Miriam is 4

Miriam has the benefit of having her birthday before everybody else's in the calendar year, so as soon as Christmas was over, she started counting down the days until she would turn 4. That day finally came last week.

 Miriam showing how old she now is.

Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis were out of town on her special day, so they weren't able to come to the party. Instead, they had Miri over for a sleepover the week before.

The evening of her birthday, we had Grandma and Grandpa Scott, Uncle T, Aunt McKall and Bennet over for dinner and festivities. Miriam chose ham and potato soup and rainbow Jell-O for her birthday dinner. Then we took turns whacking the piñata she helped make and decorate. The weather outside wasn't really conducive to partying, so we took the piñata in the shop.

Miriam with the piñata she helped make. She painted the outside (with a little help to get it all covered), picked the picture to put on it (Prince Eric and Ariel with Melody) and colored it.

Sometimes the piñata whacks back.

The kids played with their prizes and ate some of their candy, then we went back inside for presents.

 Seth getting Miri's light-up aquarium working.

Opening her present from Aunt McKall. Uncle T is thrilled to be a part of the fun.

She received a princess dress, Ariel Play-doh set and mermaid stickers from Mom and Dad; a light-up aquarium and the requisite batteries from Grandma and Grandpa Scott; Polly Pockets from Analee (these are hand-me-downs from her sister--Ana knew how much Miri loves to play with them "and I don't play with them very much," so she gave them to her); a magic show from Rebekah; chocolate bunnies to share with her sisters and cousin from Grandpa Wirkus; and Minnie puzzles and Minnie and Sofia the First coloring packs from Aunt McKall, Uncle T and Bennet. (Aunt Jessica, who had to work that night, dropped by a  few days later with a coloring book, crayons, Disney princess jewelry and Ponies coloring for Miriam.)

Then came the ice cream and cake.

 The cake Miriam chose for her birthday. Look familiar? She put the fish and star fish on all by herself. Rebekah posed her arms to make her "look excited."

Licking frosting off the hindquarters of the mermaid who sat atop the cake.

Everyone sang to Miriam, she blew out the four candles on the mermaid cake she requested, and we all partook of said cake and ice cream.

It's safe to say she had a fun and memorable birthday, because that night as we tucked her in, she asked me, "Mom, when is my next birthday?"

To see more pictures, click here.

All Ana wants for St. Patrick's Day is her two front teeth

These two teeth have been loose for approximately a year. When Ana finally let me yank one, then the other out, she began sporting this adorable double-wide gap.

I've been making her say things like "Sister Suzy sitting on a thistle" and "She sells seashells by the seashore." Who knows when those permanent teeth will start poking through? I've got to enjoy it while I can.

A little mischief

What Winnie lacks in stature she makes up for in personality and climbing abilities. The other day I set out two very brown bananas on the counter so I could make banana bread later. Winnie pushed a chair over to the counter, found the squishy fruit and helped herself. This is how I found her:

 I wonder what nutritional value banana peels have?

 She didn't seem the mind the bruises.

At a later date, Winnie decided to dump out all the toys from her bucket and use it for something other than storing play things.

This funny little girl loves finding little cubby holes to sit in. She also loves Elmo and refers to almost all Sesame Street characters (except Cookie Monster) and Mickey Mouse as Elmo.

Ana-ism #25

We got a new-to-us used Laser printer, and tonight I was plugging it in and getting it set up. The girls were watching attentively. Later, after quite a few minutes of sitting there idle, the printer started making unprompted printer-ish noises.

Seth: That's weird. I wonder what it's doing.
Ana: (glances at the printer, looking confused) It's... celebrating.

Miri-ism #25

Miriam has got some weird exclamations.

Miri: Oh, Mikes!
Seth: Huh?
Miri: "Mikes" means "Oh, bomb." And "Oh, bomb" means "Dang it."

bravery

Last night for Family Home Evening (and in honor of Presidents Day) we took the kids swimming at the aquatic center. Andrea spent most of her time in the shallow end with Gwen and Miri, while Bekah, Ana, and I spent most of our time bobbing around the rest of the pool, floating and playing tag and having "torpedo races."

