Parenting Tip #003

Never leave baby unattended with a bowl full of oatmeal.

Every winter our couch gets super staticky and it drives me crazy. But this year I kind of like it.

This week's cool place to play is behind the kitchen curtains. After I vacuumed up the dead flies in the the bottom, it's more baby friendly.

A Ghoul and Her Pumpkin

I wonder what the carving pumpkin tradition seems like to Sarah. We've had the pumpkin on our porch for a couple of weeks. She liked to pat it and say "pa". Then one night we bring it in, gut it, and cut holes in it and then make her take her picture next to it on two separate occasions.

Safety first.

Don't we just love dads?

What scares you most about the picture below? My crazy smile? Sarah's demon eyes? You'd be wrong though, it's the spirit of the pumpkin leaving its body.

On to Halloween. We tried on her costume earlier that the day. Her response concerned us as to how the evening was going to go.

Once we figured out that she was fine once her hands were free, she did all right. We never could get her to roar, only scream.

"Sit next to this pumpkin dressed like a lion so we can take your picture." Only on Halloween.

Justin smiles with candy greed in his eyes.

We only went to a few houses of people we knew because holding out Sarah's bucket and saying "trick or treat" is awkward.

Speaking of awkward, here's Justin with no neck. But I find his arm placement impressively accurate.

It's Fun to Be 1!

Happy Birthday to Sarah!

To be honest, I didn't think we'd make it this far so it's hard to believe we've made it. And I've been focusing on her turning 12 months for so long, I'm having trouble comprehending that she'll be 13, 14, 15 months, etc. So prepare yourself for a long post. I've taken 97 pictures and 23 videos in the past 3 days but here's just the best and the highlights.

Just to see how far she's come, here she is on her true birthday.

Here's my little pioneer girl now.

Her birthday balloon.

It took all day to make her birthday cake. I'm very proud of it--not because it turned out spectacular but because I did it while taking care of a speedy, sometimes clingy one-year-old.

She got her toe in the cake in the above picture so we helped her lick it off.

It's no wonder that "ball" was her first word.

Her balloon was pretty dead this morning but still fun to play with.

I love fall but am sad that it's getting too cold to go on our daily walk.

Sarah tasted quite a few leaves. None of them tasted good but that didn't slow her down.

The Great and Dreadful Day

The great and dreadful day has come to the Dye house. Sarah figured out on Wednesday how to climb the stairs.

I haven't seen her this gleeful since she figured out how to flood the bathroom with her splashing.

Sarah continues to have a love/hate relationship with her clothes. After a few minutes of whining and pulling, this is what she was going for, apparently.

This has no story. I just like her.

Today was unseasonably warm so we headed to her favorite swing at the city park. And since we've been sick all week, we both needed to get out of the house. We may or may not have had the flu caused by the H1N1 virus. And Sarah may still be contagious so pull out your sani-wipes if you happen to use this swing--just a heads up.

40 Years and Counting

40 YEARS ago today was my parent's wedding. Wow!!

(Picture stolen from my sister's blog. Thanks Meredith)

After 8 kids, 20+ grandkids (I'm too lazy to count right now), 10+ moves and who knows how many cars later, my parents have seen it all.

I am just so blessed to have their fountain and well of wisdom (my mom is the fountain...dad the well) so close. I can't tell you how many times I call them with a cooking question, gardening question, car, money, parenting question and they are more than willing to help and 99.9% right.

And they have everything you could possibly ever need to borrow. Square nose shovel, stack of coloring books, putty, meat thermometer (I still need to return that one), paint roller, weed killer, wheel barrow, Prince Caspian movie, pillow cases, old sheets, rugs. And that was just this summer.

Congratulations Mom and Dad! We love you.

-Justin, Diana and Sarah

Busy, busy Sarah

She loves food and is always willing to try what we're eating. And by 'willing' I mean she gets mad if we don't share. Here she is eating some bread and jam. I tried to break the bread into small bite-sized pieces but she showed me that was a waste of time. She ate 1 1/2 slices. She would have eaten more.

The Price is Right is one of her favorite shows. You may think I'm a slacker parent since her pants are falling down. You should be impressed that she's dressed by 9 am.

Just looking for more to eat.

I almost forgot the most important event. Sarah can crawl like a normal human now! Suddenly, she just did it. I was giddy. And yes, I let her eat food off the floor. More often than not, she put it there anyway.

This picture was taken September 1. I put a sheet under her pool because I was afraid the sunburned grass would pop her pool.

