Living La Vida Sarah

Yes, Sarah does more than play in her jumper. She also scream sings and bats at a bag of corn nuts. It's so funny how excited she gets when I take her over to her jumper. Excitement or frantic worry - one or the other. She plays best when I sit and watch her or better yet, when I hold her next to the jumper so she can reach the vegetables.

And if you notice, she is sporting a bib most days now. She has a never-ending supply of saliva. I'll get a picture of her bubble beard and post it one of these days.

I was excited to show this picture to Justin. His reaction was, "She has a big head." I said, "No, she looks just like you." Potato Pototto.

Sarah Loves to Jump

Di thought this video was too long to put on the blog, so I did it myself. She maybe right, but oh well, I think it just captures Sarah's excitement better than the other one. -- Justin

Why I love Valentine's Day

I can finally finish off this bag of Mini Eggs I've been rationing since last Easter. Good-bye conversation hearts, hello jelly beans

If you've ever met Sarah, you know she hates (atleast) two things: holding still and being bored. Bring in the jumperoo! Our Valentine's date consisted of tacos and Babies R Us. We were laughing so hard because she is so tiny! We had to put towels in the seat so she could get her arms out (forget about reaching the toys) and blankets on the floor so she could jump. I figure she'll be walking before she hits the 25 lb weight limit.

And I love this face. She doesn't need rescuing as her eyes may suggest.

My Little Bear

The first ten minutes of Sarah's day consist of stretching and grunting like a bear coming out of hibernation. Now she has the appropriate outfit.

The Cutest Face In The Whole World

I may be biased. But only a little. (Editor's note: This post started with just one picture but I couldn't resist adding more. I've got 6 others of her smiling but I'll refrain. These are the best ones.)

And Sarah has just started to laugh. Talk about the best sound in the whole world! As soon as we can capture that on film, I'll post that too.

I chopped and dyed.

Now Sarah can't rip out my hair. She's okay with that since now it doesn't get in her face all the time either. The darkness was an impulse decision made in the chair but I don't have hair remorse or anything.

Try as we might

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it's best to keep your child from watching TV until they are two years old. It's best for their cognitive development and verbal skills or something. So we are trying really hard to keep from entertaining Sarah with the TV (which is unfortunate because nothing could be more efficient than the tube). She catches glimpses of it while I'm bouncing her around and she is often unintentionally held facing the TV. But as tempting as it is, we haven't sat her in front of the TV so we can eat dinner with both hands, sitting, and without her screaming just yet. That doesn't mean she hasn't tried to stare at the musical colorful box in our living room. Yesterday I laid her down at the base of our TV stand to take her picture. The TV was on and this is her sneaking a peek. It's like a drug. The more we keep it from her, the more curious she is about it.

We are also trying to dress Sarah in something besides pajamas for church. Since we moved to 1 o'clock church, I don't anticipate her sleeping through Sacrament meeting so I can't use the "she doesn't get out of her carseat" excuse anymore. I don't think she likes dresses. She's dang cute in it though. And she better get used to it. She's got a few others she needs to wear before she grows too big for them.

I was trying to get a smile on camera. I got it!

And I just thought she looked funny with her hood on in her carseat. She wasn't amused.

Dianaisms

My mom was cleaning out the hall closet and ran across an old calendar from 1988. It had some Dianaisms in there! The Dianaisms of Diana at about age 4:

"Sometimes when I'm asleep my think goes out of my head to heaven and then comes back."

"I wish I was 16 years old because I don't have enough think in my head yet."

Diana: "Meredith, do you know how to make a Chinese 'e' ?"
Meredith: "Do you mean cursive?"
Diana: "Oh yea."

Diana listening to the theme song of "Father Knows Best": "That song is different. It didn't used to have a trumpet in it." She was right.

Mom: "Diana, have you had your breakfast yet?"
Diana: "Do you see a mustache on my face?"

"Grandma, sometimes I call you Granny, and sometimes I just call you Apple." (Age 3)

Mom: "Diana, pick up 20 things in your room before you eat."
Diana after a few minutes: "That means I have to pick up 5 things 4 times." (A regular math whiz at age 4)

"Mom, are dreams just thoughts in you head when you are asleep?"

Blessing Day

Sarah was blessed on December 28th. She was an angel all day except for when I was trying to get a good picture of her in her dress. It was the one I was blessed in 25 years ago. Pretty stylin' huh?

And Justin and his dad duking it out on the Wii.

Christmas Fun

Sarah didn't really get the whole opening-presents thing of course. It was more like, "Hey Sarah, here's your present. Over here. No, not the lights-this giraffe over here." Next year she'll be a pro.

