Author: Sarah

Thank You!

Sarah General

I’m in the midst of writing thank you notes for Carrie’s birthday gifts. I feel badly that it takes me so long, because I don’t want people to think I don’t appreciate every last gift. But first I had to wait to get the custom photo cards we ordered, and now I’m hand-writing all of them – including the envelopes. I really don’t know how people manage to get them out as quickly as they do: I’ve received hand-written thank you notes (not on custom cards, though) within 2 days of giving someone a gift – at a party, so it’s not like that was the only thank you note they wrote. Am I just pathetically slow? It takes me an average of 10 minutes to write out each card, and that’s with (I’m blushing to admit this) “pre-writing” them on my computer – because it takes me at least that long to know what to say and how to phrase it, and I’d go through twice as many notecards if I just tried to write them cold.

I suck at writing thank you notes.

(And I feel especially guilty about these taking so long because not everyone was able to stay long enough at the parties to watch Carrie open her gifts, so we didn’t even get to thank them in person.)

It’s A Challenge

Sarah Crafts

I totally blew my October challenge goals. The only one I managed to finish was the small birthday gift, which I just realized I never even took a picture of! (It was a cute little pink scarf for my 6-year-old niece.)

Now we’re on to the holiday challenge, though, and this one I really can’t ignore. I have (if I’m counting right, I think I’m missing one or two) 19 different projects – ranging from dishcloths to quilts – to make before, let’s say, December 15th. I think I have to be totally insane. But at least there’s no birthday party to interfere with the crafting insanity. (Just birthday party thank you notes that still need to be written!)

Happy Halloween!

Sarah Carolyn, General

halloween.jpg

Carrie was feeling much better today – her fever is completely gone, although based on the drooling I’m guessing there’s another tooth on the way – so we stuffed her in her pumpkin costume and I took her to a few houses. I was actually only planning on taking her to three houses, but Carrie really got into the whole trick-or-treating scene. Her favorite part? Ringing the doorbells! After all, doorbells are just large (sometimes even lit!) buttons.

She was really funny about the candy, though. She kept signing “cheese”, because being the lazy mom I am I feed her cheese sticks instead of having to cut a chunk off a brick, so she thinks anything in a metallic wrapper is cheese. And then she wanted to hold it instead of putting it in her little ghost bucket, but that didn’t work so well after two houses. Unfortunately, she does know that there is yummy stuff under those wrappers, since my parents gave her a piece of white chocolate to try. (And apparently the wrapper is equally tasty.) She also got extra candy at most of the houses too, because she’d hear some music and start dancing or just do something particularly cute. Oh, and at the first house we went to she tried to actually go in the house when they opened the door, which was pretty amusing to all involved.

It will be hard to top this Halloween for the best Halloween ever. It was a nice balmy 60°, it didn’t rain, and it was so much fun to take my baby trick-or-treating!

First (High) Fever

Sarah Firsts

Carrie’s sick. She woke up at 2:00 this morning, and I thought she felt especially warm. (Keep in mind I spent two days asking people if Carrie felt warm only to find that her temperature was completely normal.) I pulled out our handy temporal artery thermometer, and she had a temp of 101. (See? Moms know. I knew she was feverish two whole days before the thermometer figured it out!)

I gave her some Tylenol and got her back to sleep. Until 4:00. And then 5:00. And then at 5:30 (EST) she was up for good. Counting the time shift that was in there somewhere and having gone to bed at midnight (EDT) I’d guess I got about 5 hours of sleep.

Carrie was a trooper for the whole ride home, though. By the time we got within an hour of home she was starting to act like she was sick and uncomfortable but for the most part she was amazingly good. I do have to keep Tylenol in her system – the box says 4-6 hours, but if she goes more than 4 her temp goes up to anywhere from 101 to 103. I’m a tiny bit worried about how high it will get overnight. I think it’s going to be a long night.

One funny story from the road, though. We stopped at a sit-down place for breakfast (we left a little after 7 since we were up anyway), but then just hit a McDonald’s for lunch because we wanted to get Carrie home as soon as we could. Carrie turned her nose up at the cheeseburger, ate 2 1/2 fries, and totally rejected the apple juice. However, her Kashi cereal and a single-serve applesauce container we had in the car, plus her sippy of water, were perfectly fine. I guess it’s probably a good thing that she refuses to eat fast food, just a little less than convenient!

Birthday Party Part Deux

Sarah Carolyn

20051029_party.jpgCarrie had her last first birthday party today! She had a blast with all of her cousins, although she does seem to be a bit under the weather. (She seems to have a non-stop runny nose, and I swear she’s felt feverish to me for the past two days, although the thermometer disagrees.) I also didn’t manage to time her nap very well: it was too early and too short, which I’m sure contributed to her crankiness.

