March 2007 – Sarah's Journal

So Far Behind…

Sarah General March 27, 2007

I’m so far behind in answering emails it’s not even funny. And obviously I’m behind in blogging, since the past 10 days worth of posts just finally showed up. It’s not that I don’t write them in a timely manner, it’s just the act of getting the pictures off the camera, cropping them, uploading them, and sticking them in the posts that I dread. Once I have iPhoto, Photoshop Elements, and Firefox open all at the same time, my practically new MacBook Pro starts doing the spinning-color-wheel-of-death, “go make yourself a cup of coffee, I’m busy thinking here and it’s going to be a while” thing. So I don’t like to do it unless I really, really have to. I guess I should try to figure out what that’s all about so it’s not such a dreadful task. (My gut feeling is that it’s iPhoto, as it’s a problem that’s gotten worse with time and I’m now up to 8400+ photos in my library. Sigh.) I also think I just generally need to be more efficient with my computer time…

Or maybe just sleep less.

One Down, One To Go

Sarah Music March 25, 2007

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat finished last night. I really loved playing in it, and as usual I’m a little sad to see it end. I’m not sad to see the double rehearsals go – I ate so many dinners in my car the past few weeks that I’ve forgotten what it’s like to eat dinner with my family, at a table.

Now I just have West Side Story to do. So, you’ll excuse me while I go practice the Mambo now…oh, and I have to work on Cool, Tonight, Office Krupke…actually, I should really just go practice the whole show. Several times. With a metronome…

Twenty-Nine Months Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates March 24, 2007

Dear Carolyn,

Next month we can officially call you 2-and-a-half. Your Daddy and I were just discussing how different you are now from when you turned 2, how you change so much faster than we do, we can barely keep up.

I’d like to tell you what your favorite things to do this month are, but the word “everything” doesn’t come close to summing it up. Color with crayons and markers? Great! Ride your tricycle? Sure! Read library books over and over? Wonderful idea! Play with dolls and blocks and puzzles and cars and play-doh? All at the same time? Bring it on! About the only things you don’t like to do are getting ready for bed, getting ready to eat, getting ready to leave the house…do you see the trend here?

You are a very helpful child. You love to help me load and unload the dishwasher (it definitely goes faster when you help, since I have to put away all the breakables as fast as I can!), vacuum (the floor gets extra clean since I have to go really slowly so I don’t run over your toes), fold laundry (or unfold, as the case may be) and dust (actually, that is really helpful – though not very thorough). You’re also very, very polite when we’re out, saying pleases and thank yous unprompted. The other night we were at Grandma’s house for dinner, and you had eaten a late lunch. When she encouraged you to eat more dinner, you said “No thanks, I’ll finish it later. Can I have some apples please?”

You’re back to sleeping in your bed, although you take forever to fall asleep at night. And sometimes you have nightmares. The other night you woke up crying, and when I went in to ask you what was wrong you tearfully replied, “my play-doh!” When I asked what happened to your play-doh you sniffled and said in a really small voice, “it fell off the little green table.” And as funny as that sounds now, I wanted to cry with you that night hearing how sad you were. I’m honored to be the person who can make it all better when you have a nightmare.

Love, Mommy

Bowling

Sarah Carolyn March 23, 2007

I signed Carrie up for bumper bowling for the spring, for a change of pace from story times and music “classes”. She loved it – from the fancy shoes:

…to the fun metal ramp that actually lets the ball get all the way to the end of the lane:

And she bowled a 78 for her very first game of bowling ever. That’s pretty good…I bet I could barely break 100 since it’s been so long since I went bowling last!

Sixteen Teeth, Going On Seventeen

Sarah Carolyn March 21, 2007

Carrie came to my dentist appointment today. She got to take a ride in the “big chair”, while the dental hygienist counted her teeth. (Apparently two of her two-year molars are finally on their way in – which could explain a bit about the last couple weeks of sleep issues.) The chair was such a big hit that Carrie kept begging for another turn while I was getting my teeth cleaned.

Next fall she’ll have her first “real” appointment. In the meantime, all of her teeth look good, and she seems to have a normal bite…despite the sleep-time binky habit we haven’t kicked yet…

Oh, and the hygienist was impressed with our toothbrushing song. We sing the ABC song while Carrie brushes her teeth, but then after when Denis or I brush her teeth we sing the “Toothbrush Hokey Pokey”. I’m sure it’s not really original, but the hygienist had never heard of such a thing, so in case anyone needs a new toddler toothbrushing strategy, I give you:

The Toothbrush Hokey Pokey
You put the toothbrush in. Stick the toothbrush in.
You take the toothbrush out. Take the toothbrush out.
You put the toothbrush in, I trust you can figure this out…
And then you shake it all about! Brush as many teeth as you can!
You do the hokey toothbrush and you turn yourself around, You can turn around, or have your child turn around, or just turn the toothbrush around here.
That’s what it’s all about! Jazz hands. Seriously.

(Repeat until all the teeth are brushed.)

Books We Love

Sarah Children's Books March 19, 2007

We have an unbelievable number of books in our house. Paperback books that I’ve collected since high school, textbooks from college, fiction, science fiction, non-fiction…

I started buying books for Carrie before she was even born. I’d see a picture book that I had to have to read to her someday and I’d buy it. We have an obscene number of board books, and a growing library of “paper page” books for her. We also frequent the library, and when we bring home a new batch of books we have to read them over and over again until they’re practically memorized.

