Author: Sarah

Silly Sayings

Sarah Carolyn

The other night before bed, I asked Carrie for a good night kiss:
Carrie: OK, but let’s have a marrying kiss!
Me: A marrying kiss? What’s that?
Carrie: You know, you have a marrying kiss and then you live happily ever after.
…Do you think maybe I’ve let her watch one too many Disney movies?

I have a coffee mug with characters from just about every animated Disney movie made, including Sleeping Beauty. Carrie really wants to watch Sleeping Beauty (and actually it’s been on my Netflix queue for a while but it’s not currently available). So at breakfast a few days ago she saw Sleeping Beauty on my mug and asked again if she could watch it:
Me: Oh, I don’t know… Daddy, do you think Carrie’s old enough for Sleeping Beauty?
Denis: I’m not sure…
Carrie: I am too old enough to watch it! I mean, look at me!
Yep, 3 going on 13.

Overheard at the dinner table:
“I normally like my bread two ways: with butter…and sometimes, without.”

First Fiber Festival

Sarah Anna, Crafts, Shop Talk

Anna went to her first fiber festival today. I don’t think she was too impressed with the fibery beasts (she slept right through seeing any of them) but she loved all the colors we saw. Some of those colors came home with us:

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Clockwise from 12:00 – Black Cherry Panda Bamboo yarn from Spininng Bunny, Mixed Berries alpaca/wool/nylon tie-dye sock yarn from Golden Oak Alpacas, Salvia 100% merino superwash fingering weight yarn from Pollywogs Yarn and Fiber, Leaves Panda Bamboo yarn from Spinning Bunny, 12 oz. Cassis merino top from Cloverleaf Farms, and finally, an unknown content batt from a shop I didn’t catch the name of…I think I accidentally fell down and bought it so it wouldn’t become “The Batt That Got Away”!

Carolyn’s favorite part was the sheep! And the alpacas! And the llamas! I think if we could have passed it off as a dog she would have taken one of the tiny little Shetland sheep home with us. We added to Carrie’s collection of fibery stuffed animals with a handsome chocolate llama, and started Anna’s collection wth a floppy lamb lovey with a fuzzy tummy. Aren’t they cute?

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Next month: Rhinebeck. Because, you know, I need more wool like I need a hole in the head…well, actually, one can never have enough wool.

(More pictures from the festival can be found here – Kodak Gallery album, requires sign-in.)

New Respect for Single Parents

Sarah General

Denis did me a huge favor this afternoon and went to help set up for the wool festival the shop is participating in this weekend. So I had the kids by myself all day and all evening, and since Denis normally deals with dinner and does most of the bedtime routine, this is a big deal. (Yes, I know, I count my blessings over this!)

I thought I was doing a decent job: Anna only screamed for half the time I spent getting dinner on the table, and I managed to nurse her while eating one-handed, then even got “dessert” (sliced apples) for Carrie and cleaned the kitchen while she finished up eating.

Then I thought, well, it’s been a few days since either girl had a bath, and the weekend’s going to be super busy, and we have the nifty mesh baby seat that goes right in the tub, so I can give them a bath together, they’ll both wind down and sleep really well… Big. Mistake.

After getting baby oil everywhere (I was trying to comb out some of Anna’s cradle cap) and – get this – dropping the phone in the tub when Denis called to say goodnight, Carrie helpfully tried to rinse the shampoo out of Anna’s hair by dumping a bucket of water on her head. The baby started screaming, Carrie started screaming because the baby was screaming, and I wanted to start screaming. It all went downhill from there.

Although, I suppose, since Carrie is in bed (theoretically – she’s been staying up until 10:30 or 11 reading lately) and Anna screamed herself to sleep after I got her in pajamas, I should count myself successful, right? The kids are fed, clean and asleep, the dogs have been fed and taken out, the kitchen is cleaner than it was when I started (I can’t quite truthfully say it’s “clean”) and I have a few free minutes to actually type two-handed!

Photo Shoot

Sarah Anna

There were several babies born in Denis’ office this year – and it’s a pretty small company, so it was proportionally a lot of babies. So they decided their holiday card would be all the new babies. It was pretty funny to try to have seven babies (two of which were quite mobile) in a photo together. Anna, being the only girl, was propped up in the middle on a boppy pillow…and promptly drifted off to sleep amidst the chaos. I guess she has a lot of practice, what with having an older sister and two big dogs constantly trying to disturb her sleep times…

2 month well-baby visit

Sarah Growing Up

Vital stats:
9 weeks, 2 days old
11 lbs, 8 oz
23 inches

Anna is pretty much in the 50th percentile for everything. So I was kind of surprised when the pediatrician remarked that she was a “solid” baby. But then my mom pointed out that the second child has to be solid to stand up to all the loving from the first!

And there was the first round of vaccinations today. I feel really, really bad, because this pediatrician doesn’t allow babies this little to have even Tylenol, so Anna has been miserable all afternoon long. Hopefully she’ll feel better by morning!

