We went digital this year for the birthday interview!
Miriam — Mommy and Daddy adore how thoughtful and exact you are. This interview has some sprinkles of that and shows your personality well; you take your time, think through your answers, and enjoy sharing details.
We love you so!
Here we are, celebrating you turning the big 5! It came so fast yet we are filled with JOY for you. You are so ready for this big year! Kindergarten, independence, bravery, risk-taking. You’ve been preparing for all these 5yo milestones this year, so let’s take a look back:
You attended Pre-K at Sunbeams preschool. You loved your teacher, Mrs. Walker, very much and you made significant leaps in your social confidence as well as continuing in your exemplary academics. You love to write and draw; art is a daily medium you explored, and continue to do so. You learned to read this year as well. Mommy and Daddy are very proud of how you love learning, Miriam!
We spent lots of time doing fun things with cousins this year – Zoo trips, backyard play time, even an overnight or two 🙂
You continued dance class at Diane’s School of Dance this year. You loved learning tap and ballet, as well as some acrobatics. The whole year culminated in a big dance recital by the dance school at the Kansas City Music Hall downtown. You loved every minute of both your dances!
Sea Cruise
Muppet Babies
You are currently 42lbs and 43″ – perfect! We’re even contemplating a move to the booster from the car seat. We’ll see if Mommy will be able to handle all the change 😉 Sending you off to Kindergarten is bittersweet for Mommy!
We celebrated your 5th year with a family birthday party on your actual birthday, and a friend party at Mercury Gymnastics a few days later. This year, you scored a new puppy for your birthday from Mommy and Daddy. You named him Maverick Peanut Sidwell 😉
Miriam, you are truly a JOY! You have strong feelings about most everything; you challenge Mommy and Daddy (our parenting!) with your understanding and wit – you keep us on our toes and we love it. Our greatest hope for you, sweet girl, is that we will be the family you deserve – the family that supports you and challenges you to discover WHO God made you to be at each step of your childhood, and beyond. May you find that your kindness, your bravery, your questions, your insights, your sense of humor, all come together to make you the beautiful young lady God knit together in the womb.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
Psalm 139:13 – 14
You are mightily and endlessly loved, Miriam Elayne!
– Mommy & Daddy
Miriam Elayne, Jul 9, 2019
#inherwords
What is something Mommy always says to you?
You are my sunshine
What makes you happy?
My birthday
What makes you sad?
My ouchies
What makes you laugh?
Last night, my lotion spilled all the way in my hand, even on the chair and on my leg
How old are you?
5!
How old is Mommy?
25
How old is Daddy?
25?
What is your favorite thing to do?
Connect the dots and color
Who is your best friend?
Parker
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Clothes designer
What are you really good at?
Painting
What are you not very good at yet?
Sewing
What did you do today?
Wake up & go say ‘hi’ to my puppy {We did the interview at 645am}
What is your favorite food?
Chocolate
What is your favorite song?
Raining Tacos
What do you want for your birthday this year?
Unicorn piggy bank
What is your favorite animal?
Unicorn
What is love?
Mommy & Daddy
What does Daddy do for work?
Real Estate Agent
What does Mommy do for work?
Help people
Where do you live?
In Kansas City
Where is your favorite place to go?
Chick-Fil-A
Is there anything else you want to say?
I’m excited for my Mimi, Pop-pop, Levi, Zeke, Zoë, Aunt Tricia, Uncle Jeremiah, Naomi, and Mommy & Daddy to pick out a butterfly ring at my family party!
Miriam,
You are 4! How fast the years have gone. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of who you are, and are becoming! You are truly our brave and sweet and smart and beautiful young lady. Like Daddy said this morning, “You are swell!” and we love you so much 🙂
Some highlights from Year 4:
*You started preschool at Sunbeams in August. You loved your teacher, Ms. Glover, very much and you excelled in your social and academic skills over the next 9 months. You also made some great new friends, like Josephine!
*You went on your 2nd camping trip with Mommy and Daddy at Smithville Lake in September. We had a lot of fun even tho it was super hot still. The sunsets were gorgeous!
