Miriam at nine months

It being the last day of July and having written only seventeen posts, I thought it fitting that I write a little bit more. The truth is that we've been busy--busy unpacking and busy having fun. I also noticed that a lot of the posts this month were about Rachel, so to be fair this one will be dedicated to Miriam because, as we all know, life should be fair, right? Actually, I'd better come right out and say that's a fallacy lest anyone think I actually think that and lest any of my children think that I'm capable of making life "fair." Fair is tricky because it changes based on your station in life, your perception, your gratitude, your attitude, and a whole lot of other factors. So this post isn't really about being fair. It's just about Miriam so we can remember what she was like when she was nine months old.

We'll start with the big news: Miriam started hands-and-knees crawling the day after Sarah's wedding, on July 17th.

Librarian Luau

A few days before Auntie Sarah got married we went to Andrew’s work party, which was also my mom’s work party, and my brother’s work party (but he didn’t come). We joke that the library is a family affair—Andrew’s dad and uncle worked there during their undergrad; I worked there as a student as an actual staff member; my brother David took over my old job after he graduated and I quit to have Rachel, he also worked there as a student; Patrick works there; Emily works there; Andrew worked there while he was an undergrad student and now he’s working there again as a quasi-staffer. As you can see, staggering numbers of people in our family have worked there. It’s just the place to be.

Picnics is hard (but date nights is awesome)

To celebrate the 24th of July—also known as Pioneer Day—we went to a neighbourhood picnic, which was a lot of fun. Rachel, however, hasn’t seen many picnics in her day. In fact, I think the only picnic she’s ever been to was a teddy bear picnic we had in Cairo with some friends. It was pretty much a new experience for her.

We spread our blanket on the ground to claim our spot and then got in line for the food, which was plentiful. There were hot dogs and steak, corn on the cob (which Rachel loved—it was her first time eating corn on the cob and she probably had like three), salads, fruit, breads, desserts, a whole smorgasbord of dishes. Potlucks are fantastic.

Among the desserts was a beautiful strawberry cake. I took a piece, making room on my plate by crowding my actual dinner to the side. Andrew also took a piece, but he put his piece on a separate plate.

We returned to our blanket and began the juggling act that eating a picnic dinner with a three-year-old is. We didn’t even have Miriam at the time because Grandpa had walked off with her. Trust me, it was difficult enough with one child, drinks, plates, and feet to worry about.

What am I doing?

I went running today for the first time in years. It was a short two-mile loop but my thighs are already screaming at me. When I walked in the door, dripping with perspiration, and panting like a dog Andrew greeted me with, “You’re back already?”

Yup. Fifteen minutes of agony and I’m back “already.” Thanks for keeping things in perspective, honey.

Rachel turns 3 and Uncle Jacob turns into a missionary

On Tuesday Rachel turned three. I promised her that I would make her a cake but have I done it yet? No. And frankly I’m not sure that I’m ever going to get around to it. What was I thinking promising her a cake on the one month anniversary of us moving across the world—and a pretty, pink, pig cake that tastes like strawberries at that? I wasn’t thinking we’d be this busy, that’s what I was thinking.

With Sarah’s wedding on Friday and Jacob’s farewell on Sunday there was very little time to think about Rachel’s birthday celebrations. Uncle Jacob was set apart as a missionary on Tuesday evening as well, which meant that we were sharing that day with him, too. But although I haven’t made that blasted cake yet I think we managed to squeeze in a nice celebration, anyway.

Rachel Nuggets

I almost forgot about this until this morning. Rachel is in the kitchen making banana bread with Grandma--we have a lot of leftover bananas from the wedding. Grandpa was just in there teasing Rachel (under the guise of eating breakfast) and this story came up so I thought I'd jot it down.

Shortly before Sarah got married we were all downstairs in the basement playing when Sarah came downstairs halfway and poked her head over the banister. She started gushing about this and that and that and this, as only Sarah can. Rachel still hadn't seen Sarah a lot since Sarah was working all day and spending all evening with Cory, only to return far past Rachel's bedtime, so Rachel wasn't too sure what to think about her yet.

She sat there listening to Sarah blather on for quite some time before looking up at her and saying, "You talk a lot."

Independence Day

We had a lot of fun this year I think, in part, due to the fact that we’ve just returned to the States and have been enjoying a constant stream of cold cereal. With Sarah’s wedding reception out of the way it seems our luck with continue—there were about seventy bags of cereal left over. I know this because today I made Rachel help me carry them downstairs to the storage room as part of a punishment for throwing a royal tantrum when I asked her to wash her face.

The way she was acting you would have thought I was forcing her to carry sandbags. In actuality each bag weighed maybe two pounds.

Nebulizer Baby

As I mentioned, we’ve been sick. We’re all doing much better now, thank you. Rachel is completely over her cough, Miriam is sleeping for much longer than forty minutes at a time, and my sinuses are almost cleared up. And it’s awesome.

Miriam was probably the sickest of us all. She ran a fever for a couple of days and then was stuck with this horrible, hacking cough that would shake her body from head to toes. After she finished coughing she’d whimper.

*Cough!*Cough!*whimper*

She was, in a word, pathetic. And things only got worse at night.

Four-wheel drive

We calculated the distance between our house and the chapel we attend by my parents’ house and found that it was the same distance as walking from our apartment in Maadi to Midan Victoria, a short 15 minute walk. The funny thing is that the distance between our house and the chapel is strictly residential. All we pass on our walk are houses—probably about a hundred or so of them—and we know most of the residents.

In Maadi, the walk to Midan Victoria scales residential walls to include political buildings, church buildings, schools, train tracks, stores, embassy compounds, hotels, banks, pharmacies, kiosks…just about everything we could ever need can be found between our apartment and Midan Victoria. And who knows how many hundreds (thousands?) of people lived in the apartment buildings we would pass.

A bunch of other stuff happened and then…

Sarah got married.

That’s been taking up quite a bit of everyone’s time but it was fun to help out and to reminisce about our own wedding. Sarah took out her endowments at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, which is where I took out my own endowments and where Andrew and I were married and sealed. It was fun to be with her on that day.