Random Cuteness Blogonanza!

Here are some notes I've been jotting down for the last couple weeks, in addition to a few random pictures.

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Katie does NOT like the printer. When I turned it on to print something while she was sitting in my lap, she started whimpering, and as the paper started spitting out she freaked. It was really funny. Inanimate objects just aren't supposed to DO that!

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Miriam was participating in one of her favorite activities: spinning in circles until she can't stand up anymore. After a fairly long session she climbed on to a chair, pointed at the floor, and said, "Look, Mommy, the floor's going wound and wound!" I laughed, remembering when we used to spin around the clothesline pole in the backyard, and then collapse on the grass and watch the palm tree fly around over our heads. Katie also likes spinning in circles -- usually on a slippery floor like the kitchen or bathroom. I can't exactly describe the noise she makes while she's doing it -- I guess it's her baby version of "whee".

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Katie's understanding is growing so much lately. We can tell, because whenever I ask her if her diaper is stinky, she'll wrinkle up her little nose and start sniffing. I don't know where she got this but it's hilarious. Also, whenever she finds a stray tissue or napkin on the floor, she'll hold it to her face and sniff.

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Katie has a new favorite word: Ba-Po! Isn't that cute? ....What? You don't know what that means? Why, "Peek-a-boo" of course! She'll smack both hands onto her nose, then wrap them behind her head, and say, "Ba-pooooo!" over and over again. It's one of her favorite games these days, and a great distraction while changing her diaper!

She also says it while climbing the stairs:


peek-a-boo!

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Katie can say "Mama" or "Dada" now -- well, at least, not to refer to her parents. She'll say "Da! Da!" when she's exploring. Or when she's holding a baby doll or stuffed animal, she'll tuck it under her chin and pat it on the back, saying in a sing-song voice "ma-maaaaa." Hmm, interesting -- I just realized there's actually a psychological connection here. When she's feeling bold and adventuresome, or just plain curious about the world around her, she uses bolder sounds, like "da" and "ta". But when she's feeling snuggly and affectionate she'll use more comforting sounds, like "ma". I wonder if it's the same for babies all around the world.

Of course, Miriam has been calling her parents lots of thing for a long time (most of them good). It's funny when she tries to use our first names -- particularly after a family visit when she hears them a lot! But lately she's also taken to calling us "Mother" and "Father" -- I can only surmise due to the influence of Sound of Music. She'll say, "Mother?" and she wants us to answer, "Yes, daughter?" Usually by that point she's forgotten what she wanted to ask us in the first place, because the formal address sounds so funny to her. :) Miriam is fond of saying to Mr. Pickles, "Daddy, you're my father!" She recently informed our piano tuner, "My daddy is my father!" Thankfully, he just laughed.

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Katie had her one-year checkup today. In the last two months she's only gained ONE MEASELY POUND!! She's off the charts. I don't understand it. She's an eating machine -- she regularly eats more than Miriam does. How can we possibly shovel more food into her? I guess the strategy now is to make every bite count -- feed her as much high-fat and high-calorie stuff as possible. I realized today that we've been giving her a lot of the same things Miriam eats, like fruit & cereal for snacks, but Miriam has the opposite problem. I've had so many people ask me if she's in kindergarten already.

Well, maybe Katie's problem is that not enough is actually getting INTO her mouth....


aahhhhh!!!

(She makes this face whenever she takes a big drink from her sippy cup.)

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Miriam is having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that she's not the baby anymore...


wait a minute...

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Katie has gotten very snuggly lately. Several times she's even gone up to Miriam, wrapped her little arms around her, and patted her back while saying, "ahhhh...." It's SO adorable -- especially the pleased look on Miriam's face. Miriam will say afterwards, "Katie LIKES me! She givved me a hug!" I've been trying to get a picture of it for days, but our dumb camera takes so darn long to focus! The moment is long gone by the time the shutter finally clicks, at which point they're already at opposite sides of the room.

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Miriam enjoying the last of the Halloween candy:


mystery flavor!