Prior to last night, Bekah had jumped off the low dive one, maybe two times. As we got to the pool last night she told me, "Dad, I'm not sure if I want to do the diving board." "Okay, sweetie," I said. "Whatever you want to do." But after fifteen or twenty minutes in the water she had worked up enough nerve that I accompanied her to the deep end where she trepidatiously walked to the end of the board, hopped off, and triumphantly swam to the side.

Twenty minutes later, we returned again to the deep end. This time she was a little less hesitant, even throwing her arms and legs into the air as she jumped and doing a bounce or two on the board before plunging in. I followed her off the low dive each time, working on my flipping skills, because there's nothing people to see more than a hairy 31 year-old man doing flips off the low dive.

Finally, as we neared the end of public swim hours, she asked, "Can we go a few more times?" "Okay," I said. "How many more times?" "Five."

Times one through four showed a continued increase in bravery and skill. Finally, it was time for the last jump. I could tell she was psyching herself up for something.

"I want to do it, Dad. I want to do the high dive."

"Oh, Rebekah. Are you sure? You don't have to."

"I want to Dad."

So we waited in line. As we neared the front of it, I listened to her talking to herself. "Ohhhhh, I don't want to. I'm too scared. But I do want to. I really do. But it's really high." Back and forth, back and forth. By this time, Andrea and the little girls had come to the edge of the pool to watch.

I was sure she was going to talk herself down. But finally, with nobody between her and that long climb, she grasped the ladder rungs and pulled herself up to the top of the diving board. Then, to my utter astonishment, she walked to the end and jumped off.

Elated, I climbed up the board and flung myself off as well, then swam to the edge of the pool laughing and beaming. "I did it, Dad! I did it! It was so scary, I thought I was going to die, but it was so awesome. Only my hands really hurt because the water smacked them, and my swimsuit rode way up, but I DID IT!" I picked her up and twirled her around in my arms. "Bekah, I'm SO proud of you! That was so brave."

And it was. Rebekah has, for a long time, been the most "cautious" of our children. But now there's a new kid in town, a brave kid, and no high dive is safe.

Bekahism #53 and Ana-ism #24

While watching the Olympics ...

Seth: These guys go down the ice faster than a car. I wouldn't want to do that.
Ana: Why not?
Seth: You could crack your skull. You could break your neck. You could break your back. You could break your leg.
Bekah and Ana (in perfect unison): That's why it's called skeleton!

A bedtime story with a happy ending

The other day Miriam asked Seth to tell her a story:


Once there was a princess baby named Winnie. One night after the queen and king put Princess Winnie down to sleep in her royal crib, an invisible dragon came and bit the princess' finger. The biting dragon hurt her, so the princess cried and cried. 

First the queen came up and checked to see why Princess Winnie was crying, but she couldn't see anything. Then the king came up and checked to see why Princess Winnie was crying, but he couldn't see anything.

Finally, the queen went up one more time to see why Princess Winnie kept crying and crying. The queen used her magic and was able to see the invisible dragon that was biting the princess' finger. She grabbed the princess out of her royal crib and cried out for the king. The king came with his sword and sliced the dragon off the princess' finger, and Princess Winnie finally stopped crying. 

The king used his sword to turn the invisible biting dragon into a friendly dragon, and everyone lived happily ever after.


As wonderful a storyteller Seth is, he borrowed the plot from a real-life experience that happened shortly after Christmas.

We HAD put Winnie to bed. She DID keep crying. Both of us went upstairs to see why she was fussing, because it's unusual for her to carry on so for that long. When each of us went up, all we saw was Winnie with her blankie, her baba and her puppy.

When I went up the last time, Winnie had let go of her puppy, and I could finally tell what was wrong. The ring finger on her left hand was totally blue. The string that made up the dog's mouth had gotten twisted around and around her finger and cut off the circulation. I whisked her from her crib and cried out for Seth. He ran upstairs, saw the problem and immediately rushed back down to retrieve a pair of scissors.

