Carolyn

Resolved

Sarah Carolyn

When I went to pick up Carrie from school today, her teachers asked me if she had gotten a Webkinz for Christmas. When I said yes…but why?, they told me that they had gone around the circle and asked the kids what their New Year’s resolution was. Most kids said things like “I want to get better at coloring” or “I want to learn to write my letters”. Carrie said “I want to learn how to play with my Webkinz more!”

I’m not sure whether to be proud of my little computer-obsessed nut (who can not only use a mouse but is also quite proficient with a trackpad) or ashamed that I let her get so obsessed so young…

3.2 Years Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

Have I ever told you what a good kid you are? I feel like a lot of our days consist of me counting to three, repeatedly, but really, you’re very good the vast majority of the time. I don’t think I catch you in the act of being good often enough, but I’m trying to get better at it.

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This month you’ve been working on your sense of humor. You know now two knock-knock jokes (who’s there? ach. ach who? god bless you! is my personal favorite) and the “you EIGHT the sandbox?!?” joke. You try your jokes out on everyone you can, including complete strangers in the mall. Never let it be said that you’re a shy child.

You’re also working on learning the days of the week. We don’t have the regular old names for them, though, we have “playgroup day”, “school day”, “Simone day”, “school day”, “dance day”, “Daddy day”, and “church/family day”. Every morning when you wake up, you ask me what today means for you. It’s nice to have a familiar routine, for both of us. Of course, that routine is going to go out the window for the next week or two, but hopefully the fact that it is a routine will make it easier to get back into the swing of things after the new year.

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You’ve become quite the social butterfly at school, and have even started asking if you can invite one of your school friends for a playdate. Actually, I’m pretty sure you asked her to come over during school, because the other day you were very sad that she hadn’t come to visit yet. I had to explain that mommies get to set up playdates, not kids, and that we’ll have to arrange it after the holidays. I’m really happy to see that you’re making new friends!

This has been such a busy, crazy month, and even though you’re looking forward very much to tomorrow and seeing what Santa brought (you asked him for a dollhouse and a yo-yo this year) I’m looking forward very much to the new year and a return to calm, every day life. Well, as calm as life gets around here, anyway!

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Love, Mommy

My Little Angel

Sarah Carolyn, Holidays

One of the things about sending Carrie to a church preschool is that there is no attempt at being politically correct about the holidays. In fact, they held a Christmas pageant with costumes and everything. It was one of the cutest and funniest things I’ve ever seen. All the kids were in the three-year-old classes, so they had one of the teachers narrate instead of trying to teach them lines, but there were many songs and all the kids really did a great job. There were such funny little moments I had a hard time holding the video camera still. (Note to self: next time bring a tripod and get there early enough to sit in the front row!) Let’s see, the baby (luckily only in doll form) nearly took a header when Mary went to put him in the manger. One of the wise men was very reluctant to part with his gift. And the sheep were rather…enthusiastic…about baa-ing.

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Carrie, of course, was one of the angels. She told me later that she really, really, really wanted to be Mary, but I suspect that’s just because Mary got to hold the baby doll. I personally think she was perfect as an angel!

Raking the Leaves

Sarah Carolyn

So we did finally find a Carrie-sized rake, and we spent a good portion of today raking the lawn. Well, there was probably at least as much jumping into leaf piles as raking, but at least the lawn is mostly de-leafed at this point. (There are still quite a few leaves on some of our trees, but they look like they’re planning to hang around all winter at this point!)

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Carrie says, “Hurry up snow, I want to make a snow angel!”

3.1 Years Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

I’ve been thinking long and hard about whether to keep writing these letters now that you’re three. Will you really appreciate them when you’re older, or will you just be embarrassed that I put all this stuff about you on my blog? But I just can’t seem to let it go yet…maybe when you’re four?

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This month, I’m happy to say, has been fabulous school-wise. I can’t even get you to give me a kiss goodbye sometimes, because you’re so eager to run off and join your classmates. This makes me really glad I stuck with it during those heartbreaking drop-offs – not that you ever really cried when I left you, but you just clung to me with all your strength. Now you can’t get enough of school!

