Tuesday, October 26, 2010

New Songs

Sara Beth sings all sorts of songs nowadays.  Typically, it will be something like "Jesus Loves Me," and we can totally understand which song she is singing.  Which is useful when, in the middle of a verse, she will stop, look at me, and say "Daddy, you sing it now."  Even more problematic is the times when she requests a song but cannot communicate the title.  Last week, she asked me to sing the "Cherry" song.  I have no clue what that is.  I asked her to hum a few bars, but she just insisted that I sing the "Cherry Coke" song.   Heather had no clue what it was either.  The mystery persisted for a couple days, until, in a flash of insight, I realized that she wanted me to sing the song "Jimmy cracks corn" and that she just had never heard the name Jimmy before.  The next day, when she asked me to sing the "Crack Song," I knew what she was talking about.

In case you have not been keeping up with the posts, Sara Beth likes to try everything that Heather and I do.  So when she saw me eating a drumstick, she wanted nothing to do with the nice bite-sized pieces of chicken on her plate.  I gave her one of my drum sticks and she brought it to her mouth only to have the meat fall off the bone and into her lap.  Determined to eat holding onto the bone, Sara Beth began eating her mashed potatoes using it as a makeshift spoon.


Heather's birthday is tomorrow and Sara Beth is enjoying every minute of the preparations.  She loves to help her mom open presents.

And while helping me bake a birthday cake, she shared some of the batter.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

School

Ever since Heather helped out a friend by picking her daughter up from school, Sara Beth has been enamored with the concept.  Four or five times a week for the past several months, Sara Beth will ask Heather "I go to school now?"  We had talked about putting her into school next fall when she is three, but since she was so insistent, Heather and I talked and decided we would let her go to a 2-day a week program.     

On Monday, Sara Beth was so excited for her first day that she posed for a picture without any of her usual antics.  Heather brought her up to the school, and Sara Beth walked right it, just turning around once to say "Bye."  Sigh.  They grow up so fast.


The day before, we sat down to eat dinner and watch the football game together.  Sara Beth really enjoyed watching.

Though at one point, she graped the whole bunch of grapes that we had brought for all of us to snack from, and began to feed them to herself, one handful at a time.


Sara Beth loves the Halloween decorations that are starting to come out.  Most evenings, after we have finished dinner, we will go walking around the neighborhood looking at the various displays that are out.  She likes the "creepy ones", but doesn't like the "scary ones."  She has not clarified the difference between the two, but if decorations are too scary, she will say "I not go this way.  I cross the street Daddy." She will then hold out her hand for us to cross to the sidewalk on the other side of the street to give the scary decorations some distance.  But she can never see enough, and we always have to come in before she is done.  Last night, as I was putting her to bed after bringing her inside, she asked to go see the moon, and I acquiesced.  Once outside, with the moon clearly shining in the sky, she said "Hm... I don't see it.  Maybe see it over there by decorations."  Very clever.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Tea with extra cream

What could be more fun then drinking tea? How about drinking tea with whip cream!  We had some whip cream and fruit and were eating as desert after dinner.  Sara Beth noticed that Heather was drinking tea with her desert and decided that she wanted some too.  The combination of sugar and tea was consumed in a matter of seconds.


On Saturday, one of Sara Beth's friends had a birthday.  Sara Beth sat still long enough to get her face painted as a butterfly.  She also got the party hat and a party favor bag.  She liked it all, but the bag of party favors, or "party bag" as she calls it, is her favorite by far.  She has carried that thing around with her for the past 4 days almost non-stop.  She burst into tears when she wanted to go find the "party bag" and I told her she needed to come brush her teeth.  We ended up compromising: she could hold the bag in her hands while I brushed her teeth, as long as she put it down before she went to bed.

We got a care package from Heather's mom.  Heather had mentioned to Sara Beth that a special surprise was coming in the mail today. When the door bell rang, Sara Beth sprinted to the front door talking about her surprise.  When she saw it was a package, Sara Beth declared it to be her birthday and that she was going to open her present.

There was a lot of cool things in there. But, of course, the gloves and purse were Sara Beth's favorites.   

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

End of an era

This week, Sara Beth convinced us that afternoon naps should be optional.  She has now grown out of the napping stage.  For several weeks now, nearly every day has included a battle to force her to lay still long enough for her to pass out.  This week we decided that it wasn't worth the battle.  We still make her stay in her room and be quiet for an hour or two in the afternoon, but we no longer force her to stay laying down in bed.  She will still nap on occasion and everyone is happier with the new setup; it makes the afternoons more pleasant.  

Sara Beth is quite a runner.  This evening, after dinner, she and I went outside for a walk in the wonderfully cool evening weather.  Sara Beth decided that instead of walking we should "run and chase."  We ran around several blocks side by side while she repeated "run and chase, run and chase."  By the time we were done, I suspect we ran at least a mile.  On a related note, she fell asleep rather quickly this evening.