Wednesday, December 29, 2010

22 Months

Sarah is going to be TWO so soon! I can't believe how grown up she is these days. She is 22, almost 23(!), months old, and learning something new and fun every day.
One of her favorite things these days is singing. Her favorite songs are "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Jesus Loves Me," and "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes." She calls "Jesus Loves Me" "Jesus Me." She knows most of the words to these songs, but just mumbles the ones that she doesn't. For example:

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder (mumble mumble) are!
Up above (mumble mumble) high,
Like a (mumble mumble) in the sky . . . etc.

The words she knows she kind of yells out when you sing them. Its really cute.
She can count from two to eleven. Not one to ten, mind you, but only two to eleven.

Sarah is very, very into babying her toys these days. Here she is playing with her babydoll, but she is just as likely to be found feeding her bunny in her high chair, putting clothes on her favorite puppy, wiping her monkey's bottom or changing his diaper!
Really, Sarah is just into whatever she has seen me doing these days. If we go outside and I bring my purse, she has to have her purse too (see below). If I brush my hair, she brushes hers. If I wear a necklace, she needs one too! If I am drinking water, she must have water (the milk or juice in the cup she currently has won't cut it)! If I am chopping vegetables, she tries to grab the knife as soon as she sees I am done with it to chop veggies too (note TRIES--I do not actually let her touch knives). I could go on and on with examples of this! She is my little mimic, which is really fun and flattering, but can also get a little wearying at times. :)

Sarah is very into dancing and jumping, though she loves anything physical these days. My favorite dance she does is a little spontaneous wiggle she does in her high chair when she likes what we are eating for lunch or supper. She loves to jump, jump, jump on the couch, and her dream is for us to let her jump on the bed. If you even just pretend to chase her, she will run back and forth across the apartment at top speed, giggling all the way. When you catch her, she wants to be tossed in the air, or tickled incessantly. She actually asks for tickles all the time, walking up to you and wiggling her fingers over her ribs saying, "Tickle? Tickle?"
In addition to all the individual words she knows, Sarah is learning more and more phrases. She says, "See ya later!" and "Sarah eat it," (she still talks about herself in the third person) and "Watch TV?" and "Outside play?" The other day we were looking at a picture of my friend Abby Dunn's new baby on Facebook and Sarah said, "Look at that goose," which is exactly what David and I say when Sarah does something cute ("Goose" is our nickname for her).
Sarah definitely keeps us on our toes. She is into everything, all of the time. But she is so much fun, and makes us laugh every single day, multiple times a day. I am loving this almost-two-year-old!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Videos

This morning the internet is MUCH faster, so I got these four videos of Sarah opening gifts and playing with her new toys uploaded! These are especially for my mom and mother-in-law, who are deprived of seeing their granddaughter open gifts on Christmas morning because of the distance and, yesterday, because the (once-again) slow internet prevented us from using video on Skype. So, here they finally are, Mom and Barb:

Sarah opening on of her gifts.

Sarah opening another gift.

Sarah coloring in her new coloring book.

Sarah enjoying her new aqua doodle.

Merry Christmas once again! We love you all!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning Photos

Merry Christmas Beloved Friends and Family! We have had a wonderful two days of delicious food, wonderful presents, laughter and fun with friends, but not a ton of rest. The full reality of Christmas as parent has set it--fun, but not so restful! Oh, well, we are still very grateful! Here are a few photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.
Sarah, wearing her perfect Christmas dress! She had a great time playing with the dozen or so kids that were present at our Christmas Eve dinner. I had the most difficult time getting a picture of her because she was literally never still the entire evening!
Later that evening, David and I put all the presents under our tree:
And into the stockings:
The next morning, Sarah was amazed to see what wonders awaited her!

She had a great time pulling everything out of her stocking and opening all of her gifts.



