10 February, 2011

My Pretty Pearl




Miranda is my nursling & is just shy of her first birthday. As such her post will probably not be as long as V & C. Her collection of pictures is certainly smaller, she is the least photogenic of the 3 & is only recently turning pretty.

This is her typical picture face.

One in 3 pregnancies are unplanned & in Miranda's case this is true. After our initial panic was over (Mike had received his retirement orders only 2 weeks before & our house was on the market w/ us planning on living in an RV.) we accepted God's planning instead, forged ahead & were continuously amazed at His plans for us. It is largely due to my carrying her that spurned us to bid on the house when & where we did.


For all of her differences from the other two, Miranda is by far the most content, happiest, well behaved baby yet. I am very glad for this so Mike can see. He missed Victors first year due to deployment & Charlotte was...not. Whereas Miranda can sprout a mouthful of teeth like a shark & play happy games, every bit of tooth sprout for Charlotte was pure misery for her. And Mike, ha ha.
She loves Victor & Charlotte equally but Victor is the main reciprocator of her affections. As soon as I began showing he began to talk to my belly & she recognized him at their first meeting turning her head & squinting. It was so neat & he was very very gratified. I think she looks more like Victor than anyone else. She hangs out w/ him as much as possible, Charlotte is still jealous. The fight for my lap is ongoing every story time. At times I feel like the old woman who lived in the shoe.


Things that she really enjoys are dancing, being outside, 4 legged critters, baths & I'm not sure, but eating. Meal time is the only time she is seemingly not happy & well behaved, she becomes a demanding, screaming harpy. Since we don't buy baby food & I don't have a food processor I mama bird feed her but I can't chew fast enough to suit her. Feeding solids is when I take a noticeable loss of baby weight. The nursing does help but chewing more thoroughly for her & getting 1 swallow to every 2 of hers makes me feel full faster. A week until her 1st birthday & I'm between 135 & 140lbs. I've not seen those numbers since 8th grade! My average highschool weight was 145 & 155 while in the army. I guess I didn't need all of that muscle, thank you baby. :)

This is her "snow chores" suit. She gets excited since she knows she'll be in the sling for a couple of hours to shovel snow or haul wood.

Miranda is my "signing" baby. We used babysigns w/ Charlotte too but Miranda uses more of them. She thumps her chest when she wants to nurse, pats her hip & says "Psss, pssss" when she needs a new diaper, waves her hand in the air for a bite & touches her mouth when she wants to drink. All of the sippy cups when Victor was a baby drove me nuts w/ their clutter so I boxed them up & took the girls straight to a shot glass for its small circumferance.

I'm not sure if she's toilet trained or not. We've certainly got a little EC (elimination communication) in place. I started sitting her on a little pedastel bowl when she was about 2 months & ran some water down her leg w/ the pss pss sound. Her bottom is getting too big for it now but if I sit her on it or the toilet she will pee on demand w/ the pss pss sound & then claps her hands delightedly if only a few dribbles.

Not this exact bowl, but the pedastal style is very useful so you can grip it between your knees if baby is kicky & has made a deposit.


I love her bottom! It is so round, she was born w/ loads of muscle. Victors was too, Charlottes was so flat it creeped me out for the first 6 months as her tailbone was so prominent. Miranda is like a skinny little spider monkey, she just won't fatten up. She's not yet walking but is pulling herself up & has filled out considerably these past 2 months. I can't hold her & do everything anymore & have to set her down frequently. She's even growing out of her sling. She's growing as fast as Victor did/ is.

She has tiny biceps!

Other training we've done is woodstove/hot training. Since the stove is on a tile floor the line of differentiation is prettty clear it's easy for her to recognize "no" land. It was helpful when we were recently at a doctor's appointment for Mike. She would crawl over the carpeted waiting area but recognized that the shiny linoleum was off limits at our "no". We did the same for Victor when we lived on a street & were teaching Victor the "no" line between the drive & street. I realize I compare the 3 alot but that is one of the funnest things about having children. They're so different & so are their strengths & weaknesses. We're so blessed!



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