Observations from a 2 yr old!

Sarah's been impressing me with her observations this week.

Earlier this week, after shredding up a piece of paper, she said "my lips!" and held it up to her face. Sure enough, she had a big piece of paper that appeared as roughly shaped big lips!

Tonight, while I was getting her ready for a bath and had just started running the water in the tub, she kept saying "carrot! a carrot!" while looking in the tub. Finally I realized that the water that had just began to fill in the bottom of the tub appeared to form a carrot shape!

Furry

In the car this weekend with no toys to distract him and apparently nothing interesting in the scenery, Ben observed with much enthusiasm "Mommy, I have hair on my knees now!! I'm growing up!!"

He pointed out his new grown-up knee hair to Grandma Anne this morning too.

Frogs

So several weeks ago Anne took the kids to a program at the local nature center and the kids got to scoop out and bring home some tadpoles. We started with 9 and after a little early neglect, we've ended up with 5. However, the 5 are doing well. In fact, much to my surprise, 2 of them sprouted their front legs over night! 1 other is trailing a little behind in size and has floppy back legs and the other 2 are lagging way behind in size and don't have back legs yet. All are very active though and I was so excited to see our friends that now have all 4 legs!! How cool! I think I'm way more excited about this than Ben. He likes to check on them once a day or so and gives them fish food...but I can sit there for a good 10+ minutes watching them swim around. In addition to the tadpoles we have lots of snails that are growing quite well too. They were apparently just little microscopic specs among the mucky pond water the tadpoles came home with but they've been growing up right alongside their amphibian siblings. I finally snapped some pictures of our little pals this morning. Have meant to do so all along, but well Keith was hogging the camera for awhile and ... I didn't. Anyway, here they are:

In the car...

Ben: I'm tired.
Sarah: Tired? Why?
Ben: I'm tired because I yawned.
Sarah: Why? Ben (which sounds more like men)?
Ben: because.
Sarah: Tired too, Ben! I tired too! (fake yawn)

"cause" is her favorite response when you ask her questions. She also responded "I don't know" the other day!

The kids with their buddy Kate for her 4th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese a couple weeks ago. Do Ben's puffy allergy eyes remind you of anyone?

(Yes, I stole your picture Rebecca.)

Pass the shells

So at church on Sunday, the children's sermon was about sand dollars and how they reflect the crucifix. All the kids were given 2 little quarter size sand dollars. I held on to Ben's while he went to the preschool Sunday school class and he promptly asked for those "things" back when we picked him up. I gave them to him and told him they were sand dollars. He said something about "sand dollar crackers" a couple times and I just said okay, thinking he was being silly. So we load the kids up into the car, I climb in and look back at Ben and... he's eating his sand dollar!! His eyes got big and he had this surprised look on his face like, now what do I do?! when I told him he wasn't supposed to eat them. He was crunching away on the bite he took so I gave him a tissue to spit it out on. Luckily the church is just around the corner from the house because he couldn't spit all those little crunchy sand dollar crumbs out. He stuck his tongue out the rest of the way home and kept spitting on the walk into the house until he finally got it all rinsed out with water.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

We had one of Keith's Leadership group friends and her family over last weekend. They have a little girl, Kinley, who is a couple months younger than Ben. They played really well together and before the night was over, she decided they should get married. The next morning, the first thing out of Ben's mouth was "can we call that little girl and have her come play again?"

Yesterday we went to the mall for lunch with Rebecca and Kate. Sarah had an admirer. A sweet little blond boy who reminded me of Emmett. He kept coming over to her and at first she pushed him away. After we'd been there awhile and she was getting tired and cranky, I gave her her binky and she layed down on the bench. He came over and gave her a kiss on the cheek! He was all googley-eyed around her. It was soo cute. Rebecca snapped a pic of them:

Ben - "Maybe we can plant an acorn in your pasta plant place and it will go into a tree"

He meant hosta plant place :)

Skyscrapers

Ben - Is that a skyscraper on the church?
Me - Nope, that's the steeple.
Ben - Oh, but it's really high and it can scrape the sky like a skyscraper! Skyscrapers are soooo so high they scrape the sky!

Sad

I just read someone's story about setting up a nanny cam after watching CNN and found their poor little 5 mo. old baby being abused by their nanny. These people had done background checks, references etc. Too scarey. Fortunately, their baby didn't suffer any physical effects from being shaken and spanked.

Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho!

I started work yesterday. It was a long day as I had to go up to the office, but I left at 7 and was home by 5:30, so not too terrible. Ben had gotten up at 6:30 am to give me a kiss and "so we could watch the sun come up together!" Unfortunately, I was watching the sun come up on my drive to Cleveland. I don't know how he managed to wake himself up so early to see me off. He doesn't usually get up that early. I had told him that he might not see me in the morning since I had to leave early. He's such a sweet kid. Sarah didn't get to see me off, but was especially snuggly when I got home. They must've had a good day...the playroom was trashed when I got home.

A budding artist...

This is coming through kind of light, but Ben drew this guy this morning. He said this guy is mad because he has a thorn in his foot and needs a little guy to pull it out. He told me the guy has legs, but doesn't have any arms. It has 2 eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows (!), ears (3 - the orange circle on the cheek is an ear), and legs!

Overheard

Overheard from the playroom as Ben was playing with his buddy Kate:

"Kate I love you! You can be my friend whereever I go!"