This is the aftermath, though this picture was actually taken after David had already straightened the place up considerably!
Anyway, we have some great video on the way of Sarah opening gifts and playing with some of her new toys. I wanted to add it tonight, but the internet is waaaay to slow--the current 2 minute clip is taking 88 minutes to upload to YouTube--and that is after I sized the file down considerably! So hopefully those videos will be up tomorrow for the grandparents to see! For now I will wish you all a Merry Christmas and Good Night!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Park

The first week of December, my helper mentioned how beautiful the park in the middle of our city, Green Lake Park, was this time of year with the leaves turning golden and all the geese from the north stopping over on their southward migration. So we decided to be a little spontaneous that day and take Sarah on a field trip to the park!


It was indeed a gorgeous late fall morning, sunny and cool. My absolute favorite weather in the city where we live, which really has fantastic weather almost year round.

Sarah, of course, got a lot of attention as usual, which she thankfully enjoys.



The birds were plentiful, and Sarah enjoyed [attempting] to feed them pieces of stale bread. Mostly I fed them, and she loved watching them.



Here's a few more shots of how lovely the park really was that morning:




A perfect fall memory!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Less than a week till Christmas! This month--this fall, really--has just flown by! We have had a wonderful December thus far, including several really fun times with good friends here, some great opportunities to serve others, and just seeing a lot of the Lord's goodness and provision. So, we are getting into the spirit here, looking forward to more Christmas fun this week.

I took some Christmas-y photos last week, that I thought I'd share with you today, in honor of the season. :)
Beginning with our tree, of course! Oh, our tree! The cheapest fake tree David and his roommate could find back in their single days our first year in China. Somehow, you ended up with a bunch of stuff that no one else wanted and randomly ended up in our apartment when we came back here married in 2006. But I have grown to love you since then, even in all your sparse-branchy-fakeness. You've been our tree for four Christmases (six if you count David's single days), and I think I've learned a thing or two about how to make you look good!

Our stockings are the opposite story, actually. These are new to our family this year! I am so excited to finally have nice stockings with our names on them! David and I both grew up with knitted stockings--when you put gifts in them they stretch and bend with the fullness of gifts and take on the shape of whatever is inside! I am so excited to fill them with treats and goodies for my two beloveds this year!
I also love our ornaments! Our tree contains a lot of ornaments, like the one shown above, that David's grandmother or mom made for us by hand when we were engaged and gave us for our wedding. One of the best gifts ever!
I decorated the tree while Sarah was napping, so it was fun to see her reaction to it when she woke up!
I did the tree, meanwhile David set about filling our home with tasty treats. Above he is decorating a pan of chocolate covered toffee with Christmas sprinkles.

Above is ten pounds of homemade Italian sausage David made, waiting for him to take the meat to have it cased later on that day.

David also made his famous shortbread.

And chocolate walnut fudge--Sarah's favorite by far!

Since David was doing all this cooking, I took the easy way out Christmas-y option of ordering KFC delivery for dinner! Its crazy that seven years ago you saw almost no visible signs that people in this country knew Christmas was even happening, and now Christmas here is commercial out the wazoo! Still, the KFC bucket made me smile!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Football Girls

David and some other guys in the city went out and played football the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Sarah and I joined another mom and kids out on the field to cheer on our men/socialize.
Sarah and my friend Anita's daughter Callie really enjoyed playing with the footballs themselves!

Some lessons in sharing had to be learned, but that's just how it goes these days. These girls will be ready for powder-puff in no time!

Sarah Loves Strawberries

Its strawberry season here! I know where most of you live, strawberries are in season in the spring and summer, but here its December and January! I bought my first batch the other day, and David, Sarah and I snacked on a couple. Apparently Sarah really liked them! I was helping David just a few feet away with something in the office, when Sarah climbed up on the table and did this:
She took exactly one bite out of each strawberry left in the box, and left the rest strewn all over the table! She did all this silently and stealthily, and she was far from the scene of the crime when we came back and discovered it. Oh, that sweet, silly girl!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Thai Time

I want to start taking more pictures and doing more posts from our everyday life. I took these pics the last time we ate our favorite little Thai cafe. We eat there at least twice a month I'd say and its always a treat.

The food is delicious. Not quite Thailand delicious, but 90% as good, which is pretty great! David gets pad thai, I get green curry, and we order a fried noodle dish for Sarah that's not spicy.
We all have a great time!