Monkey Mira

As fun as this toddler stage is, it involves moments that scare the bejeezus out of me because like all kids this age, Mira has no concept of fear. If she wants to get from Point A to Point B, it doesn't matter what is in between - she is going to get there, goshdangit! Which means I'm constantly pulling her down from climbing the shoe rack, up the stairs, down the stairs, and the top of the couch. She's also starting to try to climb over the baby gates and (gulp) out of her crib. I'm glad we've made it this long before she's started to think about getting out of the crib and I'm hoping we can stave it off for awhile longer. Although maybe if she falls out of the crib once that'll teach her not to do it again. Either way, we're not there yet. But these acrobatics have given Mira her new nickname.

This all correctly implies that Mira is busy busy busy. She really never sits still. She's learned to "jump," which basically means she does a tiny little hop with one foot off the ground, but boy you should see her proud smile when she does it! You'd think she'd just won the Olympic medal for the high jump. She still dances and has learned to twirl around, and she also tries to sing. Her singing is just "Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh oooooohhhhhhhhhhh" in different tones, but so cute! Her new favorite toy is any kind of ball so she can "throw" it. The only thing that kind of worries me about her is she only says a couple of words consistently. She certainly tries to talk - she spends all day jabbering away and every once in awhile she'll point at something and the sound she makes sounds very similar to what the word should be, but then I can't get her to say it again. Obviously she is completely aware of what's being said to her and she definitely gets the sounds that make up the English language, she's just not consistently putting it together. Mark blames this on us teaching her sign language. Except that we only taught her a few signs. Everyone tells me not to worry but I still do. Although in the big scheme of things there are worse things she could be behind in.

A few weeks ago we went with some of Mark's family to Lagoon, which is an amusement park. I took some cute pictures of her walking around wearing her unicorn. Yes Mira has a leash - it's easier to let her walk around in her unicorn leash. Plus it's super cute.

I'm tired so I'm going to just sit down right here.

We recently went to a birthday party and I got Mira all dressed up for it. I tried to get pictures of Mira in her party dress and for every okay shot of her I got about 5 bad ones. Even in sports mode on the camera she'd be moving so fast she'd be out of the frame by the time I could take the picture.

Monkey Mira climbing the couch.

Almost got out of the frame for this one

This picture cracks me up

Something else Mira really likes to do is jump on our trampoline. It's nerve wracking to watch her because she gets close to the edge - I'm pretty sure she wouldn't try to leap over the side but I'd really prefer not to find that out the hard way. Maybe we should get one of those nets to go around the trampoline and then my stress level will go way down. As scary as it is for me, she absolutely loves this trampoline and the added bonus is it tires her out and she sleeps better!

Check out the static electricity!

See? Wore her right out - nap time!

She's such a little mimic too. She loves to "talk" on the phone but she still hasn't quite gotten the hang of holding the phone to her ear. Her new thing is imitating me talking on the phone without hands - since I'm usually chasing her when I'm trying to talk on the phone the phone ends up tucked between my ear and shoulder. So, she has figured out how to walk around with the phone tucked between her chin and her chest. Hands free! I so wish I could get a picture of this because it makes me double over laughing (and then Mira literally doubles over and laughs).

Kudos to Sadie dog for putting up with this

Mira gets so excited by animals in general. She pets the dogs and cats every chance she gets and most of the time the animals tolerate her. Unfortunately she pulled the cat's tail one day and thought it was hilarious so despite my best efforts the first thing she tries to do when she comes across a cat is pull its tail.

Petting nicely so far... Isis is getting nervous though

I'm sure the flower in her hair seems like a bit much but that's the one she wanted. She goes all out.

And she found the tail

And finally a quick update on our chickens. Check this out!

Yaaaayyyy! Fresh eggs! We've been averaging about 2 eggs a day for the last few weeks. Believe it or not we've had 2 eggs that were double yolks. How often does that happen?? The eggs were lighter brown but really long and thin - very oddly shaped. Obviously they came from the same hen. When Mark went to crack them open - 2 yolks in each! That is so wild. We recently got another long thin egg so we're betting that one has a double yolk too. I've never heard of a hen that tends to lay eggs with double yolks but apparently it happens. How exciting!

The bad news... I'm going to have to start watching YouTube videos on how to clean a chicken. Those 2 roosters that were supposed to be hens and obviously are not are getting incredibly noisy and obnoxious. They have crowing contests starting at 5 AM lasting until 9 PM. As beautiful as these roosters are they're going to have to go - every day I expect one of the neighbors to complain about those roosters making so much noise. Not to mention the poor hens are getting raped constantly so I'm sure they won't mind to get some relief from that. If there's a bright side to this (besides that I'm not squeamish so I'm not afraid to do the actual cleaning and prepping), it's that the roosters are a really good size so it'll make for a good dinner. I have to keep reminding myself that a hundred years ago - less even - this is how everybody got their chicken dinner. So that'll happen fairly soon. Wish us luck!