Mieke's First Step!

It's official! Mieke has taken her first step...with no assistance. Only a bit of cajoling. Yesterday evening she was just standing around in the middle of the room, like you do when you're learning to use these leg things. I came over and sat next to her, but not to close. And she took a step in my direction. We tried to make her do it again so we could capture it on film, but she didn't repeat her stunt.

I'm thinking it will be a while before she's a full-on walker, but the first step is always exciting.

Teeth, Reading, and Walking

Alexander is losing his teeth, and Mieke finally has one - a little one poking up on the bottom.

The other big news in our family is that Alexander is now officially a reader. Yay!

He has been able to read simple books for a while now, but he never wanted to. Every time I tried to get him to read a word here or there, he would clam up and get all grumpy. But just the other day, he and Annabel were looking at books together, and she got him to read to her. Afterwards, he bounded over to me, saying, "Mom, I can read now!"

It finally clicked with him that he can do it. I'm still amazed at how Alexander learns big things. He did this with potty training and with riding a bike. He doesn't do it, doesn't do it, refuses, refuses, and then one day you turn around and he's doing it. Seemingly out of nowhere.

I just hope he doesn't do this with driving a car.

Oh, and Mieke is also walking behind a push-car. She puts on her proud little smile, sticks out her tongue, and walks along like she's been doing it for weeks. Any day now she'll take her first step. In the tenth month, just like big brother and sister.

Beach Trip

What a glorious long weekend at the beach! One house, my whole family, endless fun. The weather was perfect...as good as it is in the summer. The kids and big boys even jumped waves.

Standing, Legoing, and Writing

Oops! I actually composed the following three weeks ago and forgot to post it!

Tomorrow Mieke will be nine months old. Yikes! In September, on the 25th to be precise, she pulled herself up to standing for the first time. Now it's all she wants to do. She especially likes to crawl under the table and stand there. Won't be long before her head starts hitting.

She's still our Buddha baby with all her chubs and rolls, but now that she's a lot more mobile, I suspect she'll get leaner. She's getting into eating solid foods, but breast milk is still her go-to meal. No teeth yet.

Alexander and Michiel went to a Lego Expo up in Portland, which was amazing and wonderful, and they came home with tons of loot--a few minifigs, a game, etc, etc.

And our Annabel is learning so much in school. Already she's about a year ahead of Alexander at that age. Shhh, don't tell him. The other day she was writing letters and declared, "Look, I wrote Oma!" I started to give her some that's-very-nice-dear praise without really looking when I realized that she actually had written "Oma." Then she said, "I want to go visit Oma so I can show her what I wrote for her. Let's go today!"

Halloween

All of us dressed up this year. Jo came with us on the Goblin Walk in downtown Silverton. All the businesses give out candy in broad daylight so we get to see everyone's costumes. We usually meet a whole bunch of friends and end up forming our own little mob on the sidewalk.

 Annabel stole my minion eye, so I joined Jo in her Dia de los muertos makeup. I think we're going to do it again tomorrow.

 And Mieke, like all of our children, appeared as a gnome for her first Halloween.

 Alexander had the coolest costume in his tractor that had working headlights and a secret compartment for candy.

And I had fun with the makeup, but I much prefer painting other people's faces. It's a whole lot easier! Happy Halloween!

6 Month Update

As of July 16th, Mieke has been in this world for six months. Time for an update.

Stats: 23lbs and I don't know the length. She's a little chunk.

She's so proud of her tongue. The moment I start making happy noises to her, she'll stick out her tongue and wait for praise. "Look what I can do, Mom!"

She sits reliably. Doesn't have any teeth yet. Drools like mad. Sucks her thumb, or fingers, or whatever part will fit in her mouth. Yesterday, I found her sucking on her toes. And just in the last week she has started moving around, trying to crawl. She pushes up with her hands and scoots herself backward. Or she'll sit with one leg bent back and sort of pivot herself around. I can't leave the room for long without worrying that she'll find something too small for her.

But what a happy little girl! So easy-going. She really is our Buddha baby. When she wakes up in the morning, she doesn't cry or whine, she just looks around and smiles and waves her arms. She can be awake and entertaining herself for half an hour before she starts to fuss.

She is very attached to her Mama and Papa. Sometimes, we're the only ones who'll do.

The annoying thing is that she likes to pinch me while nursing. The back of my arm, my breast, my armpit. She'll take a pinch of skin between her fingers and roll it back and forth. I often pin her hands against her body, but she works them out again. And of course, this is the time of distracted nursing. If there's anything going on in the room, she'll be popping on and off and spraying herself in the face. Fun times.

Mieke sleeps sometimes in her crib in the kids' room, but often I put her to sleep on the floor in our room. Then she joins us in bed when she wakes up to nurse halfway through the night. Sometimes, when she's cuddled up with me, she'll straighten her legs and press her toes against my thighs. The other morning I woke up to find four little toe prints, round and perfect, adorning my thigh. They stayed for half the day!

Mieke loves to watch her siblings! They are the most interesting people. And they love her so much, though sometimes it gets a little too physical.

Her favorite song is Skidamarink a-dink a-dink. It almost always brings a laugh.

Papa Don't Breathe

We all do this. Mishear song lyrics. Who hasn't wondered about Blinded by the Light? "Wrapped up like a douche?"

But when kids do it, it can be especially delightful. I may have mentioned before that Alexander loves Guns and Roses. Welcome to the Jungle is one of the first songs he really rocked out to. A couple of months ago he was playing Paradise City, and I was singing along.

Take me down to the Paradise City

where the grass is green and the girls are pretty

Oh, won't you please take me home.

Alexander said, "Mom, I think he's trying to say 'where the girls are British.'"

"Oh," I said, "you think it's 'where the grass is green and the girls are British?'"

"Yup."

"I'm pretty sure it's 'where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.'"

Alexander looked at me like I was completely out of touch, and said, "Mom, girls are always pretty, everywhere."

* * * * *

And we've got one from Annabel too. We've been listening to some Madonna lately. Now, Annabel's a strange little creature in that she hardly ever sings along with music, but a few hours later or maybe even the next day or next week, she'll bust out with the lyrics of a song during normal conversation. She won't sing it; she'll just all of a sudden say, "Mariposa ole!" or "It's hard to be a woman." Often, it takes me a moment to trace her words back to the song they came from.

Once, she was sitting on Michiel's lap when she suddenly put her hands over his mouth and said, "Papa don't breathe."

He took her hands away and said he didn't like that, but she did it again. "Papa don't breathe."

This went back and forth and after a few more times, Michiel and I figured it out at the same time. "Papa Don't Preach!" We've got a little Madonna fan in the house.

Papa don't breathe, I'm in trouble deep

Papa don't breathe, I've been losing sleep

It kinda works.