Gorgeous!

Dad, I'm Sad!

I heard Mireya calling from her bedroom. She has only been in bed for about five minutes, but she is hollering to us. (She is doing that frequently lately.) She calls, "DAD! DAD! DAD! DAD!" over and over until someone goes into her room. I went in and asked her what she wanted. She said, "I'm sad Dad put me in bed." Really? Cute! Still... I'm sad that you won't go to sleep. ;)

The moon

Mireya woke up tonight. I went in to see what was wrong and she said, "I'm sad because of the moon." I asked her why the moon would make her sad and she said it was because the moon was going down. It was so sad and so cute at the same time. I held her and rocked her for a bit, then put her back in bed.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Today, I took Mireya with me to St. George to get our iPhone 5 back invisibleShield covers on from ZAGG. As we were driving around town to get where we were going, I heard Mireya say, "There's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!" I didn't know what she was talking about, so I just said, "Oh, okay." After we ran a few errands, we were heading to another store and Mireya said again, "Hey, there's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!" Again, I didn't know what she was talking about until I looked out of the window and saw the Carl's Jr. sign with a giant star on it! She is so cute! :)

Bunch of Updates

Mireya is the smartest little girl in the world! Ok, I am a little bias, but she is seriously smart. She is also incredibly beautiful and oh so naughty. She has a bossy two-year-old attitude with a sass mouth. It gets her into trouble!

 Mireya LOVES to play dress-up. I will hear her closet door open, and then she comes out dressed in one (or more) of her skirts. She always accessorizes too. In the photo above she is wearing jewelry Grandma Ruesch gave her. She usually had on shoes too.

One of her latest obsessions is light switches. She turns ALL the lights and every fan on in the house. I have to go around turning them off. That makes her scream and yell, "NO! LEAVE THE LIGHTS ON, MOMMY! NOOOOOO!!!" It is very pleasant to listen to.

On a happier note, she has almost got her ABC's down. She sings the song all the time. She also sings several different nursery rhymes. She LOVES to sing. It is the cutest thing to hear that little voice. She gets shy and embarrassed if she realizes that you are paying attention and listening to her sing. She will run and hide her face in the couch. :)

She has also decided that Sparty is her best friend. She hugs and kisses him all the time. He is a good kitty; he lets her maul him and never reacts negatively. I think he likes most of the lovies when she does not get too excited and smack him. (Sometimes she goes from petting to smacking.) His eyes bug out and he runs away. lol

Mireya also likes to stretch with me...

  

Don't Sing...Daddy

Today, I was singing a silly made-up song to Mireya. I was only singing for a moment, when Mireya said to me, "Don't sing. It's annoying, Daddy." I couldn't believe it! My daughter called me annoying! She is so smart. :)

Look What I Did Mommy!

The following is something that happened about a week ago.

Sshhhh... listen. Do you hear that? No? Exactly... silence means trouble in toddler land. My daughter has gone quiet and that cannot be good. With my mommy senses buzzing, I start calling for her, "Mireya? Mireya! Where are you and WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Silence... and then, "Mommy, I'm in my bedroom! I POOPED! I POOPED Mommy!"

*face twisting into horror and shock*

Holy
F-ing
Hell

OH NO SHE DID NOT! NOT IN HER ROOM! I ran down the hall and burst through her door. "MIREYA!! What did you s..." "Look Mommy, poop!" *she shows me her hands and points at the floor*

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WHY!? WHY!? She pooped in her room and then TOUCHED IT!? WHY!? "Jason honey, come here. Mireya has something to show you. HURRY! Now, Mireya, stay right there and don't move. Daddy's coming." ...and Mommy exits stage left. Poop from hell to breakfast is what I call "a Daddy job". I am glad he works from home on days like this. He wishes he worked outside the home on days like this.

