Faster Than A Speeding Toddler

Part of being a normal toddler is figuring out ways to make your parents tear their hair out in various ways, or in other words, learning how to do naughty things in the blink of an eye. Mira has unfortunately learned how to open the front door and sneak out of the house in just a few seconds. One day I was upstairs (probably sleeping in between night shifts because I was unavailable to keep track of Mira) and Mark went into the garage for less than 10 seconds to grab something and when he got back the front door was open and Mira was nowhere to be seen. Luckily she didn't get very far but that was still scary, so we've taken to locking the front door to keep Mira inside.

This next story of how fast Mira can be involves food. First of all I'd like to say that Mira will literally eat pretty much anything as long as she sees me eating it. That's how we can get her to finish eating her meals - I'll take a bite of her food and she'll gobble the rest of it. But anyway, we've gotten her to eat all sorts of foods that the average toddler would probably refuse to eat using this method, although some she just loves to eat on her own. One night I was washing zucchini for dinner. I set them aside, walked away for a minute, came back, and saw this:

And there's Mira with her mouth full of something, chewing away, with a decidedly "innocent" look on her face.

Mark: "Mira, did you take a bite out of this?"

Mira: "Yeah."

Me: "Is it good?"

Mira: "Yeah!"

Well, I guess I can't complain about her not eating enough vegetables. As we've established, she really does like lots of veggies: obviously raw zucchini, but also things like mushrooms, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots. Her favorite food is probably cheese.

Me: "What do you want for lunch?"

Mira: "Cheese!"

Me: "You can't have just cheese for lunch, silly. How about a sandwich?"

Mira: "No, I want cheese!!"

Me: "How about a cheese quesadilla?"

God forbid we suggest a food without cheese for her or else we'll set off another tantrum. Someone said to me once that the reason Two is so Terrible is that it's so unpredictable what will set off a massive tantrum. In some ways that is definitely true - Mira can go from sweet and cute to screaming and hitting back to cuddly and smiling within a few minutes. However, some things are guaranteed to set Mira off and these days those things are me trying to help her with anything. Specifically, she has to be the one to open the door or turn on the faucet or pump the soap from the dispenser or squeeze the toothpaste onto her toothbrush or buckle herself into her carseat... you get the picture. Sometimes when I'm in a rush and just trying to get things done it's so hard to be patient and let her do things on her own but I really do try to let her do it, even though it takes 10 years. I keep reminding myself that the end goal is to teach Mira how to be an independent, functional adult - and one of the ways she gets there is for me to let her do stuff on her own. Man, this parenting gig is tough! :)

I've been saying for awhile that I've been feeling burned out lately. The discussion about my work schedule keeps coming up but we'll save that snoozefest for another time. I've been working out more, which is cathartic in a way but at the end of the day I still often feel drained of energy. Honestly I feel like I need a vacation - which we haven't been able to pull off this summer because of our work schedules but a few weekends ago Mark and I did the next best thing, which was dump Mira off at the babysitter's and spend the night up at The Canyons in Park City. (My goal is to make enough money so we can buy a house in Park City - seriously it's one of my favorite places on the planet (the parts that I've seen anyway).)

Our first thought was that The Canyons looks so different in the summer than in the winter. It's still pretty of course but in a different way.

At the Resort Village

Here are some pictures of our super nice room - an affordable little splurge now but were we to get the same room during the winter it would amount to wallet rape.

For dinner we went to a six-course dinner with wine pairings at a restaurant called The Farm, in the Canyon's Resort Village. I can't believe we walked past this restaurant every single time we went skiing this winter and never went in - the food was absolutely amazing! We have a new favorite restaurant. Plus the wine was amazing too - what better way to unwind than have a gourmet dinner with lots of wine. :)

I loved the rustic place settings.

Pre-dinner cocktail

This was the first course. Obviously some bread and sliced meat but also pâté, pickled fiddler fern heads (which were really interesting), red currant jelly and some UH-mazing spicy mustard that tasted more like horseradish.

Next was pork belly ravioli. First of all - best ravioli ever. Second of all - what they did with those eggs is pure art.

The third course was the only one that I wasn't head-over-heels in love with. The frittered squash blossom was good but the sardine kind of put me off. It didn't taste horrible but they left the bones in, so the texture was not my favorite, and the overwhelming fishy smell just took away from the whole thing.

Next was a melon and cucumber gazpacho. Now that was a lovely light and fresh summer soup! I wish I was talented enough to pull off something like this at home.

The main course was (what else) lamb tenderloin. I'm salivating again just looking at the picture. Lamb is one of my favorites anyway (why oh why must baby animals taste so good????) but this was certainly some of the best I've ever had.

