Birthday Parties and Cake Overload

Mira ended up getting two "parties" for her birthday this year. The first one was basically just Mark and me letting her choose a cake and singing Happy Birthday to her at home. The next one was put off for a few weeks because I wanted to do something for my family to attend and since I worked every weekend in February, and the rest of my family does not work on weekends, we had to wait until March for that one to happen. (I actually just remembered that I missed a party with Mark's family for Mira because I was, you guessed it, working. So really Mira had 3 parties. But she's 3 so that works out, right?) (Also, does this mean that I get to attend 30 parties for myself this year?)

Mira's cake choice. She loved the balloons and it's definitely a cake I would have chosen for her.

The birthday girl.

We crashed my sister Sara's house for the family party since, honestly, our house is not exactly laid out nicely for large gatherings. Sara's pretty cool for letting us use her house.

Blowing bubbles with Grandpa.

Both times Mira was too scared to blow out the candles.

Opening all her presents, lucky girl.

Boots from Grandpa.

Books from Grandma.

A hand-decorated treasure box from Aunt Sara.

Playing with a walkie-talkie.

We have had so much cake in the house for the last few weeks that I'm pretty sure I never want to see a cake ever again. Ugh, definitely way too much of a good thing!

And of course Mira got another gorgeous dress, and of course it was from my Aunt Ellen, who has some really excellent taste in little girls' dresses. Growing up I absolutely LOVED getting dresses from Aunt Ellen and we're just continuing the tradition with Mira. Another home run!

What a goof!

I kinda hate to say it, but after a super cold and snowy start to winter, I think we're done seeing snow in the valleys for the season. I guess the universe is making up for how awful it was last winter. The sad part about winter being over is <sniffle> the ski season is just about done. Boo. It took forever to get enough snow at the resort to actually go skiing and it's already starting to melt. Mark and I went up a few days ago and at the bottom of the hills the snow was so slushy it felt like water skiing. (Clarification: I've never skied on any surface other than snow but had I ever gone skiing on water I think this is what it would have felt like.) It was the first time we'd gone up since we took Mira and had our little fiasco and while we were on the Cabriolet Lift we were both noticing how small the gap is that Mira's foot had somehow managed to fall through. It can't be more than a few inches at the widest parts. It was sobering and at the same time relieving that she honestly wasn't hurt. (And apparently not traumatized at all because when Mark and I came down in our ski gear she pouted and said, "Me go ski, Mommy Daddy!" So I had to promise to take her skiing again soon.)

Anyway, the point of this is that on this most recent trip, Mark finally talked me into taking a lift called 9990. The significance of this lift is - well, these are your options to get down the mountain once you get off the lift.

As you can imagine, I put off getting on this lift for the last few years because I didn't trust myself to get down safely, but Mark kept insisting that he wouldn't take me up if he didn't think I could get myself down. (I guess everyone gets down eventually, and possibly on a stretcher with the help of Ski Patrol, but what he meant was he knew I could get down the correct way on my own power.) So finally (mostly just to get him to shut up) I caved. Not only did I navigate my way down safely, once we got to the bottom I skied right back in line to go again. I hate it when other people are right (kidding, sort of). I do have to admit, it was a challenge but definitely doable. Confidence-booster much?

So while we're enjoying out last little bit of winter skiing, down in the valley it's definitely starting to feel like spring. One day Mira and I sat outside and ate a carton of strawberries in the sunshine.

This girl is turning out to be a real ham. She's starting to do things that she knows will make us laugh. One day I was going over picture flashcards with her and set aside the few that she had trouble with. One of the words was "banana." So I started working with her to get her to sound out "banana." After a few tries she seemed like she had it so I showed her the picture of a banana and asked her what the picture was. Clear as day she says, "Boat!" Then she ran off and that was that. I'm glad she has a sense of humor.

Being funny is tiring too.

We can't get her to take a nap anymore, and she's starting to think it's funny to get out of bed every 3 seconds at bedtime (too bad Mark and I don't find it as funny as she does), but every once in awhile she's so exhausted she poops out on her own.

Speaking of poop - if anyone can give me some advice on how to train Mira to stop doing that in her underwear I'd love to hear it. We're lucky if she doesn't poop in her underwear and it's so frustrating because she obviously knows when she needs to go and where it needs to go but she won't do it.

But on a less frustrating note - a few days after her birthday she announced that she wouldn't be going to bed in her diaper anymore. I was at work when she made this announcement so when Mark notified me via text what was going on, I felt surprised and apprehensive but a bit relieved that I was going to be working a stretch of shifts so if she had an accident, it wouldn't be me having to clean it up. (How awful is that?) So she went to bed with her underwear on, and guess what - in these last few weeks she's only wet the bed once at night! And that one time she was so upset - it was devastating to her. (Now why can't she feel that way about pooping in her pants?)

Lastly, I just have to share this. There's a patient at my work that I've taken care of several times and the last time I walked into the room for the shift the patient's mother had left a note for me.

How sweet is that?? Every time I've been assigned this patient I'm told by the day nurse that the mother was so excited when she found out I was going to be the nurse for the night. Sometimes I feel like my job is pretty thankless but stuff like this makes it totally worth it. (So if anyone is ever unfortunate enough to end up in the hospital - try to remember to thank your nurse. Really. It will make their week, promise.)