As soon as he cut the string and it unwound from Winnie's finger, the blood rushed back in and turned it a healthy pink.

I shudder to think what would have happened if she had given up and gone to sleep; the poor girl would have only nine fingers.

Seth trimmed all the string off the puppy, and Winnie continues to sleep with it every nap and night.

The naughty (and now mouthless) puppy.

Winnie with her puppy. Don't worry, she's not crying because of another puppy bite; she was upset because she had just woken up from a nap and I put her back in the crib so I could take a picture.

Gwendolen's 15-month stats

Winnie is now more than 16 months old, and I'm just getting around to posting her stats from her check-up. Sigh ...

Height: 30 inches (28th percentile)
Weight: 18 pounds, 12 ounces (15th percentile)
Head: 18.5 inches (82nd percentile)

She's still a shrimp of a thing (I'm waiting for a big growth spurt like Rebekah experienced when she was about 18 months old), but her size doesn't slow her down. She climbs up on everything now, including kitchen chairs and the table.

In fact, the other day when Ana and Miri had pushed kitchen chairs over to the counter to help me make chocolate chip cookies, I heard something being scattered all over and turned around to see Winnie on the now-abandoned chair with the overturned jar of chocolate chips spread across the counter. She was stuffing chocolate chips into her mouth by the fistful.

Winnie's 15-month words:

• Animals sounds (horse, cow, fish, lion, monkey, dog, cat, snake, bee, pig, sheep)
• Mine
• Blankie
• Poopy
• Hi
• Bye-bye
• Night-night

Miri-ism #24

Miri: I like girls and daddies, but not normal boys.

Miri-ism #23

Miri: Mom, what are you doing?
Andrea: I'm getting my hymn book.
Miri: Why is it a him book? Why can't it be a girl book?

Just dancing

I know I included the Hendricks reunion in a previous post, but this merits its own little bit of real estate in the blog-o-verse.

We had a Just Dance battle of epic proportions while at the cabin. Uncle Kent turned out to be the men's leader, and quite an upstart. I retained my title of Dancing Queen.

When Aunt Cathy, Nathan and Cameron showed up for lunch, we had to introduce them to Just Dance via "Call Me Maybe."

Seth and Uncle Jim groove to "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." Jim ended up being the winner of this song.

I'm not sure how we were able to persuade Uncle Jim and Grandpa Dennis to play, but the evidence shows we did.

Uncle Jason is a groover.

Although a picture's worth a thousand words, a video's worth a million.

Miriam's first talk

On Miriam's very first Sunday in Primary (she's one of the two Sunbeams in my class), they asked her to prepare a talk for the next week. I thought it was interesting that the Primary presidency would ask a brand new Sunbeam who has never witnessed a Primary talk to give one, but luckily her mom knew what to do and helped her.

Miriam, despite her young age and inexperience, did a good job giving her talk. She wasn't scared to stand in front of all the older Primary kids and talk into the microphone. I held up pictures while she repeated the words I whispered in her ear. This is what she said:

"I have four great-grandparents who passed away before I was born, so I don't remember them, but I know that I will see them again someday. I can see them again someday because ...

"... Jesus atoned for my sins ...

"... because I can be baptized ...

"... and because I can go to the temple.

"Someday I will see my great-grandparents and get to live with Heavenly Father again. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Christmasness

Prepare yourself for a flood of festive photos. (In other words, Andrea attempts to catch up the blog in one post covering two weeks' time.)

CHRISTMAS EVE

As per Grover family tradition, we took the girls to the Museum of Idaho's free Christmas exhibit on Christmas Eve morning. We were the first ones in and basically had the place to ourselves. All the more fun for ...

... smashing noses on glass. 

Analee and Miriam look at some of the Christmas decorations under glass.

... whacking Daddy on the head.

This is what Seth gets to saving Winnie's legs by letting her ride on his shoulders.

... practicing bird conservation.

Analee finds a nest for the owl puppets in the Children's Discovery Room.