In the background I could hear, "NO! Mireya, why!? Why did you poop on your floor!? And WHY did  you TOUCH it!? GROSS! WE DO NOT TOUCH OUR POOP! NEVER EVER EVER! That is ICKY Mireya!" I could picture the tortured look on his face. Did I feel bad for making him clean it up? No. Should I? Perhaps. Am I just glad that I was not the one scrubbing it out from under her fingernails? YES. Come on, seriously, you know you would do the same thing.. ;)

****She is potty training right now, so hopefully this is just a stage. If not, I'm buying a bigger carpet cleaner and planning a vacation.

1st Root Beer Float

Mireya was out running errands with me the other day. It was hot and she had been exceptionally good and patient. I figured she deserved a treat. Besides, she is too cute and I spoil her rotten. :) I also like to sneak in special mommy-daughter moments whenever I can. The memories are invaluable. :)

We were at our local drugstore/gift shop. It has a cool little soda station with real, old-fashioned soda. We sat at the bar and I ordered her a root beer float-her first! She LOVED it!

  

Mireya kept saying that she was FREEZING, BRRR. It was cute! :) I decided she might be more comfortable finishing it outside on a bench in the warm summer air.

   

That was a really special day!

Potty Training Update

Mireya is finally getting the concept of using the potty! Today, she had on underwear instead of a pull-up and she pulled it down and went potty all by herself, without even telling us she needed to go. We are so proud of her! She is still working on it, but we have a feeling she will get the hang of it in no time.

OUCH!

Mireya got her first bee sting yesterday. :( We were at Aunt Sharee and Uncle Kyle's house. We were all visiting in the backyard when Mireya suddenly started to cry and she grabbed her leg. No one ever even saw the yellow jacket/wasp that stung her. We did not even know what happened until we got her inside and saw the red dot on her leg. It swelled a little bit, and we iced it off and on, but she was fine. We called poison control too, but that ended up not even being necessary. I was worried about her having an allergic reaction, but she did not. In fact, she really did not cry very hard, or for very long. She was a brave girl, and now we know that she does not have an allergy to bee stings!! YAY!

My Favorite Photo

[caption id="attachment_1923" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="The most beautiful girl in the world!"][/caption]

Toddlers are EXPENSIVE!

Mireya has been helping put away the clean dishes from about 12 months on. She used to be great at it, and then she started to sit and hang on the door to the dishwasher when it was open. She bent the door far enough down a few months ago, that it started to leak out the back, and we had to call the repairman to come fix it. The repairman classified the repair as fixing a leak, so it was covered by our warranty. After that I decided that Mireya was no longer allowed to help with the dishes. Jason was naughty and continued to let her, because when we told her no, she would scream. (Yes, honey, I am implicating you as a co-conspirator.)

She broke the dishwasher again. This time she actually bent the hinges so badly that we had to replace them. The repair bill was insane... go ahead... take a guess. Did you guess $183.82? Yeah, me neither. Holy cow, right?! 183 dollars!! It's insanity! She still tries to sit on the dishwasher door, and if she breaks it again, I am going to cry.

Potty Training

[caption id="attachment_1913" align="aligncenter" width="584" caption="She gets a little "toilet paper happy" sometimes... ;)"][/caption]

This is the FINAL time that we are potty training! I have complete faith in Mireya, and I know that she will achieve fully-potty-trained status! :) Starting about last week sometime, she began complaining about her diapers every time she peed. She also started asking to use the potty. We realized that we had to seize the moment and get her potty-trained before she lost interest.

We started two days ago, and she has been doing great. She goes on the potty whenever she has to pee, with a few times when she has forgotten and peed in her Pull-ups. Until today, she has refused to poop on the potty. A few minutes ago she did, and she was so proud of herself! After she goes potty and wipes, she washes and dries her hands. It is so nice. I am really glad that we eventually waited until now. It is easier to potty-train Mireya now that she can communicate so clearly. I was eager to get it done earlier, but I would happily wait until age two or older if we had another child. (No, we are not thinking of having another child, I was just saying...)

