Easter!

This year is Mireya's second Easter, but it feels a lot more like her first, considering that she wasn't even quite two months old last year. Being over 13 months old meant that she was able to really participate and it was a blast! When she woke up, the Easter bunny had brought her a huge basket and it was filled with all kinds of goodies! It had several little stuffed animals, a giant rubber ducky dressed up as a bunny, several books, lots of brightly colored eggs and quite a bit of chocolate candy for a one-year-old. She had so much fun going through it! We gave her the cutest big stuffed bunny and a little Mireya sized basket that she can carry around as a purse. I think it's safe to say that she was thoroughly spoiled.

We let her play with everything and run around in her pjs all morning. It was just so much fun watching her go through everything and she had the biggest smile on her face the whole time. Her favorite things were the mini chocolate eggs and the books, not surprisingly. I think in the last three days we have read those books a dozen times each.

In the evening we had family over for an Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt. I "hid" a bunch of giant Easter eggs around the living room and by the time she got to the second egg, she knew egg-actly :) what she was doing. She would race over to the next egg, shake it and when she could hear the thing inside her little face would light up. She would bring them over to me to open and it was so great to see how egg-cited :) she got when she found her surprise inside. She was by far the most thrilled by the eggs with chocolate inside. She ended up with her cheeks so full that she looked like a chipmunk and she had melted chocolate running down her chin. It was hysterical.

The next morning, as soon as she got up, she ran into the living room looking for the eggs again. I hadn't cleaned them up yet and so she just kept bringing them to me and when there was nothing inside she would get this sad little disappointed look on her face. She still had plenty of leftover chocolate, so I finally just filled several eggs and let her "find" them again. It was the same egg-citement :) as the day before and it was awesome. I definitely had as much fun as she did. I love my sweet little Mookie so much!!! She couldn't be more precious and adorable! Speaking of which, there aren't even words for how I feel about her in the photos we took of her in her Easter dress. Oh my goodness she's beautiful! Don't forget to click on the pictures to see them bigger!

 

Chillin' in the Sunshine

Lately...

We're so excited about all of the new things Mireya is doing. She is learning at such a rapid rate that we can hardly keep up.

Mireya can now point to 11 body parts that we name without any difficulty and there are several others that she almost has down. She can take you to many things in the house when you ask her where they are, including knowing each of our cats by name. If you ask her where a door is, she will go to the nearest one and knock on it. If you ask her if she wants a snack, she will take you to her snack cupboard and point at it. If you ask her if she wants milk, she will go to the fridge.

She will now follow simple instructions. She will put books away in a bookcase, take things to Mommy, place dirty clothes in her hamper, give a cat's toy to one of our cats...

She still loves to dance and has even figured out some new dance moves. She will twirl in circles, shake her head back and forth, and bounce up and down while squatting down a little. She picked up on a rhythm of one of her BabyFirst TV shows, Mio Mao.

[mobileme url="http://gallery.me.com/mireya.ruesch#100330/Dancing%20Mireya&bgcolor=black"]

She loves to do things that will make us laugh. One thing she does is she will squint her eyes and smile big. She thinks it is so funny and will laugh at herself. She also has a mad face that is so adorable and hilarious. Sometimes she does it just to make you laugh, but she usually reserves it for strangers that get too close. When she gets something she really wants, she laughs this scary gremlin sounding laugh. She will also now grab her own nose and make a snorky sound.

[mobileme url="http://gallery.me.com/mireya.ruesch#100323/Mireya%20squinting&bgcolor=black"]



When she's not doing all of these cute things, she's usually getting into trouble. For her birthday, she got a tool bench with a toy hammer. Lately, she will hammer on things like Daddy's computer and our dining room chairs. She also enjoys shutting Mommy in the pantry. Mommy doesn't appreciate it too much. She actually goes around and shuts all kinds of doors, sometimes closing herself or others into a room.



Her two favorite things right now are dogs and her bright orange ball. She will "woof" at pictures of dogs and out windows at neighborhood dogs. She also plays with her orange ball. She picks it up and lifts it over her head, then drops it and watches it bounce. She kicks it and chases it around the house.

When she is eating something with her hands, she has to pick everything in front of her up all at once, using both hands. She ends up with huge handfuls of food that she can barely keep hold of. She is also very suspicious of food. When we give her something new, she will examine it thoroughly, touch her tongue to it and take her time before finally accepting or rejecting it.