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Katie is really into putting objects into things. Give her a toy, and she will find a receptacle for it. The other day when I got out of the shower, I noticed that one of my unmentionables and a nightgown (after having been tried on first, of course -- I was watching from behind the shower curtain) were stuffed into her baby bathtub. We have to keep the kitchen trash can turned so she can't open the flap -- otherwise we just know something's going to end up in there, like one of her shoes, or a sippy cup, or a baby doll, or whatever random object she happens to be carrying around that day.

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We love our beautiful baby doll.


doll baby

The Blue Room, reborn!

I just realized I never posted the pictures of Miriam's new room! Here it is in all its glory.


The Blue Room reborn!

I just love this shade of blue. It's so pretty. While we were first painting, though, it looked white compared to the previous electric smurf blue!

Since this picture was taken we've also moved Katie's crib into the room (more on that below). The friend of one of our neighbors was providentially getting rid of a girl's bedroom set, so we were able to find complete furnishings for the girls' room. I was REALLY excited about that. As soon as Katie is old enough to share a bed with Miriam, we'll get the double ged set up. Meanwhile, Miriam's still on her usual twin mattress on the floor. In the set there are also a nightstand (which I've commandeered) and a desk, which is currently living in our room until I can decide what to do with it!

Here you can see the dresser. It's a really pretty furniture set.


all around the mulberry baby...

Miriam was running around and around Katie, who was just giggling at her, when she wasn't busy with Madeline. (She LOVES that doll! She'll carry it around everywhere, giving it pats.)

So the reason we moved Katie's crib out of our room was mainly so that everyone could get more sleep. Mrs. Pickles was getting rather tired of being woken up several times during the night by little hands whapping on her face. The Pillow Barricade had also ceased to be effective -- Katie fell down a flight of steps one day before we even knew she was awake! So last week we moved her into the room with Miriam. The first couple nights were unqualified disasters -- pretty much nobody slept. But after Katie adjusted to the new surroundings, she's actually been sleeping pretty well, once she finally decides to STAY asleep. (For example, I'm writing this at 12:30am, while she toddles around the office, because she woke up and I can't get her to go back to sleep, short of letting her shriek in her crib which would wake everyone else up.) A couple nights she's even made it through without needing to nurse -- Mr. Pickles will just walk with her until she goes back to sleep. Then she'll sleep until morning. A few times my little human alarm clock hasn't even woken up until 7:30 -- what luxury! :)

At first Miriam was freaked out with Katie in the room, b/c whenever Katie cried, it would wake her up & scare her. But now she knows that Mommy or Daddy will come and take care of Katie so everything will be all right. There were also a couple mornings when they'd wake up together and just start giggling at each other, so Miriam's realizing it's fun to have company in her room. We're hoping this will help her to stay in HER room all night long instead of coming into ours all the time!

Katie's also getting better about falling asleep in her crib -- at least we know she CAN do it now! One night when I was exasperated from trying to walk her to sleep unsuccessfully, I just put her in her crib, told her to go night-night, and lay down on Miriam's bed (who was sleeping in OUR room). Katie complained for a few minutes, then decided it wasn't worth the effort since it didn't get any results, so she sat down & played with her blankets & dolls. I was so exhausted (it was about 2 am by this point) that I fell asleep, only to awaken at dawn & realize that at some point after I fell asleep, Katie must have lain down by herself and gone to sleep w/o a fuss! Just knowing I was near was enough for her, I suppose. I'm hoping that eventually seeing Miriam there will be enough for her to get herself back to sleep, too.

So, slowly but surely, there is hope that we will sleep again! Probably just in time for the next pregnancy.

5 Good Years and counting....

Mr. & Mrs. Pickles just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary last week. We can't believe it's already been 5 years! Another reason we love fall is that it always reminds us of our wedding day. :)

Mr. Pickles once again earned his status as Husband of the Millenium by taking me out for dinner and dancing on a cruise ship that sailed up and down the Potomac. He also made all the babysitting arrangements (thanks, Branches!) so I didn't have to lift a finger! Have I ever mentioned what a wonderful husband he is?

