Will had a looong birthday celebration this year. It started on January 15 with a party at JumpZone with lots of his friends. Will loves the giant inflatables and had a great time! He had a cool Spiderman cake and got to sit on a big red throne and open presents.
The next weekend, Will got more cake and balloons and presents from Grandma and Grandpa. On Will's actual birthday, January 24, he went to Chick-fil-a (his choice!) with Daddy, Christopher and Granddad for dinner. Then he opened presents on the video-chat camera with Mommy so we could all see! The next day, Grandma took monster cookies to his preschool class. It was a great birthday celebration!
It's a little late to be blogging about Christmas, but I wanted to have a record of my favorite moments this year. Noel and the boys spend Christmas Eve day with Nana and Granddad, and I joined them after a blood transfusion. We spent some time Christmas morning opening gifts and stockings as a family. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to spend Christmas with them, Uncle Jamie and Eva. We had a bonus Christmas a few days later when Aunt Amanda, Uncle Brian and Asher came to town. It was a great week! Here are some of my favorite memories:
Will sang "Joy to the World" incessantly through all of December. Christopher loved singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Latin, which he learned at school. Sarah Kate was listening all month and sang the tune of the first line of "Joy to the World" and also the glorias from "Angels We Have Heard on High."
When Sarah Kate opened gifts, she had a blast pulling out the tissue paper and saying, "Wow!" A couple of times, she put the tissue paper back in the bag without getting the gift out. (She's great at cleaning up her messes.)
Sarah Kate got a baby doll bed from Grandma and Grandpa. When Grandma brought it out in the midst of opening gifts, Sarah Kate immediately grabbed her baby doll and went to put her in the bed and cover her up for a nap. There was no doubt in her mind who that was for and what it was for.
I also loved Christopher's ecstatic response to his gifts. He would yell the name of whatever it was and lift it over head in jubilant triumph. There was also a sweet moment after the boys opened their gifts to each other--a big hug and sincere thank-yous to each other.
When we opened gifts with Aunt Amanda, Uncle Brian and Asher, Sarah Kate took charge of opening all of Asher's gifts. I guess she thought she was an expert by then. Poor Asher is seven months younger, and someday he'll be even with his pushy cousin!
The morning of Christmas Eve, I had a talk with the boys about being thankful for their gifts and not greedy. I reminded them that Jesus was the reason we celebrate Christmas, not the presents. Christopher solemnly replied, "But Mom, the gifts represent Jesus, who is the greatest gift of all." Nice try, kid.
Sarah Kate has had a busy month. She's cut a couple of teeth, taken care of her baby dolls, and learned lots of new words. Her new favorite word is "wow!" She also likes to imitate us saying, "oh my!" She says Will's name very clearly as a two syllable word: "Whee-ull!" And she says "ff ff" for Christopher. She's also saying hello, passy, coat, juice, etc., as well as several animal sounds. She has put words together such as "silly baby Asher" (she says his name like "sigh") or "I wanna see" (when you take her picture). She still loves books and will ask to have her favorites read over and over again.
Sarah Kate had a great time at Christmas! We could have given her empty bags of tissue paper and she probably would have been perfectly content. She would pull the tissue out and say "wow!" Sometimes she would look in the bag and try to pull out the gift, and other times she'd just start putting the tissue paper back in. She got a baby doll bed from Grandma and Grandpa, and it was pure instinct the moment she saw it, as if she knew it must be for her baby doll . . . she immediately picked up her doll and went and put her to bed! It was so cute.
I just realized I never blogged about Halloween, so it will be a little out of order, but here it goes . . . Several months ago, Will decided that he wanted to be Evil Emperor Zurg from Toy Story 2 for Halloween. Because Disney made Zurg costumes once upon a time but now they are VERY expensive on ebay, we put Nana on notice. She made a fabulous Zurg costume to go with the headpiece I ordered and the Zurg blaster a resourceful friend found for us at the Disney Store. Christopher's costume was much simpler, since we have had Buzz Lightyear in our costume box for awhile now. :)
The boys had a great time Halloween weekend . . . they got dressed up to go to the library Halloween storytime with their grandparents, and then we went trick-or-treating with their cousin Caroline on Halloween. They also loved handing out candy to "customers" like they did last year. Sarah Kate rode along for the fun but wasn't a big fan of having her hood up for the full bee-utiful effect. (Sorry, couldn't resist!) And of course, scroll down for the next day when Sarah Kate found her brothers' treat bags unattended--she was a happy girl!
A couple of weeks ago, I took the boys with me to buy some flowers for their aunt's birthday. As we walked from the floral department to the front of Sam's Club, I silently admired how Christopher was carrying the wrapped bouquet so carefully, like such a big kid.
About two seconds later, he had lifted the bouquet on his shoulder and announced, "It's a flower gun!" Without missing a beat, Will chimed in, "Fire!" They spent the rest of the time in Sam's with Will pointing out targets, and Christopher taking them down. Oh, well.
A slightly belated post, but I need to acknowledge another month has passed in the life of Sarah Kate! She is becoming a toddler with a mind of her own. She loves to play with her baby dolls and push them around the house in the stroller. She needs a double-stroller--she sometimes has three babies piled on one little stroller! She also is using more words like Grandma, Grandpa, Will, and Bubby (brother) more regularly. She jabbers all day long, we just can't understand most of it!
In November, Sarah Kate joined us for a trip to Silver Dollar City and actually rode a ride! I hadn't realized when we were there just a few weeks earlier that she could ride one of the kiddie rides. She wasn't so sure at first, but once we started moving, she loved it! In fact, she threw a fit when it was time to get off! We rode it twice while we were there, and she had a great time. She also got in on a little of the Frosty the Snowman show with Daddy after a nap in her stroller. And of course, she got a front-row seat during the lights parade, complete with funnel cake for dinner. It was a big day!
A year and a half old already! I can't believe it. Sarah Kate loves to talk and sing. Her favorite songs are the ABC's (which she sings "dee dee dee" but with a pretty good tune), the Itsy Bitsy Spider (often requested on the changing table), and Holy, Holy, Holy. (See video below.) She understands a lot of language and will obey when we tell her to do something or put something back where she got it. She answers almost every question with "no," but sometimes she'll nod her head "yes."
Sarah Kate loves to play with her kitchen and her dolls and, of course, with shoes. She loves to climb on things and has learned to climb into the van and onto the dining room chairs (especially if her brothers leave Halloween candy where she can reach it!). She can point to her ear, eyes, nose (usually sticking her finger into her nostril), mouth, hair, hands and feet. (See video.) She can often been found wandering around the house with her toothbrush and toothpaste, waiting for someone to brush her teeth! Such a silly girl!
