Miriam at 9 Months

Miriam is getting bigger and bigger everyday and is getting busier and more fun. At her nine month check-up she was 68.5 cm. (22.5%) tall and weighed 19.5 lbs (65%) with a head of 43.5 cm (38.6%). She is still wearing size three diaper but has moved up to size 12 month clothes. 

Miriam is such a sweet and happy little baby. She loves to smile for people and is usually pretty easy going about things. She is starting to be a little bit more leary about new people and will not always let them hold her. Grandma Hirtle watched her for me one day and she said Miriam cried the entire time I was gone unless she stood up with her or rocked her on the rocking swing outside. 

Miriam likes to go on rides in the stroller. She is happy to be in the baby carrier but likes to look around and see what is going on so will turn her head or flip herself upside down so she can look at things. She is a fast crawlier and is cruising along all the furniture all the time these days. She loves to hold onto my hands and walk all around the house and is getting fast. She can balance pretty well with just holding onto one of my hands and likes to hold my hand and just practice standing. 

 Miriam likes to be outside and is usually right in the middle of whatever her sisters are doing. She already gets upset when they leave her out or go outside without her. She loves it when they hold her and play with her and gives all of her sisters lots of hugs and smiles. Miriam has a big place in her heart for her dad but she goes to her mom the best.

Miriam still wakes up at least once during the night to eat. During the days she has been taking better naps in her bed but I usually have to rock her to get her to fall asleep. Luckily she falls asleep pretty quickly with just a little bit of rocking. If I hold her for a while and then try to put her in her bed she tends to wake up right away so I have to put her down as soon as she falls asleep. 

 Changing this girl's diaper is starting to become a challenge because she does not want to sit still enough to be changed. She protests and tries to escape every time I try to change her. She loves to cuddle with me but other than that she wants to be crawling around in the action.

Miriam still sticks out her tongue all the time. She has protested a few times after I put a bow on her head but for the most part she keeps them on. She has a hard time crawling in dresses so is not a huge fan of them.

Miriam got to go on her first camping trip to the sand dunes and did great. She slept well and did great on the ride there and back. I was worried she would keep trying to eat the sand and have to be held the entire time we were on the sand hill but after trying the sand once she decided it wasn't that great and didn't try to put it in her mouth again. She just sat there and had fun hanging out with her family on the sand hill.

 Miriam is a pretty good little eater. She usually eats whatever I give her without much complaint. She gets most of the things everyone else gets these days and loves to be included at the table with everyone else. She likes water in sippy cups and does a  pretty good job with them. She can feed herself and prefers to be the one to hold the spoon. If I try to hold it she grabs it from me.

Miriam is one super cute and much loved little lady. We are so grateful for every day that we get to be with her. I love watching her to learn and experience new things. She is still super easy for me to take places and I love spending time with her.

April Adventures

The month of April started off with another check-up for Annalyn and since we were going anyways I set up an appointment for Brynlee as well and I got her a referral for speech so see about some of the sounds that she still can't make, as well as a referral to see a counselor. She has still been having a lot of stomachaches that are most likely caused from anxiety so we got something set up for her to be able to talk to someone and see if that will help her anxiety. She ended up throwing up right before the appointment and refused to get in the car and go. That just made me more determined to take her. In the end she might have really been sick because a few days later Miriam started throwing up. Miriam threw up all day and all night long. She was miserable. I ended up taking her to the doctor as well because at the time she was the only one throwing up and was pretty miserable. There was nothing they could do for her and then that night Kyla threw up as well. 

Kyla seemed to be feeling better on Thursday which was a relief because we had scheduled for her to get her tonsils out on Friday. I talked to someone on the phone and they said to bring her in even if she was sick and they would do an exam on her to see if she was well enough to get her tonsils out. I had to wake Kyla up kind of early on Friday morning. She couldn't eat anything and she slept in her clothes so I just picked her up and told her to get on her shoes. She just laid on the floor. She had been super nervous about getting her tonsils out and had woken up crying a few times the night before. It broke my heart because the first time she seemed to still be asleep but she just kept crying, "I'm scared, I'm scared," over and over again. Kyla slept the entire car ride to the hospital and then made me carry her inside. At this point I could tell she must not be feeling well because this was not normal behavior for her. While I checked her in she laid down on the check in desk and tried to sleep. She kept telling everyone she was tired. I was hesitant to do the surgery when she wasn't feeling well. Then did an exam on her and declared that they couldn't find any reason to postpone the surgery. They said normally they give the kids some medicine to make them a little bit drowsy but Kyla clearly didn't need it. She was falling asleep the entire time I was checking her in. It wasn't long until they wheeled Kyla back for the surgery and took me to a room where I filled out some paperwork and read a conference talk. Before I was even done reading, they came in and told me Kyla was done with her surgery. It took them a while until they wheeled her back to me. They had to wait for her to wake up. They eventually brought her back to me and I was relieved to see her awake and looking well. The nurse told me she accidentally took Kyla to the wrong room at first. I could hear the parents next door tell her that was not their kid. I am glad I got her back. Kyla was still pretty drowsy and a little bit out of it but I could tell she was relieved to have the surgery over. She told me it wasn't even scary because she was asleep the whole time. She drank some juice and sucked on a Popsicle for a little bit and then they declared her fit to go home. The doctor that did her surgery came in and asked Kyla how she was feeling and asked her if she could breathe through her nose. Kyla tried it, paused, and nodded with a surprised look on her face. "it kind of feels weird, doesn't it?" her doctor asked. It really cleared up a lot of space in there for her.  

