Slightly Belated Miriam Update

From the Lunch Hour of Gregory P. Erkens, Esq.

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Miriam's godfather is Doug Branch. For the longest time, Miriam just
couldn't wrap her tongue around "Godfather Doug." But now she calls
him "Dougfather".

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Occasionally, Miriam will yank one of our books of the shelf, and read (usually sing) it aloud. Me thinks our daughter has been reading Luke's gospel (again?)--specifically, Luke 11: 5-12--for she will perpetually ask for the same thing over and over again until she gets what she wants. She has mastered that broken record technique.

Sometimes, she will look at us with those desperate, pleading eyes ("Bambi eyes" some might call them) and ask for something repeatedly, such as her "fuzzy" (aka, her favorite purple fuzzy jacket, now 2 sizes too small). After we tell her that it's too warm outside, she responds by saying, somewhat dejectedly, "Ooo-kay."

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We went to the zoo with Phil, Rachael and Edy a couple weeks back. We viewed many wonders of God's creation, and it was a grand day out. We hoped for Miriam to take a nap on the drive to DC. Though she slouched in her carseat during the entire trip, she resisted the sandman with every ounce of her stubborn strength (and there can be quite a bit there sometimes). Consequently, she spent part of the zoo trip with a spacey look on her face.

After seeing some giant kitties (jaguars), a horsy (zebra), and the pandas and elephants--all of which enthralled the girls--we ventured over to the primate house. I couldn't believe it, there was Homer Simpson! Well, that would have been something to see(!), and it might have scared her a little less than the large, black, swinging apes in their Plexiglas pens. There were several animals that caused fear--including the apes, there were the hippos too. I sometimes asked her if she wanted to get a closer look. After thinking about it, she vigorously shook her head saying, "Nnnooooooo!" Everything is a bigger deal when you're tired--especially bigger animals.

Orangutans were a hit, and she didn't want to leave them. One of them pulled a white sheet over its head and walked around. This scene prompted Miriam to say "See-ty" (silly)--one of her common adjectives for Dad. (I don't know why :p )

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Miriam--in the tradition of almost all women everywhere--is a huge fan of chocolate. On Easter Sunday, we had a bowl of Easter M&Ms on the table. It didn't matter that the color differed. They were the proper size and shape for M&Ms, and she seems to intuitively know when an item contains chocolate. She certainly takes after her mother in the joy of chocolate. :)

Miriam would simply sit up there on the table and eat them. We figured that it was Easter, and it should be a special day for her even if she didn't quite know why it was special. Eating more chocolate in a day than she had eaten during the past 3 months combined is certainly a sign of a special day.

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Miriam is an excellent dancer. When nobody but Mom and Dad are around (or when she's finally comfortable with a certain person), Miriam likes to skip around and dance and sing. Here is a sample of one of her songs--BO, DEE, DOH, BE, DA, RE, LA, FA, MEEEEE, DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! Yes, those letters are capitalized for a reason. She'll even spread out her arms on the last note as if it is the grand finale (!). We have photographic evidence of her doing this. One Sunday while waiting in the car with Daddy while Mommy was warming up with the church choir, she sang a song about Mommy, Jesus, and chocolate. Very strange. Very amusing. :)

Consequently, Miriam has decided that she's heading to Broadway when she turns five. The quality of her cuteness, while greatly appreciated by her parents, does not pull in the kind of money that she likes (which is $0). Consequently, her desire to have a maid who will give her everything she wants to eat and her other desire to sit upon a mountain of chocolate before she messily devours it are consistently frustrated.

After some further thinking on the subject, Miriam may just get a PO Box in New York City, since that's all that's usually necessary to get a Broadway part. That way she can still live at home off of her parents. After all, living in NYC is VERY expensive, and all of those child labor laws get in the way of a hard-working five year-old making an honest buck. Now, if she lived in China ...