Wish us luck! ;)

4th of July

Happy 4th of July! We did not do much this year, but we definitely did not miss the fireworks. Cedar City has fireworks at the airport every year. We live so close that we have the perfect view! I woke Mireya up right as they started and snuggled her while we watched them. She did not say much at all this year, but just stared at them in awe. After they were over I took her back to bed. She said, "That was fun!" I asked her which one was her favorite, and she said that she liked the red ones.

Fireworks are so much more fun when you have a beautiful little child to watch them with.

I love you Mireya! You are the sweetest little girl in the world, and I LOVE sharing experiences with you! Hugs and Kisses baby girl! XOXOXO, Mommy

The Molars Have Arrived!

Mireya has been working on getting her bottom molars in the very back in. She started complaining about them hurting at around 18 months, I believe. She is now nearly 28 months, and the molar on the bottom left is all the way in, and the one on the right is halfway in!! HOORAY! I am so thrilled! They have caused her so much pain for so many months. She still needs to get those back molars on the top in, but that will be it. I never realized that teething lasts for so many years! Good grief.

Nap Time PLEEEAAAASSSSSEEEE!!!!

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of nap time! Without nap time for toddlers every single person in the house in on edge, irritated, ornery, and ready to cry--that includes the adults... especially stay-at-home-mommies.

Mireya does not seem to get this little tidbit of information though, as she has decided that naps are for babies and she is two now after all. Who knew? All grown up at two. You don't need naps anymore, you don't need to be told what to do, and you can boss your parents around instead. I mean, come on, who has a better idea of what I should be doing every second of the day? Certainly not me, so thank goodness Mireya's around! ;)

I love my daughter. I love my daughter. I love my daughter. I do not believe in spanking. I do not believe in spanking.... or smacking sense into children... they are just kids... she's just a kid... the crying has to stop eventually... she won't always hit me when she's angry... it doesn't do any good to yell at her... don't yell... but she's yelling.... no, that's grade-school logic... she's just a kid.... &*%#%*^#* I just *#i**$ want a quiet &$**# moment... *deep breath* I'm fine... This is an example of the conversation I have in my head several times a night, after about 4:30pm every day. *super sarcastic happy voice* Yaaaayyyyyy....

Ok, I really do love Mireya. However, I love her even more after she wakes up from a nap and is happy. (I'm sure Jason will second that!) She has not napped in two weeks! I cannot get anything done and she is ornery all evening and all night long. I have tried everything and I just hope she grows out of it.

Extensive Renovations

Post contributed by Hilton Miranda My wife and I have put so much work into our home that we cannot bear the thought of anything ever happening to it. We just finished an extensive renovation, and spent a lot of money. We gutted most of the house, and make it just the way we wanted it. Our kitchen and bathrooms are state of the art, and all of our appliances are top of the line. We also bought all new furniture, and the place looks great. It’s so nice to finally have the home we always dreamed of. We knew we needed to protect our home, so we looked into getting ADT Security Gaylord. We hope that hooking up an alarm system will give us the peace of mind we need not to worry about our home when we are at work or on vacation. Our neighborhood is safe, but you never know what is going to happen. My philosophy is that we can never be too careful, and I think an alarm sounding off would be enough to deter even the most persistent burglar.

Talking in bed

I'm sitting here listening to Mireya talking, through the wall as I sit in the office, and she's in bed for the night, suppose to be sleeping.

She's saying things like: Elmo, how are you?; Elmo, sorry; HI Landon; Scared of the dark?...

It's the cutest thing, but also frustrating because she should be sleeping and it's way past her bedtime.

Cute Stuff Mireya Says/Does

I was going through Mireya's clothes this morning and figuring out what fit her and what doesn't. I needed her to try on some clothes to see if she had grown into them yet. She was sitting in her rocking chair reading and I asked her to come try them on really quickly. She looked up at me and said, "No mom. I'm busy!" Aaaallllrighty then! lol

Mireya's First Kiss!

Mireya and her best-friend Landon kissed! Landon has been hugging Mireya for months, and up until recently, she considered the hugs to be very unwanted advances! Recently, she has been happily hugging him back.

