Can't Sleep

Papa: I can't sleep.

Mama: Well, then why don't you get up and do something productive, like go wash the dishes?

Papa: Thank you so much for helping baby, I am starting to get sleepy already!

No Singing!

Sarah starts to sing.

Stephen: No! No! No!

Papa: Stephen, you don't want Sarah to sing?

Stephen: No!

Papa: Stephen, do you want to sing?

Stephen (nods)

Stephen (clasping hands): Ooo ooo ooo (singing intonation and choir boy singing face)

New Song

Sarah made up another song today. Here are a couple of lines:

Me gusta ir a McDonald's
Me gusta ir a muchos lados

(I like to go to McDonald's
I like to go to a lot of places)

The two lines rhyme when she sings it...

Sarah's earlier song

Also she made up a song (more of a cheer, really) about In-N-Out today:

In-N-Out! In-N-Out!
Kakadalatka
In-N-Out! In-N-Out!

I wish I could write down every one she makes up as it comes out.. She has some real potential for talent if I knew how to cultivate her songwriting ability.

Bicycle

Sarah's Christmas wish for a bicycle was fulfilled the other day at a garage sale. It's a nice pink one with training wheels that she can already ride. She has been riding it around the apartment all by herself and today she rode it all the way to the park and back with Mama.

Mama's Shirt

Papa: Look, Mama's shirt is black and white.

Sarah: Right! She's a zebra!

More Coloring

Stephen is not to be left out on the coloring... This one is his first real effort.

Chili

Papa made a big batch of chili the other day. Not sure which ingredient it was but it made us all ill (or so we believe). It did tast pretty good, though. Last night Mama and Papa worked together to make a new batch.

However, nothing compared to Mama's own apple cake recipe she prepared for us last week. Mostly apples with a little bit of breading. Yum!

Stair Light

Stephen has learned to turn on the light switch before going up the stairs. He doesn't like to go up the stairs in the dark. So much so that if he is almost all the way up the stairs and someone turns off the lights from the bottom... he slides right back all the way down, stands up, and turns the light back on before starting back up the stairs again.

I did this to him at least 10 times in a row the other day before he started getting mad (trying to buy time for Mama, who was resting upstairs).

Geese Chased Us

Sarah saw some geese and remembered, again, the episode where some geese tried to run us down.

Sarah: Remember when we went to the park and the geese were chasing us and tried to eat us, and we ran?

A bit later, Stephen overheard Papa telling Mama about what Sarah said. Stephen started quacking and then made motions with his hands that seemed to describe the story of the geese.

Mama: Stephen are you telling us about when the geese chased after us and tried to eat us and we ran away?

Stephen (nods and moves his eyebrows "yes")

Convertibles

Sarah on convertibles.

Sarah: Silly car! Why don't it have ventanas? (windows?)

Ponmibo

Sarah mispronounces this Spanish word, "conmigo," in the cutest way: "ponmibo," replacing two consonants.

Until the other day, when she got it right for the first time, and I was kind of sad.

High Five

Sarah is really enjoying her subscription to High Five, the little sibling publication to Highlights for Children (the children's magazine found in dentist's offices nationwide since 1946).

We have read each issue almost daily since it came and she likes every feature. I think that with the repetition, she is slowly learning to read.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

(Just as I finished writing this, Sarah walked into the room carrying one issue in each hand.)

Sarah: Ok! Who wants to read one of these! (Sits down and starts reciting a Peter Rabbit-like story while looking at the cover of one, then reciting pretty accurately parts from inside it)

Coloring

Sarah has started coloring in the last couple of weeks and has improved dramatically. I was feeling pretty impressed, since kids don't usually start coloring until age 5, right, not 3? Until I googled it and saw mothers claiming that their babies started coloring at 8 or 9 months. Liars!

Late Night

Late at night, in the bedroom:

Papa (farts)

Mama (whispering): Shh! You're going to wake Stephen!

Stephen: Waaaaaah!

Mama (laughing)

Poopoo

Stephen is now letting us know several times per day when he needs to go to the bathroom, both for peepee and for poopoo. He goes in and sits down on the toilet, either the big one or the little one, and does very visible effort, usually successful. Then we clap and cheer, Yay, Stephen! Good job! Age: one year, seven months. Still using diapers 24 hours, for now.

Singing

Papa (starts singing)

Stephen: Noooo! Noooo! Noooo! (shaking head and making faces)

Mama: Stephen, you don't want Papa to sing?

Stephen: No! No! (shaking head and waving finger) No!

New Friend

Sarah was very happy coming out of the YMCA childcare.

Sarah: Mama! Mama! I made a new friend!

Mama: Sarah, that's so nice! Is your friend a boy or a girl?

Sarah: (pause) Um... I will ask him tomorrow!

Mama (laughing): Sarah, girls usually have long hair and sometimes wear pink, and boys usually have short hair and usually don't wear pink.

Sarah: Um, I think maybe he is a boy!

Mama: What is your friend's name?

Sarah: I will ask him tomorrow!

Friends

Sarah is getting good at making friends. We go to play in one place or another, and very quickly she is playing with whatever other little girl who is her age or so, or up to five years older.

At the library, she made friends with a 6-year-old or so girl, joining in playing with puppets, and then inviting her to sit down and read a book together, and then inviting her to go sit together in the play castle.

Later that day, at a Mesa McDonalds, she made friends with a very nice girl, who helped her with her shoes and socks, as well as running all around the play structure together for as long as we let them.