Miriam is 10 months

Miriam turned ten months old. She's a pretty happy kid. But she's only truly happy when in motion.

Sort of happy sitting on the couch.

Happier now that she's wiggled herself off the couch.

Happiest walking along. Note that she is moving so quickly that the picture blurs.

Here she is at the zoo.

From here to there in no time.

She took her first steps probably two weeks ago. She's figured out some talking too. She says Dada, Mama, a kind of Uuu for Reuben, No no, this, eyes, and eoow for meow when she sees Battle. She crawls all over but is especially determined to move if she's chasing down a ball. She loves to hide things inside shoes which has given everyone a surprise in the morning.

Any guesses on what her hair color will be? If you remember it was BLACK when she was born, then it lightened to brown. Now the bottom layer is coming in white blond and red.

Reuben saw me taking pictures of Miriam and demanded I take his picture too. So here you go. His shirt says "Big Brother." I really want to write "is watching" underneath it.

Today Reuben found a spider. He proudly told me it was his pet then spent around an hour watching it suck the innards out of crane flies trapped in its web. Life is fascinating.

Company

We got some great company this weekend. My family came up to visit. About ten minutes after they arrived, Robby Reuben and Abby heard the siren's song of the ice cream truck. Robby immediately picked up Reuben who only had socks on and ran out the door. About five minutes later I got a call from him at the park about a third a mile away, asking for back up. When I met them they looked like this. No shoes. Staining blue ice cream all over. And that's why uncles are so much fun.

From there, the food just got better.

We went into the city and tried out Founding Farmers which was delicious.

When we got home we played games and ate even more. Nothing says love like a chocolate cupcake ...

and a lychee shake.

Thanks for coming family! I miss you already.

Where Is Everybody?

I don't know about everyone else but during thunderstorms we like to sit outside on a hill, under a giant tree, eating lunch with an angry bald eagle with a broken wing.

We spent a good part of our day at the Raptor Rehab center. Along with the bald eagle, I enjoyed seeing the barred owl, cooper's hawk, and red tail hawk. Though it made me sad to see each so badly injured. Most had been hit by cars. I was reminded of the poem Hurt Hawk by Robinson Jeffers.

Miriam waving to the eagle. I'm fairly certain the eagle

was trying to figure out if he could eat her.

I had to laugh a little when Reuben looked up from his sandwich, wiped the water streaming off his head out of his eyes and asked nonchalantly "Where is everybody?" I told him we were all here, Mama, Reuben and baby. Reuben furrowed his brow and said, "No. Where are all the other people?" I told him I didn't know. Maybe they were inside.

HURT HAWK

I The broken pillar of the wing jags from the clotted shoulder, The wing trails like a banner in defeat, No more to use the sky forever but live with famine And pain a few days: cat nor coyote Will shorten the week of waiting for death, there is game without talons. He stands under the oak-bush and waits The lame feet of salvation; at night he remembers freedom And flies in a dream, the dawns ruin it. He is strong and pain is worse to the strong, incapacity is worse. The curs of the day come and torment him At distance, no one but death the redeemer will humble that head, The intrepid readiness, the terrible eyes. The wild God of the world is sometimes merciful to those That ask mercy, not often to the arrogant. You do not know him, you communal people, or you have forgotten him; Intemperate and savage, the hawk remembers him; Beautiful and wild, the hawks, and men that are dying, remember him.

Storm and Calm

This morning we started the day off right by watching Endeavor launch. Then we re-watched it over and over again chanting the countdown.

Thunderstorms rolled through our neighborhood. We snuck outside when we could. We found this flower in one of our excursions. While the rain fell and the thunder shook the house, Reuben examined it then drew it. Then we folded paper boats.

While Miriam ate, I taught Reuben the song Rain Rain Go Away. He sang it with gusto.

When the storm moved on we were out the door, paper boat in hand. It floated wonderfully. I love how beautiful the earth is after a powerful storm.

The Zen of Reuben

Saturday morning Aaron ran an errand with Miriam so Reuben and I got some time together. I told him we could do whatever he wanted. So we went on a walk in the rain to the farmer's market.

