Teething

So the question I have when do you count the new tooth? Is it when it finally breaks the gum or when it is all the way in and settled? In any case Miriam has her fourth tooth so she now has a pair of choppers matching top and bottom. Boy let me say beware of getting between them! Yeow! Am I ever glad we're done nursing. Then Sun Eric thought he saw a flash of white up top right side (I think), later he dismissed it after feeling/ looking as much as she would allow. Then last night he saw it again when he holds her upside down so we maybe looking at tooth number 5. Breaking update!! After exploring her mouth just now number 5 on the upper right is pretty much in and on the upper left there is a bulge so she is actually working more on number 6. Finally after all this time she is getting on with the teething business I was beginning to wonder if she would only ever have the bottom 2.

Driving is Fun!

This one Miriam's favorite things to do and inevitably after work or for awhile Eric was taking her out in the morning to help start his truck so it could warm up they spent time with her driving. Miriam would turn the wheel, adjust the temperature controls, radio volume (sometimes stations), turn signals, and windshield wipers. She even tries to put the lap belt on like mommy and daddy do, bringing it down and trying to get it buckled!

She can practically climb into the car now also and is always trying to open random car doors. While we're on the car subject she is getting more agreeable (not that we always had a hard time just once in awhile) about getting into her car seat. She even occasonally tries to help buckle herself in. She's a tricky girl and parrots us more and more in figuring things out.

New House!!!

On May 22 we closed on our very first home after months of frustrations! For those not aware we started looking for a house in November but very casually as we were told we needed 2 paycheck stubs when Eric started working full time in January. Brent Harvey, the scoutmaster Eric worked with in the ward offered to facilitate looking and thus became our realtor. We went out about once a week to about 3 homes and boy was it interesting to see what folks did with their homes. We only looked in Springville and Spanish Fork, we didn't want the growing congestion of parts north and wanted to stay close to Eric's work in Provo.

In Feb we put the first offer on a house in SF but the real estate agent put us in 2nd position and strung us along for a month! we finally moved on in March successively putting bids on 2 other homes that were closer to short sells, but someone always bid before us. The second home was particularly bitter because we had the better bid but the bank (who owned it) didn't want to deal with an FHA loan. In April we found our home and put a bid on it. We gave all the houses we looked out nicknames to keep them straight and this was the "Grandma House" because an older lady was living here alone and it was decorated as such. I wasn't first convinced that this would be our home but agreed to put a bid on it anyway (I think I was tired of the whole process). She accepted the bid and other than a little maneuvering especially on the closing date we got it. The timely fashion that we got the home was due to couple of wonderful guys who really went the extra mile for us, some miracles happened for us to actually get it.

Sat the 23 we came with some help from the old ward got the house cleaned and painted the master bedroom and Miriam's room.

The next week was filled with touch ups at the house and packing and moving. I'm sooo incredibly grateful my mom came down to help me. I never would have been able to get it all together otherwise with my pregnancy limitations. Our pattern was to clean and pack in the trailer in the morning till it got too hot then head over to the house to clean and unpack. Of course everything took a lot longer than we expected. Poor Miriam spent the majority of her naps in her car seat and we all got to bed late every night.
Then Sat May 30 was the big moving day. Eric's Dad, 2 brothers and sister-in-law came to help get everything out. Also my Aunt Jamie and Uncle Craig (who owned the trailer and already have it sold) we are so grateful for all their help it turned out to be slightly larger project than expected and not very organized unfortunately. Alls well that ends well we had everything out of the trailer and in the house (somewhere) by 4:30ish. Also Deb watched all the kids so we could move and Miriam had her first all day away from mom and G-ma experience. By all accounts she had a great day with her cousins.

Now we are just trying to organize and being worn out by the previous week it is a slow going process but it feels great to be in a house!!

Dance, Dance!!

Miriam is getting more into music and dancing these days, it is so cute. I never know when the mood will hit her to put her groove on so its been really hard catching it on video. It has been really fun watching her self expression grow and change.

