Feverish
Miranda has developed the fever that Zoë and Andrew had. She seems to be in reasonably good spirits, but she's a bit clingy and quite warm. Other than the fever, she seems to be fine. No sign of any particular pain and her appetite is okay. Her fever is lasting longer than Zoë's or Andrew's did (both of them developed the fever late in the afternoon/early evening and it was gone by the next day), while Miranda got the fever yesterday evening and still has it this afternoon, although it went down noticibly earlier in the day.
I'm not too worried, since it seems to be just something that's going around. And it's nice to know that she's not a beasty when she's sick. Her generally nice temperament seems to carry right on through being ill.
Animals
Miranda visited her first petting zoo today. She was very interested in picking up the animals, but she always wanted to squeeze them (naturally, I prevented this). She talked to and petted dogs, ducks, sheep, goats, rabbits, and guinea pigs, and to all of them she made the same sound, "Woowww," which is her attempt at a cat's meow.
And in other unrelated news, her screaming is getting extremely annoying. We went for a bit of a ride today and Miranda just screamed and shrieked. She continued even when we went to the grocery store. I'm not talking about crying, I'm talking about that horrid screaming that two-year-olds often practice. It's just a hideous noise.
In fact, Zoë has started telling Miranda, "Stop making that noise!" When the speech-delayed pre-schooler is telling you to be quiet, you know you're pretty darned annoying...
Talk talk happy talk
Miranda's talking more and more all the time. Her latest unexpected word was, "Yay!" accompanied by hand clapping. She went down a short flight of steps by herself and when she was done I said, "Wow, that was great! Well done!" and she responded with, "Yay!" and applause.
Today when I went to retrive her from childcare (where she's doing much, much better now that she's adjusted to the routines and is used to the people there) I was getting her out of the high chair and I said, "Let's go," and she said, "Zoë?" to make sure I wouldn't leave without her sister.
She's also been saying, "Up" and "Down", mostly in relation to being picked up or taken down from her booster seat, and occasionally she says, "Go". The cutest word she says is, "Shoe," which she pronounces like, "Seeouu". Very cute.
Strawberries!
As you can see, I've redone Miranda's website. I chose strawberries because they'r her very favorite fruit. So long as there are strawberries to eat, everything is okay. The little girly who adorns these pages was rendered (and digitally painted) by me.
Miranda, by the way, really liked it. I showed her the little girl with the strawberry and she pointed and grinned and pointed and grinned...
Oh, no! Oh, no!
We normally think of Zoë as our little eccentric, but Miranda's lately got a couple of quirk that I think are pretty weird.
The first is that she can't stand it when I sing. I think she learned this from Zoë, who always used to get very upset if I sang at what she considered the wrong time (only she knows when that is) or if I sang the wrong song (which could be anything). She's getting better about it now, actually, and lets me sing with the radio and hum to myself without going ballistic.
Miranda, however, has taken over the 'Mama can't sing" patrol with a vengeance. If I hum to myself or sing at all, in any way, she gets very upset and cries or even screams. Today in the car I was singing along with "Wild Thing" by the Troggs, which of course is mostly spoken. On the spoken parts, she was fine. When I'd sing the one line in the verse that's actually sung, she'd scream. I have no idea why. I sing perfectly well.
The other weirdness is she's suddenly afraid of her great-grandfather. He went away to visit his sister for a couple of weeks and when he came back, she suddenly wouldn't have anything to do with him. The minute she sees him, she starts to sob and says, "Oh, no! Oh, no!" and runs to be held by me (has to be Mama, can't be Daddy!). I have no clue why this is. She likes Grandad, and was in the habit of visiting him frequently. She would climb on his lap, play with him, talk to him, etc. Now, after not seeing him for a couple of weeks, she's just going nuts when she does see him.
She hasn't seen her grandparents since she was a little baby. I can only imagine how upset she's going to be to see them again. Maybe she will have outgrown this by then. We can hope, anyway...
New trick
Miranda has got a new, very annoying, typically two-year-old trick. She SCREAMS. I don't mean she cries, I mean she shrieks at the top of her lungs.
The good news is that when she's not shrieking, she is talking more and more. Her latest "in context" and frequently used phrase is "Oww" and she says it when she's hurt or when something else happens that she thinks looks painful. Sister falls down, Miranda says, "Oww," just as an example.
Good day
Miranda had a good day at childcare. She's getting more used to it, and the fact that I packed strawberries (her absolute favorite) for snack time was a plus.
When I arrived, all the children were outside in the play yard, so I just quietly watched for a while.
Miranda won't go too far from an adult, but she was walking around and playing with toys and she had a lot of fun in the sandpit, scooping sand up and pouring it out.
When she finally saw me, she walked very briskly up the ramp and opened her arms and gave me a lovely big smile. I said, "Hi, Punkin!" and picked her up and we had a nice cuddle. It was a very nice greeting, and a big improvement.
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