As soon as Kyla was done we went home. Joel got the kids off to school and was holding the baby and doing work on his ipad when I got home. Grandma Verna took Summer for me. Kyla went right to sleep and I got her medicine before Joel went to work. Kyla tried the medicine and hated it so refused to take anymore. Eventually she was in so much pain that she took the medicine. The medicine made her feel drowsy, dizzy, and kind of constipated so after a few days I just started giving her ibuprofen. Kyla was miserable for the entire two weeks after her surgery. She slept in our bed and would wake up multiple times crying in pain. There was one night the only thing that would calm her down was popsicles so she got to eat several popsicles in the middle of the night in our bed. She was whiny and miserable during the day as well. I was so grateful when she finally started to feel better. She had to miss one day of preschool but went the rest of the time. She did rest a lot and watch lots of TV those weeks. 

The first weekend in April brought general conference. We stayed home most of the time to recover with Kyla but we did make a quick trip to visit my parent's and see their little chicks. My dad told the girls they all got to pick two chickens out so they brought their nail polish and Brynlee, Annalyn, and Summer used some nail polish and painted their chicken's feet. 

During the next week of April, we spent a lot of time playing outside and in the house. Brynlee went to activity days and we watched Elowyn one day that week but for the most part we stayed home and rested with Kyla. On Saturday of that week we went to the church and watched Nick and Jace get baptized.

Kyla had a preschool field trip on the 17th and I was able to take Summer and Miriam with us to the Children's Museum. We had a lot of fun exploring and playing in all of the different rooms that they have there. Summer did not want to leave and threw a major tantrum and refused to get buckled when it was time to go. My sister Heather brought Elowyn with her and Remi so Summer had a great time playing with Elowyn. It was fun to watch Kyla interact with her friends at school.

Later that week I took Brynlee and Kyla both to speech. Kyla is officially no longer a thumb sucker. I am super proud of her and that accomplishment. It was not an easy thing but she did great. Brynlee had a speech evaluation and they found out that she is a little bit tongue tied, she has a tonuge thrust, and she has big tonsils which all factor into her speech problems. They thought she would just need a few sessions of speech to fix her speech errors. She tends to slur her s sound and she struggles with the th sound. It is not a close drive and taking five kids to speech for Brynlee is no easy task but I feel like it is important to try and fix it now so we set up speech for Wednesdays after school. Luckily they have a fun toy section in their waiting room and I took the opportunity to take the kids out to get an ice cream cone and we played at the park after speech the first week that I took Brynlee.

My niece Remi had a birthday and Kyla and Summer had fun celebrating with her. We helped grandma put in and plant some of her garden this month. The girls always love a chance to ride on the tractor. We tried to get the kid to stay in their room at night by giving them call back cards and taking them to the dollar store every time we were able to keep 10 of them. Annalyn kept hers easily and got several trips. It took the other girls a while but they were eventually able to all earn some trips to the dollar store.

My aunt Paula came to visit with my parents and while she was there she took some time to give the girls some sewing lessons. Kyla went to the kindergarten open house at the school she will attend next year and is now officially registered and excited to start school.

Joel got some fun new bikes for the girls from a friend at work and they have had a blast playing on those things. The wheels are falling apart but that hasn't stopped the girls from riding them. We also went to the library, celebrated Easter and Summer's third birthday this month. Joel also bought us a new van from an online auction and we had it shipped to our house from Washington. It got here on the last day of the month. The side door and back panel as well as the front bumper had some damage so Joel got it for a good deal and was able to fix it up so we have a nice new van to drive.

In other news, Joel and I celebrated eleven years of marriage this month. We got to go on a date to the temple and were able to eat a quick dinner before Miriam got fussy and we had to go back home. It was a much needed chance to get away and enjoy some alone time together in the temple. I sure am grateful for him and for all of these fun adventures we have gotten to share in together.