By now of course we were all feeling quite relaxed with all the food and wine - note all the wine glasses on the table. And if I look a little tipsy in the picture - it's because I am.

And finally dessert - chocolate and berry compote. Nuff said.

And a couple cups of coffee to round off the meal.

Getting back to our room was a bit of a challenge since I, in my tipsy state, had to pretty much carry Mark, in his very drunken state, back to the room. Thank goodness we didn't have to drive back to our room because neither of us were fit to get behind the wheel! We passed out (as in literally lost consciousness) but at least we slept well. (Don't judge - sometimes indulging in some additional alcohol is a great way to relax!)

The next day we went on a hike up to the top of one of our favorite ski runs. It was gorgeous and an easy hike but there were SO MANY bugs it kind of ruined the experience for me. I hate insects and these were big annoying flying bugs. But still, hiking is hiking and now I want to start taking Mira on some hikes.

This was, incidentally, the double black diamond slope I fell down. Mark wanted to hike it but we decided against it since falling down onto rocks hurts a lot more than falling down onto snow, especially when you start sliding.

So weird to think that we skied down through this

Pinball Alley was one of our absolute favorite runs to ski!

My hunky hubby :)

That was a nice little weekend getaway. Utah really is great for active, outdoorsy stuff. Now we just need to get the liquor laws reformed.

Speaking of kooky Utah, July 24th is Pioneer Day, when everybody who's Mormon gets super excited that someone else who was Mormon stumbled upon Utah in 1847. Which I've always found a bit self-righteous since if they hadn't found it in 1847 someone else Mormon certainly would have ended up in Utah eventually, and in fact a bunch of people called Native Americans had found Utah quite a bit sooner than the Mormons, but whatever. I benefit from it because if I happen to have to work Pioneer Day I actually get time and a half pay (only in a theocratic state like this could they pull that off), and the pyromaniac part of me gets to see an extra round of fireworks after the Fourth of July festivities are over. So I can't complain too much, but I can still chuckle about it.

This year for Pioneer Day we were in the Bountiful Handcart Days Parade representing the Bonneville Masonic Lodge, of which Mark is Grand Master. I got to drive the Mercedes pulling the float. We knew that 5.5 L V8 engine and air suspension would come in handy sometime. Note the supercool Masonic decal Mark designed - I kinda wish we could have left that on!

And how's this for a coincidence - my Dad and sisters were placed right behind us in the parade! They were representing the Coast Guard Auxiliary. And now I have to admit that with Sara and Penny dressed exactly alike I actually couldn't tell them apart until I got right up to them - how terrible is that?

My Dad and Sara.

Dad, Penny and Sara.

We let Mira have her turn driving the boat. I think we're going to have to get this girl out on a lake soon.

After the parade we went home and made good use of our fire pit. I have to say this was probably one of the best home improvement projects Mark has ever done.

That night I kept Mira up late so she could see fireworks in our neighborhood. Several houses went nuts with some really good aerial fireworks so the three of us sat on the curb on the corner and watched fireworks explode on all sides of us. It was better than going to see the city fireworks! And Mira really does love fireworks!! She sat and watched and "Ooooh"-ed and "Wow!"-ed and never got nervous about the loud noises - honestly what 2-year-old doesn't get scared about loud fireworks going off less than 100 feet away?? I can't take credit for that. I was probably 8 or 9 years old before loud noises didn't scare me. But it was a great family moment - and Mira even grabbed my phone to take a picture of the fireworks.

That's actually a pretty decent shot.

After Mira went down to sleep, Mark and I stood outside where we could watch the city's fireworks show and when that was done we could walk right back inside without having to worry about crowds or sitting in the car for the next hour fighting traffic. What a great day!

And speaking of Mira's photography skills - she's learned how to take some pretty decent pictures! She's taken some relatively flattering pictures:

And some not-so-flattering pictures.

I guess even good photographers have their off-days.

Here's a video of Mira and my mom having some fun.

And a video of Mira singing along to her new favorite show, anything involving The Muppets.

I just can't believe how grown-up she looks now! It really hit me when I was able to do this hairstyle on her.

And yes, she is really that blonde. That blows my mind too.

Summertime Fun!

There are a ton of pictures and videos in this post - you have been warned! Proceed at your own risk.

I've already mentioned that one of the nice things about summertime is Mira can be a lot more active outside - and with it reaching the triple digits for several days already being outside typically involves water of some sort. Mira enjoys the water plus I can sit in the shade and take the opportunity to not be chasing frantically after a rambunctious toddler for a little while.

A couple days ago I took Mira to the community swimming pool at my Dad's condo. It was the first time she'd been to a big pool (meaning not a little wading pool in our backyard). It took Mira a few minutes to figure out what she thought. My dad and sister Sara took turns holding Mira and walking around in the water with her, then I told Mira this was like the bath tub but better because in the pool she could splash and kick and jump. That got the wheels turning and pretty soon all she wanted to do was jump into the water - she started to get so excited about it that a couple times my dad turned his back for just a second and barely had time to catch Mira as she leaped into the water.