*The holidays were extra fun this year because you had so many great questions. Why do we get a Christmas tree? Who is Santa? – where does he live? You picked out a Sophia the First Duplos set for Pop-pop to get you and every time you opened a present, you thought that would be what you were getting. Unfortunately, we didn’t celebrate with Pop-pop until Dec 31st so you had to wait until the last Christmas celebration to get it. Boy, did you learn about patience this year 😉
*You are now 38 1/2″ tall and you weigh 37.5 lbs.
*On Easter this year (April 1st), we went to Mimi’s house in NE (as usual) in the midst of a huge snowstorm! It was so fun to hunt eggs outside in the snow.
*You’ve made significant gains in your verbal sentence construction this year; you’ve been writing your first name on your own for about 6 months now and you’ve learned how to spell your last name over the last few weeks. We’re working on your middle name too 😉 You like to know your schedule for the day, when things start and end, so we’ve touched on the hour and minute hands of the clock; you can determine where the minute hand needs to be to measure a 30-minute quiet time in the afternoons. You come running out at the 30-minute mark, “Mommy, quiet time is over!” LOL I’m confident the END of quiet time is your favorite part 😉
*You’re incredibly funny, Miriam. You love to tell jokes! Your current favorite is “Knock, knock. Who’s there? Interrupting orange. Interrupting orange SQUEEZE!” Yes, you made it up and no, you don’t interrupt us. Yet!
*You are known for your kindness and politeness. We consistently hear from your teachers, friends, friend’s parents, etc that you are helpful and thoughtful, always thinking of others. Great work, Miriam!
*You have intensities, for sure. You want things the way you want them *I have no idea who you got that from 😉 Everything has it’s spot and arrangements. We observe that your favorite ways to play are building/creating (duplos, blocks, magna-tiles) and dress-up; you play some version of these every day.
*You started a combo dance class in June – tap, ballet, and acrobatics at Diane’s School of Dance. You are thoroughly enjoying it and one of your teacher assistants (Avery) is also one of your teachers in Kids’ City at church!
*For your birthday this year, you chose the theme ‘Unicorns’! Aunt Tricia made a gorgeous cake for you; you wanted a unicorn piñata and to make unicorn headbands for your activities. Those who came to celebrate you were:
Kinley & Corban
Josephine
Elie
Harper
Cousins – Zeke, Levi, Zoë, Naomi
Lexi & Aiden
Rigby & Layla
Mimi & Seanna
Pop-pop
Lauryl, Brendan, Aubry
Mommy & Daddy
Here’s some pics from your birthday party!
You are loved so much, Miriam Elayne Sidwell! #ourbelovedsunshine
Love, Mommy
Miriam Elayne, as of Jul 6, 2018:
What is something Mommy always says to you?
I love you.
What makes you happy?
When Daddy wrestles with me, and does Jiu-jitsu
What makes you sad?
Zoë hitting me …
What makes you laugh?
When I wrestle with cousins
How old are you?
3
How old is Mommy?
19
How old is Daddy?
100
What is your favorite thing to do?
Umm, play with cousins
Who is your best friend?
Zoë
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I don’t know … I’m still thinking about it … umm, when I grow up I want to be a nurse. Mommy, when will you be a nurse?
What are you really good at?
Making unicorns headbands; making art with Daddy – my painting with finger paint
What are you not very good at?
sharing … sharing with cousins
What did you do today?
play with Nora and play with the bunny puppet with Nora
What is your favorite food?
pasta and ice cream
What is your favorite song?
Gummy Bear Song (really? really?! How about A Millions Dreams?! #greatestshowman)
What do you want for your birthday this year?
Something from you to me that is so many crowns; and you can get me some new heel shoes
What is your favorite animal?
Hoppy the bunny (this is a stuffed animal of hers, ha!)
What is love?
God 🙂
What does Daddy do for work?
play
What does Mommy do for work?
play
Where do you live?
In Kansas City, not in NE and not in CO and not with cousins
Where is your favorite place to go?
Peppa Pig movie theater
[End Scene]
Miriam, you had a super-fun albeit HOT birthday this year … many friends and family were here to celebrate the sweetness of you.
This was a fun year in that you were old enough to participate in the choices for your party. You chose a Frozen-themed party this year. We built Olaf out of marshmallows, candy corn, chocolate chips, and toothpicks as a party activity. We also played memory with Frozen characters and ate an amazing Elsa cake, made by your Aunt Tricia: cake-decorator extraordinaire!
