Sarah's New Word

... is "ginormous". She says "everyone" uses it, and uses it to describe anything big.

Too Sweet

Papa: I think made this a little bit too sweet ...

Sarah (incredulous): I never found anything too sweet ever!

Drawing And Spelling

Sarah was sitting at the lunch table, drawing on her dry-erase placemat.

She drew a very convincing banana with yellow and black marker, then wrote BNANA next to it.

Then she drew a red tomato and wrote TMATO.

Next she drew a bunch of grapes, looking several times at a bunch of grapes sitting on the table.

Then she slowly wrote GRAP while sounding out each letter: Guh. Guh. Rrr. Rrr. Aye. Aye. Aye. Puh. Puh.

Then Mama corrected her spellings, and Sarah erased the pictures before I could get a photo.

Bee Sting

Sarah got stung by a honeybee while swimming at the pool. I rushed her to the house and put baking soda and water on the sting, then washed it with soap and water, and put a band-aid on it. At first I thought it was a yellowjacket, since I had seen one in the area earlier, but she was lucky.

A few days later at the pool...

Sarah: You know what I learned? Bees like to go by flowers and by water! So that's why the bee was here that stung me!

Speaking of the pool, Stephen and Sarah have been learning to put their faces under the water and hold their breath a bit. Both of them have swum the length of the pool several times (using floaties on their arms still.)

Monkeys and Alligators

Stephen was playing with a big sticker poster of different landscapes, and chose one appropriate for monkeys. He then got out the monkey stickers and was looking for alligator stickers.

Stephen: Where's the alligators? Where's the alligators?

Mama: Honey, I don't think we have any alligators.

Stephen (keeps looking, finds alligators)

Stephen (singing): Five little monkeys, sitting in a tree! Saying Mr. Alligator, you can't catch me! (Alligators then eats monkeys)

Bed

It's early in the morning, and Sarah is lying down on her mattress at the foot of our bed. We are still trying to sleep. Stephen enters the bedroom.

Sarah: Stephen, come lie down here with me in my bed!

Stephen: I lie down here on the floor.

Sarah: Look, there's no peepee in my bed!

Stephen: Oh!

(Stephen then lies down with Sarah on her bed.)

Stephen Learning How To Dribble A Basketball

Tying Shoes

Sarah came home from preschool the other day and told me she learned how to tie her shoes. She then proceeded to untie my shoes and then successfully tie them again.

Frozen

We were given a DVD of the animated Disney movie Frozen and Sarah has fallen in love with it. She sings the song, "Let it Go," over and over. This morning she was running around the house, waving her arms, and running up the stairs while listening to the song play on Mama's telephone.

Mama (laughing): Papa, in the movie the princess runs up the stairs that she makes out of ice in this part of the song so that is what Sarah is doing.

Papa (raising and waving arms in air): Yayy! Go Sarah!

Sarah (laughing and laughing)

Sleeping All Night

Bris - Stephen, who was that crying last night? (Note - At early, ungodly hours of the morning)

Papa - Bris, Stephen is learning to sleep all night and not wake up or cry.

Stephen - Right?

Stephen In Bathroom

Stephen Peeing By Himself For The First Time

I just turned my back for a minute, and Stephen ran over to the urinal and was done by the time I got over there.

Monsters Pretend

Stephen started going through a phase where he started becoming afraid at times. It turned out that he was afraid of monsters that he thought were in the darkness lurking somewhere.

Papa: Stephen, monsters are pretend.

Stephen: Monsters pretend?

Papa: Yes, monsters are pretend.

Stephen: Oh!

He still needs occasional reassurance sometimes when he becomes afraid and will ask again.

Stephen: Monsters pretend?

Papa: Yes, monsters are pretend.

Stephen: Oh!

He and Sarah by themselves also figured out that Superman and Spiderman are pretend. However, they think that Santa Claus is real.

Yes

Stephen just switched from saying "yeah" to pronouncing "yes".

Stephen: Yes!

Head Start

Sarah finished up her first (partial) year of "school" at Head Start.

Her first question every morning was, Today I'm going to skewwol?

