Funny!

I thought this was too funny...about the way I am feeling this week!

Potty training note

Just a quick note about Sarah's potty training progress- she is almost there! We began to put her exclusively in big-girl panties last monday 10/19 at Gloria's during the day. We are taking her to use the bathroom about every hour.

At first, she did pretty good with only a few accidents. Then, she started to just pee in her pants again. But by the end of the week she was using the potty pretty well, and she did the same over the weekend (although we did put her in some pull-ups and not panties).

She is using the potty to go pee pee consistently now. She hasn't had an accident yet this week, at home or at Gloria's. Last night she even ran to use the potty without me taking her (and she actually peed, too).

Hooray for Sarah! It only took you a little over a week to learn to use the potty to pee pee! NOW, if we could just get you to use the potty for poo-poo...(this is another story entirely)...but we're working on it! We're still very proud of you, big girl!

Fall Fun

The last weekend in September we planned an outing with my sister and her family, some friends of theirs, and grandma to visit Burt's Pumpkin Patch and Hillcrest Apple Orchards. It rained all day, but we still had fun! Sarah picked out a medium orange pie pumpkin and a tiny white pumpkin. She enjoyed some running around picking up pumpkins and playing in the wheelbarrow.

At the orchards, we planned to pick apples, but the rain was so bad we ended up cutting the outing short and heading back. Good thing, too, Sarah was exhausted after playing with her cousins all afternoon! She even got to milk a dairy cow and sit on another cow at the orchards!

Sarah completely sacked out, with her half eaten apple in her hands on the way back from the trip. She didn't even last 10 minutes once in the car before she dozed off.

Sarah and Daddy

Sarah has been loving her "daddy" time lately. Here are some cute pics of them hanging out, wtching tv.

Fun with sidewalk chalk

I hope everyone can see this drawing. :) It's really cute!

Over Labor Day weekend, Sarah and I spent some time being creative and drawing in the driveway with her sidewalk chalk. We drew our family on the brick retaining wall outside the garage...which Sarah LOVED! I just had to take a picture. AND Sarah insisted that I had to add our kitty,Fenn-

L to R- Daddy, Sarah, Mommy, and Fenn

Fieldtrip to the Aquarium

Miss Gloria scheduled a field trip to the Aquarium for the kids--I took just a few pics. Here they are...

Waiting for the Aquarium to open-

L to R- Gabriel, Sarah, Iain, Nathan

Iain and Nathan with a sea turtle

Sarah and Miss Gloria checking out some fish

Sarah @ DeWeese's_Aug09

Click here to view these pictures larger

Sarah in the tub

Lately, Sarah has been VERY serious about wanting absolutely ALL of her bath toys in the tub with her when she bathes. To the point where she totally freaks out if you try to remove some. :)

Last week, she was so cute- - -she dumped all of her toys out of the basket, and then proceeded to sit in the basket and play! I just had to capture the moment! (No, I didn't leave her alone in the tub while I ran to get the camera...I had Stephen bring it in, so don't worry)

See ALL of the toys...?

Cutest face ever! (we were telling her to say "cheese")

4th of July

For the second year in a row, we have gone to Athens to celebrate July 4th with our friends Tweed and Micah, and their two kids. It's also Mia's birthday, so we usually do a small party, grill out, and then go to the fireworks show at Bishop park.

At the fireworks show, Sarah got to play (for the first time!) with sparklers with Josh and Mia. If you can believe it, she wasn't even scared!

Sarah only watched about 5 minutes of fireworks before she totally passed out in my lap. But what a fun day she had!

Sarah and Emily

This summer Sarah has had many opportunities to play with Emily, my friend Virginia's little girl. Emily is younger than Sarah, but already bigger than she is! They are just now getting to the ages where they like to hang out and play together. Its really cute! Plus, I love the girl time with Virginia!

Sarah and Emily playing at the fountains.

Sarah and Emily at Lake Lanier...