Yesterday, I caught them hugging, so I hurried and got my phone out to take a picture. Of course, by the time I got it out, they had stopped. Landon ran off and Mireya made kissing noises and puckered her lips at him. Jaquete told Landon that Mireya wanted to kiss him, so he ran over and he put his cheek toward her for a kiss. She changed her mind and turned her head away. I figured that was the end of it. Right as I was ready to put the phone away, Landon decided to kiss her!

It was the CUTEST thing I have EVER seen!!!!!!! It lasted several seconds and they both grinned afterwards! It was like a perfect little toddler Romeo and Juliet kiss!

Jaquete (my best-friend and Landon's mother) and I both jumped up and down squealing at how cute our kids are! I cannot believe I caught it on camera! How perfect is that!? I LOVE OUR BABIES!

2 Year Wellness Visit

Mireya had her two year wellness visit today. She is really healthy and way ahead of her peers developmentally. These are her stats:

• Weight- 21 pounds, 1 percentile


• Height- 33.5 inches, 42nd percentile


• Head Circumference- 18 inches, 11th percentile

All of her stats are extremely consistent with how she has been growing in the past, which is great. (I still think that the reason her weight is the lowest percentile is because so many children are overweight and obese these days.)

Mireya's next wellness visit is not until she turns three. I can hardly believe that we are past the baby stage and into the kids stage! I was even told that she is safe to ride forward-facing in her car seat.

She thought it was the coolest thing to ride forward-facing! She stared out the window in silence with huge eyes. The look of awe on her little face was so sweet. I prefer it too, because now I can see what she is doing or what she wants much more easily. This is one of the perks of being two!

 

Elmo Party!

Mireya has been anticipating her Elmo Party, to celebrate turning two, for weeks! She has been so excited and she has been talking about it non-stop! She knew it was getting close and all week long she has been saying, "Elmo Party! Hooray!" She pumps her little fist in the air and does this little happy dance that is so incredibly cute.

Well, yesterday the day for her Elmo Party finally came and she had a blast! We invited three families with children her age: her best friend Landon and his family (our best-friends); Sage, Jade, Hunter and their parents (their mom is my close friend); and Kaylie and her family (her mom is my friend too). Kaylie and her family were not able to make it to the party, but they came today. Mireya's Grandma and Grandpa Ruesch came too!

I decorated the house with a Sesame Street theme centering on Elmo, of course.

Las Vegas!

A few weeks ago, Jason had a business trip to Las Vegas and we decided to all go. We were able to do a few fun things as a family, but the majority of the time Mireya and I hung out together and had some awesome girl time.

We stayed at the most amazing hotel, the JW Marriot, courtesy of Jason's company. I was flabbergasted at the interior! It was HUGE! Our room had the most amazing bathroom. It was bigger than ours and it had a fabulous jetted tub. (Mireya and I had a jetted bubble bath the last night there and she giggled non-stop the entire time and then she talked about the "fun bath" for days afterward!)

[caption id="attachment_1775" align="aligncenter" width="384" caption="In the hotel lobby."][/caption]

Mireya did WHAT!? No, not MY Mireya! Yes, my Mireya...

A few days ago Mireya did this:

What is that you ask? It is a crummy photo of the bite mark that her best friend, Landon, got to wear around for a few days. Yep. Mireya BIT someone. I was HORRIFIED!

Landon had been pestering her the entire time we were there and I guess she just got fed up. He tried to take her sippy cup away from her for the 50th time and she snapped... and bit him. I tried to pull her off and she was locked onto his arm like a crocodile! She seriously would NOT let go! The whole time Landon should have been screaming, but instead he was looking at her with this look that just said, "But why Mireya? I love you so much and you bite me!?" It was toddler heartbreak. :(

She has not done it again since, but I dread the day that she does. I would love to say that there is no way that she will ever do it again, but I never thought she would do it in the first place, so what the heck do I know? Oy.

