Another Crazy Year

Here we go again! Another year, and boy have we started off crazy busy! I've been working quite a bit of overtime at the hospital because of an early, incredibly rampant respiratory season that has been flooding the unit with patients. We usually get very busy around the end of January/beginning of February through April but this year it started in the middle of December and it's only been getting worse. I have to say though, doing 2 consecutive weeks of almost 50 hours each week has made for a nice paycheck - if only it meant I was at home to enjoy it!

The weather certainly hasn't been helping either. A couple weeks ago we got a massive snowstorm that dumped close to a foot and a half of snow, and it's been so cold it hasn't melted off yet. And by "cold" I mean highs in the teens! Now I know for sure why I'd never want to live in the Midwest - it's terrible! Plus we get the lovely Utah inversion that traps smog in the valley so it's been dark gray and gloomy every single day this month. No wonder I've been feeling so lethargic lately. But on the plus side the snowstorm made for some good pictures!

Our front yard

The walkway to the front porch

Mira had such a fun time doing faceplants in the snow.

I think this next picture gives a bit of perspective into how deep the snow was: notice it comes right up to the windowsills on the basement level and is pretty much level with the front doorstep. Crazy!!

Mira is definitely acting like she's in the "terrible twos" now - it's a good thing she's so dang cute! Many of our days are spent with Mira trying to assert her "authority" and the adults trying to rein her in. I have to keep reminding myself that the fact that she's trying to assert her independence and test boundaries is a good thing. But man, can it get frustrating!

Luckily her cute moments make up for the aggravating ones. She loves jumping all across the room, "singing" at the top of her lungs, dancing around when any sort of music comes on, and practicing yoga on my yoga mats. She also wants to be a helper, so if you ask her to be a "big helper" and do something like put her toys away or put something in the trash or a dirty (plastic) dish in the sink, she'll do it enthusiastically and then applaud herself when she's done. In fact, the other night she put all her toys and books away all by herself without being asked! I'm going to celebrate that one now because I have a feeling that before too long that won't happen anymore. When she takes a bath she puts all her bath toys away by herself when bathtime is over, then she looks at the drain, realizes the water is going to go down the drain and she might go with it, and then she gets terrified and whimpers until she escapes the tub. I remember when my sister Sara would be scared of getting sucked down the drain when she was little too so this one really makes me smile.

Mira also considers herself a bit of an artist, as you can see by her handiwork on the dishwasher.

She is unbelievably fast at getting into something. A few days ago I put a bag from the grocery store on the couch - which was my mistake because I should have known better than to leave anything in her reach that could have been destroyed. I turned my back for a minute and when I looked back, Mira had found a bottle of hair serum (to help with my dry split ends, thank you very much winter), unscrewed the top, pulled off the safety lid, and dumped the entire contents of the bottle all over herself and the couch. That was $7 well spent.

Sometimes her desire to be independent is frustrating but other times it's just awesome. Like when she insisted on trying to use chopsticks - I have to say, I'm very impressed with her efforts! My Japanese grandmother will be proud to see this:

She ended up eating her dinner with her hands and her fork - but at least she gave it a try! Also notice that she's graduated from the high chair to a booster chair.

And here's yet another example of Mira trying to help - child labor isn't a problem, right? :)

 

I just can't believe she's going to be 2 years old in less than a month!! Mark and I can't believe how fast she's grown. It really does go way too fast - so not fair. :(

I haven't done very well taking pictures and videos lately because I've been studying for the Advanced CV Module at work, which starts next month. I figure this month will be spent studying and researching but after this it won't be as time consuming. I'll have three classes in February but they count towards my regular work hours so it's not going to be bad that way. Maybe once I get into it I'll get excited about it - now I'm just overwhelmed and not looking forward to spending all this time learning about a patient population that is not my favorite... But it'll make me versatile and that's what matters.

So apologies for the scant posting this month - next month should definitely be better. Bear with me!