Breaking the blog silence

I didn’t blog much this fall. I want to blog more. Yeah, I’m always saying that. But maybe this time I’ll actually do it.

Honestly, it’s been a little stressful lately. We’re still trying to settle in with the new baby. Say what? She’s 15 months old? I can’t use that excuse any more? Oh.

I’m trying to stick with this routine I came up with. Laugh if you want to. But so far it’s going ok this week. And during the girls’ naptime is “quiet work” time for me—basically anything that can be done in the recliner with a cup of chai. Yes, I check Facebook and Pinterest, but it’s also time to do things like plan, research, read, organize files, look up recipes, clean out e-mail, catch up on blogs I read, go through photos, and BLOG.

I have an initial goal to blog at least once a week, even if it’s pretty frivolous and I think I have nothing to say. Gotta start somewhere. Maybe I’ll be up to twice a week soon. I LOVE these babies of mine and I want to do better about recording who they are and what they’re up to!

 

Anna’s First Shoebox

Surely everyone has heard about Operation Christmas Child... if you haven’t, go read about it! Anyway, I’ve been doing shoeboxes for years (for the oldest age range), but this year we decided Anna was old enough to sort of understand what she was doing if she packed her own box for a little girl her age. I told her we were picking out some presents for a little girl far, far away, maybe in Africa (because she knows about Africa), who doesn’t have any toys. She might not even have much to eat or many clothes to wear. Anna asked me what her name was. She wanted to take the box to the little girl herself. So, there are a few things she doesn’t quite grasp yet, but she understood the broader concept. She had a good time at Dollar Tree (we went there so I wouldn’t have to worry about prices; anything she picked would be ok).

Here she is packing up her things:

Sarah wanted to “help” too:

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Reading

Anna is reading. She’s 3 1/2. And I am one proud mama.

No, I’m not one of those moms who pushes her kids to overachieve and reach milestones faster than their peers. At least, I don’t think I am. Anna just has a natural knack for it. And I’ve guided her along the way, but really I’ve done very little.

We first figured out she might be an early reader when she was not quite 2 years old. We had given her a toy laptop for Christmas, designed for older kids, but we thought she would have fun pushing the buttons and watching the screen and hearing the sounds… typical baby stuff. Then one day I was watching her play the game where it was “raining letters” and she had to hit the button for that letter before it disappeared from the screen. And she was getting every one right. Upper and lower case. Very impressive, but I thought surely she had just memorized where the buttons were on the computer. So I asked her to point out specific letters for me in her books. And on t-shirts, and cereal boxes, and anything else in the house that had writing on it. And she knew them, almost every one. Upper and lower case.

She had completely taught herself her letters, before she was even two years old, while her dumb mama was totally oblivious (more…)

Why this is my favorite age

Long before I had kids, I learned through babysitting and working in the church nursery that my favorite age is around 1 year old. And Sarah’s in it right now. Here are some of the reasons why:

I rub lotion on my hands, she sees me, drops what she’s doing, and starts rubbing her hands together.

She picks up the comb and tries to comb Anna’s hair.

She holds the toy phone to her ear.

She puts things IN sometimes, when directed to, instead of always pulling them OUT.

I say, “Hug Mama?” and she leans her head in to me.

These seem so simple, but they just show how she’s learning to interact with the world around her. Babies are just interested in experiencing things through their senses—they want to pick up something and see how it feels, tastes, sounds, etc. But 1-year-olds are learning what to DO with things. It’s just a cool transition to watch.

 

 

Sarah’s 1st Birthday Party!

(Or, a Very Hungry Caterpillar party for a Very Hungry Sarah.)

We had the out-of-town family come in to celebrate Sarah’s 1st birthday with us this past weekend! Since she loves the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I decided to make that the theme of the party. And by “theme” I mean the cake and a craft. :) I’m sure you could go nuts with it for an older child, but for a 1-year-old that was enough. We enjoyed a light lunch, a craft for the older kids, gifts, cake, and lots of visiting!

The cake:

Pictures of Sarah on her “month birthday” every month: (more…)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake

I thought the cake warranted its own post, with instructions!

From the time Sarah was very little, I decided to make The Very Hungry Caterpillar “her” book, the one I read to her almost every day. By the time she was a few months old, she seemed to recognize it. She would even giggle  prematurely on the page where the egg went “Pop!” because she knew what was coming.

I had seen the idea of making a caterpillar cake out of a Bundt cake a long time ago, but I Googled “Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake” to get some ideas.

I increased the cake recipe by 50% and made one Bundt cake and one 9×5 loaf cake. I cut the Bundt cake in half, then cut one half in half again to make the body (more…)

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Sarah is 1 year old today! David took off work, and we all started day off right by sleeping in a bit. :) We went to the library, then shortly after we got back it started to rain. During a short break we took Sarah outside and got a few pics of me and her before we started getting wet; the rest are just some playing inside shots. We’ll party on Saturday… look for some party pics in a few days!

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Catch me if you can!

Sarah here…  I’m about to be 1 tomorrow, but oh my goodness, there’s still so much I haven’t gotten my hands on yet! I’m always on the move… no time to sit still and smile at a camera. I’ve got to go explore!

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See? She smiles.

It seems like the last few posts about Sarah have featured her more serious look, so I wanted to show you that she really does have a great smile sometimes. That’s all. :)

Eleven

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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