Justin with his new car stereo his dad drew for him. Ours is broken so we're really excited to put this one in. :)

See how appreciative kids are for their presents? I know you can't spoil a baby, but wow she looks ungrateful.

And if you noticed the wardrobe change, it's because her gomer parents went to grandma's house without any diapers or change of clothes. It was a short Christmas visit but long enough for me to remove her poopy diaper, discover the lack of diapers in her bag, discuss with Justin how to make a diaper out of paper towels and a zip-loc bag, and for her to pee all over her changing pad and pajamas. Seizing the opportunity that she had just pooped and peed, we risked it all and put her in her carseat in just her onesie and headed back home. Justin got her dressed and I put a half-dozen diapers and a change of clothes in her bag. We may be new at this but we learn from our mistakes.

December Catch-Up

Here's what Sarah's been doing these past couple of weeks.

Trying on Justin's worn-out hat. Looks like she likes it as much as I do.

Taking a look at the Christmas tree. She's content down there for quite awhile. So if my tree is still up in March, you'll know why.

Getting dressed after a bath. This picture is misleading, usually she thinks it's torture.

And what she does most of the time, just sittin' pretty.

Kind of a smile

She smiles all the time now but they are even harder to capture on camera than the ones when she was sleeping. This is the closest thing and I think it's pretty dang cute. Enjoy!

See Me Grow

While I type with one hand and hold a fussy, bored baby with the other, I can't help but notice how small Sarah's newborn clothes are getting. And by small, I mean actually fit.

My purple-people-eater the day we left the hospital.

My purple-people-eater 7 weeks later after she's eaten a few people.

She has hands and arms...somewhere.

There they are!

Funny thing, I still get comments on how tiny she is. If they only knew.

Hat Time

Sarah has yet to give me a true smile. There have been some close ones but none I feel confident as claiming as her first smile. But I am convinced that it won't be me or Justin that will get her first toothless grin but that honor will go to her pink hat. I bought this bright pink hat on clearance for a dollar before she was born. It hangs above where we change her diapers and she stares at it the entire time. Well she used to just stare at it but now she gets so excited to see it, kicking her legs and waving her arms. You'd think it lit up or twirled watching her reaction. Sometimes when she's being fussy, we'll give her "hat time" and it calms her down....until she figures out I'm using it to actually get something done.

One month old

On Thanksgiving, Sarah turned 1 month. Apparently she was having mixed emotions about it that day.

Turkey Bowl

The grand tradition returns. Justin and his friends plus some random people got together for the Turkey Bowl. What was the final score? I don't know. Were there set teams? Maybe. Who called the plays? What plays? All that matters is that when they were done, they were tired and sore. Good job kids, see you next year.

This is how Sarah watched the game.

Big 8 Tag

I've been tagged so here goes.

8 Favorite TV shows (well here are 8 shows I watch. Only The Office is a true favorite that I watch every week. The rest I'll watch if I happen to catch them.)

* The Office
* Law & Order SVU
* CSI: NY
* Samantha Who? (just started watching this)
* American Idol (that's how I survive the dead of winter...carries me right thru to spring)
* Friends re-runs
* Supernanny
* And I can't think of a last one. I can think of tons that I hate. Daytime TV is the worst, no wonder people get jobs.

8 Things I Did Yesterday (yesterday was Sunday so I didn't do much. But to be honest, I don't do much these days)

* Stayed home from church because Sarah has a cold.
* Ate waffles and eggs for breakfast
* Made Justin a toasted cheese sandwich and soup
* Folded laundry
* Watched SNL clips on NBC.com
* Held Sarah for like 4 hours straight
* Watched way more football than I ever care to again
* Watched Anne of Green Gables on PBS

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

* Putting up my Christmas tree (if Justin will help me)
* Justin finishing this semester
* Sarah smiling while awake (I've never wanted someone to smile so bad in my life!)
* Sarah sleeping more than 3 hours straight during the night
* Start exercising again. I miss rollerblading so bad!
* Christmas of course. It will be fun to have a baby around this year and better yet, she won't know if I buy her anything or not.
* Seeing Justin's family in a few weeks. His dad and brother haven't met Sarah yet.
* Pretty much watching Sarah grow and learn. I never thought I'd get such a kick out of the littlest things.

8 Things on My Wishlist

* Justin to finish school
* A good night sleep
* Flatscreen computer monitor
* A warm winter without snow
* A good book to read
* To somehow not get sick all winter
* Go on a date with my husband
* To have all my family together

I'm with Mel, I don't like tagging people because I'm afraid of forgetting someone. So if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!