After the cake, all the kids put on their Halloween costumes and had a mini-parade. We actually got all seven first cousins, plus one of their second cousins, to sit on the couch all at the same time. As far as I can tell, nobody’s crying or trying to leap off the couch. I think we should mark this day on a calendar!

Although I did hand my camera around a bit, we didn’t get as many pictures this time around, but we did get some good ones here. (Why is it so hard to be involved in an event and still record it?!?) Carrie’s definitely looking a bit rough around the edges in some of those pictures…

A Bunch Of Hooey?

Sarah General

I’m prepared to swear that Sea-Bands are a miracle product. Denis thinks they’re all a bunch of hooey. But see, here’s the thing: lately whenever I’m in the car as a passenger I end up with horrible motion sickness. So yesterday I bought a pair before we left on our trip. We were in the car for over 8 hours, and it wasn’t the smoothest ride ever, and I was in the back seat. I kept expecting to feel nauseous…but I didn’t.

I was able to knit. I was able to read. I was able to lean over to make silly faces at Carrie, look out the window at the passing fall foliage, and just generally act like a completely normal person in the car.

When I opened the package and saw exactly what they were, having spent $10 for the pair, I was almost ready to cry because I thought they’d never work. So Denis’ allegation that it’s all in my head can’t be true, because I was not expecting them to work at all, but they did. So there. It may be all a bunch of hooey, but I’m perfectly happy with it if it works! (And I’m keeping them around for if/when I’m pregnant again – maybe it will reduce the all-day morning sickness symptoms, too!)

12 month well-baby visit

Sarah Growing Up

Vital stats:
1 year, 2 days old
20 lbs. 3 oz.
29.5″ tall

My goodness. I’ve been lifting a 20 pound weight for weeks now – I’m a strong mama! Today was Carrie’s 1 year checkup, and she checks out perfectly. She’s almost exactly (within 1/4 pound) tripled her birth-weight, which is exactly what they’re supposed to do. We can give her whole eggs now, and whole milk if we want – but since she’s still nursing we don’t have to yet. We can technically also switch her carseat to front-facing, but having read a bunch of studies and seen some crash-test videos we’ve decided to keep her rear-facing as long as we can. The rear-facing limit on her seat is something like 33 or 35 pounds, so probably for another year and half or more. (</end public service announcement>)

Carrie had her chicken pox vaccine (I’m so glad she won’t have to deal with that – it’s one of my earliest memories, since I had it when I was three, and it’s not a pleasant one) and her flu shot today. She was such a trooper, and didn’t cry at all for them. And then we had to take her down the hall for the finger stick lead test. Again, she was amazingly good and didn’t cry, despite having to sit still for a good five minutes while the technician collected drop after drop of blood. (I swear, the mama bear instinct was in full force and I wanted to claw her eyes out, although I’m sure she’s very nice.)

Now Carrie’s sleeping it all off, and will hopefully wake up a happy girl – though I certainly can’t blame her if she wakes up cranky!

Twelve Months Old! (a.k.a. Happy Birthday!)

Sarah Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are one year old! I can’t believe how quickly this year has flown by, and I’m torn between feeling sad that my baby is growing up so fast and feeling excited about seeing the little person you’re becoming.

(Click the picture to see Carrie and her bear at 1 month old.)


The changes this month have been more subtle than in past months. You’re becoming a lot more independent and adventurous, and you want to do things you maybe can’t quite do yet, but you really want to do them yourself and will get upset if anyone tries to help you. Now that you’ve mastered walking, you’re working on climbing. You’ve managed to get up on the coffee table once already, and you love to climb in and out of kid-sized chairs. Unfortunately, you also love to stand in kid-sized chairs, and have fallen and bumped your head a few times.

Now you have two teeth, and we brush them every night. First I take a turn, then you get your toothbrush to chew on for a bit. You’re loving your “big girl” bath, in the regular old tub, especially since we got a duck tub mat and some duck tile appliques for the walls. You love to point to them and sign “dog”. (We keep trying to tell you that “duck” and “dog” sound a lot alike but are different words – and signs – but you insist that they’re dogs.)