You also chose your guest list:
Pop-Pop
Mimi
Uncle J, Aunt Tricia, Zeke, Levi, and Zoë
Great-Aunt Judy and cousin, Seanna
Sawyer Partington and family
Harper Jacobs and family
Eliana Linville and family
Ben Pond and family
Lexi Lummus and family
Here’s some pictures to remember your day by:
I love you so, Miriam Elayne! You are truly my brave, sweet, smart, and beautiful girl …
Love,
Mommy
We began this 6 months pretty bossy 😉 “Send Mommy to me” was a regular sentence of yours for awhile. Over the months, you began to use “Hey Mommy” and “Hey Daddy” to begin many of your sentences; you love to interact verbally – we’ve seen a huge increase in your imaginative play. You love to be the teacher and have us act the student part. You’ll read books to us now, based on the pictures, but you are also pre-reading. In late May, you said to Mommy, “I don’t know these words, will you read them to me?” That made Mommy so very excited for you! You’re learning to read!!
Here’s a video of you pre-reading: https://youtu.be/ps6SfxrCDQw
You had your first dentist visit in late Jan 2017- you were still getting the final 4 molars at the time. Your second visit was in late May 2017 because you were complaining your teeth hurt. All your molars are in but you may be grinding your teeth and need to floss in the back where the teeth are close together. We’re so glad you are enjoying going to the dentist.
Academically, you love doing your tracing book – we do a few pages a month and work on pencil grip. You can spell your name and we practice writing it together. You recognize all your uppercase letters and most of the lowercase. We’re still working on counting to ’20’; ’15’ and ’16’ trip you up 🙂
Physically, you are now 37″ tall and 33 lbs. That’s 5″ of growth in the last 6 months; wow! You are very strong, love to dance, and love to run. Almost daily, you’ll say something to the effect of “Mommy, let’s go outside for a walk – it’s a beautiful day!” You thoroughly enjoy the outdoors.
We took a break from gymnastics beginning in April and also switched to a new PDO program through Platte Woods Methodist church. You’ll be attending preschool there starting in August and are loving your new teachers and friends there.
Your eldest sister, Lauryl, graduated HS this May! You were very excited to celebrate with her at her graduation party and had fun writing “advice” notes to her 😉
Some of Mommy and Daddy’s favorite memories from the past 6 months include:
1. Coloring in detail and trying to stay in the lines
2. An absolute adoration of all things “Frozen”, the movie – especially the character Elsa. You often say, “Mommy, let’s play Elsa! Put on your Elsa dress!” Your 3rd birthday party is, of course, a “Frozen” theme. #seenextblog
3. When it rains, you call it “drippin'” 🙂
4. You counted backwards from 10 to 1 in early May 2017. You also sang us the days of the week, a song you learned at PDO/school with Ms. Becky!
5. Your memory is incredible; you will quote lines from a movie after just one or two watchings. You say, “Remember when we went to Florida and played on the beach with Zoë”. It’s such fun to see your mind at work, Miriam!
6. You learned to play “Go Fish” with Daddy on 3.18.17. You’ve also been playing lots of memory games on the iPad.
7. “Winnin’!!!” You love to shout this anytime we transition. If Daddy says, let’s go to the car, you shout “Winnin’!!” and take off running to be the first! It’s hilarious. You’ll even shout it when you’re obviously behind. Your optimism is contagious!
8. You love the song, “Dirt on my Boots” by Jon Pardi so of course, so do we 🙂
Your personality continues to be cautious initially yet continually intense. You open up to others once you feel comfortable with them. You’re getting better about responding when an acquaintance asks you a question. We’re proud of your bravery and thoughtfulness in your responses, Miriam!
You are dressing yourself successfully about 75% of the time. You go to the bathroom on your own most of the time as well. Your independence is fun to watch – well, most of the time 😉
We moved to a new home the weekend of May 19th! You were super-excited and handled the weekend very well. We were leaving the new house after a couple weeks of living there, and you said, “Mommy … I like our new house!” with such a sense of pleasure. It makes Mommy and Daddy happy that you will likely/maybe/hopefully remember moving to this house 😉
Mommy took a new job, starting Jun 6th, with our church, Restore. You are handling all these changes really well; Mommy can definitely tell you are effected by them as you are more clingy and have had an accident a couple times. But you are a trooper. Your sweet disposition has remained; you and Mommy are learning our new routine and will settle in a little more each day.
