somehow she got a hold of the ranch lid and was 'dipping' her crust in it! Also last night we went to Joe Bandido's for Eric's birthday and she wanted to dip her chips in the salsa too. I"m not sure what I'm going to do with that girl!

Walking Everywhere!

Miriam took her first hesitant steps between Me and Eric in October and then didn't do much with it after all crawling was faster and more reliable. Through December she would do more and longer, my family had great fun setting her off in between all of us and watching her go (she really liked when all of us would clap for her once she reached her destination). Since getting home she is walking all the time now and can get across the kitchen and can even steady herself mid flight. A lot of the time now we just have her walk with us at church, its amazing how many people at church seem surprised she's walking when they see us go by.

Christmas Vacation part 1

I don't have many pictures from Christmas because I was kind of lethargic through our vacation so I'm waiting to get copies from my mom. In a nutshell here is our Christmas Saga.
My brother (Ryan) flew in from Texas Mon the 22 at 11:30 pm. I didn't want to drive up to SLC and back just to do it again the next day to go home to ID so my mom drove down to pick him up and go to a friend's daughters wedding on Tue except right after she hit the UT border her car completely died and she was stuck. I told Eric I would just go then and head home except Miriam and I hadn't felt well most of Mon and weren't ready to go in the slightest. Mom got her cousin, Becky to rescue her and our cousin Robert picked Ryan up at the airport so all worked out. Tue morning finds Eric and I scurrying around packing and it took way longer than it should, finally hitting the road about 11:30. We gathered all passengers and were packed to the maximum for the ride home but make it safely with no problems with the weather.
When we got to ID Jennifer had about concluded with tasty enchiladas. When we sat up to eat we put Miriam at the back of the table in her bumbo seat. The dinner proved highly entertaining as she kept trying to steal every ones food in particular Granddaddy's with a fork she had confiscated. :)
Miriam ended up sleeping with Eric and I downstairs on our air mattress in our big sleeping bag. Somehow she mostly woke up like clockwork or 2:30 and 4:30 but they weren't the most pleasant of nights. The next day was prep for our Christmas Eve festivities (a lot of cooking).