Mira update.

I am amazed every day by Mira.  She is smart, gentle, sweet, respectful, beautiful, funny... and so much more.

Mira's language has just exploded lately.  Looking at videos from even just a month ago, I'm shocked at how far she's come so quickly.  She's now very regularly forming sentences with 6 or more words.  And I'm talking full complete sentences with verb agreement and everything.  And her pronunciation is so clear for a toddler; for the most part, people who've never heard her talk before can understand her without requiring the mommy-translator.  Of course, she IS only two and so she has her share of false starts, word mix-ups, a few words that she pronounces strangely, etc..  Sometimes she'll get the word order mixed up in a sentence, which I actually think is ridiculously cute.  Her frequent mix-ups are "not try to" instead of "try not to" and also "got for" instead of "forgot".  Also, she's still working out the whole pronoun concept.  She frequently refers to herself in the third person: "Mira wants to...", "Mira's going to...", using "Mira's" instead of "mine/my".  I'm slowly working on correcting that for her, but I don't want to stop her and make her say it correctly every time because a) I don't want her to feel like I'm jumping down her throat every time she talks, b) I don't want to interrupt her train of thought, and c) I still just think it's so cool that she's talking as much as she is, I don't want her to get discouraged.  So the pronouns are coming, but slowly.  And I think that's pretty typical for toddler speech.

Mira continues to be very well behaved... about 98% of the time.   She'll listen and follow directions, she's very good when we're out and about, she uses polite words (please, thank you, may I, etc), she's patient when I have to focus on Ellowyn.  But every now and then she gets a little bit of that terrible-two fever and then it's "NO Mira not wants to!"  (It tends to happen more when she's tired.)  Usually, natural consequences are enough to bring her back in line.  The other trick up my sleeve is "do it yourself or I'll make you do it".  She'd much rather have control over herself than be forced to do anything.  So much so that just the threat of me taking away that self-control is enough to bring her around.  The common one is at diaper time: she can choose to come lay down and be still while I change her diaper or I can bodily force her to do it.  All I have to say is, "Do you want to do it yourself or do I need to come make you do it?"  And she'll usually jump up and run to comply.

Mira is getting along really well with Ellowyn.  Now that her language and vocabulary are so useful, she tells me about what baby Ellowyn needs or is doing.  Sometimes when Ellowyn is napping, Mira will hear Ellowyn crying before I do (especially if I'm doing the dishes or something else noisy) and then she'll come tell me that Ellowyn's awake.  And when Ellowyn is playing on the floor or in her exersaucer, Mira will bring her toys or sing to her or give her hugs.  Part of what makes Mira such a good big sister is just that she's such a sweet generous girl by nature.  When she accidentally hurts someone or gets in the way, she apologizes: "Oops, sorry Mommy."  She notices when someone is sad or hurt and asks them about it and offers hugs/kisses as needed.  She shares easily when playing with friends.

And Mira is so smart.  There's so much that I want to do with her and teach her and expose her to.  She inspires me to be a better mother.  She's really starting to show her creativity when playing; she likes to pretend a lot.  I'm trying to keep things interesting at home right now because it's difficult for us to get out of the house these days.  And sometimes I really wish we were getting out more, but then there are days where I ask Mira if she'd like to go to the park and she responds with "No, let's stay home Mommy."  So I guess I must be doing a good job at keeping Mira entertained at home.  I do wish that I had more attention to give to her in the way of one-on-one activities, but I guess that is probably the plight of any parent with more than one child.