2009 – Page 16 – Sarah's Journal

St. Patty’s Day Party

Sarah Holidays March 15, 2009

This is the 8th year we’ve had this party, and the 3rd year we’ve asked people to wear silly hats. (Silly hat pictures on Kodak Gallery – requires sign in.) It’s fun seeing how everyone has changed from year to year – especially the children! Somehow we had 32 people in the house and it hardly felt crowded at all. I think it helped that the kids who were Carrie’s age and older all disappeared up to her room for most of the party (and somehow wound up not completely trashing it even!) Now I just have to remember for next year that 6 pounds of corned beef was barely enough and 10 pounds of potatoes was way more than plenty. :)

Happy Pi Day!

Sarah Holidays March 14, 2009

We’ve decided that in 2015, we’re going to have to celebrate Pi day by eating lots of pie!

Eight Months Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates March 13, 2009April 8, 2009

Dear Anna,

Yesterday you turned eight months old. Time is just flying by around here! I think it’s just that you’re learning or trying new things every day now and you’re changing so quickly that I can barely keep up.

You are now quite proficient at crawling – you went from commando crawling to hands and knees in a couple of weeks, and now here a couple of weeks later you’re crawling after your sister like you’ve been doing it your whole life!

You also started babbling. We’re treated to endless streams of “ma-ma-ma-ma”, “da-da-da-da” and “ba-ba-ba-ba”. You’re also definitely signing “milk” and “more”, though you prefer to screech and bang your tray for more food.

Speaking of food… You’ve tried so many new ones this month, and most of them are table foods: wheat (puffed wheat and cheerios), apricots, yogurt, black beans, cherries, cheese and (white) potatoes. The challenge now is that you’re eating like a much older baby, but you’re still not allowed to eat certain foods – if you were older I’d be able to give you a bite of a muffin in a restaurant, or some plain pasta off my plate, but since there could potentially be eggs in those things I can’t. One of these days I’m going to slip up and give you something with eggs without realizing it, so I think we’ll have to do it intentionally sometime soon!

Just like with your sister, whichever age you’re at is my favorite so far. You are so much fun to be around right now, giggling over the simplest things (like grabbing my nose) and it’s just wonderful to watch you learn and experience new things. It’s just that I wish some days would slow down a bit so I could enjoy them more…

Love, Mommy

The Job Box

Sarah General March 12, 2009

We have our annual St. Patty’s Day party coming up this weekend and the house is, well, a mess. A big one. So I’ve written everything we need to do before the party on slips of paper and stuck them in a box. Carrie and I have spent all day pulling out jobs and getting them done – from organizing the mess of coats and shoes in the foyer to hanging pictures to cleaning off the cookbook stand. (One could argue that some of these jobs are not so necessary, but I’m tired of looking at the clutter!) It’s much more manageable to pull out a 10 or 15 minute chore from the box and do it than look over a very long list of tasks and try to decide which one you want to tackle first.

Unfortunately, now Carrie is a little taskmaster, as her very favorite part is pulling out another job to do!

Bathing Baby

Sarah Anna March 9, 2009May 3, 2010Random Bits of Cuteness

When Carrie was too big for the baby bathtub, we switched to an inflatable duck tub. But now the girls get baths together, and that’s just not going to work with a giant inflatable tub taking up most of the bathtub. So we went out and bought a bath ring so Anna could safely sit up in the big tub and still have the freedom to splash and play. She adores baths now!

Carolyn’s Classy Cardigan

Sarah Carolyn, Knitting March 8, 2009

I just finished a zippered cardigan for Carrie a few days ago, so we went out and took a few pictures of her wearing it…and blowing bubbles.

Knitting details are on my project page on Ravelry.

Just Another Lazy Thursday

Sarah Anna, Carolyn March 5, 2009

Thursdays are the only day of the week where we have no morning plans – Carrie has dance at 4:30, but I avoid scheduling anything else for Thursdays. So we have our Thursday morning tradition: pancakes! It’s gotten so I can make pancakes without a recipe. Unfortunately, Anna is not quite old enough to eat pancakes, since they have eggs in them. And sometimes she gets up earlier than Carrie, and is just about ready for a nap while I’m making pancakes…

There’s a lot more time to fill up on Thursdays, so we do things like color, play with Little People, and play in boxes:

Next year, when Carrie’s in Kindergarten and riding the bus, we’re not going to have our lazy Thursday mornings, so we make sure to enjoy each one thoroughly! (Every now and then we do get dressed before lunch…)

Birthdays and Princesses and Crawling, Oh, My!

Sarah Carolyn, Family February 27, 2009

Today is my Dad’s birthday. We didn’t get a chance to see him today, although Carrie did get to wish him a happy birthday on the phone. Happy birthday, Daddy!

In other news, it was “Pirates and Princesses” day at school today. The kids got to wear a costume to school, so Carrie spent the day in her Belle dress. The also had a treasure hunt with a map in the school, which sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Finally, Anna has started crawling. She’s been doing the “commando crawl” for almost two weeks now, but today she finally coordinated getting her tummy off the ground and moving her hands and knees without collapsing. She can’t go far or fast yet, but it’s time to start rethinking the tiny toy containment strategy…

Fun with Lenses

Sarah Carolyn, Photography February 25, 2009

I have had a digital SLR for more than 5 years, and I’ve barely ever used any lens on it but the one it came with.

This afternoon it was almost warm and since Anna was napping Carrie and I decided to hang out outside for a while. On a whim, I dug out the telephoto lens that I used on my old film SLR – and with the smaller aspect ratio of the digital camera, it winds up being a super telephoto lens.

This is one of my favorite shots from the afternoon:

I think I need to play with my camera and my (very) small lens collection, because this is the sort of photo I’d like to be able to take on purpose, and often.

4.4 Years Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates February 24, 2009

Dear Carolyn,

I don’t know where the months go – I feel like I’m writing one of these letters to you every day. At the same time, as you’re getting older, not that much changes from month to month…

Sleep has been slightly better. I’m almost afraid to type that, but your bug phobia (which morphed briefly into a ghost phobia earlier this month) seems to be abating, and bedtime doesn’t involve quite so many bug (and ghost…and at one point ogre) checks.

I think part of your willingness to go to bed more easily has to do with your room. I finally got my act together and found you a real bookcase and – combined with a Rose Petal Cottage that Target had on sale after the holidays – I made you a little reading nook. Honestly, there have been several nights when I’ve gone in to check on you before I go to bed and you’re curled up in your cottage with the book you couldn’t quite finish before you passed out.

In the process of moving things around in your room, I wound up moving your old book and toy bin shelves into Anna’s room, along with several of the more baby appropriate toys…which didn’t go over as well as I’d hoped. Luckily, you decided that trashing Anna’s room with those toys is at least as much fun as trashing your own room with them! But it was a good reminder that even though you look and sound and act so grown up a lot of the time you’re really, truly, only four.

Sometimes I can actually see the conflict in your heart about growing up. You want to be so independent and do things all on your own – and you’re getting so good at doing things like getting dressed, getting your own glass of water, and pouring your own cereal – but in the next breath you want me to baby you and do everything for you. All I can say is that those conflicting feelings? I have them too. I love to watch you change and grow, but I will always miss the sleepy warm baby snuggled into my shoulder that I used to rock every night.

Love, Mommy