The Art of Running in the Rain

As of December 16th Mirabella is officially 18 months!

She is in love with all things musical! She enjoys singing, dancing, and playing her instruments. She asks for “How far I’ll Go” from Moana on the daily and I have to confess that might just be my fault. The reason is two fold: 1.) Ever since that movie came out I have dreamed of the day that I would have a child who wanted to listen to that song on repeat (I am a ‘listen to songs on repeat’ kind of gal, judge as you will). 2.) The last time Mira had the flu there were very few things that made her happy so we watched Moana together. There’s definitely some mom guilt that I feel, but she barely watched and seeing her light up during her song was everything.

This girl is so much fun! She loves running around, and if she can have a solid hour or two a day of walking/running she is the happiest girl in the world. Being pregnant has made this slightly difficult, but the only thing I really feel incapable of at this point is holding her for long stretches, luckily she doesn’t really want that anyways.

In the last 6 months Mira has had quite a few firsts and a ton of seconds (I kind of feel the seconds have been more fun, but maybe that’s because I feel like things just keep getting more and more cool). She experienced her first trip to Disneyland, which was extremely fun!

Mira met a few new friends (and she absolutely loves babies – she gets a little iffy when I’m holding them, so we may have some areas of growth when our second comes along, but then again don’t we all have areas to grow in?). This last month Mira started a new school, and she is in love with her teachers and rushes to the door in the morning saying “bye bye, later” because she’s ready to go.

Mira has always been fairly autonomous, basically from birth, and that time helped me give her the space she needed to flourish into the amazing human being that she is becoming. It also makes me relish the times that she wants a snuggle, hug, or kiss. I always think that she’s giving me a gift because I will be rather prepared for the time when she needs space because of teenage angst. Her papa and I have definitely been loving the times when she wants to be close.

I’m a firm believer that all children are different and parenting is not a one-size-fits all kind of thing, it’s why you’ll never find me giving advise to anyone (I’m always willing to share what I’ve experienced though), and Mira has always been a girl that seems to prefer space to work through things. Often when she wakes up sad she needs a few moments on her own sometimes to cry a little and calm herself, holding her seems to make it escalate more. It would be really easy to try to force her to be a certain way, but that wouldn’t give either of us joy and what I really want her to know is that I love and respect her as she is and I’m here to help her grow into who she wants and is meant to become. That being said, in these last six months we’ve had a number of wonderful quiet moments together, and I have really relished those.

In the last six months Mira has experienced her second Halloween, which if you recall…last year wasn’t her fave…

This year she had a blast. She really liked running around our friends’ neighborhood, and I could tell she felt a lot of pride when someone handed her a treat.

You all know how I feel about sharing milestones (I have them written down so that if Mira needs access to them at some point or if we need to reference them for medical purposes we have them at our hands), but I will share that this girl is talking up a storm! She’s using a few two-three word phrases, has soo many words, and imitates EVERYTHING! It is soooo much fun, and it’s making me realize I swear a LOT less than I thought I did.

I love this little bean so much! I’m so extremely excited for her to become a big sister, she talks about her baby ALL the time and gives my belly kisses (sometimes body slams too, but I know she means well). The next time I’ll be sharing an update Mira will have a little sister, I’ll let you know how things go.

Be well.