So back when I started writing down my children’s precocious and adorable “isms,” I sent out these updates every month at least, and the kids love going back to read “what I said when I was little”, now that they aren’t anymore. Due to our last two especially insane years, I have done the least writing of my parenting career while Miri was busy living her entire life. So I have a bit of catching up to do if she is gonna get even an abbreviated record for her to look back in in later years.
Miriam Pippilotta is a force. Since I last wrote anything about her, she turned 1 on January 26th, 2025, learned to walk on April 11, 2025, and according to my notes from a couple days later, “she looks like she’s surfing when she turns.” “She’s very proud of walking,” I noted also, “and likes to carry things. Occasionally she goes down for a speed crawl but less and less over this past week. Soon she won’t remember to be proud about walking at all.”
Very soon after Miri learned to walk, she began to stagger quickly, then to run, jump, climb, and (most of the time) fall down in a very agile sort of way to (most of the time) prevent (most) injury. She started talking in little fits and starts, and so Miriisms for most of the past year look like this:
Singing along with Ben to her favorite song: “Tinkle tinkle..up pie!”
“Papa” = Papa!
“Noot doo” = nursing; the term rapidly evolved for no apparent reason, to “doot doo”
Miri’s personality as a baby was distinctive (although maybe that’s because she’s my child who has most recently been an infant, and my memories fade quickly!) She is definitely the most social of our other babies in some ways. When she was tired as an infant, she would roll over onto her stomach and tuck her arms under herself and become a little compact bundle. (That is, when she was sleeping, something that hasn’t been a regularly easy thing for her for a lot of known and unknown reasons, since birth. :( ) She was (is) intensely jealous (can’t possibly be related to me!) whenever Jeff or I pick up anyone besides her, and especially when I nurse Kai. All summer, Miri’s hair curled under at the ends, but there was not much of it except in a few key places, which gave her a baby mohawk that Jeff described as “Business in the front, party in the back.” He did NOT want me to trim it. I finally had to a few months back, and since I had no idea CPS would soon visit, one might say the choice was For A Reason; she looks a lot more sophisticated and less homeless with her short girl cut.
Obviously, being funny looking did not prevent Miri from being insanely cute before her haircut, and while she still has a prickly baby personality (i.e. she wants to do what she wants to do, when she wants to do it, and will give anyone the hairy eyeball if they suggest a different plan or try to intercept her with hugs along her Busy Way)…from a very young age she will occasionally put her arms around your neck and squeeze with the most reciprocating sweetness that just melts your heart. These hugs are extremely effective at canceling, just for example, any doubts you might have had, if you were me, concerning whether you were wise to have another baby at an advanced age…
At some point in the summer I wrote: “Miri has the most awesome vocalizations. You know how in movies, the actors playing the parents will be holding an inert baby or a doll - you can’t tell which it is - and as soon as they turn their backs on the camera, the ‘baby’ will emit a stream of insanely adorable babbling sounds that obviously didn’t come from the bundle onscreen but from a recording of one? Well, that’s how Miri actually sounds. Adorable babbles and coos and consonants and a few words sprinkled here and there, like ‘ditar’ (guitar), ‘bird,’ ‘dog,’ ‘mama,’ ‘papa.’ She is curiosity personified.”
During the week of August 25, I noted that Miri started emitting a shrill tiny “WHYeee?” after you told her to do anything at all. Around then, her favorite song lyrics changed too, and the tune became more tuneful, and she would sing: “Gwinkle, gwinkle little tar…” in a style simply destined for greatness.
The song lyrics are continually interesting to me, because their evolution has involved so many distinctive changes, so much practicing, and such an interesting question: which part of such a short verse will she choose to sing next?
“Gwinko gwinko wih tah…”
Then, “…Winkle winkle lito tao, howa wondo watoo aro…”
Soon, “Dinkle dinkle wittle tao, how eye wondo watoo aroo…”
As of now, Miri can sing the entirety of Twinkle Twinkle, although it is not clear if the all the words mean something to her yet other than as lyricstothesong.
At the end of summer I wrote: “Miri sure is incredibly energetic, and hopefully gonna remain so to take care of us on our old age. Tonight she pointed at the geese and said very distinctly and nonsensically, ‘Ben! Dig!’ She also says a LOT of other unintelligible things, but she has definitely learned that when you’re riding in the back of the car, you should at random intervals shout out, ‘DIT TOWS!!!’ (Dead Cows…which is a road trip game Jem brought back from Kroka.) Also she likes to wear ‘yoos’ on her feet, and wants ‘Yiyah’ to take her ‘in’ with the animals all the time.”
Every so often, Miri pronounces Eliza’s and Ivy’s names slightly differently - “Yiyah vs. “Yiyee” - but much more often she calls them both “yiyah”, which maybe to her means “my two sisters,” because she doesn’t say it twice. For a couple days she described them with a compound title - “Yiyah Mama” - but then she went back to the simpler “Yiyah”, in everyday use still today. :)
When Jem, Ivy, and Kai, and later Jeff, went to New England in early September for two weeks, Miri was NOT happy about the situation. “Popop!” she would say dolefully. “Tye! Jem! Yiyah!” And the look on her face when she woke up in the morning - Jeff and the kids having returned home late the night before - and saw “Popop” in bed beside her, was just too happy for words.