To close year 3, we asked you some questions (on 7.8.2017). Here are your verbatim answers:
1. What is your name? M-i-r-i-a-m *yes, you spelled it out for me*
2. How old are you? 2
3. What makes you happy? Daddy
4. What do you want to be when you grow up? Elsa
5. What is your favorite food? blueberries – pink blueberries
6. Who do you like to spend time with? Daddy
7. What do you do really well? dance and do ballet and do Moana
8. What makes you laugh? Daddy
9. What are you afraid of? I don’t know
10. What is your favorite thing about Daddy? tickles and lay on Daddy and jump on him – jump, jump, jump, jump!
11. What do you like to do with Mommy? play and Chick-Fil-A
12. What do you like to do with your brother and sisters? play and play and play and play
13. What is your favorite book right now? “Olivia and the Missing Toy”
14. What is your favorite show? “Little Einsteins”
15. Where do you like to go? Chick-Fil-A and Daddy’s work
Miriam Elayne, Mommy and Daddy love you so! May you always rest assured that will never change or dilute.
–Mommy
It’s been quite an amazing 6 months!
Your vocabulary continues to amaze us: you use words like ‘also’, ‘especially’, ‘actually’, and ‘important’ in correct context. You’re also a bit of a grammar hound. Just recently you corrected a sentence in which you initially used ‘is’ to past tense, ‘was’ 🙂 Sometimes Mommy will hear you praying as you play in your toy room; you are a good listener and have learned the “God is Great” prayer for mealtimes. You also like to pray at bedtime; it usually it includes blessings for others, something like: “Bless Mimi, bless Pop-pop, bless Daddy, bless Baby Butterfly [one of your dolls], bless Aubry and Brendan and Lauryl. In Jesus Name, Amen.”
Physically, you have grown a couple inches but not changed much at all in weight. You’re now 32″ tall and 30 lbs. Your hair is probably the biggest physical change; it’s much longer now and has very loose curls in the back. You don’t love to have your hair done but you’ll let me do clips or a ponytail once in a while 🙂 You’re recently enjoying the indoor track at the Y and like to run a lap with Mommy after Mommy finishes work or a workout.
In August, you began attending “school” (as you call it) at the Pine Ridge Presbyterian Parents Day Out (PDO) program while Mommy goes to work. You attend on T and TH mornings for 3 hours, and LOVE it. You have grown significantly in your social interactions and are really enjoying your friendships. Your separation anxiety has nearly vanished thanks to the positive and encouraging teachers and environment at Pine Ridge. Mommy and Daddy are very happy with your progress, Miriam! You put on your backpack and say “Bye, Mommy! Have a great day!” #sosweetandconfident
At the end of Sept, we went on a family vacation to Daytona Beach, FL! Your Aunt Tricia and Mommy had been planning the trip for over a year as it was the year we had “big” birthdays: Mommy turned ’40’ and Aunt Tricia turned ’30’. Daddy turned the big ’40’ too, while we were in FL even!
We also achieved the milestone of being apart from one another overnight. In fact, we were apart FOUR nights while Mommy and Daddy vacationed in Phoenix, AZ for our 7th Anniversary. Mimi came down from NE to stay with you. You both did amazing, and Mommy only broke down once while she was away from you 😉
Gymnastics continues to make you super-happy. You will continue through age 3 and then we’ll be switching to dance lessons. We took you to “The Nutcracker” ballet for Christmas this past month and you thoroughly enjoyed it. The snowflake ballerinas particularly captured your attention so Daddy sweetly purchased you a ballerina ornament for the Christmas tree. You named her “Princess Snowflake”.
This year for the holidays, Mimi joined us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Pop-pop joined us over the New Year weekend, Dec 30 – Jan 1st. It was lovely to be home this year over the holidays as we have traveled the last two.