This was taken a couple of days ago. Amazing what a sprinkler system will do. Thanks to Justin's dad!!

The other morning, Sarah was really annoyed with her pajamas. She pulled on her sleeves and feet but wasn't getting out of them. Being the considerate parent that I am, I unzipped them and got her arms and feet out so she was left sitting on them. But she didn't quite get that she was free.

The Perfect Gift

I've been stressing about what to get Sarah for her birthday. I don't have the money to get her tons of stuff and hope that she likes at least something -- what I get her has to be good! (Not to mention not annoying and fun for me to play along with her.) I've been searching websites, stores, and classifieds to find the toy that will win her heart.

Today she played with a bottle of paprika for over 10 minutes while I made dinner.

After dinner she stood at the stereo receiver and turned the big volume knob for what seemed like forever.

During her bath, she bit on her washcloth and yanked it back out like 20 times and thought it was hilarious.

Why do I even bother?

11 Months Old and Stuff

Yay for Sarah! She's 11 months old today. She's still funny and crazy. She's a bit taller and heavier too. I'll know exactly how heavy when I go to Macey's tomorrow.

Smiling....

Thinking....

Yelling at the neighbors dog....

She really wants to climb the stairs. I think it's her goal for the month. She's still too short but she tries everyday.

Now this was a few weeks ago but I just found it again and her laugh at the beginning makes me wish she was awake right now...almost. Sarah knows where all the door stoppers are in the house and does this:

This is also funny. Justin and Sarah usually get a little silly after dinner. Watch for the following things. In order:

1. Sarah slyly dropping her chicken bone.

2. Sarah going silent and serious.

3. Justin gagging on an ice cube.

Talents Abound

Sarah has given up on perfecting her crawling technique and has focused all her energy on learning to walk. She spends most her time standing to anything that will support her weight and reaching out to the next thing that will support her.

This is Sarah's new favorite spot to hang out. She likes to play jail.

In case you missed that pumpkin grin, here it is again.

And this is Sarah's impersonation of Tobey Maguire.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my 26th birthday. Every year that my birthday has fallen on a weekday, I've always been at school or work so this year was quite different. After finding a depressing amount of gray hairs on my head and one in my eyebrow, Sarah and I spent some time at the mall where I treated us to a huge cinnamon roll at some bread place but I don't remember the name. It was really good though. And I bought a new sweater (please see pictures below).

Later we went to my nephew Christian's football game. He plays for Maple Mountain High. I have this ability (I call it a gift, Justin thinks it's ridiculous) that I can watch a football play and still have no idea what, or if anything, happened. Many a time, a game will be on TV, Justin will leave the room and I'm still staring at the screen. He'll hear the crowd cheer, come back in, ask what happened and I honestly cannot recall anything unique about that play from anything else they've been doing on the screen for the past 3 hours.

But yesterday I was trying really hard to pay attention, especially when Christian was on the field. They'd scrimmage up (I found out later, talking to Justin, that that isn't a proper term but I don't know the real one so I'm still using it) so I knew something was about to happen then I'd get distracted by the smallest thing, anything, and then I'd snap out of it and there they were, standing around again.

But towards the end, it was close so I paid attention. They won. It was actually a pretty good game. Don't ask me what the final score was though.

Maple Mountain vs. North Sanpete. I thought NS looked like SHS.

Fanueli Christian Pouha, #61. This is after they pretty much sealed the win. I think I said, "I just want to hug him" like 10 times during the game.

Sarah looks like she's getting into the action but she is really just excited about the chain-link fence. So much like her mom already.....

My sister and I got a kick out of watching the players exit the field by crawling across the track. The only thing we can gather was that they couldn't walk on it in their cleats. This was easier than removing their shoes, I guess.

Sarah and I on my big day.

The Birthday Ballerina made her 10th appearance on my birthday cake. She's really like 30 years old but I didn't find her in the cupboard and stick her on my cake until 1999. I also try to sneak her on the birthday cakes of others, to often vocal objections. Notice her burnt arms in retaliation.

Mmm I hope there's still some cake left at my mom's. The 2 is in backwards. That's funny.

A Much Anticipated Event

For the first time in her life, Sarah slept all night long without waking up to eat, cry, talk, or crawl. She slept in her crib for 11 1/2 hours straight. That means I stayed in bed all night long, undisturbed for the first time in 315 days! Oh the things you take for granted before you are a parent.

Obviously, I am deliriously well-rested.