How You Know It’s Time To Fold The Laundry…

Sarah General

Last night we went upstairs to go to sleep and realized that the latest load of laundry was still (unfolded) on the bed. Seeing as all of the laundry baskets in the house were already full (of more clean, unfolded clothes), I did the only thing I could do.

I dumped it all in the co-sleeper.

The baby doesn’t use it (much), so it may as well do something other than take up floor space, right?

(But no worries. I folded everything (wrinkles? what wrinkles?) and put it all away earlier this evening. Of course, the load that’s currently in the washer is going to live in one of those newly empty laundry baskets for the next several days, I’m sure…)

Two Months Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates

Dear Anna,

You have changed so much in the past month, you’re like a completely different baby! For one thing, you now have eyebrows. Actually, they’re still so light and fine I’m probably the only one who notices the difference.

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Let’s see. You started waking up and noticing the world more. You smile, a lot, and it’s pretty funny what we’ll all do to get you to do it again. I’d smile a lot too if two adults and a medium-sized kid were all cooing and gooing and making goofy faces at me just so I’d smile one more time. You have no interest in toys unless they have faces, so at the moment you mainly adore the teddy bears hanging on the mobile over your pack & play, your “Anna Bear”, and the approximately seven billion other stuffed animals and dolls scattered throughout the house.

You’ve become quite a bit more vocal. You’re still a fairly quiet baby, but sometimes you talk to us – “gaa”s and “eh!”s and other little baby noises. And sometimes you outright chuckle in your sleep, big belly laughs that make me wonder what kind of jokes those angels are telling you in your dreams!

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You are fast becoming a dedicated thumb-sucker. It takes you quite a while to actually find the right appendage and get it just so, but when you do it’s there to stay…until you decide you’re hungry. I don’t know why I find it so cute, but the sight of you with that teeny-tiny thumb stuck in your mouth makes me smile. I swear, it’s like 1/2 an inch long, it can’t really be all that satisfying, can it?

I’m worried that just typing this will completely jinx it, but you’ve slept seven hours straight for three nights in a row now. Not always seven hours that I’m actually in bed, but it’s definitely a start! You’re still not interested in sleeping in your crib for any length of time (seriously, you wake up within two minutes of being put in there) but I don’t think your big sister was at this point either!

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The amazing thing is, even though I’ve been through this all with your big sister, it’s still all new and different. The first few weeks you were here I spent ages searching for her features in your face and comparing what you did when with what Carrie did when. Then I realized that no matter how similar – or different – the two of you may be, you’re two entirely different people, so I have to just wait to get to know you the way I got to know her. I can’t get over how much you change every single day – you barely resemble the brand new person I met just two months ago, and I wonder what discoveries I’ll make about you tomorrow.

Love, Mommy

Prima Ballerina

Sarah Carolyn

Carolyn loves dance. So instead of signing her up for session after session at the YMCA like we did last year, we decided to send her to a low-key dance studio for the year – it works out pretty much the same in terms of cost, and if the regular dance classes are anywhere near as good as the camp they ran over the summer, she’s going to learn a great deal more than she did at the Y last year.

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Her Great-Gramie picked up a couple of new dance outfits for her – Carrie was definitely the sparkliest, purplest ballerina in her class!

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First Day of School

Sarah Firsts

Today was Carolyn’s first official day of preschool for the year!

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She looks so much older than last year!

The morning went surprisingly smoothly, despite Anna having a diaper blowout moments before we were all going to walk out the door. We even got to the school with enough time to spare that I could get Anna out of the carseat and into a sling. (I hate carrying that bucket seat around!) After we said goodbye (and I chased Carolyn down for a kiss, she had already run off to play with the other kids) Anna and I headed to the parent “reception”, where we met a few potential new friends – exciting! This year, because I could tell Carrie was happy and excited, I wasn’t at all sad about leaving her there. Next year, when she gets on the bus…well, I’ll just have to have some tissues in my pocket, I’m sure!

Carolyn loved her first day. She was just a tiny bit sad because she really loved her teachers last year, but she’s already made a couple of new friends and I think it helped that the routine is pretty much the same as last year.

It was surprising to me that Carolyn’s not the only not quite four year old in her class – until I found out that half of her class is going to go to the public school’s pre-k program next year instead of on to kindergarten. I’m not being judgmental – every parent has to decide what’s best for their own child – but it’s puzzling to me how many people hold their fall birthday kids back a year. (The cutoff around here is currently 12/1, although there’s been talk – for years – about that getting pushed back.) It’s going to make Carrie by far the youngest in her class in kindergarten. Oh, well, I’m sure she’ll do fine anyway!

My Little Giraffe

Sarah Carolyn

Today Carolyn got to meet the teachers for her 4-year-old preschool class. She’s on the Giraffe Team this year. We’ve had a few bouts of tears about wanting to be back on the Frog Team because she’s still only 3, but I think she’ll get over that pretty quickly. Well, at least I hope she will, since it doesn’t appear that many of her friends from last year are going to be in her class this year…