There are a lot of amazing children’s books out there. But there are so many, it’s hard to know where to start. So I thought I’d mention some of the books we really, really love in this house, in case anyone is looking for some ideas. Just as a warning, it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re either going to have dogs or sheep in them, or sometimes bunnies.

The first one actually doesn’t have animals as a main theme. We’ve gotten this book out of the library a few times now, and I think we may have to add it to our collection:

The Night is Singing by Jacqueline Davies.
The illustrations in this book are an amazing mix of collage and painting. Every time I read it I see a detail I’d missed before. I really love the main character’s knit bunny! It’s also a very readable book, with lyrical rhyming text (“Pip-pip popping/acorns dropping/on the roof above your head”). The book is about a little girl getting ready to go to sleep and identifying all the various noises of the night as lullabies. It is one of our very favorite bedtime stories.

St. Patty’s Day Party ’07

Sarah Friends March 18, 2007

Our 6th annual St. Patty’s Day party was today. It was a blast! The power went out an hour before everyone was supposed to come. Luckily, I had already vacuumed. Unluckily, the corned beef and scalloped potatoes were still cooking. Denis went out and fired up the generator so the crock pot (with the potatoes) would keep on cooking, and then he fired up the grill and stuck the giant roasting pan of corned beef in the grill.

Shortly after the first guests arrived the power finally came back on. But all things considered, it wasn’t a huge problem, just a minor inconvenience. A generator is a good thing.

And now for the really crazy part of the day: at one point, there were 10 children five and under in my house. That’s a lot of small humans in one place at one time. But they all got along really well and everyone played really nicely.

I also decided that I haven’t taken enough pictures at these parties throughout the years, so I chased people around with a silly hat ($1 at Target!) and took pictures of (almost) everyone in it. (I think I missed a couple of the kids – they didn’t stay still long enough, and if they weren’t willing I didn’t push the issue.)

More silly hat pictures are here.

O.K.

Off to go call the power company again, since the power just went out again. Yay for laptops and DSL…the power going out didn’t cause me to lose my post!

Say “Cheese!”

Sarah Kid's Crafts March 14, 2007

Considering there’s a camera pointed at her a fair amount of the time, it shouldn’t really surprise anyone that Carrie loves cameras. We’re considering getting her the Fisher Price kid’s digital camera for her next birthday. (It bothers me that they have a “girls” version and a “boys” version, but given the choice I know Carrie would pick pink.) But in the meantime she tends to pretend that various things are a camera.

The other day I was flattening an empty girl scout cookie box for recycling, when Carrie grabbed it out of my hands, looked through the open end, and said “say cheese!” So I taped it back up, cut a viewfinder, covered it in plain paper, and cut off a bit of a paper towel tube to make a lens. We decorated it with markers, crayons, and a foam sticker for the shutter button.

Carrie pretends to take pictures with it, and then shows me the back of the camera and says “Look! That’s a great picture!” It’s very obvious she’s only known digital cameras. I wonder if she will ever take film pictures, or if film will even be commonly available when she’s older?

(It was her idea for me to draw a picture of two doggies and a little girl on the back. I’m not exactly an artist, but she was happy enough with my attempt.)

Carrie’s Tricycle

Sarah Milestones March 13, 2007

The tricycle I ordered during last week’s blizzard came today, which turned out to be the first beautifully warm day this year. Carrie was so excited she could barely contain herself! Denis assembled it – with Carrie’s “help” of course – and I got her all set with her new helmet. We headed out to the driveway and let her try our her new wheels. Of course, she had to bring her baby out to tuck into the convenient basket in the back.

I think she loves her trike, don’t you? More pictures here.

For anyone who’s curious, we ordered the Kettler Blossom trike from Oompa toys. It was the best price that I found, they had free shipping, and it’s a store I’ve ordered from before and had a good experience with. We also ordered the optional parent push bar, and it’s a good thing too since I think it will take a while for Carrie to master the whole pedaling/steering/stopping thing! The helmet is a Giro Me2 from our local bike shop. I tried Target first, but none of their helmets fit quite right – the 1+ helmets were too small and the 3+ helmets were too big. I’m really happy I spent the extra money on an easy-to-adjust helmet. And Giro has a grow-with-me program that lets you trade in a too small helmet for credit towards a bigger one. Plus, well, it’s pink. With bunnies. Carrie couldn’t be more thrilled – unless maybe it was pink with puppies!

I Do Sometimes Finish Things

Sarah Knitting March 12, 2007

Just in time for last week’s cold snap, I finished knitting my mitten-gloves! And then I determined that the leftover yarn I was going to extend the scarf with looked enough different that it would be better to just bind off. So I hid all the ends on the whole set, and wore them to rehearsal the night it got down to 1°F (before wind chill).

Somehow, the hat is too short and too long at the same time. It doesn’t cover my ears, but I can’t wear it above my ears. I’m really tempted to rip it back and make it a bit longer (or shorter) but I also really want to be done with the project, since I’ve been working on it for two years! Other than that, I’m pretty happy with how it all turned out. Details are on project page.

In other knitting news, I finished my first Pomatomus sock. I really think this is the prettiest sock I’ve ever knit. So much so that I’m worried about starting the second. As far as I can tell, there is no place where the colors repeat on this yarn, so they won’t match. I don’t know why that matters to me – although I try to match socks with obvious repeats in the yarn, I don’t worry about it with variegated sock yarns – but it does. I guess I’m worried that I’ll be three quarters of the way through the second sock and finally find the repeat point. In which case, I wouldn’t rip it out, so I should just start it, right?

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