No More Cavities

Mireya went to the dentist this morning to have her cavities fixed. The only way to fix cavities on a toddler is to sedate them, so that is what they did. They gave her a shot in her arm and I held her while she fell asleep. I was doing fine until she shook a little before falling asleep and I watched her eyes roll up in her head. I handed her to one of the dental assistants and as soon as they shut the door, I cried. I could not control it; the tears just flowed down my cheeks. Thankfully my best friend and her son, who is Mireya's best friend, were there for moral support. She gave me a big hug and talked with me until Mireya was done. (Thank you Jaquete!) Her son, Landon, kept calling for, "Aya! Aya!" He missed her! It was super cute and a wonderful distraction for me.

After they filled her two cavities and a slight depression in a third tooth, they brought her back to me to wake up. I held her while she woke back up and she was so out of it. Her little eyes jumped back and forth and I could tell that she really wanted to talk. When she finally could speak, she said, "Landon?" Of course, the first thing my baby thought of was her best friend! :) The second thing was, "I love you mommy." As soon as she was awake enough, she started begging to see Landon, so he came back. She calmed down after he was in the room, but he kept looking at her like, 'what is wrong with you?' Poor guy could tell that she was not herself.

Overall, everything went great. She did get a sore spot on the outside of her cheek, because the thing they use to hold her mouth open pinched her. :( Other than that, everything was fine. She did not even have to be numbed up, becuase the cavities were not that deep. I am so relived that it is all over and I hope that this is not the beginning of a lifetime of dentist visits. Jason and I are way too familiar with dental work and we do not want that for Mireya.

Downsizing

The Author of this post is Velma Baird I guess we were lucky to be able to hold off as long as we could, but I was essentially given an ultimatum last week at work. I had the option to take a pay cut or take a pink slip. Hmmmmm, which one should I pick? I watch the news; I know how long the unemployment lines are! So of course, I agree to the “wage reduction”. Anyways, as soon as I got home and talked over my new pay with my wife, it was time to get to work trying to find some cost cutting measures. Luckily, the Super Bowl comes on a channel provided by my cable company’s basic package because the first thing that bit the dust was my sports and movie package. Next to go was our big minute cell phone plan. Next on the chopping block was our internet service. However, since my job brought my wife and I to the west coast 15 years ago, both of our families still live on the east coast. Since we don’t get to go home as often as we’d like, the internet is a must-have. Luckily a quick search for Wildblue Deals and I was able to find a cheap internet plan. Any other ideas for cost cutting?

Oh NO! The Garbage Man!

Mireya is terrified of the garbage man! She used to get excited about watching the garbage truck drive by, but ever since we gave the garbage truck and the man inside a name, The Garbage Man, she is terrified! She cries every Thursday morning when he comes and we have to cuddle her until he drives far enough away that she can no longer hear the truck.

Well, now apparently, The Garbage Man has invaded her nightmares. Poor Mookie. She woke up just a minute ago crying and I rushed into her room to see what was wrong. She was sitting up in bed, so I scooped her up:

"Honey! What's wrong? Don't cry baby! What's wrong?"

"Right there!"

"What? What's right there?"

"Garbage Man! Right there!"

"Oh no baby, there's no garbage man!"

"Right there! Garbage Man right there Mommy!"

"Ohhh, sweetie no. There's no garbage man. It's just you and me, Sara, Emily, and all your stuffed animals. I promise there is no garbage man in here, okay?"

"Okay."

"Go to sleep now baby girl."

"Okay... *pause* ...tooting..."

"Yes, sweetie, your tooting." *giggle* "Now, go to sleep."

"...tooting..."

*giggle*

Poor girl. I think next Thursday we are going to go out and meet the garbage man, so she understands that he isn't scary. As for the 'tooting', well, she ate too many fruit snacks. :)

Crib to Toddler Bed

Guess what we are doing right now? We are watching Mireya on a video camera. She is laying in her toddler bed (her crib with the front rail removed.) We decided that we didn't want to risk her climbing out of her crib, potentially hurting herself in the process; and with the camera installed, we can watch her to make sure she stays in bed and doesn't get into trouble.

