Eleven months have gone by, already… Sarah won’t be a baby much longer! She already thinks she’s a big girl. She crawls like a champ, pulls up, and “cruises” a bit. She’s always on the go! And she loves to eat. I don’t know how, but she eats easily as much as Anna does. (And faster too.) We mostly just give her whatever we’re having, and she likes just about everything. She shows her little sense of humor sometimes; she thinks it’s hilarious when she tries to put her paci in our mouths and when we say “baaa” like a sheep, among other things. She loves to explore closets, cabinets, her diaper bag… anything that has stuff she can pull out. And she’s better at pulling out than at putting away.

David was taking some time off today, so we went down to The Wonder Place again. So her 11-month pics are all from there. She was tired and she was pretty absorbed in what she was doing, so not a lot of smiles this time. But she did great, and she took a 3-hour nap when she got home!

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Our big girl started preschool today! She’s so little and so big at the same time. We’ve been talking it up for a long time and she’s been getting excited about it, so she had a great first day. I really think she’s going to love it! Here are some of those classic “first day” pics:

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Have we ever had a Labor Day holiday with such perfect weather? Not in my recent memory, at least. This morning David and Anna walked the dogs around the neighborhood (in shifts) and ended up at the home of some friends in our community group. They mentioned that they were going to the park to fly a kite with another family in our group, and since we had planned on going to the park later anyway, we just met up with them. While the men put their brains to work figuring out how to assemble the kite, the kiddos played on the playground (and Sarah ate her lunch). Then we went out into the big field once the guys were ready with the kite. It was a wonderful day for it!

Doing something technical I’m sure:

The cheering section:

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I think Sarah is saying “Mama” now. Like, actually meaning me. It’s precious!

And how does everyone else seem to identify their babies’ first words? Here’s how I approach it. Babies just start off babbling: Ba-ba-ba-ba…. da-da-da-da…. ya-ya-ya-ya…. Then one day, I realize that Sarah has been making the “ma-ma” sound while looking at me sometimes. Coincidence? Hmm…. After a few days, I’m pretty sure she’s saying “Ma-ma” and meaning me. So I declare she can say “Mama” now. But as for that single instance when she first uttered some syllables that sound like an English word and actually meant that same English word… I really have no idea when or what.

Anna thinks that when she utters the sounds “Ba-ma-ma” that she’s saying “Bad Mama.” I told her I really don’t think so. Anna maintains her position.

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Today is Sarah’s 10-month birthday! The year is flying by! She will be 1 before we know it. She is crawling everywhere, pulling up on her knees, and building up her immunity for the upcoming cold/flu season by putting everything in her mouth. She eats lots of “big girl” food and likes most of what we offer her. She weighed 17 pounds a couple of weeks ago. She’s growing out of the 9-month clothes and into the 12-month.

I didn’t get a lot of great pics today; I wasn’t with her for a large part of the day, and then when I was, she was sporting her “serious” look most of the time. But here’s what I got:

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Have I mentioned enough on here what a great big sister Anna is? No? Well, here’s more. Anna likes to “read” The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Sarah (you’ll need to turn your volume way up to hear it):

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Video of Sarah crawling:

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It’s the 12th again… and it’s Sarah’s 9-month birthday today! It was WAY too hot to do portrait-type pictures outside, so we shot some everyday activities around the house instead. (LOTS of pics… click on the “more” tag to see them all.)

Waking up in the morning. “Awww, Mom! That’s not nice to snap a picture when I first wake up!”

As you can see, she’s holding on to the beloved Totopus:

Post diaper change, pre dressing:

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Many babies and toddlers have a special soft toy that they sleep with. A little lovey blanket, teddy bear, bunny rabbit, doll, etc….

Sarah has this thing.

A while back, Anna got a kid’s meal from Sonic and this was inside. Oh, it’s an octopus, I thought… wait a minute, it only has 5 arms… what the heck is that?!? Reading the tag on it informed us it was a “Starfish Tot.” Ok, sure, 5 arms, but it’s tall like the classic Sonic tater tot. I get it.

So you’re wondering how it ended up in Sarah’s crib? Because Anna is absolutely the sweetest, most loving, most sharing big sister on the face of the earth. And one day she just put it in Sarah’s crib, saying something along the lines of “This goes in here.” And that was that. The Starfish Tot was bequeathed to the younger.

But we still couldn’t get past the fact that it strongly resembles an octopus. “Starfish Tot” sounds ridiculous. Much more ridiculous than, say, “Totopus.” So somewhere along the way, the name stuck.

When we took Sarah on a visit to my parents’ house recently, I left it behind. I told David it didn’t matter; we could find some other toy to give her for naptime. She didn’t sleep. “We need Totopus!” David insisted. The next day, we took it. She slept.

At church, Sarah has a difficult time taking the morning nap she needs. The nursery worker asked me if she has a little blanket or anything that she sleeps with. “Well, um, she has this octopus thing…” I said rather sheepishly.

I’m a little concerned about the longevity of Totopus. After all, it was just a kids’ meal prize, so there couldn’t be more than a few pennies invested in it. I’m pretty sure it would disintegrate if I tried to wash it. Then there’s the whole issue of if it gets lost.

So if any of you have one of these gems sitting unwanted around your home, we might be willing to buy it from you for, say, five million bucks.

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My brother and sis-in-law left their 4-year-old here when they went back home earlier this week. Well, not here, but with my parents, who live nearby, so Anna has gotten to spend some time with her this week. The girls have reached the age where they are great pals and love to spend time together. On Wednesday she came over to play for a bit, and we took both girls to the library for craft time and to check out some books. On Thursday, we went down to The Wonder Place. On Friday, Anna went to my parents’ to hang out for the day.

They have matching “Big Sister” shirts, purchased separately but a nice coincidence:

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