First Birthday Party!

First Cake

Guess who's turning 1?  Little Miriam!  What a lovely day.  We went to the Gertrude Boyden bird sanctuary and it was a lovely day.  The temperature held in the mid 70s, the sun was shining, the wind blew the bubbles far and the charcoal hot. 

The burgers were really good and the sides were wonderful.  Auntie Dorinda made fresh goofond and jag.  So nice to have those Cape Verdean classics at the party! 

Miss Miriam is crawling around and almost ready to walk. 

She's been eating organic food and very limited exposure to refined flour or sugar.  We set the cake before her and she didn't quite know what to do with it.  She enjoyed squishing the frosting between her fingers.  She ate a little of it. 

Which Costume?

We weren't sure weather to take Miriam out for Halloween or not.  My chorus has a fund raiser at the end of October that I can bring the family to.  That would involve dressing her up.  We are considering costumes.  Which do you like?  Vote in the poll!

Pebbles Flintstone with her curl on top of her head

Ladybug

Unicorn

Stanford Nutting

We saw this on "A Deacon's Wife" blog and loved it.  Enjoy.

10 Month old Maestra

I think you will agree that Miriam is a budding artist.  She chose to play organ instead of piano.  I can respect that, though it would not have been my choice.  She seems to be channeling Vincent Price at one point.  Her little hand and head raise toward heaven as she plays very crunchy chords.  

Buffalo Soldier

Every once in a while, Tyrone and I will break into song singing Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier." Buffalo Soldiers were black members of the US military.  When Tyrone saw the video below, he got all excited about going to Yosemite National Park.  Anyone who reads this post who is African-American might want to do the same thing after you see this video.   

Capron Park

Ivy, Miriam, Saige as meercats

Zsa Zsa Bird

We forgot our camera when we went to the JFK library this week.  It was a really good time.  Miriam was able to get out of the stroller and crawl around in various rooms.

We went to Capron Park Zoo with Saige, Ivy, and Christin, and we had a blast.  First a very bee-filled picnic lunch at the playground, then lots and lots of animals.  Here are some of the animals we saw.  There was a bird that reminded one of Zsa Zsa Gabor.

There was a Kookabura whose proportions were so weird that it looked like it could do a stand-up routine in the Catskills.  Tyrone's favorite exhibit is the lemurs on islands.  These islands are surrounded by water with ducks and geese and lots of fish.  I love this sign.

Kids Echo $1 Sale TOMORROW!

Pink cotton dress with smocking and embroidery, $5

Kids Echo, an awesome consignment shot, is having their $1 sale in 7 days, beginning at 10am.  You can get $100 dresses for $1, rompers for boys for $1.  Almost every item of clothing is a dollar (some handmade items are not eligible, but there are just a few of those things, less than 1%.

Red and white dress with lady bug applique $3

For $100, you could outfit a child for 3-5 years of warm weather clothing!  Think about it!

There are some very precious children about to be born into our lives and they are boys.  I'm going to hit those racks hard and get stuff for the next 2 years for them.  Their grandparents are dear friends of ours, and we want them to have a full set of clothing for their grandbabies to wear when they visit.

Chara is growing up fast too.  Miriam will be in 2T's next year, that means her cousin will be in 3's.  I can really do well with their clothing and have gifts ready when birthdays come up.  I was in there the other day and there was a beautiful spring coat with a fancy lining and pretty cut.  I didn't want someone to buy it before the $1 sale, so I got it for $9.

Here's the skinny!

• 182 Middleboro Road (Route 18), East Freetown
• 508-763-2744
• Get there at 9:30 and wait.  Good stuff goes first.
• Toys and accessories are NOT on sale, so go for those anytime.  You can get a travel system (car seat and nice stroller) for under $80.  
• Know what you want first, so go this week.  
• If the items you want are under $6 this week, just get them now.  This week is 75% off!  Do the math.

Areal Spraying for EEE TONIGHT

Click here to read all about it.  If it rains, things will change.  The pesticide being used degrades quickly in water.

Visit to the Ecotarium

"Miriam, Look at the turtle!" -Daddy

Thanks to the Taunton Public Library, we went to the Ecotarium very cheaply today.  If you want to go, just click here.  There are always Ecotarium passes available because people consider Worcester (the Paris of Central Massachusetts) to be too far away.  Well, parking is free, there is plenty of picnic space, a great playground, lots of stuff to do and see, nature trails, fresh air, it's just fun.

As you can see, Miriam made some new friends.  She always does.

We played in the sand box.

We went to a pond and fed the fish.

We walked in the woods and learned about trees.

All in all, it was a really fun outing.  It didn't break the bank.  It was 1/2 day of fun.  There were always clean bathrooms available.  It wasn't far.  Miriam was able to have fun.  We had fun too.

We got to try out our new stroller that we got at Kids Echo.

She will sleep well tonight!