You’ve also become a lot more comfortable hanging out at the shop with me when I’ve had to bring you along. You love to “play store” with the bins of sale yarn and your toy cash register. And you really help me out when I’m putting price stickers on the yarn…although I probably shouldn’t admit that since you’re not old enough to work yet!

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Three so far is definitely harder than two was. You’re trying to become your own independent person, and I’m just trying to get us places on time. You have an uncanny ability to move slower than molasses whenever we’re running late. But we’re figuring it out, you and I, and I think by the time you turn four, three will be a piece of cake!

Love Mommy

Happy Ladybug Birthday Cake!

Sarah Carolyn

Carrie finally got her ladybug cake and her party today. She had a blast playing with her friends – it was basically one big playgroup with pizza and cake.

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Lisa and I made Carrie’s ladybug cake using Jenny’s instructions. It was funny – when I searched for pictures of ladybug cakes on google images, out of the thousands upon thousands of cake images, Carrie picked the one that a friend of mine made. Small world, and all that.

After a rousing game of “stick the spot on the ladybug”, during which I learned that 3-year-olds can’t reliably keep their eyes closed, we lit the candles and cut that ladybug into pieces. Delicious ladybug pieces…

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This was my favorite cake so far that I’ve made for Carrie. It was so much easier than the others, but she absolutely adored it – probably because she picked it out. And it was fun to learn that I could bake a cake in a pyrex bowl. It had me eyeing my Pampered Chef batter bowl…if Carrie ever requests one of those princess dress cakes – the kind with the doll stuck in the top – that batter bowl is the perfect size and shape for it!

Now, though, I’m so tired I’m ready to fall down. Oh, yeah, that might be because it should really be 11:30 instead of 10:30. Drat that time change!

World’s Biggest Sock

Sarah Carolyn, Knitting

…world’s smallest knitter!

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We’ve been hosting the World’s Biggest Sock Attempt at our shop for the past week, and this morning I sat Carrie on my lap and helped her knit a few stitches on it. She actually really got the hang of how the needles moved, she just had some trouble with wrapping the yarn.

So now, when she’s older and people ask her when she learned to knit, she can legitimately say she learned when she was three! (We chanted the children’s knitting rhyme while she did it: “In through the front door, once around the back, peek through the window, and off jumps Jack”.)

My Little Ballerina

Sarah Carolyn

I signed Carrie up for a dance class at the YMCA. We needed to buy a leotard, ballet shoes and tap shoes. The only XXS leotard left at our local Target was blue, and thinking Carrie would definitely want pink I asked an employee if they carried them, or could hold one at a different Target. But Carrie spoke up and said, “But Mommy, I want the blue one!”

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Doesn’t she look fabulous in her blue leotard? And she had so much fun in her class! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as cute as those six little 3- and 4-year-old girls doing teeny tiny little pliés and tapping their way across the room heel-toe-heel-toe.

I was worried when I bought the blue leotard that Carrie would see all the other girls in pink (and they all were) and want pink instead. And she did, on the way home in the car, say she wanted a pink leotard like the other girls. But she (I think) accepted that the store was out of pink, that she had chosen blue, and that she looked absolutely beautiful in it, and that maybe when she out-grew it we’d try to find a pink one.

Good thing, too, because I’m most of the way through a blue leg-warmer…

Ladybug Cake Postponed

Sarah Carolyn, Knitting

So we’ve all been sick, all week, and when Carrie woke up at 3:30 AM Saturday with a 102° fever we decided to call off today’s party. I can’t say I wasn’t just a tiny bit relieved, since being sick all week I’ve done nothing around the house.

However, I have done something with my knitting needles! I’ve finished Carrie’s green cabled jacket:

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Here’s a bit of detail to show off the fabulous texture and the perfect green buttons:

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And a couple of model shots. She likes it, she really, really likes it!

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