Let it snow let it snow let it snowwwww........

While Miriam & I were enjoying a late breakfast (10:30 -- it was one of those mornings), she kept trying to grab my attention. (I was absorbed in Tristan and Isolt -- ripping good story, btw.) She finally got it when she pointed out the window and said, "Mommy, look, SNOW!" And sure enough, there it was, drifting down pretty thickly. VERY exciting moment in the Pickles household. The next words out of her mouth were, "Can I wear my boots?" She's been BEGGING us to let her wear her snowboots since about, oh, August. Since the baby was asleep we decided to seize the moment and go outside for a little bit. Miriam was in her element. Every five seconds she would say, "Ooh!" or "Whoa!" or "Wow!" or any number of expressions of surprise and wonder. I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been so dang COLD! Later that afternoon I let her play in the backyard while the baby & I watched her from the warm indoors. :) I had given her a bucket and a cup, but then she asked for a plate and a spoon -- and proceeded to have a snow tea party. :)


our little snowbunny

We followed that up with a hot cocoa party -- she thought that was all right!

Which Monarch ... ?

Finally, in following my wife's post, I've finally taken the quiz: "What Monarch Are You?"


Edward
IV

You are loyal and down to earth. More than that, you are a hard-headed realist. You take the facts, and you go with them. You don't try to change what is, just like Edward IV, who never lost a battle, even when greatly outnumbered. You excel on your own mind and on your own heart. Keep your level head, and keep being aware. You rock!

Now that Christmas is officially over...

I can't believe we forgot to post some Xmas pictures!

This is one of the things Mrs. Pickles enjoys about having 2 girls right away -- matching outfits! :)

our two elves

Miriam building the tower of Barad-Dur with Grandpa (note the eye on top).



The littlest party animal (she's what's known in the parent world as "milk drunk").



A Christmas visitor...



Miriam was freaked out by this thing right outside our kitchen window, so Grandma explained that the possum was more scared of her, since to it she was big and scary. Of course, that idea really took hold, so now she goes around saying, "I'm big and scawy!" We tried to convince her that's she really little and cute, but so far she'll only admit that she's "big and scawy and coot!"

Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas, and that your New Year is going well so far!

some new pics and ME quote

Cutie Katie


Katie's 1st piano lesson


How can this possibly be comfortable?

We also added another newborn picture to the "Our New Daughter" post.


And the quote of the day from Miriam:

Miriam: performing her usual mealtime silliness, this time pretending to devour her fingers
Daddy: explaining the use of a straight jacket to Miriam
Mommy: "Miriam, can you say, 'looney'?"
Miriam [indignantly, all in one breath]: "I'm NOT looney I'm Meenum I'm big and scawy and cute!!"

I've always liked the name Eleanor...

Take the quiz: "What Historic Woman Are You?"

Eleanor of Acquitaine
One of the first great queens of England, Eleanor was her own woman. She married the French prince at 14, but after six years of marriage and no son, she divorced him and secretly married the younger (and wealthier) heir to the English throne. Her sons were some of the greatest monarchs in English history! You must be tenacious, audacious, and brave if you're like Eleanor. Read more about her: http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/heroine2.html

(thanks to Barbara Nicolosi for linking to this quiz on her blog)

Katie's baptism day

Here's a picture of Katie on her baptism day, Dec. 19. She's wearing a baptism dress that is almost 100 years old -- it was first worn by her great-great-grandmother Margaret in 1909.


the newest Christian

Another Nickname

Mr. Pickles forgot to mention one more nickname: Katie Kaboom (a character from good ol' Animaniacs). This is a very versatile name b/c it can either refer to her Kaboom hair, or her other end (she's already gotten the wall once)....

Pick Catherine's New Nickname

So you've always wanted to give your friend or family member a nickname, but you never had the opportunity or creative knack to devise a name. Or perhaps you never had that runty little brother whom you could pick on, for which a nickname would have been appropo. Well, here's your opportunity to help us pick a new nickname for our daughter. The following list contains the potential nicknames for Catherine.

• Katie--Obvious and unoriginal. It will never stand out in this Brave New World of beloved novelty. However, the name is a classic, and it has some good history in our families (particularly on Mrs. Pickles side of the family). More "original" names appear below. An excellent name that could never be wrong.
• Katie Bear--Read the post from 12/13/2004 and look at the picture in that post to understand how this name came about. With such a fuzzy head of hair, we couldn't help but think of a fuzzy bear.
• B.C.--Abbreviation for Baby Catherine. It may also be used as a nickname for Miriam--an abbreviation for Before Catherine.
• Ben--The first name of Ben Wallace. Why on earth would we use an NBA star's name for a nickname? Look at Katie's picture.

Now compare that hair with this picture of Ben. The resemblance from the forehead up is uncanny, isn't it?

