Water Water Everywhere

In the last couple of weeks, Sarah has learned so much that it amazes me!  Her vocabulary is growing by at least 1-2 words a day, she's problem-solving all the time, and she's becoming more and more independent at every step.  Things I love right now are the way she lays in bed in the morning and "talks" to herself, the way she says "mock" (milk) or "wa-da" (water) when she's thirsty, and the way she'll wrap her arms around my neck and kiss me when she's happy.  Things I don't love right now are the way she takes off her clothes at will (anytime, anywhere) and the fact that she has learned how to push a chair to the sink and turn on the water to play in it!  Needless to say, we've been going through a LOT of paper towels lately.

  

  

Look at those sweet little hands, though!  They're so cute when they get all raisiny... 

 

Thanksgiving

Here is a brief list of things that I am thankful for at this very moment:

A happy, healthy daughter

A husband who loves and supports me

A dog who hasn't eaten anything off the counter in two whole weeks

A challenging but secure job

An amazing base of friends who stick with me through thick and thin

Those few warm and sunny fall days

A brother who is also a friend and a girlfriend-in-law that rocks

Hot showers (let's never forget the joy of a hot shower!)

A Grammie and Pa-Pa who love my baby girl

Yoga pants with stretchy waistbands

This Thanksgiving was very nice.  Tom and I took turns watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Sarah while the other one cooked.  Sarah was interested in the Hello Kitty balloon and absolutely nothing else...until Santa showed up!  Santa waved to the TV camera, and she waved and waved and waved back at him.  It was adorable!  I'm so glad she's old enough to enjoy the holidays this year!

Rather than watch all the marching bands and little-known-singers in the parade, Sarah looked through my set of recipes from my grandmothers (and great-grandmothers!).  She didn't offer to make anything, though...

 
Sarah took her nap, and then we headed over to Grammie and Pa-Pa's house for Thanksgiving!  Adam and Megan joined us, but the Mayers (and Aquinos and Johns) stayed on east of the state line this year to celebrate with baby Ella.  We missed them, but what a good reason to stay home!!!

Grammie handed Sarah a turkey to play with as soon as we got there, and she ran around saying "gob-gob" until she was distracted by the book Grammie handed to her!  

Sarah is thankful for a daddy who reads to her.

She is also thankful for pumpkin pie!

Really, really thankful for pumpkin pie!

Sarah is also thankful for a Pa-Pa who gives her more pie when she says, "want pie" and a Grammie who spoon feeds her whipped cream...

Look at Grammie giggling over this!  What naughty girls!!!

We eventually managed to pull Sarah away from the sugar and carbs. Grammie gave her another book and a duck hat to console her!

Looks like we're ready for Christmas now!  Or maybe Easter?  Or at least duck season??

 

Choo-Choo!

Today was beautiful.  Really, really beautiful.  It was sunny and 70 and we were lucky enough to get to spend it with some of my favorite people in the whole world - the Umscheid family!  Okay, so none of them are Umscheids any more (Eastlands and Gregorys would be more accurate), but Julie and Becca will always be Umscheids in my mind.  Knowing people for 33 years will do that to you!

We did our usual loop, stopping to see the polar bear (who was actually out of the water for a change) and the tigers (one of whom wasn't pacing the fence line like they normally do)...

...and then we played on the playground for a while before heading into the Discovery Barn!

We said hello to our friends the macaws and the lemurs...

...and then we headed to the Tropics building to see our good friends the white-cheeked gibbons!



This trip to the zoo, however, was not Sarah's usual "animals-carousel-home" trip to the zoo.  This time, she got to ride the train!  She loved waving to people as we passed them and she wasn't at all afraid of the long, dark tunnel (that, to be honest, is a childhood fear that hasn't quite left me!).  Looks like we'll be riding the "choo-choo" again soon!

Of course, even with a train ride, we had to stop by the carousel on the way out!

 

Family Photos 2012

It's that time of year again - time to suck in your belly, straighten your hair, and man up to having family photos taken!  Except that this year, all the hair straightening and belly-sucking-in was for naught... 

First of all, it was really windy and it even rained on us during the photo shoot.  Second, every single family photo turned out awful.  AWFUL.  Like, so terrible that I'm not even posting them to this blog for my family and friends (most of whom know how I look at my very worst!) to see.  Luckily, most of the photos of Sarah were great, and we got several good ones of her with one or the other parent!