We have been getting a lot of snow lately! Here are some photos from Sunday, February 21, when we went outside and played in the snow! This was Mirei’s first time being in the snow, and she seemed kind of stunned and fascinated by it.
A video I took of the girls playing in the snow:
We celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early this year, because I had plans to visit my best friend in Philadelphia with my girlfriends on February 14th. I took some photos of the girls matching in red to commemorate Valentine’s 2015!
Dan and I got to have an early Valentine’s dinner date on Thursday, thanks to my sister watching the kids for us! We dined at Maple Ave Restaurant, which we had heard so many good things about! We were pretty excited to have a quiet romantic dinner together, and the food did not disappoint. Everything was so incredibly delicious!
I took Mirei to the pediatrician for her 12 month wellness exam on February 3rd. As expected, Mirei is healthy and right on track for her age. The doctor was impressed at how well she was able to walk everywhere — no surprise, since she’s been walking since 9 months old and had had 3 months to master it!
Mirei’s growth is definitely starting to taper off as Mio’s did at this age. At twelve months old, she weighs 23 lbs 9 oz, which is still in the 91st percentile for weight-for-age.
Mirei apparently measured 29.5 inches tall, which seems off because it’s no different from her last measurement a few months ago — maybe it was an inaccurate measurement, but that puts her in the 58th percentile for height-for-age.
Her head size was recorded at 18.2 inches around, which is in the 82nd growth percentile based on head circumference-for-age.
This doctor’s visit was a bit rough… We went through the routine checkup and the usual vaccinations, all familiar to me from having gone through it with Mio. But then they told me to go to the lab to get Mirei’s blood drawn to test for anemia and lead. I was confused because I’d never heard of this test before, and asked my pediatrician to clarify, and she just briskly explained that it was a hemoglobin blood test to make sure she doesn’t have anemia as well as to check the lead levels in her blood, and then rushed out the door to her next patient. It sounded like it was a new standard requirement, so I followed her directive and went on to the lab to get Mirei’s blood drawn. It was the most traumatizing experience, both for my daughter and I — I was sitting down holding her while the lab tech repeatedly poked the needle in her arm and kept moving it around to find her veins. She tried both arms for what seemed like forever, while Mirei screamed and cried, and in the end was unsuccessful in finding her veins and drawing blood for the test. She had another lab tech come over and attempt it too, but they didn’t have any luck either. Finally, they told me to come back another day and try to hydrate her more with water ahead of time (even though she was plenty hydrated that day), but I have been incredibly reluctant to go back, because I dread having to put Mirei through that again. I know kids cry when getting poked by needles when they get vaccinated, but at least vaccinations are quick and pretty easy. It just seems kind of cruel to subject a baby to a blood draw when it seems really difficult to find their tiny veins! I’m also wondering how necessary it is to do, since my first daughter Mio never had to have this test (though we were in California at the time she turned one, and now live in Virginia). I wonder if I just ended up with really lousy lab techs? It was just so hard to watch!
Anyway, hopefully the next visit will go smoother… we’re so thankful that Mirei is healthy and doing so great in terms of her growth!
Picking up from Part I and Part II of Mirei’s birthday party posts, the smash cake was the finale of her first birthday celebration! Mirei got a whole cake all to herself, to smash and lick to her heart’s content! The smash cake has become a common first birthday tradition where the child is encouraged to attack the cake with her fingers, fists, or face — no utensils required! It typically makes a huge mess but it’s very entertaining, as it was when we made one for Mio on her first birthday. I usually expect the birthday baby to have a similar method to Mio, where they just go at the cake full force, but I’ve seen other cases where the child only takes a little lick here and there, or just doesn’t want to touch the frosting at all because they don’t want to get their hands dirty! It’s always very interesting to see the differences in personalities and approaches to the smash cake, and we were really curious to see how Mirei would react to her own smash cake!
You can watch Mirei with her smash cake in the following two videos:
We were surprised to find that Mirei’s approach to the smash cake was much more tame than Mio’s, and that she did a lot less damage! (In fact, it was so intact that we were able to reuse the cake for her first birthday photos we posted earlier!) So interesting how siblings can be so different, even though they share the same DNA!
A heartfelt thank you to all of our guests who braved the wintry weather to to celebrate Mirei’s first birthday with us! It is a sweet memory that we will keep with us for years to come, and Mirei is so lucky to have so many people that love her so much. Our first year as parents of two has been challenging at times, but we really can’t imagine a life without our sweet Mirei now, and we look forward to making many more wonderful memories as a family!
Just as we did with her older sister, we wanted to observe the Japanese first birthday tradition of erabitori at Mirei’s first birthday party. (We opted not to do the issho mochi tradition this time with Mirei, because it was a little heartbreaking when we observed it with Mio.) For those who aren’t familiar with erabitori, here’s a brief explanation.
The literal translation for erabitori (é¸ã³å–ã‚Š) is “to pick and keep an item.” The following objects were set before Mirei. It is said that the first object that the baby selects will show her calling, or a tendency towards a specific career field.
WRITING BRUSH: Artist / Writer
CALCULATOR: Merchant / Good with business
BELL: Music / Performing Arts
SCISSORS: Skillful hands / Fashion or Crafting
STETHOSCOPE: Doctor or Nurse (Medicine)
CHOPSTICKS: Chef / Culinary Arts, Never go hungry
DICTIONARY: Scholar / Academic Excellence
BALL: Athlete / Career in Sports
So what did Mirei choose? Watch the videos and see the photos below!
Mio kind of caused a scene with a potty emergency while I was explaining the items… ::sigh::
…back to the main attraction! Here is Mirei choosing her item(s).
It was fun to get a peek at Mirei’s possible future calling! Will she excel in business and/or mathematics? Or pursue a career in music and the performing arts? We’ll have to see! She might just be very busy, trying out various fields throughout her life!
Stay tuned for Part III, in which Mirei gets to enjoy her first birthday smashcake!