Monday, July 27, 2009

Walking

People had warned us.  They said that one day, Sara Beth would get up and start walking.  She had begun to take steps on her own back around the 4th of July, but she gave up on it, until this week.  At the beginning of the week, she stood up and was brave enough to walk across the kitchen.  Heather and I both clapped our hands and praised her efforts.  She became so excited that she stood up again, and walked back to the other side.  We continued to give her encouragement.  And that made her so happy and giddy with excitement that she just bounced.  She no longer was able to walk, but she pushed herself upright, and bounced on her feet until she feel back over.  She laughed and giggled the whole time.  Since then, she has become more and more comfortable with longer and longer walks.  Earlier this evening, she walked from the front door, where Heather was to the kitchen where I was, cackling with laughter and glowing with excitement.  Once she reached me, she turned around and staggered back to Heather.  She would fail a sobriety test, as she weaves back and forth in a very loose approximation of a straight line.  Once she got to Heather, she turned around and started to walk back to me, but veered off into our bedroom instead, and walked all the way into the bathroom before she collapsed in exhaustion.  

  She has become very skilled at toddling around with her buggy as well.  Now, she can actually properly steer it, so it rarely runs into anything.  And if it does, she is able to back it up and turn it around; at least most of the time.  She has started to occasionally carry a dishtowel around with her.  It may feel good in her left hand, but it makes turning the buggy around a lot more difficult to turn around with only her right hand.


She drives the buggy everywhere, including through her house.  It nearly fits too.  Heather has to help with a little plastic antenna that sticks up a little too far.  But Sara Beth loves it.  As soon as she drives though the front door, she circles around, and repeats the process.  I hope she is not practicing, as in 15 years, when she drives a real car, she will not allow her to drive though our front door.

Over the weekend, we went to one of Sara Beth's 2 year old friend's birthday party at "Little Gym".  Sara Beth had a blast climbing and crawling all over the equipment.  The below picture shows her concentration as she walks across a balance beam with a little help from Heather.  You can tell that Sara Beth's eyes are beginning to change color, from bright blue, to a more grey color, with bits of green and gold in them.

Mother and daughter got to do little races across the floor too.  Sara Beth didn't know what to think, but Heather had a good time pushing.

Near the end of the party, the host had a bubble wand which was used to create hundreds of little bubbles.  Sara Beth was enchanted.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Kisses

Sara Beth has learned to understand quite a few words, even if she doesn't speak many yet.  We can tell her "NO! Don't even think about digging through that trash can full of diapers!" and she will pull her hand back and look for something slightly more sanitary to play with.  On the sweeter side of the spectrum, we can ask "Can you give me a kiss?" and she will respond accordingly.  Here, she is giving her doll a kiss as well.


We actually just went to Target and got 2 more dolls identical to this one.  Our plan is to rotate through them so that it will last much longer and we will have the opportunity to keep them relatively clean, and without Sara Beth being the wiser.

It's amazing what a new hair style will do.  Sara Beth's hair has grown long enough that we do not have to tuck it behind her ears, and you can no longer see a baby sitting in her booster seat.  That's where a little girl sits now.

She has become more interested in her stacks of stuffed fluffy animal toys.  A rattle that used to make noise used to be the best kind of toy for her, but she is now grabbing the soft fluffy ones and giving them big hugs.  In the below picture, we are playing the game where I pull the sheep away, and she tries to catch it and pull it back to herself.  Of course, the camera causes her to stop whatever she is doing so that she can direct her full attention to getting her picture taken.

Despite her new found interest in all fluffy things, she has not lost interest in her beads and play sets.  In between the stuffed animals that have been strewn across the floor, she will sit fiddling with her bead necklace that is a little too big on her.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Tea Parties

Heather, Sara Beth, and Pinkie, her stuffed dog, will regularly have tea parties these days.  Fortunately, I have not been around the house at the time.  My skills at playing tea party are non-existent and I would be too busy trying to see how high a tower I could construct using the tea paraphernalia.  Now, granted, that tower wouldn't last more than five seconds.  Sara Beth's demolition skills are almost as noteworthy as her tea party hostess skills.


The cats have started to hang around Sara Beth near meal times.  We have tried to teach Sara Beth to let us know that she is all done eating by waiving her hands in the air, but instead, she will generally signal that she doesn't want to eat anymore by picking up her food and watching it fall to the floor.  In the below picture, you can see Little Bit lick her lips in anticipation.

Sara Beth has gotten more expressive as she grows older.  Now, when I stick my head around a corner and call to her, a impish smile will spread across her face and a twinkle appears in her eye.  She will start to giggle and start crawling towards me in anticipation of me rolling her around and tickling her.  With her hair growing longer by the day, she looks more and more like a little toddler, but most especially I am holding her down on her back and tickling her.

  In addition, she does have a well practiced pensive expression, like below.  I can't tell if she is thinking about the flavor of the melon, or wondering why in the world I am taking pictures at the table instead of eating.

Sara Beth has begun pushing chairs around the tile floor in the kitchen.  The actual kitchen chairs weigh about as much as she does, so she prefers to use the smaller one that is lying around.  She will tootle around, proud as can be.  And if that wasn't cute enough, sometimes she will give her doll a ride in the seat.

Monday, July 6, 2009

One small step for Sara Beth

Sara Beth has begun to take small steps without holding on to anything.  The first step was on Friday at the pool.  She crawled over to a chair and stood up to look in it, but she misjudged it and was too far away to grab a hold of it.  So she just took a step to get closer to it, and then began to fall over.  Luckily I was there to catch her so she didn't smack the concrete.  Two days later, on the 4th of July, she stood up in the middle of the room and took three steps to get over to my legs.  She successfully made it, but she scared herself with her performance and burst into tears.  I had to reassure her that walking was not a scary thing.  Today, at a friend's wading pool, she walked from one side to the other, a full 6 feet or so.  So things are going to get exciting.

Sara Beth's one year birthday is coming up at the end of the month.  Heather, being the organized person that she is, wanted to get Sara Beth's presents ahead of schedule.  And, since she doesn't particularly like waiting, we ended up giving the presents to Sara Beth a couple weeks early.

Since Sara Beth likes playing with her medical supplies so much, we decided to get her her own, kid safe set of medical equipment.  So now when she crawls around the house with a thermometer in one hand and a syringe in the other, we can rest assured that when she tries to poke herself in the eye, it wont cause nearly as much damage as it would have before.


Also, while at Toys R Us, we were walking by the stuffed toy isle and saw a large pink stuffed dog and figured it would be great.  Sara Beth loves dogs, breaking into a big smile and laughing anytime that she sees one while we stroll around the neighborhood.  And since this one is stuffed, it doesn't need to be fed, bathed, or let out into the backyard to go to the bathroom.  The perfect pet.  Sara Beth likes it just as much as a real dog, and will curl up with it at night in her crib.  Some times she sleeps on top of the dog, sometime she sleeps with the dog on top of her.  Either way, she is sleeping with a smile on her face.


Note: blueberry pancakes may be messy going in, but they can be even messier coming out the other end.  Her behind is currently stained a faint shade of blue, but we figure it will fade back to pink in the next couple of days.


Here Sara Beth and I are showing off our 4th of July attire.  She had a red hair band that went with the outfit as well, but she took it off and snapped it in two.