This was the last course of our 5-course dinner:


Happy Anniversary to us!

There was room on the ship's deck to walk around and/or dance (we did both), while watching the views of DC at night pass by. It was awesome, albeit cold! Mr. Pickles just about froze his tail off. Mrs. Pickles, being the California girl that she is and afraid of freezing to death, had the foresight to wear a wool coat. :)


on the river (Lincoln Memorial)


Kennedy Center

The views were just breathtaking. It was so peaceful and beautiful. It was so interesting getting the perspective on things from the point of view of the river, too. We wanted to stay out longer, but it was just too cold. Whenever we lost feeling in our noses, we'd head inside to the dance floor.


shall we dance?

There was a pianist who played live music during dinner. She played some pretty good stuff. Hey, Dave, I could see you doing this kind of thing on weekends! For the dancing music they had canned stuff. It was interesting -- whenever something fox trot- or swing- or latin-worthy came on, the dance floor was filled, but once something even remotely resembling mosh pit came on, the floor was deserted. You think they'd get the idea and stick to the good stuff! We had actually been practicing the fox trot and two-step (thanks to the E-Z 30 Minute Dance Course (TM)(c)!)so we wouldn't feel like fools doing only the high school shuffle. :) Now we're determined to take actual ballroom dance lessons so we can do this kind of thing more often (well, maybe minus the 5-course dinner and boat part).

So it was a lovely evening, and came to an end all too soon. Well, here's hoping for many more opportunities for this kind of evening!


aren't we cute :)

A Day at the Park

We had another nice day last weekend, too. It was nippy, but not so much so that we couldn't take the girls to the park. It was Veterans' Day, and since Mr. Pickles feeds at the government trough (his words!) he had the day off. There were a couple other dads at the park too, which was nice to see.

Poor Miriam -- Mommy has been so busy that she doesn't get to play at the park as often as either of them would like. Very often she'll come up to me and say, "Mommy, I need something to hold on and swing!" We're seriously thinking of getting a chin-up bar & a small slide so she can have something to do to burn off energy inside, especially now that winter is coming soon.


mountain climber


swing!

Mr. Pickles got this shot just before Miriam landed on top of him:


aaaaa!!!

Katie had oodles of fun too, even though she couldn't play on the playground equipment. She mostly led Mommy around and climbed up and down little hills and stomped on the bridge.


Katie taking Mommy for a walk

It's nice spending time together as a family like this.

Fall Bike Ride

Here begins my frantic attempt to get caught up in blogging before the holidays take over my life!

We had a couple days of glorious weather two weekends back, and so decided to make the most of it. We hoisted the bikes on the car rack (and by "we" I mean "Mr. Pickles, while I watched a offered executive managerial advice") and drove to a trail that runs along the Potomac River. Everybody and his dog was there too!


all set!

The girls were actually really good on the trip. We had them well supplied with sippy cups and toys and books. I think they both spent a good part of the trip sleeping too!

We paused for a quick break at a park right next to an airport. Landing airplanes flew RIGHT overhead. It was pretty cool.


vroooom!

Naturally, Miriam freaked out b/c they were so loud. So we didn't stay long. Just long enough to get this shot of the Capitol and the Washington Monument in the distance.


the view

Neither of us had a watch, so we didn't know how long we were biking. We had planned tentatively to try to make it up to Roosevelt Island, which we've ALWAYS wanted to visit. But after 8 miles or so my legs gave out so we stopped for a lunch break.


taking a break

Many flights follow the course of the river before they land at the aforementioned airport, so Miriam got to watch more airplanes (and helicopters too) from a safe, quieter distance. She was pretty jazzed about that.


look!

Katie was just happy demolishing Daddy's banana. She'd take as big a bite as her little cheeks could hold, sometimes bigger!


mmm... yummy


little monkey

It's views like this that make me glad we live near our Nation's Capital.


wow.

Before we took off again, Miriam got the wiggles out by running downhill. Admit it -- who doesn't love doing that?


wheee!

One of the best parts about the trip was being surrounded by the glories of fall. Apologies to all my California relatives, but you don't got nothin' on this.