• The Chin--A name used for her alterego if she ever decides to don black tights and join the crime fighting circuit. ("Not until your 18, young lady!") Given the additional chin(s) it's an appropriate name. Her likely superpowers include irresistible cuteness combined with projectile vomiting--a deadly combination.
• The Grunt--An alternate name for her alterego. Her superpower is the ability to shock any person into submission with noises that seem to defy the laws of physics. For instance, noises that you would only expect to come from a much larger individual. Exhibit A: Catherine falling asleep. ("wheez, wheez, whine, GRUUUUUUNNNNNNTTT!!!!")
• Don--Short for Don King. Look at the hair again. That comparison should adequately inform you on the inspiration for this nickname.

That is the sum total of our current nicknames. Tell us your favorite in the comments below.

Katie at one month

Here's a photo of Catherine taken yesterday, on her One Monthday. :) She now weighs in at 10 lbs.! (She's got the extra chin to prove it, too.) We just moved her up to size 1 diapers. *sigh* They grow up so fast!

I got her to smile by having Miriam come over and talk to her -- Katie is absolutely fascinated by Miriam. It's neat watching their relationship develop already -- often when Katie is crying, she'll be comforted by Miriam just coming up, holding her hand, and talking to her. (usually something along the lines of, "Baby, it's okay. I know, I know. It's okay. You hungwy? I know.")

And why "Bear", do you ask? Just look at the hair! She's our fuzzy little baby bear. :)


Katie Bear -- 1 mo. 

Latest Miriam Sayings

(We had this mostly written out a month ago, just didn't finish it & post it until now!)

It's fun watching something learn to put a language together from the bottom up. It's so obvious to us how much Miriam learns from copying our phrases. The problem is she doesn't always quite get it right – for example she'll say something like, “Bear, you happy to see me, don't you.” We've also been working on getting her to say “may I” instead of “can I” -- but the end result has been, “Can I may?” Another hilarious question she asks is “What's that thing?” It doesn't sound funny unless you understand she's referring to a person. Once we had a salesman knock on our door, and as he was leaving, Miriam called after him, “Mommy, what's that thing?” I tried to cover up by saying, “You mean, who's that person?” but I was still SOOO embarrassed.

Miriam knows her numbers, and she can count to ten, but we're still working on counting things. When she wants to count a number of things, she invariably says, “1, 3, 2, 1. Look, Mommy! I got twos!” -- regardless of the actual number of things. (at least she understands about plural endings!)

Miriam was a banaleena for Halloween (i.e., ballerina), “an' wear pwetty shoes an' say twick o tweat an' get candy and chocate!”

You already know that Miriam is fairly musical. Mealtimes seem to be the most creative time for her. The other day she was singing the Tantum Ergo very devoutly, then all of a sudden started yelling “Q! Caw! S! T! Voo! V!” (part of her version of the alphabet)
Another mealtime religious favorite of hers of late is singing the Alleluia, then saying “Lord be wis you an also wis you, God bess you, Fadder, Hoy Speet, Amen,” then singing the Alleluia again. (we're not sure what happened to the Second Person of the Trinity...)
She also loves the alphabet tune – often we hear her singing nonsense syllables to that tune, or singing about whatever she's doing. We think she's living in a perpetual musical. This evening she was singing, “I'm a noono, I'm a noono,” while dancing one of her noodles around the rim of her cup. (after which she devoured it with a snarling sound)

Miriam will often comment on her crying episodes as soon as the storm clouds clear. For example, before her tears are even dry she'll say something like, “Meenum's cwying kabuzz no wanta eata oatmeal.” (Kabuzz is her cute version of “because” -- our favorite of her words so far!)

Not only do Miriam's hands not seem to know what the other is doing, but they seem to be downright hostile towards each other. For example, her fingers regularly fight over her sippy cups. So we're teaching them to take turns poking themselves into the sippy spout, but I guess they're slow learners: “Okay, dis hand's turn. No! Stop dat! Nauny [naughty -- said with lips puckered] hand! [smack smack smack] Dis hand need to share.”

It's a good thing that Miriam and her cousin Edy get along so well in real life, because Edy gets a lot of abuse in Miriam's imagination! Often Miriam will be playing quietly, then all of a sudden we'll hear her yelling, “Edy, no! No, Edy! Stop it! I'ma smack you! You being nauny! You need a time out!” (we're a little worried about the smacking part, since she doesn't have any contact with anyone who hits, at least as far as we know!) Of course, she also says the same things to her various stuffed animals. I guess she's just practicing for her younger sibling. ;)
I suppose one of the things Miriam likes most about her friendship with Edy is Edy's vast amount of wealth – this evening we were informed that “Edy has a bicy-o [bicycle], Edy has a bacuum, Edy has a lawnmoweh – Edy has LOTS of things!” Edy also has small versions of everything, apparently – we'll be reading a book together, and: “Look, Mommy, elephant! Edy has a little elephant.” Or we'll be driving in the car: “Look, a mocyco [motorcycle]! Edy has a little mocyco.” However, “Edy doesn't have a car. SOMEday Edy have a car.”