Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Pool time

Summer has arrived.  The temperature has been 95 degrees in the daytime and rising.  So, to combat the heat, we have been going to the pool on a regular basis.  Every time we go, Sara Beth gets more brave and willing to try different things.  She still is not willing to float in the water unless she has a Kung-Fu-Death-Grip on either Heather's swim suit or my chest hair, but she will now leap off the side of the pool into our arms again.  For those of you with good memories, yes, she did this last year as well, but this year, she actually leaps into the pool instead of merely stepping over the edge.

Her favorite part about going to the splash park, located next to the pool.  Whenever it turns on, Sara Beth will drop whatever she is doing and trot over to the fountains.  Only rarely will she actually get in the water, but she sure does enjoy looking at it.  One of the contraptions at the splash park is a bucket about 8 feet in the air that fills with water and then tips over spilling its contents on the ground.  Every time it happens, Sara Beth says "Uh-oh."

We have begun to work with Sara Beth on learning to use full sentences.  When she runs to the fridge repeating "Milk, milk, milk", we now stop her and make her say "Milk please mommy," or "milk please daddy," depending on which is appropriate.  She seems to be picking it up rather well.

Something she has also picked up is the propensity to wake up and start banging around at 2am, and not go back to sleep until 5am or so.  And that is only with constant reminders from Heather and I to go back to sleep.  It isn't the most pleasant of habits, and we are working to break her of it, or at least to be quieter so that we sleep through her early morning party time.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Leaf soup

Before I start, I did want to say "Happy Anniversary Heather!"  It has been a wonderful 8 years together, and, every year I fall deeper in love with you.  Thank you for marrying me.

So, on to the regularly scheduled blog post. It has been rather rainy and overcast this past week.  Good for the grass, but it does feel rather dreary.  Right after a rain storm, Sara Beth asked to go outside to to play.  She dutifully walked around the yard with her snack in one hand, collecting fallen leaves with the other.  She carried them over the the gutter drain and put all the leaves in it.  She then leaned down and began to sip her new soup concoction before we stopped her.


Sara Beth discovered that she can climb into the cabinets.  She will then pop out like a cute trap-door spider missing a few legs and say "Peek-a-boo".  

Even though we got a brand new camera, we did not put it to good use this week, so that is all the pictures.  We went to the pool a couple times.  Sara Beth had her pink "Dora the Explorer" water floaties on, and will walk up and down the steps of the pool, but she is still too nervous to float without a kung-fu death grip on either Heather or I when her feet can no longer reach the ground.  We're working on it.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Useful training

My parents were in town this past weekend.  Sara Beth had a great time receiving all the attention and getting spoiled in a way that only grand parents are allowed to do.  On Saturday night, Heather and I went out on a date while Grandma and Grandpa watched Sara Beth.  We came home and received the report that she behaved and even helped Grandma with the proper nighttime routine and told her what to do next if she missed a step.

We have been working with Sara Beth to teach her all sorts of new skills.  This includes things like learning her letters.  She has "S" down, and some of the others as well, and mastering more every day.


She will now read by herself.  She looked so much like a big girl when she carried her dinosaur book over to the living room couch, pulled herself up onto it, and began flipping through it all by herself.  

If Sara Beth is going to have any hope of being as good of a cook as Heather, she is going to need an early start.  Heather is just that good.  Sara Beth watched as Heather made some M&M cookies, and then she helped me lick the mixer clean.


Sara Beth is a natural when it comes to washing cars.  Heather and I started washing about 4 months of dirt off my car, and Sara Beth picked up one of the unattended sponges and started washing the bumper clean.  One we were done with the front of the car, I redirected her to the side panels, and she dutifully wiped them down until I washed them off.  This repeated until we were all done.  I took the below photo a second after Sara Beth got a wayward spray from the hose as Heather washed the soap off the hood of the car.


Tuesday, May 4, 2010

New Camera


Hurray!  After much moaning and groaning, we finally decided that enough was enough and we definitely need a new camera.  So if anyone wants a used camera guaranteed to cause frustration, just let me know.  So the last two pictures in this post and all future pictures will be with the new and improved camera, so that means that the images should all be in focus and no issues with it taking too long to snap the picture.

Sara Beth has been interested in building houses lately.  Now, "building" a house consists of having Heather or I put a blanket over her table in the play room.  She will climb in and pop out.  On days that she refuses to take a nap and acts tired, she will take her stuffed dog "pinkey" under the table with her and lay down relaxing in her own domain.

Sara Beth plus cookies are always guaranteed to result in smiles and a big mess.

We took Sara Beth to the park to play and try out the new camera.  Instead of playing on the swings or the play structure, she kept going to the locked gate, trying to get into the pool next door.

When we finally opened the gate for her she cantered into the pool area and looked around like a kid in a candy store (not that we would ever let Sara Beth loose in a candy store).  Heather sat by the edge of the kid pool and dangled her feet in the water.  Sara Beth followed suit.  Since I had shorts on, I got into the kiddy pool.  When Sara Beth realized that the pool had a bottom, she wanted in too.  She had a great time jumping and splashing around, and was very sad when we had to go back home to eat dinner.  Also, note how the below picture is in focus.  Isn't it great?