Miri is enthusiastic about life, and full of Big Feelings. “Noot doo!” she’ll say at bedtime. “Noot doo!” Snuggling in, she wraps her arms around me in anticipation, “Aw right! Aw right, doot doo!”
Learning to count, before flopping onto the bed: “One toofree! Haha! One TOOFREE!”
Bumblebee = “bumbalee”
Stink bug = “bink bug!”
Butterfly = “b Fly!
Beetle - “beeyo beeyo!”
Wanting her sleeves rolled up: “More hands!”
Classic baby reaction to sad goodbyes: “Bye…Papa! Bye…Jem! Want…Papa! Want….Doot Dooooo!”
Sandra Boynton’s Snuggle Puppy book = “Nuggle Puppy No Mine”
And of course, the flip side to Articulate Self Expression, is that at bedtime….”NO Tye [Kai] doot doo! WANT doot doo. No Tye!”
Walkie-talkies = “Talkie talkies”! “AH want talkie talkie!” says Miri; for the next half hour, she walks around the house holding the little radio, saying hello into it periodically: “A-ho! A-ho? A-ho!!”
“Waggy” = wagon
“Tank!” = thanks - said so naturally and cutely at various times that the small speaker can make the recipient willing to move heaven and earth just to be addressed with such appreciation again.
“Coomee” - excuse me - such as when shoving to get to the table: “Coomee, Mama! Coomee coomee!”
Sometime relatively recently, Miri figured out how to explain more complex concepts - not just to say hi to Peter, for example, but to announce to others that he’s arrived: “Mama! Poo-ah tame! Poo-ah tame back!”
And very quickly, new verbal skills were put to use at naptime. “No want to yet! No want to yet!”
But always: “Ah want doot doo!”
Miri for months employed a delightful policy of being pretty much eager to try anything if you asked: Does anyone want more broccoli? you’d say. And, “Ah do!” Miri would exclaim immediately. Does anyone want to go outside to feed the chickens? “Ah do!!” Who wants rice and lentils? “Ah do!!!” Anyone want to help clean the bathroom? “Ah do!!!!” She wasn’t always as enthusiastic about the lentils once she got them, but she sure did enjoy being part of what was going on by volunteering herself enthusiastically as soon as possible. In the last few weeks, her much more complex thoughts are taking precedence over sheer Desire to Be Involved, which is sad but inevitable, I suppose, kinda like life.
Miri loves the bunnies (“cute bunnies!!”), cats, and Shane the dog; she’s ambivalent about goats, and less afraid of geese than I’d guess. She constantly talks about the cats: “Wally did came! Here Wally!”
The first time Miri was able to vocalize her desire for independence was fairly recently, when she figured out how to say she wanted to do something all by herself: “No! Want, _I_ do!”
“Dapboo” = step stool
For awhile, whenever she would wash her hands or use the bidet, Miri would say happily, “scrub scrub scrub!” Except she would pronounce it, “yub yub yub!”
“Penga now” = Sandra Boynton’s Personal Penguin book
Calvin and Hobbes = “Hobb Dopp”
Climbing up: “big up!!”
——
Two weeks ago, her language really picked up speed, along with her sense of humor.
Tripping into the wall, Miri steadies herself and starts laughing: “Ha! TaDA! BONKED!”
Coming into the house: “TaDA! I came!”
Flying turtle ride on toy = “fying tootle”
Another Sandra Boynton book: “Moo baa La La La La La La La La La La…”
“Pomgaboo” = pomegranate
For many weeks, Miri’s favorite book has been that great classic of children’s literature by Leslie Patricelli, “Potty.” This book completely amused her, over and over again. “Ah Wanta read book, ‘Potty Pee!’” she would announce, and everyone would quietly try to slip out of the room, hoping someone else would read it this time. “‘Potty Pee!’ Ah wanta read!” Luckily, she memorized it so that she could read it to herself. These days she is more likely to simply quote from the book when she goes to the bathroom: “I pooped! Tinkle tinkle TOOT! Ah did it! Hooray! Unnies!”
There are some ways in which I sure wish Miri were more susceptible to the peer pressure of living with seven other toilet trained humans, but more frequently than I wish, these days, she comes running in to announce, “Pee on fwoor. Mama! Ah peed on fwoor!” The puddles are much closer to the potty than they used to be, however, so that counts for something. We’re very close now…
“Tepped in tow!” = stepped in snow
“Want to tay OUT!” But it’s cold, Miri! “Ah know! …check of pond.”
“Ah need ta tum!” Always, Miri wants to come too.
Jeff is pretty sure Miri told him she loved him the other day. I haven’t get been privy to such outpourings of affection, but Miri has told me: “I YOV doot do!”
Yesterday Miri carried something over to Ben and told him she had brought it: “I comed it!”
