The Curl

Oh this girl. I just love her. There is this little poem that goes:

I know a little girl, 
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad,
She was horrid.

My grandma likes to quote this to Miriam whenever she sees her because of the curl on her forehead. Weirdly enough, it is pretty accurate to Miriam's little personality as well. For years, I have joked with John about how I am little concerned that Miriam is bipolar. She has radical mood swings and has the lung capacity to make sure everyone knows when she is either thrilled or distraught. 

Well, I had to do a little photo shoot with her to document her curl. She seriously loves her curl. She talks about it a lot and always wants to show it off, if it is particularly curly that day.

We love little Miriam so much! At three and a half, she is so fun and so hard. I have heard the term a lot lately that we live with a threenager. Whew! In a lot of ways though we are going through a nice phase right now. We have made some progress in the sharing department, being kind, no hitting, etc. The main thing that gets Miriam upset right now is of course telling her 'no' to something, and also calling her out on her made up stories. She totally makes up things that she treats as real events and expects us all to go along with it. Which is completely fine, when it is something silly or we are just playing. But there have been a few times, when she insists that she has a playdate or a tea party at a friend's house, and gets so upset when I won't take her over there. Occasionally, when this goes above and beyond, I will talk to her about lying, and how it isn't okay to tell me things that aren't true. Then of course it is back-pedal to a "I was just making a joke, Mommy," or "I was just pretending, Mommy." Yeah, sure you were...

Really though, she is such a sweet girl. She is very affectionate. She gives the sweetest kisses and hugs. She calls them, "Kissy and huggy." She loves cuddling and being read to. She still loves her dairy products: cheese, milk, and butter. Really though we have reached a nice place when it comes to our kids eating. We get more compliments than complaints, and they will both really eat anything. Although, Miriam really, really prefers to be fed still. She will eat almost anything happily as long as one of us feeds it to her, but eating food that she likes can become an all evening affair if she has to feed herself (which we are trying to push her to do). 

Miriam is so, so excited to have a baby sister. This baby is super active so it is fun for the girls to be able to feel her so easily and often. They really do love on my tummy. I am already envisioning the war that is going to happen about not over stimulating/smothering the baby.

Miriam loves to do things with Mommy and Daddy. She is our little helper with dishes and cleaning up things. She doesn't always do the best job, but her enthusiasm makes up for it.

She also loves to do preschool with me. This sounds like it would be a lot more fun for her than it actually is. It is pretty much just reading, writing, and counting. Occasionally if they are lucky, I will think of a craft to do. I get these workbooks from Costco, and they go through them. If I ask Miriam what she wants to do, most often she will reply, "Let's do some preschool pages." I should just enjoy this phase while it lasts. In the meantime though we are going through a lot of pages. We got one that was three hundred pages plus. It said on the cover, "A whole year of learning and activities." Miriam had gone through the entire thing, in (no joke) three weeks. So in past couple of months, she has gone through three books each about 300 pages in length. Crazy girl. I am really impressed though that I really can see distinct improvement in her writing and counting because of these. I also do a reading lesson with her, which has been going really well too. (Knock on wood!) She keeps making progress and doesn't put up too much resistance to doing it. She still just reads the CVC words, but that is a lot considering three months ago there is no way that would have happened. Sometimes I wish I could have Miriam do Eliza's homework from Kindergarten. It is about the right level for her. :)

Poor Ellie doesn't enjoy "Preschool time" nearly as much, but I make her do a workbook too since I am sitting down with Miriam to do it. She is doing a second grade work book and is doing really well. It seems arduous sometimes with her but she is still learning a ton! She frequently during the day talks to me about numbers and equations. Yesterday at dinner she announced to me that I have 72 years left before I turn 100. (Thanks, kid!) Ellie loves, loves reading. She really does read for several hours a day, and often complains to me that I am "always interrupting her right in the middle of a book." I have to reply, "Honey, you are always in the middle of a book, so it is impossible to not interrupt you at that time." She likes to read small chapter books the best, but thankfully she is branching out from the Rainbow Magic books. One thing I think is pretty funny is that she doesn't like to be disturbed when she is "thinking about magic." I really do think that her fondest wish would be that some kind of magic was real. What a funny girl!

Miriam is so delightful! Really. I love the things she says. "Why in football games do some people dress up like zebras?" Another conversation started when she asked what the blue flier was we got at church. "It is a flier." "Oh it is a flyer to catch flies." What a sweetie!

This girl still prefers nap time to quiet time. She thinks that if she has quiet time that she will have to cry, which she doesn't want to do. Sweet girl! I fully take advantage of this though and take an afternoon nap almost every day. Gotta enjoy it while I can!

Here she is doing her trick!

Saying prayers!

She wanted me to take a picture of her doing her cool trick and also saying her prayer. She really does say the sweetest prayers. She prayers for other people and actually pretty appropriate things. Sometimes I think my prayers need to be more like Miriam. Ellie mainly prays right now that this or that will be fun. Sorry I shouldn't compare kids. Miriam really does do a wonderful job praying and would love to say every prayer that we say as a family. Sadly for her we do insist on taking turns. 

We sure love little Miriam and are so grateful she is a part of our family!!!