Some of your favorite activities are singing and reading books. Two of your favorite songs right now are “Eensy Weensy Spider” and “Skinny Marinky Dinky Dink”. We go the Library on a regular basis to check out books; you read at least 4-5 on your own throughout the day and then 4-5 with Mommy or Daddy between naptime and bedtime. At this point, you have read over 800 books in the 1000 Books before Kindergarten program (began: March 2016)!
Miriam Elayne, you are a wonderful, compassionate, and humorous girl! You are the biggest blessing in our lives and we pray you continue to grow in your zest for life, love for Jesus and others, and understanding of the world around you.
I love you!
Mommy
We had a LOT of fun celebrating your 2nd birthday, and a LOT of great friends came over to help!
Here are a few pictures of the big day:
Miriam, you capture ‘2’ perfectly! You are engaging yet cautious, fierce yet snuggly, independent yet close-to-the-vest. We love you so much and we can’t wait to see what lies ahead!
Love,
Mommy & Daddy
Miriam Elayne,
Here are some of our favorite developments in you from the last three months!
*In April, we took the front rail of your crib off (mostly because you are potty-trained) and you soon learned to get out of the bed on your own. You only fell out a couple times during the night and one morning, Mommy found you sleeping in a pile of blankets by the door. You couldn’t get the door open but you took the opportunity to be that much closer to us.
*In May, you conquered the bedroom door so now you saunter in to Mommy/Daddy’s room in the mornings with your blanket and bink. You say, “Hi, Mommy!”, “Hi, Daddy!” – ready to go for the day 🙂 This month, you also started saying, “Look at this/that!” and assume a gymnastics pose. You are doing very well at gymnastics and moved up one level for summer session!
*Mommy noticed you starting to use personal pronouns around May 16th; phrases such as “I go get it!” and “Mommy hold you” (you want me to pick you up when you say this). By your 23rd month, you’ve started using them correctly more of the time, especially ‘I’.
*Some of our favorite phrases you began to say during this phase:
“No, yes and no!” – usually in frustration
“Let’s play”/”Let’s play a bit” – you grab our hand and lead us where you want to go
“What the heck?” – we think you picked this up from Aubry but you tend to use it in correct context so it’s pretty hilarious!
“Dooey” – this is your “excuse me”, the reason being Daddy taught you “excuse me” in Chinese which sounds like “Dooey-boo-e-chi”; you’ve shortened it to suit you 😉
“That’s cool and neat!” – in exclamation/admiration
“I be right here” – when you’re nervous or it’s thundering or you hear something loud, you snuggle up
“What that noise?!” – anytime you hear something loud or out of the ordinary; you’re very attentive
*You are counting to 20, minus ’16’, ’17’ and ’18’. And thanks to Dora the Explorer books, you can count to three in Spanish as well 😉 You have mostly pushed through your 2-year molars as well; you continue to be a great teether – no screaming, just grumpy at times and you don’t sleep as well at night.
*You accomplished your first LONG road trip over Memorial Day weekend for Aunt Tricia’s 30th birthday in Colorado Springs, CO. Mommy and Daddy were very impressed by your travel abilities. No fits, just general fussiness (that we all feel when traveling 10+ hours in a car) and lots of stops for potty-ing. We’re so blessed by your good-nature, Miriam!
*You also went on your first camping trip over Father’s Day weekend! We traveled 3 hours south to Lake of the Ozarks State Park and camped for 3 days; you were quite a trooper as everything was a new experience and it was hotter than blazes (100+ degrees a couple of the days). After the first hour, sitting at the picnic table that would be our dinner table for the next 72+ hours, you looked at us and said ‘Let’s go home.’ LOL
*Your birthday theme this year is Little Einsteins (chosen by you, as it is one of your favorite shows). Like last year, Mommy will post a separate blog about your big day! Your Aunt Tricia, Zeke, Levi, and Zoë were here for the 5 days leading up to your big day; here’s some pics of the fun we had:
We changed your room over to “big girl” for your birthday: a new bed and dresser. You’re growing up so fast, sweet girl!
Miriam Elayne, you are so loved. You deserve every ounce of it too! Mommy and Daddy cannot imagine a more perfect gift than you. You have hit toddlerhood full-swing; you’re exploring your emotions and learning your power over things. You express desire for independence on a daily basis yet love to cuddle up and give hugs and kisses. You truly are our brave, sweet, smart, beautiful Miriam!!
Love,
Mommy