We stopped on the way to smell the roses and pick up their petals.

Then we looked in the window of the antique shops. Reuben told me this was "Reuben's Mama"

and this seated Buddha was Reuben

Then we sat at the bus stop and watched "fast cars" drive by for thirty minutes. In the rain. No jackets or umbrella.

At first I had the unnerving feeling of being stuck in the movie Forest Gump, but after a few minutes I really enjoyed relaxing and watching the traffic rush by. It made me feel so peaceful and free to be able to simply be instead of do. It was even better since I was "being" with Reuben.

PS - Here is an example of why I appreciated the peaceful moments so much. Here is Reuben "helping" Miriam in the bath. Poor Miriam

Miriam's 9 Month Adventure

Miriam turned nine months. To celebrate we went to my brother's graduation. Not really, Miri did get dragged along but I don't think it was her first choice of things to do. See her expression below: where are we??

Here she is helping clean up Robby's apartment. She found a lot of things to eat while I was distracted by the packing work. Some of what she put in her mouth was food, some of it had once been food and some of it I don't want to think about. (An apartment of six college guys - shudder)

Miriam at the 4+ hours of graduation ceremony.

Yay Robby and Amanda!

Holy Week

This year spring seems reluctant. It's still cold and chilly in our area. But that matches nicely with the late Easter date. Our family has been working on getting ready for Easter.

Aaron and I have been reading the book "God So Loved the World." It does a good job collecting and organizing all of the various scriptural stories of the time and giving additional background and information on different Christian traditions. I feel like it's given me a better understanding of what happened as well as a few ideas on how I want to observe and celebrate the day.

So we've started early and have been trying our hand at Easter fun.

We've needed the extra warm up time. I am pretty slack about holidays. I don't decorate. I hate crafts - I feel like they're generally wasteful of my time and resources. I don't like singing. I'm not very musical. And I REFUSE on moral grounds to decorate cakes. See above feelings on crafts then multiply by ten.

So we've been working on coming up with our own traditions that don't involve too much singing, crafting or cake decorating.

First thing. I participated in cousin Kari's 4th Annual Easter Basket Swap which is loads of fun. If you missed it this year you MUST try it out next year.

Then the Easter bunny helped me out by visiting a couple times this week and hiding easter eggs in our yard. So while I got our garden turned over and our peas planted, Reuben and Miriam hunted around the grass for easter eggs. The easter bunny considerately kept the eggs contents restricted to cereal. Easter Day when the cereal contents magically change to candy, those kids are going to be over joyed.

We picked up some Easter books at our library and have been reading them. Petook. What is Easter? My First Easter etc. Here both kids are looking at our library book haul. Those two are buddies.

Reuben Miriam and I dyed some Easter eggs. We tried hard to make them look good but when Aaron discovered the remains of our first attempt it grossed him out so much he threw up. It's been two days and he says he still can't think about eating eggs without gagging. So I'll spare you the pictures. (See the dangers of treading towards craft land? I justified this as Not a craft because it used vinegar and dyes which is Chemistry)

I've been gathering up some fun stuff for Reuben and Miriam's easter basket. Thank you Etsy.

When Reuben was Miriam's age he had some colored wood eggs and he played with them for FOREVER. We lost two in moves. But the last remaining egg is still a favorite with both the kids. They make great toys.

Tomorrow we are going to do a little Family Home Evening lesson where I hide eater eggs which each have a symbol of Christ and the resurrection - white linen, a rock, wood for the cross, bread. We'll open them together and talk about the story.

And my big and best idea: Friday, which happens to be Earth Day (hooray!!), we are going lights out. As soon as Aaron gets home from work we are going to power down - no lights, no tv, no computer, no phones, nothing will be on. We are powering off. The darkness will remind us of Christ's death and I hope give us some undistracted family time to reflect on the sacred time. Everything will stay off til Sunday morning.

Kind of crazy but I'm looking forward to it.

Anybody else have any good Easter traditions?