Sarah's New Stool

Growing up, I used to always look forward to seeing what new toy or contraption my Uncle Jerry would make next. He's a great woodworker, one who loves to make things for his loved ones. A pair of tongs that helped you get your toast our of the toaster without burning yourself? Had 'em. Chairs? Had 'em. Imagine a wooden toy. I had it. It was awesome.

After the rocking horse he sent Sarah last year, I was really looking forward to the chair/stool he told me was on the way. Sure enough, it arrived last week. Sarah loves it, but you don't have to take my work for it.

The lower step converts to become a chair back. Pretty clever design, as you might expect from the master. Thanks, Uncle Jerry!

January's Visit

January came through the Cook household and left. That means a little more to Sarah than it might to you or me.

You see, Sarah enjoyed the buildup to Christmastime very much, so much that she didn't really understand it was over after Christmas came. It certainly didn't help that we followed tradition and left the tree up for almost two weeks. So, to help her move on, we very quickly started telling her that January was coming.

"Sarah, January is coming!" we would say. "January is coming. January is almost here!" We hyped it up for a few days during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

"January is coming," she one day said. "January IS coming! January gon' come an' tickle Sarah!"

"Ummmmm," we thought to ourselves. "Does she think January is a person?"

She did.

I thought for a minute about how to explain what a month is, or even the concept of time. Unsure of what to do, we decided to play along with it. The imagination is a good thing to develop, we thought. Thus, most of our dinner table conversation lately has had to do with the version of January who lives in Sarah's imagination. We wanted to know everything about this friend who was coming to visit. It turns out she has black hair, is very fun, and tickles with the worst of them.

Then, of course, January actually came.

"January is here, Sarah! Happy January!" "January is here? January is NOT here." "Yes, Sarah, January is here. January came!" Confusion built with each exchange. "January, where aaaaaaare you?" This went on for a while until Sarah finally accepted that January, whoever or whatever it was, had finally come, and either played along or actually started imagining the anthropomorphic month.

Emily and I wound up treating the month like a holiday, giving each other surprise gifts throughout the month that said, "happy January." Sarah really enjoyed it, once the initial confusion passed. She played with January most of the month, until we all bid the joyful month farewell. I would have felt just a little guilty about entertaining such silliness, but watching her little imagination blossom in other ways this January was reward enough. We're actually quite sad that January isn't coming back until next year.

Sarah, in the meantime, is having great fun with February.

Happy 2.5 years, Sarah!

Sarah hit the 2.5 year mark on January 16 and we welcomed the opportunity to ponder back over the last couple of seasons and marvel at how she continues to mature. We are so thankful for her growth and find ourselves just sitting back in awe. It kind of seems miraculous the way our baby girl could become this sweet little girl we interact with day in and day out. And there are no brakes on her development these days. So we cling to these precious moments and look forward to all that is to come.

(We waited to publish this post until we got the stats at her appointment yesterday morning.)

Weight: 32lbs 6oz (84%)
Height: 36.5 (75%)
Diaper: FINISHED!!!! (details below)
Clothes: some 2T and mostly 3T; shoe, size 6 or 7

Likes: goldfish crackers, reading, imagining, piggy back rides, singing, other people putting her to bed (like Auntie Lee or Ms. Kim), giving shoulder rubs, play time (with music and corn puffs and cheerios)

Dislikes: not getting her way, cleaning up (would much rather go to bed than clean up!), loud noises (asks the mixer and/or food processor to please use their inside voice)

Schedule: Sarah's day usually starts between 7am and 8am, unless Josiah was too loud for too long and wakes her up earlier. She is then usually good until a nap around 1pm. Sometimes lately she has not been sleeping, but if she goes a day without sleeping she will definitely sleep the next. And if she goes to nursery in the morning she definitely sleeps. Even when she doesn't sleep she lays down and then I'll let her play in her room. We all need a little rest time! 

Eating: She still generally loves to eat. Favorites include peppers(preferably red)/carrots and hummus, yogurt with berries, pecans, and pasta. She is usually eager to try new things, but definitely knows whether she likes it or not after that first ambitious bite. I am thankful that she can usually eat what we are eating in some form or fashion.

Talking: This was the first well-visit where Sarah could really communicate with the pediatrician. I think it was a marker for us as to how far she has come with her speech. She continues to repeat pretty much everything and is pretty good at appropriately bring things up again. Her choice for conjugation is seemingly different with every sentence, but that is mighty cute at this point. I love the way she uses inflection, says "shall", and loves to sing. 

Developmentally: Sarah loves to draw and makes the most perfect little circles. Coloring fascinates her for longer periods of time now, as well as working with play dough. Dave has seen her draw an 'A'. She is running, but has yet to jump. That is one of our goals for the next half a year. She is really good at stairs now and just last week was brave enough to climb them without us right behind her. We quickly implemented a rule that said she has to ask before she goes up, but are excited for her bravery. It is a big step for our timid girl!

