Happy Birthday Mira!

Mira turned 4 years old today and it was only fitting that after having a week of brutal humidity and upper 90's temperatures, some relief finally arrived, with the weather and with Mira's eating. I say that because after 4 or 5 days of not eating more that two bites at every meal, Mira finally relented and ate a jar of food over lunch. I think we had some good vibes from Tom, Nikki, Sophia, and Siena who were visiting from Saint Louis for the weekend. Mira started one of her hunger strikes earlier this week and has been very, very irritable since. She falls into one of her viscous cycles of crying because she's ravenous, yet refuses to eat patterns until everyone is exhausted and frustrated. Hopefully she turned a corner today and will get back on the eating train.

We have a party planned for Mira on Friday, but in the meantime, we had a small celebration with just Sarah, Eli, Jonah and I, with cake from Avelluto's. Mira quickly snubbed the cake and ultimately ended up in tears. She didn't care much for dinner either, but ended the day on a good note.

The one thing that Mira will consistently respond to is the Bunz (her pull-string bunny) only the original Bunz is in need of serious repair. The string is worn thin and pulled out of its socket, only playing a few seconds of the song before needing to be pulled again. Sarah managed to find a hippo (which is pink like the Bunz) and plays the exact same song! Tonight was our first trial with the faux-Bunz hippo and she loved it. Again, it is one of those moments that Sarah and I enjoy every evening where we know we can get a smile out of Mira at the end of a long and often trying day. If we are really lucky, we get to see 'the dragon', where Mira sticks her tongue out and makes a funny breathing noise when she is really happy - you can barely see a small faint 'dragon' face about 45 seconds into the video I posted.

We did have a great weekend, despite Mira's eating woes - a huge thanks to Tom and Nikki for coming up to hanging out, the birthday gifts, and for watching the kids last night, so Sarah and I could escape to celebrate our 9th anniversary (which was almost 2 weeks ago) at Le Fou Frog. We loved seeing all of you and really appreciated getting out of the house!