There's an ent in this last shot. What, you don't see him? He's the tree with eyeballs. ;)
It's just amazing to think this kind of beauty exists in the middle of the big city. No concrete jungles for us -- just the real leaf & bark ones!

All in all I think we biked almost 17 miles. My legs just about fell off when we got home! But it was a lot of fun and so worth it. It's too cold to go out anymore this year, but maybe in the spring we'll actually make it to the island. Cherry blossom time is another glorious season.

Happy First Birthday, Katie Bear!

In yet another demonstration of a warp in the space-time continuum (I'm noticing that those are happening a lot in parenthood), our little tiny baby turned ONE YEAR OLD yesterday! We had a little family party complete with the requisite chocolate-iced cupcake.


ooooh.... prettyyyyyyyy

Miriam had a hard time understanding that it wasn't HER birthday. Fortunately one-year-olds need lots of help with all the birthday rituals.


big sis "helping"

The icing that Mr. Pickles used was essentially melted chocolate. Katie wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first.


what IS this?


methinks I LIKE it!


MY cupcake


arrrrrrrr


after the kill

Our chocolate baby! You can even see all three of her teeth in this picture. :)


lookit all my loot!


big sis "helping" again


enjoying the plunder

Of course, after all the gifts were opened, Katie moved on to...


the BEST present

--the wrapping paper! (and the plastic tags, and the twist ties, and the ribbons, etc. etc.)


Thanks, everybody, for the great presents!

Happy Halloween!

I'm so proud of my pumpkin this year. You can barely even see the toothpicks holding up Trogdor's back. :) The flickering candle made the fire look really cool. And one trick-or-treater even admired Trogdor's beefy arm.


Trogdor the Burninator!

For Halloween dinner this year we decided to do something fun so I made baked jack casserole -- basically beef & peppers & seasonings baked in a pumpkin, and wormy apples for dessert (baked apples with gummi worms poked in them). Yum! (thanks for the recipes, Mom B!)

And what did the girls dress up as? What else but:


Goldilocks and Baby Bear

Katie made it difficult to take pictures, because she kept doing this:


runrunrun!

We had originally planned on being the THREE bears, but after 2 months' searching I could NOT find bear ears anywhere. Apparently you're only allowed to be a pussycat or playboy bunny, but not a teddy bear. Mr. Pickles improvised very cleverly, however, and I think he made a very convincing Papa Bear Just Returned From Work:


Goldilocks and the Two Bears

I stayed home and ate- I mean, handed out candy. Miriam came back with quite a bit of plunder. You know, there's nothing like that sweet smell of Halloween candy, that divine combination of chocolate and artificial fruit flavoring. It brings back all sorts of fond childhood memories. :) Now we've gone all through the good stuff and there's only hard candies and nasty chewy things left. (All the good chocolate disappeared after a day or two, as it usually does if Mrs. Pickles has anything to do with it.) :b

Fall Has Fell

Which means.... fall festivals!!! We went apple picking this past weekend. We've been meaning to go every year for a while, but this year we finally did it! The orchard we went to was also having a fall festival with a corn maze, pony rides, face painting -- all the usual fun pumpkin-patch kind of things -- but by the time we got there it wasn't worth the $25 admission price for the short time we'd be able to stay before naptime (which is sacrosanct!). But next year!

We still had lots of fun.


the expert apple pickers

Miriam was a GREAT apple picker. Katie, however...


I'm cold!

It WAS cold, and windy -- much more so than at home! We weren't dressed quite warmly enough, which is what Katie was complaining about.

..all better! :)


mm--yum!

Mr. Pickles was saying what a great experience this is for our kids -- being able to see where food comes from, and taste it right off the tree. So they won't think apples come from a box at the grocery store!


science lesson

All tuckered out! Note their hands.


sleeping beauties

Miriam is very good about sharing her apples with Katie. Now whenver Katie sees an apple, she goes nuts and starts babbling and squawking and pointing. We think she likes apples.


sharing the spoils

Now... time to start baking!!