Hug Sarah

So....Sarah was in her booster seat eating dinner, and when she was finished, she started playing with her food and spoon. She was twirling the spoon around, and then it fell on the floor, flinging yogurt everywhere. I looked at her and said something like, "Sarah, that was not nice. You played with your spoon and made a big mess. Mommy is sad." Sarah looked at me with her big puppy dog eyes, and then, instead of being upset that she was in trouble, she tried to cover for herself---she put her arms way out beside her and said, "Hug Sarah?" Then, when Jeremy and I started laughing and saying that no, she couldn't have a hug because mommy was still cleaning up the mess, she said, "Give a kiss?" Silly Sarah!

Congratulations Dr. Daddy!

Well, Jeremy did it! He's finally a Doctor! Of Physics, that is....we went to his graduation last weekend, and despite the HUGE cost of a cap and gown for a PhD, I'm really glad he walked. Here are some pics and a video from the ceremony.


Things have been really, really crazy busy around here lately. I seem to be moving from day to day like a zombie just doing what needs to be done for the next day. Hopefully after grad school this weekend and the last week of school next week, things will settle down for awhile! I am SO excited about spending the summer at home (more or less) with Sarah! I hope she's excited too and that she won't be too sad to be away from her friends at school!

If You're Happy and You Know It!

It's been a fun couple of weeks! This weekend we had a little graduation party for Jeremy. Several of his friends from work came and a few other friends, and it was so much fun to see all of the kids playing in the driveway. We had 5 kids here ranging from 6 months to 3 years. Sarah's toys really got a workout, and thankfully, she was OK with the idea of sharing. She was too busy eating Doritos anyway :-)

On Sunday afternoon we hung out at home and just relaxed. Sarah looks so grown up in her "big girl chair" with her "big girl water bottle." I can't believe she's almost 2! During the past couple of weeks she has really taken off with the "princess" idea. She will let you wash her hair in the tub if you tell her to wash her hair like a princess, and she LOVES to go get a new princess pull-up each morning. Her favorite for now is Cinderella, and if she's not asking to watch Barney, she's asking to watch "Cin-rella." She's also still bossy. For example, yesterday I was sitting in the computer chair looking at some papers while she watched tv. She came over to me, told me "hold you," and then as soon as I picked her up, she told me to "get up." Then she told me to "sit down couch Sarah." Basically, she can't do anything without one of us doing the same thing with her. Ughh!

After recording the perfect video of Sarah singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" a couple of weeks ago, I proceeded to record over it before uploading it to the computer--oops. So then I spent several more days trying to capture the moment again, but it just didn't happen. The clips in the video are takes #100 and 103. Just kidding....but they're not as good as the first one. However, my absolute favorite video of Sarah ever is the clip where she is laughing at the hopping toy bunny on the floor. What a laugh!

Finally, this was too funny not to write about: on Friday we were sitting in the driveway eating popsicles, and I took Sarah's shirt off so she wouldn't make a mess on it. The next thing out of Sarah's mouth was, pointing at ME, "take your shirt off." HA! Yeah, right, Sarah!

Happy Easter!

We all had a great Easter weekend. Well, I'm not sure about Jeremy--he spent it working. Only 9 more days until his defense--eeck! Sarah had so much fun at the Egg Hunt on Saturday, except during the group photo ;-) I finally wrote down one of our car conversations this morning:
Sarah: See birdie!
Me: Do you see a bird?
Sarah: See bunny!
Me: Oh, you saw a bunny?
Sarah: Brought treats!
Me: The Easter Bunny brought you treats?
Sarah: Put in mouth.
Me: He brought you treats for your mouth?
Sarah: Eat it?

Enjoy the pics and video! As you will be able to tell, Sarah gets very excited when she sees Play Dough :-)

Spring Break!