"I'm the dad and you're the mom"

Guess I'm going to have to keep my eye on those two!!

Just yesterday or today Sarah has started to try to say "hungry". It comes out all nasally sounding "hunh-hra"...but soo cute that she has a new word. I asked her if she wanted a snack and she told me "hungry" and when I reiterated, she nodded. I've been excited knowing that within the next few months language is going to click for her. She's growing up too fast!

Ben is good and growing up fast too. He seems to be learning patience lately and it is soooooo wonderful. We've managed a few drives in the car where he didn't whine for a snack the whole time! And he let me have a phone conversation regarding work without interruption!! He spends a good portion of his days playing with his Geo Trax trains. The kid LOVES these trains!! Today he brought me the box that we still have and showed me which train he wants to get next...apparently 3 aren't enough. He's convinced Keith wants a "ghost train" for his b-day too.

She's Organized!!

I don't know where she got it from. It certainly isn't from my gene pool! She's been a good helper at cleaning up for awhile, but today I was handing her some markers to put back in the box and she put them all in the same way...cap down...into the box. It wasn't a fluke. She looked closely at each before she put each one in.

Eyecandy

http://finishedkitchens.blogspot.com/ I've been drooling over these kitchens and trying to resist the temptation to rip every last shred of wallpaper off my kitchen walls. I'd have it done in 10 minutes flat...well, the border might take a little longer. But it's the "good" thick paper that comes off in full sheets. Ben and I finished the bathroom in about 3 minutes before Thanksgiving. But if I tore the paper down, we'd still have the baby blue countertops screaming at us. No paint will solve that dilemma. So until we get a PLAN in place and decide what we're doing with the countertops and when...blue flowered paper it is...unless I'm struck by a moment of weakness.

Oh, Sarah....looky here at this corner of wall paper!

Work, work, work

It's looking like my bout of unemployement is nearing an end. I received an e-mail today from the manager I've been talking to at my former employer. He's talking to some contracting agencies this week and will be in touch by the end of the week. It was good not to have the work stress while it lasted. But it will be good to have the 2nd income and a break from constant parenting.

Shop Green

I ready about this in our local paper. Kinda cool. http://www.shopwilliamgood.com/Earth.aspx

Sarah's Words

Here are the words Sarah can say or sign:
bah-pah (backpack)
NACK! (snack)
mommy, momma
daddy
doddie (doggie)
dod (dog)
ki-ee (kitty)
bahty (potty) also signs potty...and grabs her butt!
no no no (no)
no (snow)
brr (brr cold)
ott (hot)
hat (hat)
choo-choo (choo choo train)
dorda (Dora)...sad, i know
deido (Diego)...yes, even sadder
bah-bye (bye bye)
sah (sock)
shos (shoes)
bahby (baby)
baba (bottle)

She can sign:
more
eat
drink
potty
and her own signs for:
hat/barrette/pony tails (pats her head)

Yay Sarah!

I was so impressed with Sarah today. We went to a friends house and as we were about ready to leave, Sarah signed "potty" ... then grabbed her butt (apparently incase I didn't get the sign). I took her to the bathroom and she peed and pooped! Yay Sarah!! Not even 18 mos yet and telling me she had to go...at someone else's house no less!

Happy New Year!

Well it's just not a party with our family until somebody throws up! Ben and Sarah were throwing up all night Friday night. Keith got it Sunday night and I had it all day Monday. Apparently Mom & Dad got hit by it too. So much for our New Years Eve plans with our friends!

Despite the post-Christmas vomitting, we had a nice Christmas. We decided to torture ourselves and try to do it all again this year. We don't get to see the Columbus family very often and Keith's one aunt and cousins had never even met Sarah, so we decided we'd go there this year and still make it up to Michigan. Despite all the driving, it was a really nice day and we got to have Christmas morning at home for the first time ever which was extra special since this is the first year Ben really new what was going on. Keith and I got up early to get ready and the kids actually slept in. Keith finally woke them up at 8 and Ben was excited to see Santa had come and ate his cookies. We started opening our presents and the inlaws arrived a short time later. We finished opening all our presents including the ones Ben had bought for us at the school "Jingle Bell Shop" which had miscellaneous donated items the kids could buy and give as gifts. He'd brought them home the week before Christmas and was dying to open them. I helped him make a paper chain to count down the days and that seemed to help. Anyway, he bought me a handmade serving size bowl...light green with tiny little blue chickens painted on the inside of the bowl. He was so proud of it. He also bought me a gold tone picture frame with a country Christmas print. For Daddy, he bought a white with blue rim coffee mug....looks like one you'd see at a little hole-in-the-wall diner and a mug rug! The mug rug is tiny little woven grass green rug that actually says MUG RUG in white letters with a picture of a coffee cup in between the words! Too funny!! We also received a reindeer tree ornament they'd made in school with one of Daddy's old ties. It's really cute and will no doubt bring special memories as we hang it on our tree every year. He also made a palm-print Santa on a card and dictated this message:
"Dear Mommy and Daddy, We're going to make something that's chocolatey stuff with chocolate chips, some sugar...and Merry Christmas...we have a Christmas tree at our house."

Oh, and we took Ben to see Santa just before Christmas. As we were driving there, we told him we were on our way to see Santa. He said, "Are we driving to the North Pole?"