Miranda's Birthday Part 2

For Miranda's birthday, we just had some of our friends, that know and love Panda, over for and "allergy free" dinner. Everything that we served was something she could eat! It was so nice to be able to have her eat off of my plate, run around with the kids, eat picnic style on the floor and not have to worry! The food wasn't too bad either. I made the cake from a special allergy free cook book. For being free of gluten, milk, eggs, butter, etc it wasn't too bad. It's not the cutest cake and I'm sad I wasn't able to make it cute, but it was allergy free and actually looked edible. I also dipped marshmallows in allergy free "chocolate chips" and sprinkles. We had shredded pork, corn chips, potato wedge fries, guacamole (only smashed avocado), rice, apples, grapes and finger jello. Her diet doesn't seem to bad, until you've eaten the same thing for every meal of the day for 2 years! It gets boring!
Miranda is full of life! She is our little fire cracker! She is constantly full of energy! I have the hardest time keeping up with her outside of our home! Ihave so much to say about her since this is her "2 year old" post, but it's late so I'll have to wait to do that another time. And I have about a million other posts to blog as well!!

Miranda has been singing Happy Birthday to herself for the last month now. Most mornings I can hear her singing in her crib when she wakes up!

Miranda Panda

Miranda has SO much personality! She constantly keeps me laughing and smiling!
October to mid December were the busiest months of my life and I found myself very overwhelmed with moving, getting settled and trying to fit in all the photography and piano. I was so grateful for a few "down weeks" where I was able to just be a mom. No piano lessons, no photoshoots, no preschool, just being a mom! The girls and I had a great time. When Bri returned to preschool Miranda was very sad. She kept saying, "Oh no! Where's Bri? Where's Bri? All gone." She is sure missing her playmate.

Miranda LOVES to hide behind the curtains and jump out!

She loves her babies and especially loves feeding them.
She would color and do gluten free play dough all day if I let her! She has the best laugh!

She is obsessed with books and loves to act out being a "monkey" among other things! She's a ham! Whenever she sees the camera she strikes a pose like this: She picks everything up and puts it to her eye to pretend it's a camera and tells me, "Cheese!"
Miranda is the most talkative 1 1/2 year old I've ever met! She surprises me every day with the conversations she holds. She has somewhere between 100-200 words and speaks in sentences. She knows several of her colors and some letters! She's obsessed with letters!!! Someone slow this kid down!

I'm so grateful for the joy she brings into our life. It's hard for me to see her so sick at times (like last night as she continued to vomit through the night and have diarrhea due to her FPIES syndrome! Thankfully we avoided the ER!) I'm so glad once everything gets out of her system that she bounces back to our happy, crazy, fun little girl! Now someone find me a plastic bubble for her to live in so she won't get sick any more!

The Plague

We were hit by the plague this week! Brianna and Miranda had a runny nose and cough for a week and seemed to be getting better. Chad and I started to get sick on my birthday with colds as well. Then Bri took a turn for the worse and ran a high fever for 2 days. The highest was 105 degrees and she was very lethargic for those two days. She could hardly move and wouldn't walk. Miranda's cold seemed to be gone, but she was having some very cranky moments pretty often! So, I headed to the doctor to find out that Miranda had a double ear infection and Brianna had pneumonia! Thank heavens for modern medicine! They are both doing better after being on antibiotics. Brianna got an antibiotic shot, and within 12 hours was bouncing around the house again! She seems nearly back to normal, it's amazing! Chad however was feeling much worse today, so after a trip to Urgent Care he is on antibiotics for a sinus infection!!! I'm just hoping mine doesn't turn into bronchitis!!! Our new neighborhood is kind of in the middle of nowhere so I'm grateful that the one store out here is Walgreens. I believe I've made 7 trips there in the last few days!
Here's a picture of the girls feeling better, watching some tv (though they look a little orphaned due to a rough few days and no baths!) I'm so glad to see them smiling! Miranda loves to copy her sister and Bri thinks it hilarious!
As far as the allergy testing, both of the girl's tests came back "inconclusive" again! Miranda has another appointment next week for "patch testing" where they will make pastes out of the offending foods and leave them there for 72 hours...then check to see for a reaction. We may have to reschedule since she's on antibiotics...I'll just have to call and check!

