The Glass Door

In the last presidential election, Hilary Clinton spoke often of the "glass ceiling" that exists for women who aspire to reach the highest levels of political power. For Sarah, it is a glass door. Specifically, the sliding glass door which separates our dining room from our kitchen and has, up until recently, been one of the most useful parts of our apartment. I could set Sarah down right outside on the floor or in her highchair and she could watch me through the glass (usually for 5-10 WHOLE minutes before her "patience" wore thin) while I did stuff in the kitchen. Well, this morning she figured out how to open the door and crawl right on in. So, I decided to try to catch her performing this feat on camera for the blog. Well, she put on a performance, alright, just not quite what I was expecting.

Our Dear Teacher

David and I have a language teacher who we dearly dearly love. She is a sweet believing lady in her 50's who has been teaching us for going on four years now! She loves to talk and tell stories, and while she speaks very clearly, she doesn't slow her speech down or temper her vocabulary for her students. When we first started studying with her, she'd just jabber away and we'd maybe understand 50% of what she said. But our listening began to improve so quickly, and now we credit her affinity for story-telling with the fact that our listening is our best language skill and we only rarely encounter situations these days when we can't understand what someone is saying. Anyway, she's great. AND, because she lives just a five minute walk away, she comes to our apartment for class!! So, she's spent a lot of time with us. One of the things she's apparently observed over the years is our love for technology. So much so that we recently had this dialogue about our kitchen timer (the kind that is also a magnet--it is stuck to our fridge directly opposite the oven:

Teacher: "So what is this thing?"
Me: "Um, I don't know how to say the name [in my second language]." (I didn't know the word for "timer" or "time"--as in used a verb.)
Teacher: "What does it do? Oh, does it send a signal over to your oven to tell it when to turn it on and off?"
Me: "What? No, no, nothing like that. Its just a . . . I don't know how to explain . . ."
Teacher: "No, I get it--it's like a remote control for your oven. It senses when your food is done automatically . . ."
Me: "No, no! Its not that complicated! Its a very simple machine! You just put how long you want to cook something . . . "
Teacher: "Oh, and it just makes a sound when the time is finished?"
Me: "YES YES!! Very simple!"
Teacher: (disappointed) "Oh, I see."

We do use a lot of devices around the house that the average Asian family doesn't use, but I couldn't believe she thought our timer had some kind of food-readiness-sensing ability. I kept wanting to say--its just a TIMER. I should have told her it was just a clock because I know that word. :) Anyway, here is a photo of our teacher and Sarah together:

Taking Her Stand

Sarah's new favorite pasttime--STANDING!!! She is pulling up on anything and everything these days. She just loves to be on her own two feet! She pulls up in her crib, pulls up on the coffee table, the couches, people's legs . . . if she's within reach she's been known to grab hold of my clothing or hair to try to pull up--NOT Mommy's favorite!!! Right now she is not interested in anything that is on the ground--GOOD for stemming her interest in power cords, BAD for all her toys that she used to sit on the carpet and play with. So, now I just put a couple of toys on top of our coffee table and that seems to keep her occupied. Oh my, though, she is just growing up TOO FAST!!! All you moms out there--is there any way to make it stop???

Crawling

So a while ago I promised video of Sarah crawling, so here it is. These videos really show you a little bit of Sarah's developing personality, which is so so so fun. Oh how we love her!!! Grandparents: ENJOY!

October???

Its October? Seriously? Not only is it October, its October 10!! Wow. I realized that I haven't posted on this blog since September 17. That is pretty sad. I was thinking this morning what exactly it is that I have been busy with, and while it HAS been busy (we went out of town for several days, have had house guests for several days, I spent a lot of time organizing a schedule for the nursery volunteers at our international fellowship, among other things that have kept me busy), but the real reason I haven't updated my blog in a while consists of two things: 1) I have gotten out of the habit, 2) I think I have gotten a little bit bored with it. Blogging really is a habit, and a GOOD one--one that it really takes a while to get in to, but can be lost or forgotten really easily and quickly. So, now I've got to try to get back into it. Certainly one of the reasons I have gotten out of it has been the boredom factor. Not that I think the actual act of posting is boring--not at all--but I read others blogs and they are full of fascinating cultural stories or tales of the funny things they're kids are doing and my blog is more often than not just photos of Sarah doing very typical baby stuff. VERY cute photos, that her grandparents TREASURE. And that in and of itself makes the blog completely worthwhile. But I have to admit I wish I could put more into it--more of myself, my thoughts, my experiences. Wow, that sounded self-centered. Anyway, the point is, I am going to try to get back into blogging and try to mix it up a bit in my posts. Don't worry Mom and Barb--there will still be PLENTY of baby photos. Just maybe not in EVERY post. We'll see. Anyway, this post at least will satisfy your cravings! Here are some recent fun pics of our precious one:
Here is Sarah, through the wonders of more technologies than I could wish to elaborate, watching her first ever college football game!

Sarah is definitely at the stage now where she enjoys non-toys waaaaaaaay more than actual toys. See Laundry Basket of Joy (above) and Language Text Book of Bliss (below).



This is just a cute one of Sarah in her favorite position--on the go!

More Sick Days Photos

So these are a couple more random photos from our two plus weeks of spending most of our time at home sick. The first is a picture of Sarah in her new high chair, which my mom requested:

The second was a very common sight at our house during the height of the sick days period:
We spent a lot of time on the couch. Thankfully now we are feeling mostly recovered, and this week has actually been super-busy--no time for any scenes like what you see above. We have re-entered the world of the healthy at full-speed!

Leprechaun

I know I just recently posted some cute pictures of Sarah covered in peas, so I am risking over-doing the Sarah-covered-in-baby-food theme of blog posts, but these were just too cute NOT to post. As you can see, Sarah had carrots for dinner, and managed not just to get them all over her chin and nose, as usual, but to even get them in her eyebrows, giving her this adorable leprechaun look:
Sorry these two are out of focus. Sarah is loving the camera these days and decided herself to move her face closer and closer--the camera's auto focus just couldn't keep up!