By the end of it Mira was getting upset because we wouldn't let her paddle around unsupported - so apparently it's time to look into getting her into some swimming lessons. She definitely loved it!

Mira also fancies herself to be a gymnast. She enjoys jumping on the trampoline and she tries to do somersaults and cartwheels by herself, so apparently soon it'll be time to look into getting her into gymnastics lessons.

Don't let that demure little pose fool you!

The outfit, as you may have guessed, was for the Fourth of July a few days ago. I tried showing Mira some sparklers the night of the third and she was sort of impressed with them. Sara and I helped her hold onto a sparkler while it was going off but while we were showing her the bucket of water to put the used sparkler in she reached for the wire with her opposite hand and got a small burn on her thumb. After that she didn't want to touch any more sparklers and amused herself playing with the hose (which is much more fun anyway). I was working the night of the Fourth but apparently this girl absolutely loves big loud fireworks! A bunch of our neighbors were setting off large aerial fireworks and Mira kept pointing and saying "Wow!" and wanting to get closer to them - and according to Mark she threw a fit every time he tried to get her inside for bed because she wanted to keep watching. She wasn't scared of the loud noises at all, which is impressive for a kid her age. I remember being scared of fireworks until I was at least 8 or 9 or 10 or something like that so she didn't get this from me!

And of course Mira still loves to dance and sing. She has a stuffed dog that sings little songs and Mira has invented a different dance/singing routine to go along with each one. So now apparently I'm going to have to start looking into getting her into dance and choir lessons.

Mark still complains that Mira doesn't like him but Mira is definitely starting to do better. Believe me, I can't wait for Mira to decide that's she's going to be a daddy's girl - although looking at the pictures it seems like she's getting there!

Gaming buddies

One day Mira was taking pictures of herself with my phone and Mark got in on the fun. Mira of course thought it was hilarious. At times like this it's pretty obvious where Mira got her goofy streak.

And speaking of goofy streaks, some pictures of Mira just being cute.

This is Stewie's tree - notice it already has apples on it!

Mira certainly likes to take a lot of "selfies." Personally, I think "selfies" can be ridiculous, but Mira has no idea what she's doing, and this face is a lot cuter than any other "selfie" I see posted on the internet!

And now that I've said I think "selfies" are ridiculous, here's one of me.

The only reason I took it is because I'm wearing surgical scrubs instead of navy blue scrubs. I don't get many opportunities to go to the OR during a clinical shift but when it happens it's awesome! The OR would have been a career option for me if only OR nurses got to do something involving patient care - since the surgical techs and the anesthesiologist get to do the fun stuff it's ICU nursing for me.

For the most part it's been a fun summer. When Mira decides she's going to be cute and adorable I can manage the energy expenditure it takes to have a toddler with a mind of her own. Sometimes though, like today when I'd only gotten a few hours of sleep and was tired and impatient to start off with, she pushes every single button I have and by the end of the day I feel like her name is "NO!" or "STOP!" or "COME BACK HERE!" or something similar, and half her waking hours are spent in time out. My mantra these days is "It's just a phase it's just a phase it's just a phase it's just a phase." Seriously I have no idea how people can have more than one child! Maybe if I didn't work full time nights I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed about it but I feel like I have to work full time to get away. I guess with kids it's important to know your limit as to how many you can handle and for me, one is definitely my limit!

One question I get asked a lot is if we've started potty training yet. Well, sort of. A few times a day I'll tell Mira that mommy has to use the big girl potty and would she like to come with me? She always gets super excited and runs as fast as she can to her little pink princess potty and plops herself down - fully clothed. (We've tried convincing her to pull her bottoms down to sit on the potty and she usually ends up having a tantrum on the floor at the suggestion. Occasionally we can bribe her to sit on the potty with her pants and diaper off if we sing endless amounts of songs or promise that she'll get to play with the iPad afterwards, so she will, but nothing has happened yet.) After a minute she'll grab some toilet paper and put a piece in her potty, then get another piece for me. Then she has to help flush the toilet and wash her hands. So she gets the ritual but I think if we were to push the potty training it would just be a bad experience for everybody at this point. One bit of advice I've heard from a mom is to not even bother trying to potty train until the kid turns three - once they're three it goes much smoother and is much easier so that's probably what we'll end up doing. Changing diapers is no big deal and definitely better than cleaning messes off the floor.

And just for fun - random animal pictures.

Notice that the older and younger chickens keep themselves segregated.

The second a box shows up, there's a Wally cat on/in it.