{She's Walking!}

Just shy of 13 months, little Miss Miriam has decided to walk! And she loves it!

During her 1 year photo was the first time that Miriam stood up by herself for longer than half a second. 

And little by little, baby steps, baby steps were taken.

She wasn't a fan of walking on her own, we kind of had to trick her into taken steps on her own, but she eventually got the hang of it. 

She loves walking towards Evette the best.

At first it was just a few steps from the couch to the bookshelf, or standing by herself so she could hold the baby and the bottle, but this weekend, I feel I can say she is officially walking.

She is walking! She goes from room to room without looking for chairs or walls to hold onto along the way. She's walking! I'm so proud of her! It makes her so happy to walk, she laughs the whole time as if to say, "Look at me! Look at what I can do! I'm doing it!"

{Picture Update}

Play dates with friends

Beautiful sleeping baby. She fell asleep reading her favorite book which used to be Evette's favorite book as well. So fun.

Pigtails!!! It makes her look so grown up - I can hardly stand it.

Snuggles. She always loves to bury her face while sleeping. The other day while the girls were going down for a nap Evette said, "Mir-rum! Why you doing yoga?!" She was doing downward dog with her face on her lamb for snuggles - she seriously loves to snuggle.

Evette wore her gloves during naptime the other day because her hands were cold, obviously.

(Yup, I'm that mom that goes and checks on her kids a million times while they sleep and takes pictures. I love their squishy sleepy selves.)

Speaking of sleepy selves, this cute little booger has not been sleeping well at all. Waking up multiple times during the night and just crying and crying and throwing her pacifier. It's really awesome. NOT. A couple nights ago Sean slept on the couch so I could cuddle with Miriam in bed. It took her about an hour to fall asleep as she was snuggling with me. She reaches her little arms all the way around my neck and plays with my hair, then does downward dog and presses her face into my face, and then cuddles into my neck, and then climbs onto my chest and cuddles, and then back to playing with my hair and then rubs her face against my forehead and then repeats it all. So many snuggles.

Last night Miriam woke up in the middle of the night and would not be calmed down and so I snuggled with her on the couch and we fell asleep. Today, my back is broken. How old am I? I seriously cannot turn my head or move to fast, or hold babies for too long....Sean is going to give me a massage so that hopefully tomorrow I can at least somewhat function.

We took a family trip to the dentist! Evette and Miriam did a great job! I got my first few cavities ever in my life. Yes, at 24 I got my first cavity. I don't want to talk about it. I cried when the dentist told me. I don't want to talk about it, ok? ok? OK!?!? the end.

I was proud of Miriam and Evette for both being so brave! 

Valentines Day package from Mimi!

The girls and I ran to Home Depot to get supplies for our veggie garden and apparently they had a little kid workshop thing going on. There was no way I was going to single-handedly (literally, because one hand/arm was holding Miriam) going to help Evette paint and hammer together this box. So we brought it home for Daddy to help with.

Such a big worker girl!

 And... More pigtails!!!

{Bay Area Discovery Museum}

The first Wednesday of the month is free day at the Bay Area Discovery Museum so we met up with some friends to spend the morning there.

It was a fun museum at a beautiful spot! Right across the Golden Gate Bridge. (I cannot believe I live here.)

I think it was built on an old military fort. There were a dozen different buildings that we'd walk between to visit the different exhibits. It was a fun morning!

{Find the ducks}

The other morning the girls and I went on a walk along the bay. It was incredibly foggy. It was beautiful. 

We couldn't see very far in front of us at all.

When I looked out to the bay, it was impossible to tell where the water ended and the sky started. It was all a blueish gray color. There was no way by just looking at the blue/gray matter to distinguish one from the other.

But then I noticed the ducks. There were ducks out on the water. Tiny black dots out in the vast of gray that gave me some perspective.

The ducks, calming gliding along, were on the water.  I knew there was water at least as far as I could see those ducks.

 Sometimes I have a hard time in my life distinguishing between the water and sky. Knowing where one thing ends, and the other starts. How do things fit together and how does it make sense. Gray. There's a lot of gray in life. The older I get, the more gray I see. Lines are more blurred than my younger self expected them to be. 

But, there is black and white. There are absolutes and truths, even if at times it all seems a little gray. 

So, I'm beginning to look for ducks in my life. Small black dots to give me perspective, to tell me what is water. I might not always know where exactly it switches from water to sky, but I "know enough"

 

And when the fog clears, there will be a rainbow.

{A Full Saturday}

This last Saturday we met up with a group of people from my choir to help clean up one of the beaches. It was a great service project that even the girls could help with (well, at least Evette. Miriam just sat in her sling on my hip and smiled at everyone). We'll definitely be doing that again - great way to help our planet, serve our community, and enjoy the beautiful world we live in!

Miriam was a trooper.

We, of course, had to take a little break to build a few sand castles

It was Evette's idea to decorate this one with the shells. I love it.

  

Afterwards we all went out to eat lunch. It was a fun morning!

Then we drove all the way to Santa Clara to pick up my new bike!!!!! Thank you craigslist! I named her Ruby. I love her - sweet ride. I'm very excited :)

We didn't have time to stay and play in Santa Clara because we had hot dog and s'mores planned with our friends that evening! Yup, this is how we do January in California.

Between the two families, we have kids aged 1, 2 (almost), 3, 4, and 5! They have great times together!

At the end of the night the girls were covered in sand, marshmallows, ketchup, smoke, and dirt. It was a happy full day!