I don't know why I couldn't get a decent picture where they both look cute! In one, Sarah is making a face, and in the other, Emily is! Oh, well....they were dolls that day at the lake, and had such a good time playing at the beach and with sand toys, and snacking with the adults in the shade.

June and July Updates

I know its been a long time since I've blogged...life has been busy and complicated. Plus, we couldn't get our new camera to download photos to our old computer. Just fixed that today. So, here is an update of June and July...

We went to the beach at the beginning of June---here are a few photos of Sarah playing at the beach. :) Of course, she absolutely loved it! It rained every day while we were there, but each morning after breakfast we would head to the beach before the rain came in, and get a few hours of play in. Sarah particularly loved the tidal pools, from low tide, and we felt much safer with her playing in there, than in the full ocean.

Mid June Kelli, Dusty, Will and Robert came for a weekend visit, and we let the kids play in the pool on the back deck. They were so cute! The pool was full of bathtub toys!

Sarah's 2nd Birthday Party

Sarah had a great 2nd birthday party. We invited friends and their children, family, neighbors, and all the families from Ms. Gloria's. I think everyone had a good time, despite the rain.

This is Sarah's pretty (and yummy) birthday cake.

All the kids playing in the moon walk.

Pizza is served!

(a yard full of people!)

I'm so glad that Sarah knows how to open gifts now...

Spring flowers!

I have to admit--we have a beautiful garden in our yard. I love the Spring when everything comes into bloom. I took these pics of the first emerging flowers with our new camera.

These are my irises on the side of the garden path.

Hastas on the path (above) and the hosta garden area (below).

Clematis growing on the mailbox.

When the hydrangeas come into bloom, I'll be sure to take more photos. They are just beautiful, and we have lots of bushes of different colors and varieties. Right now, our yard is full of day lillies in bloom. They are also all over the yard in groups--in the front border, in the side bed, and in a garden area off the path. So pretty!

Sarah's sand table

Aunt Becky got Sarah a sand/water table for her birthday---and she LOVES it! All the kids had fun playing with it at Sarah's birthday party.

My Mother's Day

I had the greatest mothers day that anyone could have asked for!

Stephen and Sarah took me out to dinner Saturday night (which as some of you know, is not always fun with Sarah being 2). It was actually a wonderful evening. We went to a local Italian place, sat out on the patio, Sarah was wonderful and stayed in he seat and ate dinner, and then we walked around the park and let Sarah play in the fountains. Wonderful evening!

On sunday morning, Stephen made me breakfast--cheese eggs, sausage, and biscuits. Yummy! I even had some time to myself, while Sarah was napping that afternoon (for 3 hours!)--Stephen went outside to clean his truck and I got to watch a girlie movie by myself and relax. After dinner, Stephen took Sarah outside and they played on her new tricycle for almost an hour, giving me yet some more relax time!

So, a heartfelt thanks to my wonderful husband, who really made my mothers day special!

Cutie Sarah

These pics really show her adorable-ness!

In this one, she is saying "I don't know" and doing the hand gestures just like mommy does!

Sarah's first egg hunt

I thought I would share some pics of Sarah doing her first egg hunt in the back yard with her cousins, Jordan and Jennifer. She LOVED it!

Kids say the funniest things!

So, for weeks now Sarah has been real interested in boogers. She knows when she has them, and sometimes asks mommy to get them. She wants to see them on your finger when you get them out, and she says "Ewww-booger!" and smiles and laughs.

This morning, when I dropped her off with Ms. Gloria, she kept tugging at her ears and sticking her finger in there. I asked her what was wrong, and she grabbed my finger and stuck it into her ear. There was just a little bit of wax in there that I got on my finger. When Sarah saw it, she said, "Mommy, ear booger!".

Ms. Gloria and I both laughed so hard!!!