At the end of the day when she has completely worn herself out and has eaten until she could pop, she will grab her blanket from her crib and will curl up on it on the floor, ready for bed. Thankfully, her night terrors, or whatever was going on before, have gone away. She'll have an occasional bad dream, but usually sleeps without any problems all night long. Let's just hope that continues.

Happy Daddy

I am a happy Daddy. I love my daughter so much! She does the cutest things to make me smile. Lately, she has been squinting her eyes and smiling big. It's so cute! I could squeeze her 'til she pops! I love her so much and am so happy to be her Daddy.

Mireya, the Meaning of Her Name

I don't think I've ever posted this, but Mireya means "Miracle." That isn't why I chose her name, but it was definitely the icing on the cake. She is our little miracle and I love her more than anything.

Mookie is Sick, Again!

Mireya got over her ear infection, but she has still been grumpy. She is always such a happy baby and the only time that she gets this ornery is when she's sick. We took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday to be 100% positive that her ears had cleared up. They looked great and she had even gained quite a bit of weight. She is now 18 pounds 5 ounces! She's still skinny, but that shows that her new love of food is helping.

We decided to just keep an eye on her and see if any other symptoms developed. After all, it was really only my mother's intuition telling me something was wrong. On Wednesday, I found out that I was right. I put her down for her morning nap and about a half an hour later, I heard a funny noise and then she started crying. I rushed in there and it was horrible! She had vomited everywhere! The poor girl even had it coming out of her nose. :( I picked her up and whisked her into the bath tub. She was fine, but it was definitely traumatizing for everyone involved. Jason had the fun job of cleaning up the crib, while I cleaned up the baby. Then we had to clean ourselves up, because we somehow managed to get covered in vomit too. Oh the joys of having a sick baby.

She must have some kind of a stomach bug. She hasn't vomited since that first time, but she now has really gross, smelly diapers. Yeeeaaahhhhh stinky poopy pants! Hopefully she'll feel much better soon! I'm sure she's tired of feeling gross and I know that we both miss having our sweet, smiling baby around.

Mireya LOVES Food Now!

Mireya has become an eating machine! Lately she has been eating us out of house and home. We had been so worried about her weight, but I don't think it will be an issue for much longer. She eats everything in sight and then comes to me a half an hour later and signs, "eat eat eat and more more more!" Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled she's eating more! Go baby go!

She has a new favorite food. We gave her fresh cut up strawberries the other day and she absolutely DEVOURED them! By today she just wants strawberry after strawberry whole. She makes a huge mess, but they are so good for her that it doesn't matter. She is so cute! When she finishes one she grunts and complains and signs as fast as she can until that new one is in her little hands. Here are some pictures from this morning:



Strawberry number one is tasty!





You can see how frustrated she is, because we aren't getting it fast enough!



Whew! We gave her strawberry number two just in time...

The following are pictures from dinner on Saturday night. We had Baked Pasta and Artichokes. YUMMY!



 

 

Mireya's First Trip to the Park

Yesterday, I had a dental cleaning appointment and Mireya and Lane went with him. The dentist had recommended that we start getting Mireya used to being in the dentist's office. She was scared at first, especially when the hygienist turned around with his mask and gloves. She nearly cried. Eventually, after we made a big deal about how "fun" it is and how "exciting," she really had a good time. She went up and down in the chair and she even got to pick a toy (a Care Bear coloring book.)

After we left the dentist, we stopped by Great Harvest to get some lunch. We bought a sandwich and took it to the park to eat, considering it was such a beautiful Spring day outside. While we split the sandwich, Mireya ate the complimentary piece of bread from Great Harvest. Our sandwich came with a pickle that we let Mireya try. She loved it!

Once we were done with lunch, we headed over to the swings to let Mireya have her first experience with them. She was too small for the baby swing, even with her blanket behind her, so Mommy held her while they swung. I swung next to them and took lots of pictures and videos. She had a lot of fun!

As we were leaving the park, we let Mireya roam around on the grass. It took her a bit to get used to walking on uneven ground, but she was cruising around in no time. She found a piece of bark that we took as a souvenir. The wind was picking up by this time, so we then headed home.

[mobileme url="http://gallery.me.com/mireya.ruesch#100320/medium&bgcolor=black"]

Mireya Playing on the Grass

[mobileme url="http://gallery.me.com/mireya.ruesch#100320/Mireya%27s%20First%20Time%20Swinging&bgcolor=black"]

Mireya Swinging with Mommy