Monday, November 30, 2009

Our little helper

It is good to be back in the same timezone as Sara Beth and Heather.  The trip was long, and I missed being back with the rest of the family.  I have no idea how a single parent can do it without passing out from exhaustion.

With only one week before December, the weather has finally cooled down to a point where the leaves are turning colors and falling off the tree.  When we first put gloves on her, we were worried that she would pull them off as quickly as we could put them on.  The fear was unfounded as she loved the new addition to her outfit.


While I worked overseas, Sara Beth helped her mom with the chores.  She saw Heather sweeping the floor and wanted to help.  She successfully waved the broom across the floor, but nothing actually got swept into a pile; Heather had to go back and redo the spot once the broom was unatended.


Apparently, Sara Beth threw quite a few fits this past week.  Here you can see her trying to get into the bathroom, and  showing how upset the closed door is making her.  If you look really closely, you can see a tear rolling down her chin.


The shoe thief was at it again.  She put one of Heather's shoes on her feet, and walked all the way from the kitchen to the play room to model them.

As soon as I got back, the first item on my list of things to fix was the dryer.  It would take 4 times too long to get all the moisture out.  I began to take the dryer apart, and when I went to grab another tool, Sara Beth picked up the screwdriver and began to help.  She did end up cutting her finger on a sharp edge on the metal.  We put a little band-aid on her finger.  She proudly showed it to Heather and I, and then took it off since it was getting in the way of her playing.


Thanksgiving weekend is the time that I hang up the Christmas lights.  This year I decided to try out a new setup.  It was trickey and took much longer than I expected.  Sara Beth got a kick out of looking up and seeing me on the roof.  She asked Heather to let her get on the roof too.  We told her not until she is older. 

Sara Beth's table manners are developing nicely.  After we sit down to pray and ask a blessing for the food, Sara Beth will say "Amen" along with Heather and I.  She will also reddily offer to share her food.  She just needs to watch out for my bitting teeth, as they can catch unsuspecting hands.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

New Heights

Sara Beth has been busy this week. Sara Beth has finally started trying to build with her blocks. In the past, she would dump them all out on the floor and have a grand time putting all the blocks back in the bag. If Peter or I built anything, she was right there ready to unleash destruction on the tower. I am pleased to say that during our last block session, she didn't destroy my tower. She actually sat and made several of her own.
Sara Beth has also discovered that she loves heights. I had the ladder out this week. I turn my back for 2 seconds and she's climbing up! We finally compromised that she would just sit on the ladder instead of trying to climb it!


Since Peter is out of town, my Aunt Kathy came for a visit. While she was here we went to Lake Highlands and had tea with her friends. Sara Beth had a great time playing with Ben (who is three) and watching baby Andrew (who is 3 months). She discovered toy cars and was rather attached to one of Ben's. Of course, Sara Beth also enjoyed all the attention she got while she was there.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Preparing to travel

I am heading out of the country for 2 weeks beginning tomorrow for work, so this past week has been filled with me spending as much time as possible playing with Sara Beth and Heather, as I will be on the other side of the world from them. I worry that I will leave Sara Beth, the toddler, and come home to Sara Beth the little girl; that she would grow up too much while I am away. While I am out, Heather will be filling in as this blog's special guest author.

Anyways, this past week we went to the Dallas Arboretum. It was a little over a year since the last time we took Sara Beth. She had a lot more fun this time; she went up to all the mums and sniffed them. In one case, she walked up to the flower, and while bending down to smell, she lost her balance and grabbed onto the nearest thing to help break her fall. The nearest thing was the mum. It didn't help her break her fall, but it did break.



There were still some pumpkins out at the Arboretum from the Halloween holiday. Sara Beth went up to the first one she saw and wanted to climb onto the top of it.



While Heather and Sara Beth were out at the store, Sara Beth apparently found some new, pink, sparkly shoes. I tried to take a picture of them, but Sara Beth was running around the house with them on. This was the best picture I could capture, the others were all blurry or out of focus since she kept moving so quickly. Fortunately, this should be solved soon, as I just bought a camera off of Ebay for $36. Hopefully it will work better than our current one.


Sara Beth loves to play with glasses. Our glasses. When we give her some sun glasses of her own, she will take them off immediately, and very quickly loose interest in them. Our glasses, on the other hand, will hold her interest for as long as we allow it. Sara Beth reached up and pulled the glasses off my face while we were walking around the book store. I didn't think much of it, as her fingerprints on the lenses can be cleaned. 30 seconds later, I glance down and she is resting in my arms trying her hardest to tear my ear pieces off of the frames. In retrospect, I'm not all that surprised. After all, her nick name is "Destructor".



Sara Beth's hair is growing very quickly, and I am happy to see the natural curl forming. In fact, her hair is almost to the same length as her Mom's hair in the back. Heather is growing her hair out to donate to "Locks of love", and we are not going to cut Sara Beth's hair any time soon. It will be a contest to see who can grow their hair the quickest.


Sara Beth now has her own little doll stroller to push around the house. She will careen through the house at pretty good speeds, and occasionally, she will even put a doll in the stroller.



Monday, November 2, 2009

Exploding diapers

At the beginning of this week, we were running low on Sara Beth's extra absorbent night diapers.  Heather and I talked and decided to try just using her regular diapers.  It was a spectacular failure.  The first night, Sara Beth decided to pull her diaper off in the middle of the night and wet the bed.  The second night we put her in a full length footed sleeper.  Somehow, the diaper came off and ended up shoved into one of her pajama legs.  The third night we brought out the big guns: duct tape.  The diaper stayed on, but it still leaked.  So the next day, Heather went out and bought some more night time diapers.  We learned our lesson.


My parents came in for the weekend.  Sara Beth had a great time with all the extra attention.  She helped my parents look at two potential future houses for my parents, but by the time we had pulled up to the third house, she was past her nap time, so Sara Beth and I explored the lawn out front.  Sara Beth was so tired that she was loosing motor control and ended up tipping over and falling into some shrubbery and ended up with a scratch on her cheek.  Once we got back and she took a good 3 hour nap, she was back to her regular self.  Sara Beth and her Grandmother were able to play and learn; they practiced saying the word "Grandma" quite a bit.

Unfortunately, that was all the pictures we took this week.   We'll try to document things a little better in this coming week.