Hm, let’s see, what new foods have you tried this month? Definitely salmon, kale, chick peas, cranberries and chocolate. At this point, everything you eat is something we’re eating for dinner, unless we’re having chicken. You hate chicken. And anything chicken broth-based. I’m starting to think that my complete aversion to chicken while I was pregnant with you was because you don’t like it. I imagine you’ll at least learn to tolerate it someday. In the meantime, you get plenty of protein from cheese, turkey, beans and fish. Oh, and I discovered “pea butter” a few weeks ago, so some days I have my regular old PB&J for lunch, and you get PeaB&J for your lunch. This has cut down on how often you beg for my sandwich which you can’t eat yet.

You have some news signs this month: “water”, “read”, “bear”, “bunny”, “butterfly”, “moon” and “star”. (Some of these, admittedly, are very similar – in fact, “bear”, “bunny” and “butterfly” look exactly the same, so you sign it and then point to what you’re “talking” about.) So that brings us to, what, 16 signs? And you sign two-word sentences, like “more cheese” and “read dog” (to hear a book about a dog.) No new spoken words yet, but you’re working on your “s” and “sh” sounds. You really love socks and shoes and try out those sounds whenever you see them, so I think you’ll get those words soon! Sometimes it really sounds like you’re trying to swear. Since Daddy and I really watch our language around you, though, I’m pretty sure you’re just talking about shoes!

We had a big birthday party for you a couple of days ago, and you had a great time. Tonight we just had a little celebration, and I made your favorites: turkey, green beans and sweet potatoes. Instead of a cake I bought a pumpkin roll for you to try – we’re a little “caked out”, and you have another big birthday party this weekend, so I figured it would be ok. You loved it so much you were actually licking the plate! I hate to tell you, but while you were licking the front of your plate, Molly was licking the back of it. I really wish we’d gotten that on video! And then when you were all done with your cake you tried to eat my piece too. I’m glad you like pumpkin so much, because you’re my little pumpkin. (You’re going to hate me someday when you read this!) Oh, and we got you a book and a doll for your birthday. The first thing you did was drop your doll on her head and step on her. Poor dolly!


You’re definitely making the transition from baby girl to little girl, and while I miss the baby I’m loving the little girl you’re becoming. I’m sure someday I’m going to see you with your own little girl and wonder where the time went. In the meantime, I guess I’d better try to enjoy every single minute I have with my little girl. I love you, Carrie.

Love, Mommy

See more pictures!

Cribs And Kisses

Sarah Carolyn

A year ago today, my parents, my grandfather, and Denis spent almost an hour putting together Carrie’s crib. Just in time, too, because I went into labor a couple hours later! Today, on the other hand, I spent what felt like an hour trying to detach one of the toys Carrie got at her party yesterday from its packaging. I swear, those stupid little twist ties ought to be illegal! Whoever came up with this form of packaging never had a small child crawling all over them because they really, really, really wanted the toy inside the box – the toy they could touch and play with through the box but couldn’t actually get out!

Tonight, as I was getting Carrie settled for bed, she started giving me kisses on my cheeks and chin. She’s given “blown” kisses before, but never real kisses. They were open-mouthed slobbery kisses, but they were the sweetest kisses I’ve ever gotten! And here I was feeling all bittersweet about her turning a year old tomorrow, because it seems like the year has gone by so fast and I’m afraid I’m not living enough in the moment and enjoying this fleeting time. But the kisses made it all better! And after she gave me enough kisses she fell asleep in my arms, which she hasn’t done in ages at bedtime. I swear I thought my heart was just going to melt.

Happy Birthday To A Star!

Sarah Carolyn

20051022_party.jpgWe had the first of Carrie’s first birthday parties today! (She’ll have a small celebration on her actual birthday this Monday, and we’re going to visit the other half of our family in NYC for another big bash next Saturday.) It was a great party. Things came together, and not even at the last minute – we had some time to chill before the party started, and Carrie miraculously took an early nap so she was a happy little girl for the party. I can’t thank Lisa enough for all her help with everything, especially the cake!

Carrie did all the things you hope your child will do for their first birthday party. She walked, she shoved chocolate cake in her mouth (and all over her face), and she even feigned interest in the whole present thing for a bit. Amazingly, she took having more than 40 (I lost count) people in the house with only a tiny bit of shyness, and was a social butterfly for most of the afternoon. I think she missed the dogs, who spent the day at doggie day spa (we boarded them at the vet, where they’ll get a pedicure), but we thought they’d be happier to not have to deal with so many people.

There are some (well, maybe more than some) pictures here. We ran out of memory card space before the end, but luckily there were a few other cameras floating around! I also put together a playlist for the party, which is a combination of sort of general party music, songs with some sentimental meaning, and songs that went with the rainbow/colors/wishing theme of the party. Oh, and there are several songs about dogs.