I think I could get used to a permanent Spring Break :-) Sarah, like I seem to say in all of my recent entries, is so much fun these days (and so funny!). I keep meaning to write down some of our conversations and post them, but I keep forgetting them by the time I get to a piece of paper. Her new favorite thing is to read books all by herself. She used to want someone to read to her, but now she wants to do it by herself. She usually will go get a book for herself, start reading it, then realize that I need a book too, go get me a book, and make sure that I sit right by her and read my book. She's a very particular little girl. Everything has to be just in it's place, and you don't want to hear her scream when she gets food stuck to her finger and can't wipe it off! I guess she's just beginning to realize that she can tell people what to do and they just might do it. Sarah spent the first half of her Spring Break week at school--I decided that I would get a "break" the first half of the week to catch up on chores around the house and maybe some LMU work, and Sarah will get her "break" the second half of the week. Today was her last day at school and I went to eat lunch with her there and took her home early, something I never get to do when I'm at work :-)

Jeremy and I dropped Sarah off at Mimi and Pawpaw's house on Saturday morning, and we went to Columbia, SC, for his best friend's wedding. We had a great "date" evening and enjoyed visiting with some old friends. If Jeremy agrees, I'll post the video later of him performing the chicken dance for Sarah! The chicken dance is one of her new favorite songs...

We're looking forward to our family Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday, and I'm sure I'll have some cute pictures to post afterwards!

Spring has Sprung!

I can't believe it's already Spring! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of stress for Jeremy and me. I put in for a transfer at work back at the end of February and did not really know if I stood a chance of getting one or not. A couple of weeks ago, it started looking like a good possibility, but nothing was definite and it was a bit of a roller coaster ride. Thankfully, things worked out in my favor last Friday, and I got the transfer. Next year, I'll be working in a collaborative preschool classroom, which will be a regular Georgia Pre-K class with 6 kids with special needs and 14 typical kids. I'll work alongside the Georgia Pre-K teacher and aide, and a major perk is that I will be able take Sarah to work with me, since the Pre-K classes are in day care centers, and will not have to miss out on her school activities. We'll also seriously cut down on our daily commute time-wahoo! I am so excited about this new "chapter" in my career, and it will be so much fun to work in an inclusive setting.

Jeremy has officially scheduled his defense of his thesis for April 21st, so it looks like he's really on track for May graduation. He also has his very first "real" job interview this Thursday, in Richmond, Kentucky. He's really nervous because on top of being in a rush to get his dissertation completed, he now has to plan a seminar that he will present at his interview on Thursday. I think his stress might just beat out mine!

Sarah and I spent the day at my mom's a couple of weekends ago, and we got some cute pictures. She's getting a goofy picture smile. All I can say about Sarah right now is talk, talk, talk! She is SO chatty (that is, when she's not trying to be a couch potato and watch Barney all day, as you will see in the picture)! I need to write down some of our conversations so I can post one or two--some of them are pretty funny! :-)

If all the snowflakes were candy bars and milkshakes...oh what a snow it would be!

We've had a great weekend and the snow day tops it off! One of my college apartment-mates came to visit for the weekend so she could go to the GCPS job fair on Saturday. Her trip to the job fair was less than ideal, but we had a nice time visiting anyway. Then we got a great surprise with all of the snow yesterday--I was probably more excited about it than Sarah and definitely more excited than Jeremy, but I think I was able to at least get Sarah into the snow spirit just a little bit. She really enjoyed watching the snow fall through the window and listening to me sing a silly little snow song I made up. She also liked the snow when it first started falling. We were at my mom's for awhile yesterday morning and my mom got some cute pictures when the snow first started to fall. Once the snow was on the ground, Sarah became afraid of it anytime we tried to put her in it. She did enjoy her laundry basket "sleigh ride" this morning, at least until the sleigh capsized and mommy took her on a sideways ride for a few feet. That ended the fun. I've had a fabulous time just hanging out at the house with my sweeties, and hopefully I will now be refreshed enough to make it to Spring Break!