Sarah's nursery rhymes

I just had to share this funny thing that Sarah has been doing the last two nights---

We just got this Clifford lift-the-flap book at a consignment sale recently. She loves the book already. Each set of pages focuses on a different educational thing--like one page is about colors, one is about shapes, one is about numbers 1-10, and one about letters. The last page open to Clifford and all these kids reading, and the lift-the-flaps are all books, with a nursery rhyme title on the outside, and a verse or two on the inside. Sarah is absolutely infatuated with this last page. In particular, she loves the book cover and verse for two of the rhymes:

!) On the front: "Rain, Rain, Go Away"; on the inside: "Come Again Another Day" (with a cute pic of a little girl with an umbrella in the rain)

2) on the front: "Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall"; on the inside: "Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall" (with a little pic of humpty falling and breaking)

She is so funny, because for the rain rhyme, she will sing it over and over, and say "Mommy, its raining" and "need umbrella". For the humpty rhyme, she will say "Oh, no!" and then say "Humpty broken" or "Humpty fall down".

She will turn to these pages over and over, and we read the book EVERY night. So cute. Just goes to show you what goes on in her little head, and how she is piecing together these concepts in her mind. She is really smart.

Just an update...

So, Sarah is now 22 months old, and will celebrate her 2nd birthday in just 2 short months. She is growing up, turning into our little girl and is no longer our sweet baby girl. How times flies. And she is totally forming her own likes and dislikes (quickly and strongly!). For instance, she no longer likes to sit in her high chair at dinner. She wants to sit in an adult chair, or stand in the chair, at the table with us. Also, she doesn't want to take a bath in her bathroom tub anymore. She wants to bathe in the "big bath"like she sees mommy and daddy do. The "big bath" is our large bathtub, in our bathroom. Also, she no longer nurses to go to sleep. She gives kisses and hugs to me, then sweetly lays her head on her pillow and falls asleep on her own.

She is also smart as a whip! She is doing things that are well advanced for her age. She is using 3 word sentences, while 2 word sentences is where she should be right now. One of the cutest things she says, which she hears me say all the time, is "I don't know". Its so stinkin' cute to hear her say it. This week she started saying "What is that?". She has said it three times this week when she hears something new or sees something strange. She is also very good at telling us what she wants. When she starts to melt-down, you can tell her to use her words, and she will think about it, then pick the words to tell you what it is she is whining about or frustrated with. Smart girl. Also, she can stack blocks 6-8 high--while usually at this age they can only stack blocks 2-4 high. She is a very good problem solver, too. If she wants something on the counter, she will push a chair over to the counter and climb up on it to get what she wants...all the while never asking for it! Its like if she just asked, I would give it to her, but in her head she would rather try to get it herself! See what I mean about how smart she is?

She is also already using scissors to cut paper, and easily able to maneuver twisting tops off of containers. Ms. Gloria says that Sarah's fine motor skills are greatly advanced for her age. She is actually doing things at Ms. Gloria's that the older 3 year old kids are not able to do yet.

In other Sarah news, she has finally gained a little more weight, and weighs a whopping 23 pounds! (This is still VERY small for her age). But seriously, she eats a ton! She eats two breakfasts every day, one with me and another when she goes to Ms. Gloria's. She also eats two lunches a day, once with all the kids around 12, and a second one before taking a nap. She has a snack when she wakes from her nap, another snack when she gets home, and then eats a full dinner with me and Stephen. Then, before she goes to bed, she will eat again. Usually its a bowl of cereal, string cheese, soup, or bite-bites. I mean, that child can eat!!! Where is she putting all of it? I'm happy that she is a good eater, and I'm also happy that she is on the small side for a child. She is still in 18 months pants, but for shirts she is wearing a 2T (she is tall for her age, too).

This week, Sarah has been totally interested in her puzzles. She will do each one twice, the second time I think to prove to herself she has mastered all the pieces. I swear every night she does at least 4 puzzles. She also is finally letting me read some different books than her favorites. She will pick random books for me to read, which I think is GREAT! I mean, you can only read a book so many times before you know all the words and seriously begin to hate it!