More Birthday Pix

Bathing Beauty

Exploring a jar cap and the fountain

Hanging with Ganzoo

Miriam has a baby pool for her summer visits to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandpa thought the tap water would be too cool for baby's sensitive skin. He connected several hoses together and ran them from the set-tubs in the basement, through the garage and crawl space, across the yard, to her pool, so baby's water could be tepid.

Flies on the Baby!

There are three possibilities.

1. These are little horns and Miriam actually lives at 666 Whittenton Street

2. She was bitten by a deer fly AND a black fly on her forehead!

3. She needs her wounds kissed by everyone who loves her, just to make sure that she gets better!

Vote in comments

Infanticide in Ancient Britain

There is a discovery of 100 newborn babyremains in a villa in Britain. The children are supposed to be victims of infanticide due to their mothers being prostitutes.

The explaination is that "there was no safe and effective means of contraception at the time...it was common to not believe that a child had a soul until it had cut it's first tooth or was even two years old" -Professor Simon Mays

What is amazing is that contraception is cited as the element that is lacking, not kindness, decency, human rights, women's rights, dignity of the human person, dignity of women in sexuality, etc. The site was first excavated in the 1920s (picture at right) and just now are the bones able to be analyzed and the reason for them being

together surmised. I wonder if the reporting on the reasoning would have been significantly different in the 1920s. At that time, artificial birth control was illegal and condemned by all Christian religions. Would the reporting suggest that prostitution was the outrage? What about men having no responsibility for their "accidental issue" because they were just there for a good time? What about the horror of exterminating girl babies?

Could the difference in perspective be because we currentlyexterminate millions of babies for convenience, to allow women to be used as objects, and to relieve men of responsibility for their children TODAY! Couching this infanticide grave site in understanding and cultural tolerance is disgusting.

Feeding Baby

I have been making Miriam's baby food thus far. Some of the combinations of foods have been,

• chicken, turnip, applesauce
• pork, sweet potato, and pineapple (with tumeric, cinnamon, and onion powder)
• Beef, beets, and apples
• sunflower seeds, squash, and peaches
• sunflower seeds, sweet potato, and black cherries
• chicken and sweet potato with apples
• veal, roasted onions, spinach, and apples
• squash and sweet potato
• squash, spinach, sprouts, sweet potato, green beans
• asparagus and sweet potato
• mixed berry sorbet (homemade)

It's getting harder and harder to keep up with her demand. Her appetite is increasing, and

our freezer isn't getting any larger. There was a sale at Shaw's this week. Organic baby food was 20 cents per jar or less! I stocked up. The baby food is very palatable and much more watery than mine. Her stools are also a bit softer and less uncomfortable for her. I'm thinking of doing more jarred food. What do you think?

Maestra!

Little Miriam is growing so quickly. She is interested in doing what mama is doing. She wants to practice with me on the piano. She wants to pray with mama and papa. She is full of joy and love.

A new Christian! Congratulations, Miriam!

This is the most important day of her life.

Our little girl has the Holy Spirit with her now. She will never be alone.

God, Family, and the Sox. These are the values we teach her. Lord protect our little Sox-fan and keep her always!

Trip to the Beach

Miriam likes the beach. She likes the sand and the sun and the shells.

She also had fun being the favorite team member at the retreat. Now she's catching up on her sleep.

She's growing

Miriam can now play with toys. She grasps things and enjoys manipulating things with her hands. Thanks to her Auntie, she has a lovely exersaucer. She's sleeping well, and she's eating solid foods for the first time. Our little girl is growing up.

Her baptism is going to be on Divine Mercy Sunday after the 11:45 mass at Holy Family. Hope you all can attend. Her gown was made from my wedding gown. I'll get a picture of it in a future post.

Tyrone and I have both developed hand problems from picking her up so much. Tyrone needed to go to the doctor and receive a cortozone injection and a brace!

The confirmation retreat is this weekend and I'm scared! Last year we got enough sleep most nights and went to the gym regularly. Tyrone still was aching from the jumping around and dancing for days after the retreat. It took us a week to recover last year. This year we have a new baby. We are already sleep-deprived and we don't go to the gym anymore. Please pray for us!

Miriam is going to retreat with us. She loved it last year with me jumping around for her. This year she gets to experience it up close!

I had other pictures of Miriam to post, but, since there are no filters on this site, I'm going to put them on facebook. She's getting bigger and so pretty. I only want those close to us to see. Please post in comments if you want us to send you pix personally via email. Otherwise, I'm going to not put more pix of her up on this site.

Churching Baby Miriam

Sorry this took so long. Here's the video of Miriam's churching. Churching is an Orthodox Christian custom which goes back to Christianity's Jewish roots. Remember this custom when you say a Rosary on Mondays and Saturdays, the Presentation of Jesus to Simeon is one of the joyful mysteries. Here you see little Miriam presented to Christ and Mary via Father Michael Abdelehad to the icons of the Panagia and the Theotokos. The script is as follows.

Father Michael: "The servant of God, Miriam Rose, is

churched in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Everyone: "Amen"

Choir and Everyone: "God grant you many years!"

Here are some pretty pictures of Miriam's first Christmas.