Rebekah checks in on the bald eagle puppet in its nest. A good portion of the time she spent in the Children's Discovery Room was dedicated to finding the baby eagles.

... getting attacked by squirrels.

At first the squirrel was content talking to Winnie, but then it got a little hungry.

...fixing dinner for everyone in a log cabin.

Miriam plays house all the time, so it was no surprise when she started cooking for all her woodland friends.

As per Hendricks tradition, we met with family for food, fun and a nativity reenactment.

Miriam begged and begged to be Mary in the nativity. Bekah has done it for several years, so we thought it was Miri's turn. She was so excited that as she entered the stage (the back of the gym), she kept saying, "I'm Mary! I'm Mary!" When she finally quieted down so we could hear the narration, she pointed to herself and mouthed the words: "I'm Mary." 

Gwendolen getting help from Aunt Rachel to be the Christmas star.

Rebekah as a sheep and Analee as an angel. Kaylie and Madelyn were also angels.

As per Scott tradition, we had dinner together, read Luke 2, sang "Silent Night in German, and the girls opened Christmas Eve pajamas.

I don't remember why, but Miriam felt the need to roll her eyes at Seth while he buttoned up her new Hello Kitty jammies.

Grandma Scott wasn't sure which jammies would fit which girl. Bekah and Ana ended up switching, and Andrea hemmed up Ana's pajama pants.

Andrea gets Winnie dressed in her Christmas Eve jammies. She loves to examine the feet (which look like kitten heads) and meow at them.

Miriam helped Grandpa Wirkus open his presents.

Rebekah used the bubble wrap from Grandpa's present to give the kids a ride.

CHRISTMAS DAY

We did our own thing that morning (opening presents and stockings, eating fancy shmancy cereal), then headed over to my parents' and Seth's parents' houses for more unwrappings, foodstuffs and goings on.

Miriam unwrapping Barbie accessories at Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Susan's house. 

 Rebekah and the crystal growing kit she got from Aunt Melissa and Uncle Kent.

Aunt Jessica helping Winnie open her music player from Grandma and Grandpa Scott.

 Analee shows off the doll Rebekah made her for Christmas.

Rebekah unwraps her present from Grandma and Grandpa Scott: a book of science experiments. She got a camera from Mom and Dad for Christmas, and she proceeded to videotape everything for the rest of the day.

Two days after Christmas, Seth stayed at home with the younger two so I could take Rebekah and Analee with me to Salt Lake for my

COUSIN'S WEDDING

The night before the wedding, I took the girls to Temple Square to see the lights.

Part of the group waiting for Camille and Nick to come out. My cousins watched the girls while we attended the sealing.

Analee at the wedding luncheon.

Rebekah needed a quiet corner to read her Kindle. Ellie and Ana needed a quiet corner to play on the tablet.

Between the luncheon and reception, we had some time to kill. We went to Scheel's (a sporting goods store) in Sandy and paid $1/each to ride the Ferris Wheel they have in the store. Ana loves a good ride, but Bekah is squeamish when it comes to heights, so she sat the ride out with Grandma Scott and Grandpa Wirkus. They are the little people in the middle of this shot.

Ana didn't mind being up high.

A Ferris Wheel. In a sporting goods store.

After the reception and some time in the swimming pool, we went back to Uncle Ross and Aunt Susan's house to sleep. Sunday morning we had to high-tail it out of there because Rebekah and I were the musical number in sacrament meeting in our ward. Then we had one night in our own beds before we went to the

HENDRICKS REUNION

Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks had arranged for all their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids (as their schedules permitted) to stay in one of three cabins in Island Park for the week following Christmas.

Unfortunately, Grandma Hendricks fell down some stairs on the first evening up north, so she and Grandpa spent the reunion at the hospital and at home while the rest of us played in the snow, ate incredible food and visited together.

A slew of great-grandkids eating dinner. There are three booster seats attached to the chairs against the wall.

Photobombed by Uncle Jim.

Relatives eating and visiting downstairs.

Our girls had a blast riding snowmobiles, sledding, watching movies, playing games and having a big family sleepover.

To see more holiday photos, start here.