Monday, December 28, 2009

Holiday adventures

It has been a hectic couple of weeks. We traveled to see Heather's family in Alabama, and from that we learned that Sara Beth does not like sleeping in hotel rooms. It is a 12 hour drive from Dallas to Decatur, so when we left around 4pm, we drove until 1am. Sara Beth decided to not go to sleep until Heather climbed into the play pen with her at around 4am. While in Alabama, once she got used to her Great-Grandpa's apartment, she slept fairly well, but since she was in the same room as Heather and I, we had to be very quiet the whole night to prevent her from waking up prematurely. She got to try her first Coca-Cola when her Great Grandpa offered her one. I helped her drink it, as I think she would still be awake if she had all that sugar and caffene at one time.

Sara Beth also got to enjoy some extra TV time. At first she seemed confused that there was not a football game playing on the TV screen, but she got used to it after a while.


We had a good time, though she didn't want to get near the mall Santas, however, it was good to come home. The day after we got back, Sara Beth ran back and forth through the house, reassuring herself that it was all still in the right place. She then sat in the back yeard in her doll stroller and relaxed, mostly staring at our peach tree and enjoying the Texas winter.



That weekend, we put up the Christmas decorations. Heather and I couldn't tell whether it was the cats or Sara Beth who was pulling down most of the ornaments from the bottom half of the tree. We suspect Sara Beth did most of it, but we could never be sure.

For Christmas Eve, Sara Beth got dressed up and smiled for the camera with her mom.


When Heather and I swapped positions, Sara Beth didn't seem to be as pleased with the setup.


Sara Beth did enjoy opening gifts on Christmas.


But she did seem to enjoy the wrapping paper and boxes more. Heather and I bought her a "big girl kitchen" since she seemed to use her old kitchen as a jungle gym. But I think Sara Beth enjoys playing in the box as much as the kitchen that the box is sitting in. She will hide in the box and then burt out in a big "peek a boo" moment and then retract back into the box doing her best impression of an oversized cute trap door spider.

One of the toys that Sara Beth got for Christmas was a cookie set. The wooden cookies have velcro on each side of them allowing them to be attached end to end into one long cookie dough cylinder. Just today I demonstrated to her how to use the wooden knife to split the dough cylinder into individual cookie pieces. Sara Beth giggled uncontrollably while detaching each cookie and as soon as they were all separated, she wanted me to velcro them back together so that she could repeat the process again. I tried to help her hold the knife the way that would bring the most cutting force to bear on the velcro bonds, but Sara Beth seemed to laugh the hardest as she heald the knife and stabbed the blocks perpendicular to the direction and tried to stab the cookies. Either way, it was a great time.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Big Girl

So Sara Beth went for her regular check up at the doctor's office.  When Heather pulled up in the parking lot, Sara Beth burst into tears and started to repeat "No, Mom, No!"  Three vaccinations later, they left.  Sara Beth weighed in at 27 pounds 13 ounces and is 34 7/8 inches tall.  According to wolfram alpha that means she will be 6 feet tall and weigh around 176 pounds once she is done growing.  

Every day she is growing more and more independent.  This past week she has started to want to read her own books.  So I will sit next to her and read my magazine while she pages through her books.


She has also begun to use her play kitchen as a jungle gym.  Fortunately for us, we are planning on swapping this one out with a larger size unit, which should, hopefully, reduce the likelihood of her climbing on top of it.  Until she gets better at climbing at least.

Heather captured Sara Beth sitting in her chair catting on her cell phone.  Even though it currently only calls Minnie Mouse, she will still pretend to call me while I am at work.  When ever I give her a real cell phone while  Heather is on the other end of the line, she will just stare at the phone in surprise.  

Her interest in shoes and jewelry increases on a daily basis.  She has her collection of bracelets that she will place on her wrist, all at the same time and then wave her arms around to make them clink as she tears around the house.

  Whenever I am putting shoes on my feet, she will say "Shoes" to let me know that she has correctly identified that I am putting on footwear.  Whenever Heather leaves her shoes lying around, Sara Beth will put them on and try to walk around the house in them.  Thought it may look like it in the picture, she is not actually break dancing.

One more prediction that I feel confident enough to make about the future: Sara Beth will drive either a car with a big engine or a diesel truck.  Whenever we walk down the street and some loud car or truck drives by, Sara Beth will start to imitate the engine noise.  In addition, she will often get into a storage box, and then start making engine noises as she pretends to drive it around.  



Monday, December 7, 2009

Snow

Rarely does white stuff fall from the sky around these parts, but this week, a dusting of the stuff fell once morning.  Heather and Sara Beth rushed outside and played around looking at all the cold white stuff.


Sara Beth has begun to pick up on some of the habits that we have as a family.  My favorite one was this week when she realized that before meals we pray, and that every prayer ends with the work "Amen."  She will wait till we are done, and then say "amen" along with us, with a big grin on her face.  However, she will confuse "amen" with the phrase "the end" that we say after reading a book.  So, just like after a prayer, she will say "amen" as we finish the last page of a book.

She has begun to take a real interest in her little train.  She will press the button so that it starts to flash and play a song, and then she will push it around the house.  Whenever it stops its flashing and noisemaking, she will stop and press the button again, to ensure that she is not pushing a mere silent toy.

While out for dinner this past week, Sara Beth wanted a bite of my gyro, which had some fresh onions on it.  I tried to direct her towards some of the flat bread and meat, but she ignored my promptings and took a bite out of the raw onion.  She then spit it out, and stuck out her tongue and started to make "pfffttbbb" noises to get the taste off of her tongue.  She then drank half of her water.

Sara Beth has gotten to a point where we will have her help us put dishes in the dishwasher.  She loves to help us out.  So we will hand her a dirty spoon with instructions on where to put it, and she will run over to the dishwasher and place it in the appropriate spot.  I have even allowed her to "help" me carry a dirty plate to the washer.  She has a big grin plastered across her face the whole time.