Where there is a will there is a way

Tonight Eric and I finally managed to get dishes washed. We forgot about Miriam's need to always see whats going on however. From dishes to cooking food she likes to help and watch what is going on. We were washing away and I noticed our of the corner of my eye she was climbing up on the dishwasher door. I didn't really think of anything of it because she has done this before, but when she poked her head under Eric's arm to see what was happening we knew what she was doing. She was so determined not to be left on she made her way to us! That's one smart little girl!
(Pic from Feb)

No More Nursing!

Turns out that day going to Blanding was the beginning of the end for Miriam's nursing. I have been working on weaning Miriam since December when I discovered I was expecting again. At that point she nursed first thing in the morning, twice or so during the day, last thing at night and about twice more during the night. The two feedings during the day quickly disappeared as I set up more solid food. The night feedings took longer and involved some crying it out sessions trying to get her sleeping better, but they also soon disappeared. By the end of February we were down to two feedings, first and last of the day. I really worried how to get her to let go especially the one before bedtime. Then I discovered if she slept well through the night and fed her first thing in the morning her breakfast she didn't miss nursing. We would be able to miss a morning and then nurse a couple more mornings then skip and eventually we got rid of the morning feeding. Lucky for me through all of this I only got too full/uncomfortable twice. Her birthday came around and that was the target date to have her fully weaned, but she still seemed to need that last feeding, she would get excited when it was time so I despaired of ever fully weaning or at least in time for her brother to start the process. I was going to replace with a bedtime drink with some good fats and such and do the gradual thing, but it never quite came together. Another problem was it was getting increasingly painful for me to nurse. Well the Monday after the Blanding trip it hurt so much to nurse her she didn't gt much and then I experienced mild cramping all night that I wondered if it was from nursing so I said alright we're done and that was the last time she nursed. We modified her bedtime routine slightly and she has done great. It doesn't seem to bother her at all to be done! Hooray!

Blanding

I have been meaning to post for at least a week- Miriam is doing so much and I doubt that I will be able to remember everything. I need to do more shorter posts I think.

First of all after Eric's graduation my mom and I took off for Blanding to attend one cousin's homecoming and his brothers farewell (can't beat that-2 for the price of 1!). We got away much later than we wanted of course and I was worried how Miriam would do. Fed her some french fries, played with her animal puzzle, sang her some songs and she was out just into Price Canyon around 7:15ish. I was glad because then I wouldn't have to worry about her crying while traveling, but on the other hand I worried that I wouldn't get any sleep because she would wake up when we got there and not want to go to sleep for a long time. She slept the whole way down with a couple of stirring where she cries out without being fully awake so I just shushed her back into sleep. We get there around 11, mom got us situated while I waited in the car, she even slept through getting her diaper changed! A miracle she slept till 5 when I brought her into bed and slept till 7ish. This also counts as the first day she didn't nurse at all!
Miriam liked playing outside and various cousins pushed her around in a toy car . Whenever we were at the gray house she just looked longingly out the screen door. Later we went to my cousin Kristy's house for leftover pizza. Miriam loved playing with her 2 boys and playing with all their cool toys. Her youngest Ian has told her he doesn't want any babies but after Miriam left he was upset to see her go and decided a cute girl would be ok after all.
The meeting was wonderful! Logan spoke on the atonement and used my favorite missionary talk by Elder Holland. In it he says we wonder why missionary work isn't easier sometimes after all it is the truth, right? Then he goes onto say why should it be when salvation was never easy and each of us need to go through our own Gethsemane and walk a few steps with the Savior. Colby thanked all those who got him to this point when last year he wasn't planning on going. I thought it was awesome for some of the teens to see all things are possible and his path to serving. We wish him luck in Fiji! (Best part was Miriam slept all through the meeting!)There was a nice dinner afterward that was good to visit with all the relatives. Monday morning we came home with Uncle Bruce and it was fairly uneventful perhaps Miriam will turn out to be a good trip taker. Uncle Bruce told me lots of interesting stories along the way including some of my Grandpa's war stories. It was pretty cool because I haven't heard many before, thanks Uncle Bruce!