Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Around the house

Sara Beth baked some cookies all by herself this week after watching Heather regularly make cookies. Some firefighters were going to come to her school, and her teachers sent home a note requesting that the parents bring some sweets for the occasion. Heather told Sara Beth where the ingredients were, and how much of each needed to be put in the mixing bowl. The only thing that Heather did was put the cookie sheet in the oven.
Heather has made several awesome fleece blankets as Christmas presents. Sara Beth wanted to get in on the action and carefully measured her cuts using the scraps that Heather gave her. She put the scraps in her "sewing bag" that she toted around the house.

Sara Beth can now brushing her teeth with minimal supervision. I still need to give her teeth a good once over to ensure that they have been brushed in their entirety, but she has the general actions down.
She cares for her two Emma Rose dolls, Emma Rose and Emma Rose's cousin, Emma Rose. She asked Heather to tuck them snuggly into the baby carrier so that Sara Beth could carry them around without being concerned about them getting cold.
With Halloween quickly approaching, Heather found a Halloween cookie decorating kit that was already on clearance. They decorated some haunted house cookies. Initially, Sara Beth asked if she could have a whole cookie, but soon realized that we would only allow her a small portion as an after dinner desert.
And, lastly, Sara Beth has begun helping Heather fix her hair in the mornings. She loves using the brush and hair dryer. We don't let her play with the curling iron yet.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Uncle John's Wedding

I'm slowly catching up on the backlog of pictures I have accumulated. So these are the pictures from the week of the 6th of October. And a lot happened that week. First off, Hudson decided that Sara Beth was getting too much attention, and he wanted some of that attention too. Heather and I ended up going to triage at the hospital due to her experiencing premature contractions at 2am. I wish Hudson would have picked a better time for that one. Anyways, the doctors ran their tests and diagnosed the situation as an irritable uterus, and gave Heather some medicine that makes the situation not a big deal. But the doctors did want her to take it easy and not go on our planned trip to Colorado for my Brother's wedding. So, instead, just Sara Beth and I packed out bags and headed out leaving Heather at home with Hudson.
Sara Beth loved the airplane ride, but by the time we landed and got to my brother's house, Sara Beth was all tired out.   My dad gave her a glass of chocolate milk to restore her energy.
 The chocolate milk did the trick. Sara Beth wanted to explore my brother's backyard. John showed off his rose bushes and when Sara Beth saw that some of the leaves were falling from the trees, she requested a rake and began raking the leaves into piles to help my brother out.
The next day, my parents took us up into the national park. At 2 miles above sea-level, it was about 31 degrees and the wind was blowing at 20 miles per hours, which meant the wind chill was something lower. Heather very carefully packed a winter coat for Sara Beth, but I didn't think to bring it into the mountains. I didn't mind the cold, but she got out of the car for this picture, and then she was ready to get back out of the wind.
At lower elevations, Sara Beth was much more interested in exploring. She even got in a race with my mom and I while going down some of the trails.
On our way back down to Boulder, we pulled off to the side of the road to look at the Elk herd that was hanging out in the middle of the town outside the park. Sara Beth kept calling it a "milk heard."
The day of the wedding, Sara Beth helped me setup the snack food for all the groomsmen to eat.
She sat in the front pew with my parents while I stood up in front as best man at the wedding. 
At the wedding reception, she collected all the blue decorative jewels at our table and made designs out of them.
I gave Sara Beth one of them to keep, and it quickly became her favorite item. She kept taking it out and showing it to everyone she could. Wedding guests, relatives, and waiters all got to see her jewel.

The next day, I went to the local tea factory with Sara Beth and my sister. Both of them are tea fanatics, so they sat next to each other in the cafe where they offer free samples and discussed their passion for tea. Since I have no such passion, I sat back and started snapping pictures. I think I took a little too many; they started getting tired of the camera flash.
That night, my aunt came over to our room and read several books to Sara Beth, including a specially selected Halloween themed book that Sara Beth got to keep.
It certainly was exhausting to take care of Sara Beth without Heather around, and I was glad to come back home to a house that had been cleaned top to bottom by Heather. Sara Beth loved the vacation and wedding ceremony, but she got so much "daddy time" in Colorado that playing with Heather is now at the top of her priority list. Sara Beth even asked Heather if they could get married.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Fancy Glasses

Sara Beth has been reading books about "Fancy Nancy," a girl who dresses up all an bejeweled outfits and has all sorts of impressive hairdos. Well, in one story, fancy Nancy wanted to have fancy glasses, so she took the lenses out of some sunglasses and then decorated the frames. Sara Beth asked Heather if she could do something similar. Well, she asked the right person. Heather has enough craft supplies that it would choke a donkey, and so she brought out some of it and they set to work.


Here is the end result. And yes, that is one of the few genuine smiles on her face for the camera. She smiles all the time, but, generally, as soon as a camera comes out, her smile will turn into a grimace.


She wore them while watching the Cowboys game with her parents. In this case, she didn't realize that I had the camera, until after I snapped the picture.


She got some glasses for Emma Rose to wear as well. So now they both look extra fancy.

She wore them while, in her words, "exercising her hair." Yeah... Neither Heather nor I can exactly explain that one. She was whipping your head back and forth quickly, and that will exercise your hair, according to Sara Beth.

She tried on my not-so-fancy glasses, but decided she likes hers better. I think the combination of corrective lenses and extreme lack of jewels convinced her my glasses are not as fun.

With the days becoming cooler, we enjoy the benefits of a screened in patio more and more. Sara Beth will routinely ask to eat breakfast on the patio, or to sit outside and read, or to organize the clips that should be on the clothesline.

My wife is not the only one that is crafty around here. My mom took Sara Beth to the store and had her pick out some fabric for a dress. Then my mom made one for Sara Beth and one for her doll too. She loved it.