1 month

I’m not going to do a baby book for Henry. I tried doing one with Abby but it was such a pain and to be quite honest, it was hard to fill in question like “what date did she get her first molars?” or “how we’re her first set of vaccinations.? Seriously, I try hard to notice every little change in my children’s lives but those types of things are hard to keep track of—especially when sleep deprived.

So anyway, here are Henry’s stats and little observations I’ve made for his first month of life.

1st doctor’s appointment was 6/6/13. He was up 6lbs 3oz (he was 6lbs 6oz at birth and lost 6oz before we were discharged from the hospital.) Dr. Johansson noted how strong Henry was but also noticed his skin was quite yellow. We were sent to Swedish for blood work and a few hours later he was admitted to the pediatric unit for overnight phototherapy. After 12 hours his bilirubin levels were at an acceptable range and we were sent home.

Henry lost his umbilical stump on 6/22, a little over 3 weeks old. Abby list hers at 2 weeks old so I was kind of surprised that his took so long to fall off. It was really time for it to come off anyway, it was hanging by a thread and getting oozy and bloody. Yuck.

At 3 weeks old Henry also learned to nurse. Thank goodness! I was getting tired of pumping and bottle feeding.

At Henry’s 4 week check up stats
Weight- 9lbs 6oz.
Height-21.25 inches
Perfectly healthy kid. He’s come a long way from being a small 4 weeks premature baby. I’m so proud of this kid!

It’s been a great first month. We love this little guy so much and love getting to know more about him every day.

Bad blogger

So yeah, I’ve been a bad blogger. I haven’t updated in over a year! Yowza! Lots of things have happened over the past year but the biggest by far has been the birth of this little guy

Henry was born May 30th—a whole month early! I’ll have to do a blog post on all the crazy things that happened leading up to, during and after his birth. And I will make a serious concerted effort to keep this blog updated.

Bad blogger

So yeah, I’ve been a bad blogger. I haven’t updated in over a year! Yowza! Lots of things have happened over the past year but the biggest by far has been the birth of this little guy

Strawberry picking

Last week I decided to take Abby up to Wisconsin to go berry picking. I was slightly apprehensive because Abby is a rather spirited 2 year old and taking her places usually results in me chasing her all over the place, destruction of some sort and at least one meltdown. I have to say though, that is wasn’t TOO bad.

So first, I dropped Berto off at work at about 7:30 am and we were Mequon Wi bound! We arrived at the Mequon Rd exit at 10:00 so I stopped in at my old job to see some of the girls I used to work with an show off my Abbylicious. After that, we headed over to Barthel’s Fruit Farm. At first Abby started whining that she wanted to go home. So I told her to eat a strawberry. She wouldn’t—stubborn little bugger! So I pretty much had to shove it in her mouth so she could taste it. Then I head “mmm yummy! More mommy!” Yeah, thought so! Abby sat around stuffing her face with strawberries while I picked as fast as I could as I knew her contentment wouldn’t last. About 20 minutes later she had enough, so we bolted with my $21 pallet of berries.

I called my sister Sarah who teaches at a school about 5 mins from the berry farm. It was the last day of school and it was a half day, so she agreed to meet us over at my grandma’s with her little one for a surprise visit. Grandma was so surprised! I think she loved her visit, man she soaks up every second with her great grandbabies! At 2:30 it was time to start heading home and we got to Berto’s work at 5:00.

Now for the pictures

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day 2012 was wonderful. I forgot to take pictures, but Berto snapped a few…maybe I’ll post them one of these days. I woke up Sunday morning to a few pastries from the bakery, and a handmade card from Berto and Abby (so precious, I looooved it!) I got an Amazon prime membership for Mother’s Day which is something I’ve wanted for a long time! Then we went to church, came home and napped, then went to my sister in law Karina’s house to celebrate Mother’s Day as well as Karina and my niece Reagan’s birthdays.

It was really a lovely day and I am reminded of how absolutely blessed I am! I have always wanted to be a mother and feel so fortunate that I have such a beautiful, smart and hilarious little girl. I feel equally blessed to have such a thoughtful and kind husband to walk this parenting journey with.