She has been doing great! She had a nap earlier and stayed in her bed the entire time. Now, she is sleeping for the night and didn't put up a fight what-so-ever. She's such a good girl. She is so excited about it, too! All day, she has been putting her stuffed animals and dolls to bed in her new toddler bed. She's so cute!

Stay at Home Mommy

Guest post written by my buddy Bernardo Graham Well, we are down to one income now. I was a teacher, but we decided with three kids, it was better for me to finish out this year and stay home with them. We were spending almost my whole paycheck in childcare for three. Then the little bit we had left of my paycheck was going to pay doctor bills because they were always catching things from the other kids at their preschool. Not to mention, I used so many sick days that I started having to take days with out pay. So, by the time contracts came back around to be signed for the next year, we decided it was probably going to work out the same financially, sparing me the stress of all the things that teachers have to do in a week. We also looked to see if we could make cuts on our utilities. We decided we could do without HBO/Cinemax and our TiVo. We also bundled home and cell phones with our cable. With a little research at Just Energy Offers, I found that we could save by switching energy providers so we did! Hopefully, we won’t even realize that we’re down to one income with the little changes made and no childcare expenses!

Mommy, LISTEN!

Mireya is so cute! She just came up to me and said, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" I told her she had to wait one second and she said, "No! LISTEN! Mommy, LISTEN!" When I said ok she asked me a question. How cute is that!? My baby girl is growing up! :( :)

No, no, no Daddy!

Lately, when I snap my fingers to a beat around Mireya, she tells me no, no, no Daddy! She hates it for some reason. Mommy hates it too!

I am so PROUD of Mireya!

Mireya started potty training today. We attempted it several months ago, but it quickly became clear that it was too early. Today we started again. SHE IS SO AMAZING! My sweet, baby girl....well... not really a baby..... anyway, she only peed in her pull-ups once and she started pooping in them once too. She peed in the potty a total of 7 times! One of those was at a restaurant even! She just turned to me and said, "Mommy. Mommy! Potty Mommy!" When I asked her if she needed to potty, she got all excited and we hurried to the bathroom. Without any hesitation she sat on the potty and peed! It was so cool!

I made her the potty candy jar that I have posted pictures of previously here. She gets some candy after each time she uses the potty. She also has a really cool potty chart that she gets to put one sticker on each time she uses the potty. (Thank you Dad and Ellen!) She is so excited about the whole process and I couldn't be more thrilled!

I think it really helped to get her started this morning when I intentionally fed her a gazillion Saltine crackers and tons of juice. She was a peeing machine! :) I think that as long as Daddy and I stick to it, she will be potty trained in now time! I also realllllyyyy hope she doesn't just find it a novelty today and then in a few days the fun wears off... that would just suck! :(

****FYI--I published a new video of her on YouTube.****

1st Dentist Visit

Mireya had her first dentist visit yesterday. I have been concerned, because she chipped the face of one of her top front teeth a few months back and it has turned a dark color. I also recently noticed another dark spot on another tooth. I wanted to be sure they weren't cavities. Well, they are. Sh*t.

I feel so bad! Apparently it is really common for kids her age to get cavities, because they are learning to brush and they don't like to. It just sucks, because she hardly ever drinks juice, she was off the bottle by one and she never goes to bed with milk. She has been eating too many sweets lately with the holidays and I'm sure that made things worse.

Mireya has to go back when she turns two and have the two cavities filled. They will sedate her and I am trying not to totally panic about it. She is my baby and I don't want anything bad to happen to her EVER. I keep trying not to think about all the "what ifs." Stupid "what ifs" just need to go away.

The only positive about the entire experience was the office. It was a pediatric dental office and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. They had touch screens with all kinds of games, a whole little western "street" of sorts, toys, and other cool stuff. Mireya and Jason didn't want to leave! Seriously! I had to pry Jason off a touch screen game (he HAD to enter his name in the high score box) and Mireya cried all the way out the door. Maybe I should just drop the two of them off there on days that I need a little peace and quiet...