 

Potty Training: She is doing well! It is hard to believe that it has already been several months, but even harder to believe that diapers were a part of her life not that long ago. She seems so much more grown up now! Nap time and night time were never really an issue for Sarah, so dropping the diaper during those periods really wasn't an issue. If she doesn't go before bed, we still put one on just in case. I also still put a diaper on her when she goes to nursery, as I don't think she has ever told anyone she needed go. She just holds it until we get home. As for accidents, she has gone through a few phases where she struggles at certain times of the day. Honestly, I think it is mostly based on what she eats and what kind of warning she gets. Kiwi was not a friend :) She has resisted pulling her pants up/down on her own, but is starting to have some success with it. The day she climbed the stairs I think she was feeling really confident and took all of her clothes off on her own before her bath. All in all we are so proud and extremely grateful that this hasn't been a traumatic process for any of us! 

 

Random, but fun:

* She sits in the back of the shopping cart now, since we moved Josiah to a big boy car seat and he has to sit up front.
* "Go see neighborhood" is a common request to go for a walk, preferably in the double stroller. We don't use it super often, so I think it feels special to her.
* She pretends to be an Olympic swimmer in the bath tub...she might have gotten a little coaching toward this imaginative end :)
* Her memory is amazing. She is able to answer all kinds of questions about her day (though she doesn't so much grasp the concept of time as of yet).
* Feelings are a really big deal to her. She is always taking care of something stuffed who is sad and needs a 'nuggle. She likes to announce if Josiah is really upset that he is throwing a fit because he didn't get what he wanted :) (She knows from experience!)
* Singing and songs with motion are almost as fun as constantly reading, which is probably what she would want on a "perfect" day.
* Favorite songs include: Angels We Have Heard on High, The Solid Rock, Row Row Row Your  Boat, Good Night Josiah, I'm a Little Tea Pot, Sing Sing the Gangs All Here, Wheels on the Bus, Trot Trot to Boston, Here is the Church
* My heart melts when she sporadically says, "Mommy, I'm so proud of you." I know she is just repeating, but it lets my heart know she hears our encouragement and knows how much we care.
* She knows several Bible stories now. Favorites are about Samuel, David, Baby Jesus, and Saul.

Next appointment: Monday, July 22, 2013 at 9:15am

Understands presents this year :)

"It's a niiiiiight gown, Mommy, NOT PJs." I don't want anyone else to be misinformed!

Loving the stool/chair made by Uncle Jerry!

Meeting Baby Lincoln for the first time. She thought Baby Lincoln and Baby Jesus were one and the same for most of the Christmas season.

Tickling each other :)

Helping... :)

"I feel the wind!!!"

Advent ornament fun.

Taking care of Josiah.

Fancy grown up hair-do.

Having fun with Uncle T.

Practicing our "restaurant manners" with Auntie Lee and Uncle Frank. She now thinks every proper restaurant experience should end with ice cream and chocolate syrup.

She loves walking on the snow. We had to make do with Daddy's gloves and Mommy's scarf for some reason that day.

First time in the back of the cart.

Her serious rapper face.

And her not so serious rapper face :)

Joshua's Pond in the Snow

Near our home there is a pond called Joshua's Pond, to which I like to sometimes go and take pictures. When snow fell this Tuesday morning, I decided to go and get a few shots on the way into work.

Sarah in the Leaves

Tuesday we had a good snow, so we knew we need to catch up on the yard work and rake our last batch of leaves on Monday. We thought you might enjoy some pictures of Sarah playing in the leaves.

Morning Playtime

What does morning playtime look like here? Well, here was this morning, with a photo taken every fifteen seconds. Sometimes it's more destructive than this, sometimes it's nice and calm like this one was.

We didn't realize this at the time, but at the end you can see Dad putting his little boy down for the last time in that room! We moved him upstairs just after that, not realizing that the moment we captured that morning would be so special.

Christmas Gifts

We love Christmas around here. It is certainly a special season of remembrance and celebration. To aid us to that end we do what most people do- we sing, bake, eat, laugh, decorate, and eat some more. And to top it all off we give gifts.

While we never want our family (children or ourselves!) to be greedy about gifts at Christmas, we do find that they hold great value as part of our celebration. We remember that God is a good God who loves to give good gifts to his children. So we try to gift good gifts to our children and to each other. No pressure, right? Well, really there isn't. But we do have fun with it and this year was no exception.

Josiah: Josiah got a couple of tubes of Gerber puffs- his first finger foods! We let him eat them under the tree on Christmas morning. This was the first gift under our Christmas tree. Sarah knew what they were and told him at every opportunity leading up to Christmas.

Sarah: A matching "big girl" plate and cup. The say "sweet pea" and have a picture of a smiling pod of peas. She is now helping set the table and (consistently) learning to drink from a cup.

Emily: I received awesome tickets to see the Nutcracker in Boston. This is what Dave (selflessly, not being sure he was a fan of ballet) gave me last year, but we had to give them away to make an unexpected trip to MS. But this year was even better. Since my parents were in town they watched the children and sacrificed hotel points so that we could stay the night. We had a nice dinner with a gift card from other family members. And to top it all off Dave genuinely liked the ballet!

Dave: For a few years now we have been toying with the idea of getting Dave a nice new camera. He was faithful to his hobby and diligent to learn new techniques regularly. The camera he had was used when he purchased it many years ago and painstakingly slow- not an asset when trying to photograph a toddler. We decided before Thanksgiving to take the plunge and he set out to find the best deal, which he found online the Friday after Thanksgiving. As such, he has been enjoying his gift throughout the Christmas season and we have been richly blessed by it. Oh, and when you see him with his fancy camera you can go ahead and say "happy birthday" too :)