——
Miri’s language is officially exploding now, words tripping out of her and getting invented on the fly so she can narrate her world with the fascinating and dedicated effort that only a toddler can put in full-time. She gets 110% for enthusiastic effort.
She is like a tiny, alert, super social energizer bunny, always moving, and chatting, and cocking her head sociably and occasionally fixing you with this dazzling smile before launching into her request to go outside, or to play, or to get a hug, or to do whatever the big kids are doing.
“Ah need ta tum!” she will say earnestly, when someone is going outside to do animal chores, for example. “Need hat! Want jacket, no suit! Egg backadoo [egg collecting basket]! I DOT it, Mama!” Once outside, the narration continues. “I dot it! Not fall. Not cack eggs. Bumpy! I want UP! Too tippy! Cute bunnies! Saynee! [Referring to Shane the dog, whom she calls Shanie.] Want to feed Saynee! Slippy! Too bumpy! Don’t cack. Don’t fall…”
Getting ready for a meal, and also peeling a bunch of ripe bananas for the freezer: “Eato!” [this is a slightly complicated term that sometimes means eating plain uncooked rolled oats, sometimes is a generic word for eating, and sometimes means she wants to eat the thing she is holding. Right now she is holding and peeling a banana, which she places into the ziplock bag in my hand: “Bye bye, bana! I wuv oo! Eato!” Miri picks up another banana to peel. “I tan’t! I tan’t! …Dropped it. Oopdy, drop it.”
Well Miri, you can pick it up, and get another. “Eat bana! Eat bana, eat bana, eat bana….too TIGHT!” [“Too tight” means “this is difficult and hard to undo/get up onto/unwrap/unpack/unpeel/untie/etc.”] “Too tight.” I help her, and receive one of her adorably sociable thank you in return: “Tank. Handwashing tink [wash hands in sink] Mama, I ant up!”
A few minutes later she sees a photograph of Jem, and puts on the funniest air of grown up commentary and actually makes a “tsk”ing sound: “Jem! Cute!” Next, I see her mooshing another photograph into the face of the green stuffed animal: “Hooey, wook! Papa an me!”
And while Miri’s flamboyant personality does not leave me surprised by her increasingly complex attempts to describe the world, the descriptions are fascinating and amusing anyway.
——
When Ivy was 12 months old, I brought her to her first theatrical performance, a one-hour long ballet, fully expecting that I’d have to race out to the lobby at any moment with a howling infant. Instead, she sat silently on my lap for the entire show. When she was two, she several times sat alone in the audience during whatever shows I happened to be performing in at the time, and over the years she has attended dozens of performances while always exhibiting the same intuitive sense of How to Behave in Public Spaces. She even stays quiet if the show is boring, and if she does have to say something she always whispers. She did this even as a toddler.
Miri is entirely and completely unlike her sister. Due to space constraints, what follows is only approximately three minutes’ worth of Miri, attending Christmas Eve Candlelight Service with our friends last night:
Entering the church, wide-eyed, listening to the small orchestra playing, “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful,” Miri takes it all in quietly for fifteen seconds. While attempting to settle us into the pew, I remove her jacket, and even before the zipper is undone, I feel three sharp kicks, which are Miri’s small legs, calculatedly thwapping against my butt in order to send her boots hurtling to the floor. “No on,” she says. “Off boot!” She looks around: “Wow!”
Yes, it’s beautiful! I say. Let’s whisper, Miri! Let’s listen to the pretty music. Do you see the musicians?
Miri looks at me intelligently, since she is brilliant, and notices that I’m whispering directly, which she mimics in her concentration and focus if not in volume. “Tandle!” she says loudly. “See, tandle! Tandle!” Noticing the light fixture with a glass shade that is hanging above our pew, she further notices that there are several doomed insects trapped inside, one of them buzzing. “Ha! Fye! Fye light! Fye! Tandle! Tandle!” Her eyes continue her scan of the room, which has gothic style arches made of very beautiful polished wood. “Tunnel, Mama!” she says. “Tunnel!”
Yes, Miri, that does look like a tunnel! Let’s whisper. Look up there, do you see Afton lighting the Christmas candle? How about this - can you hold this hymnal?
“Tandle! I dot it, Mama.” Trying to stand up on the pew. “No, I DOT it!”
No, I got it WITH you, Miri! Let’s sit down.
“Fit down. Book!” (Opens the hymnal and looks at it for three seconds, then closes it.) “Nother book! …NO, I try it! Bit doot doo! Doot doo! Mama, want bit doot doo.” (You may recall that “doot doo” is Miri’s term for nursing, which in this case I allow her to do only once, since…that was what I decided to do in order to enjoy The First Noel with slightly less commentary.)
We did enjoy the beautiful service, which was luckily very welcoming to families, and you are also very welcome, everyone in regional audiences who never does run into Miri at their theatrical productions…
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This is all that this tired Mama can conjure for Miri’s baby records on this particular day. Merry Hanukkah, Happy Christmas, and Enjoy the Winter if you can.
Xoxoxo
Sarabeth