Gaining Independance

Miranda was thrilled the other day when I gave her a "nuk" brush to feed herself! She won't eat much these days, and usually does better if she can feed herself! The nuk brush is a much easier way to eat than a spoon and she acted like she was hot stuff with it! She enjoyed some coconut milk based yogurt with minimal mess!!! Well, as minimal as you get with a 16 month old!

She finished the last bits off with the good ol' fashioned finger feeding!

Miranda is also getting better at climbing and will put stools up to get on higher chairs, the piano bench, etc. I'm starting to get a little nervous about my little explorer!!!

Chatterbox!

In the last several weeks Miranda's communication has just exploded. She picks up new words, animal sounds and signs everyday. She often signs while talking which helps me understand her. She definitely knows what she's saying all the time, whether we do or not. For my own journaling purposes I'll be writing down her current words:

mama

dada

Bri Bri

baby (and signs it)

bath (and signs it)

doggie and woof woof (and signs)

elephant and sound

duck and sound

fishy face and fish sign

animal sound for mouse and horse

bye bye and waves

"mmmmm" when eating something yummy

more (sign)

all done (sign)

night night (and signs)

car (sign)

beep beep (when playing with cars)

candy (sign)

hat (sign)

shoes (and sign)

uh oh sounds like "uh uh"

she says poo poo while filling her diaper

different versions of dada mean "drink" "ball" and dada

ball (sign)

people (says beepoh for any doll or toy person besides a baby)

eat (and sign)

water (and sign)

movie (sign)

music (sign)

phone (sign) and says "hi" while pretending on phone

"no no" while shaking her finger

swing (sign)

slide (sign)

growling for bears, lions, tigers and other animals

book (sounds like book without the k and signs it)

diaper (and sign) (occasionally)

begining to say "on and off" today

monkey (sign and sound)

bird (sign) and tries to whistle but just makes the mouth movement

I also think she might be saying "this" but I'm not sure.

I'm probably forgetting some, but this is a good list for a 13 1/2 month old. I was surprised when she wasn't signing or communicating as much as Bri did at this age, but she has sure made up for it in the last few weeks. It is so much fun to watch her learn and grow. She loves her Signing Time and Baby Einstein movies lately and seems to just soak it up!

A Very Sick Panda

I miss her smiles! This is about as happy as she has been in the last 3 days! She has had diarrhea and vomiting for 3 days and I'm starting to get really worried about dehydration! We went to the doctor yesterday for her 1 year appointment, which turned into a sick appointment!
Her stats:
Weight: 17 lbs 2 oz Under the 5th% (I'm sure she weighs less now with more vomiting and throwing up
Height: 28 1/2 inches long 20%
Head Circ.: 18 inches 60%
Bri was almost the exact same size at 1. She was 17 lbs. 3 oz, 28 inches and 18 inch head!
I want my happy, healthy Panda back! Hopefully we won't be admitted for dehydration, I'm crossing my fingers that she can keep the Pedialyte down today!

Panda or Gremlin?

Miranda is working on her impressions lately! She's been working really hard on her "villain's laugh" and her "Gremlin" growl. Enjoy the video of our little growling Panda Bear. Perhaps her nickname is the reason she growls so much. I don't think most people expect the deep growling to come out of such a petite little girl!

Most everyone at church today got to hear her growl...she is soooooooo loud and wiggly! So, my appologies to even those on the back row at church (we sit in the front) for the growling they got to hear all day!!! But, honestly, I think it's cute. I wouldn't take my Panda Bear any other way.

Miranda "Walking"

Brianna has taken on the responsibility of teaching Miranda to walk. Most of the time she doesn't mind the help as you can see! She thinks she's pretty hot stuff with her new walking toy! She walks across the room then sits and claps for herself before she does it again. (Don't mind all the toys scattered around...Miranda likes to dump or empty anything she can find!)
Miranda will stand alone for several seconds until she realizes what she's doing and sits down. She has taken 1-2 steps several times, but prefers to be holding a hand or the walking toy to really walk!These two are playing really well these days (except when Brianna starts dragging her around the house too much!) Bri is always sure to help Miranda eat (or finish her food for her!) My favorite is hearing the girls just laugh and play together. Miranda loves to tackle Brianna and they sit there and wrestle for a few minutes! It's kind of funny! I need to get a video of it!