What we’ve been up to

Hmm, so much for the weekly blogging! It’s still a goal of mine and I’m going to try harder to make it happen.So what has the Miranda clan been up to? .

Enjoying the unseasonably warm weather

and looking for new blooms in the garden

and keeping Abby from picking this purple flower

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and drinking from the garden hose…

and enjoying delicious ice cream from the Dairy Star

and gawking at an enormous hailstone

and having lunch at Mars Cheese Castle

and being lazy!

How does your garden grow?

This year we’re going to grow a vegetable garden. We have dabbled here and there with a few plants but this year we’re planning a pretty big (by urban standards anyway) veggie garden. We’ll be using a some of our backyard and we’re also doing something new this year by renting a plot with the Peterson Community Garden Project. I know for sure we would like to do lots of tomatoes (including some heirloom plants,) green beans, chili peppers, bell peppers, banana peppers, carrots, celery, potatoes, and herbs. I will be planting the chili peppers and herbs at home so we’ve been working on cleaning up the bed, weeding, and aerating. Our community plot isn’t ready yet but we’re hoping we’ll be able to start planting around Mother’s Day.

We bought a soil testing kit and tested the soil. It looks like our soil is slightly alkaline so I’ll have to amend it with a little lime. It’s also low on nitrogen and phosphorus so it will need lots of fertilizer. Yay for cow manure!

Library and Lunch

Last week I decided I needed some books so I thought I would attempt taking Abby to the library again. I’ve taken her to the library a few times and it’s been a disaster every time. This time she took two books off the shelf and used them as skis. I know it makes no sense, but all those books are covered with this plastic cover thing, which makes them slippery on the floor. When she got bored with that, she started running though the bookshelf aisles barking and panting like a dog. To top it all off, while I was checking out, she ran into the children’s book room and cleared off an entire shelf of board books (luckily, our library doesn’t put those books in any type of order.)

So after putting all the books back, I thought it would fun to go out to lunch (okay, actually I hat to bribe her with the promise of french fries in order to get her to leave the library–don’t judge!) So we headed over to Hub’s for lunch. She behaved pretty well at lunch, except for when she turned around to the booth in back of us and belched at them. Guess we have to have a lesson on dining etiquette!

Even though taking Abby places isn’t always the easiest, I love that I stay at home with her and we’re able to have these mini adventures together.

Grandma’s birthday, a photoshoot and a flat tire.

Last Friday, 4/20 we trekked up to WI for my grandma’s 81st birthday. We had a great dinner and lots of laughs at Aunt Kathy’s house. We are so blessed to have Grandma! She is an amazing woman and we love her so much! Later that night we drove over to my sister Sarah’s house to sleep over (so we didn’t have to drive back to Chicago so late. Saturday, Sarah and I made a trip to Costco sans children and then came back to take pictures of the girls. (My bro-in-law is an awesome photographer…thanks BJ!) anyway, I had sewed matching sundresses for Kaylee and Abby—yes I know it’s cheesy but they looked so darling!

The photoshoot was almost a disaster because Abby was super uncooperative. Luckily, BJ or Sarah suggested that I leave Abby alone with them. She was a lot more pleasant after I left and they were able to snap a few cute shots of her.

I highlighted Sarah’s hair after the girl’s photoshoot. Then we decided it was time to head back to Chicago. When we were on the freeway, (right around the Brown Deer exit) our tire blew and thankfully AAA came out and got the spare put on. Berto and BJ tried to change the tire out but they just couldn’t figure it out.

Chillin’ in the car waiting for Tire Plus to take the car in!

We ended up driving to a Tire Plus to get our back tires replace. Sarah, BJ and Kaylee joined us for dinner at Applebee’s while we waited. Then we  finally got back on the road and arrived home late Saturday night —just in time to go to bed and get up early for church Sunday morning.

It was a fun and adventure filled weekend and we’re excited for our next trip back up there!

Hello world!

Welcome to the mirandafamilyblog’s first post. I’m hoping to use this blog as a way to archive our family life so all our family and friends can see what’s happening with us. My goal is to have one weekly post … Continue reading →