Everything about her going to Head Start was good. She learned how to write her name and made some friends with boys and girls. It gave the day some structure while exposing her to learning activities every day. And it gave Mama enough of a break to help keep her from going crazy, and to give her some more one-on-one time with Stephen.

Her classroom is closing after this school year but she should be placed in another class in the fall. We went to visit a classroom in North Tempe that hopefully she will be able to get into and attend 6 hours per day.

Head Start is going through budget cuts due to politics on the federal level ("budget sequestration" due to Republicans desiring to cut expenses spend on the majority of the country for the benefit of a tiny fraction of the very richest among us).

It's very sad because there should be nothing that holds us back from investing in our children, and preschool education for kids Sarah's age has been shown to make such a big difference over the course of their entire lives.

Boo to the "elected" Republicans in Congress!

("Elected" because their majority was achieved through gerrymandering, not through getting a majority of votes. Democratic representatives for the House received a total of 1.4 million more votes than the Republicans, and yet the Republicans won 32 more seats than the Dems. Seats that the Repubs are using to obstruct anything constructive and promote the interests of giant corporations and the few thousand richest Americans and the detriment of science, education, the environment, truth, decency, and everything good.)

If you are reading this in 2033, and the Republicans are still around, they sucked in 2013. Really, really, really bad.

Hablando Espanol (Talking Spanish)

We came down to visit Nana and celebrate her birthday. We missed the date by a few days as we waited for Sarah to finish her last week of classes.

Papa: Sarita, ahora vamos a hablar solamente en espanol, porque vamos a Mexico, donde todos hablan espanol. No quieremos hablar ingles aqui, porque vamos a hacer sentir mal a nuestros familiares, quienes todos hablan espanol, y no saben hablar ingles.

So after that, Sarah kept catching Mama talking in English instead of Spanish.

Sarah: Mama! Habla en espanol!

Mama: Ok, gracias Sarita!

Stephen's Flip-Flops

Mama bought Stephen a pair of Disney's Cars flip-flops somewhere the other day, and Stephen loves them so much he wants to wear them everywhere.

He even wore them to bed. But since they started bothering his feet, he took them off and hugged them in his arms as he went to sleep.

First Crush

Stephen has a friend at preschool - Edna.

Papa: Stephen, did you see anyone at school today?

Stephen: Edna!

...

Papa: Stephen, do you like Edna?

Stephen: Hug Edna!

Edna is a very happy and smiley child, just like Stephen.

...

Mama drops Stephen off at preschool. Stephen has, up to this point, usually been pretty tearful as we leave. Today, Stephen sees Edna.

Stephen: Bye Mama! (Almost shoos Mama out the door).

Happy Birthday Stephen!

So now it has been two years since we first welcomed Stephen into our arms.

He is a very smiley, happy, playful boy who brings us lots of joy into our hearts.

Early Head Start

Stephen just got accepted into Early Head Start, which is a government-funded preschool program for broke folks like us. He goes for several hours per day, Monday-Friday. It has been great for Mama, who has had her first break since Sarah was born, although it has been hard for her, too. Stephen cried a lot the first several days he had to go. Mama cried, too. But he has liked the idea of going to school since the beginning and by week 2 he was hardly crying when we dropped him off.

He has fun there, playing with other kids, getting more socialized (if that were possible), and taking baby steps towards independence.

Next month Sarah will go back to her own Head Start preschool in the same building, and then Mama will really have a break - several hours in a row per day with no tiny person demands.

Swimming

The kids love going to the pool to swim. They have been using little plastic "floaties" on each arm and can jump in from the side and swim the length of the pool.

Stephen is able to hold his breath under the water and has no problem dipping his head underwater. In fact, he jumped in to the pool a couple of times without his floaties and had to be retrieved from under the water by nearby Papa, and each time he popped out of the water with a big smile on his face.

Sarah is not as good at holding her breath. She does not like to put her face under the water at all and is a bit more afraid of the water.

But we all have fun splashing around. And Mama is slowly improving her swimming skills as well.

Papa: Stephen, do you want to go to school today?

Stephen (grinning ear-to-ear): No! Pool!

Papa: You want to go swimming in the pool?

Stephen (still grinning): Yeaaahh!