So, thats my Sarah update. :) I'll try to post some pics soon!

Another Sarah injury

I am starting to believe that Sarah may be more injury-prone than me...

Friday was my furlough day, so I was home with mom and Sarah for a fun-filled sunny day. We spent the morning lounging around, waiting for the stores to open at 10am so I could get some errands out of the way. Sarah was in a great mood...until it happened. The IT I am referring to is Sarah falling off of her changing table, and hitting her face (mouth) on the corner of her dresser. Ouch! There was a LOT of blood, but not so much crying. Sarah only cried for about 10 minutes, then settled down pretty quickly. Blood was all over me and her. She wanted to be in mommy's lap and watch her favorite show, Caillou. After about 15 minutes of this, I lifted her lip to look at the damage. I immediately started crying when I saw how bad it actually was. I told mom we had to leave, had to take Sarah to Childrens Healthcare immediately. I had no idea how bad it was, but I wanted to be safe and go ahead and have her looked at by a doctor. To me, it was bad enough that I cried at just looking at it. Her gums were bloody and black and blue. Her not-brushed teeth were coated with blood. It was so sad.

Once we got to CHOA, they took us back immediately, because apparently a mouth injury needs to be seen quickly. The doctor was very nice, and Sarah was a good girl for her, letting her look into her mouth and at her injury. The doctor said it was going to be fine, no smashed teeth, no nerve damage, just bad bruising, and advised us to not brush Sarah's teeth until it heals. Whew!

I'm still upset that this happened to Sarah. Its amazing that she climbs all over her changing table, getting up and down all by herself on a regular basis. I was standing right there when it happened- it just happened so quickly I didn't have time to react until it was over. This is just a reminder that no matter how confident Sarah is, accidents can happen and she has to be watched like a hawk all the time. Needless to say, the changing table is going to be moved out of her room. She is a big girl and no longer needs it anyway.

Sarah's Ear Surgery

Lot's of you have asked me how Sarah's surgery went last week- she had to have tubes put into her ears for her chronic ear infections. They are meant to allow air to circulate and fluid to drain, in the hopes that more ear infections do not happen. I tried to take some photos of the event, but I am not the best photographer (and I am using a backup camera since mine broke).

Sarah was a very good patient, more so , a very good girl for the whole experience. She was cooperative and happy the whole time. The entire visit to the surgery center lasted about 1.5 hours, from check-in to prep to surgery to recovery to coming back home.

Sarah in the waiting room as we waited to go back to prep for surgery.

Sarah right after surgery prep--where the nurse talked with us about the procedure, the anesthesiologist told us what was going to happen and how she may/may not react. Sarah had to wear a little hospital gown and non-skid slippers which she would not even let us put on her feet! After she was dressed, she was able to go to another small play area to wait and play before going back to surgery. She had fun playing with all the toys they had! Notice the wipe in her hand?...lately she has been asking for and carrying around baby wipes like they are some sort of security blanket!

This is Sarah right after surgery, back in her recovery room. She is passed out from the anesthesia. The whole surgery only took about 10 minutes. Stephen carried her to the surgery and laid her on the bed--I could not make myself go...I knew I would cry and then wouldn't be able to stop! Stephen said he had to seriously fight back the tears as he laid her on the stretcher and held her hand as they put the mask on her face. But Sarah was good as gold, she let the nurse do it, and just laid there looking at everything and everyone in the room. She didn't even try to get up or fight the mask. Here she is hooked to the machine that monitors her blood pressure and pulse.

At this point, Sarah had started to wake from the anesthesia, and the nurse popped her pacifier in her mouth so she would wake comfortably and securely.

After Sarah woke up, she wanted to nurse, and then she let us take her out of her hospital gown and put her clothes back on. Within 10 minutes of her waking, we were able to leave and come home! I'm so glad its all over! And I hope she stays healthy from her on out...no more ear infections!