26 months

Sarah has begun her 2 year old language explosion!  I love to hear the sentences that come out of her little mouth.

 

She can identify several colors; most of the time correctly.  Pink, orange, & blue are definite.  She just added brown... but consistently calls it "chocolate". 

Uncle Fr. Jon ("Unk Jon") is still one of her favorite people in the world.  Teresa ("Teesa") is her best friend with Andrew ("Bubba") & Rebecca ("Beck") in close second. 

 

A new interest is identifying where we're going & what we do there.  As soon as we get a block or so away she shouts, "Guys!  Home!  Hi, house." 

If there is any talk of Hy-Vee she says, "Store!  Cookie!  Cheese!" 

She's getting much better with behaving at Mass & sometimes even asks to go.  As soon as I mention Church she says, "Mass.  Father.  Tootsie roll!"

 

Amazingly, she still stays in her toddler bed until we walk into her room.  She's still a binky addict &, even though she's only supposed to have them for sleep, she'll sneak one when we're not looking.

 

Sarah could eat cheese, crackers, Gogurt, & meat all day long.  Anything italian or Mexican is usually a winner.  The only fruits she will eat happily are apples, pears, pineapple, & oranges.  She rejects any vegetable that she can still identify except for sweet potatoes.  She doesn't even want anything else on her plate.  She'll pick it out & hand it to me or put it on my plate.  I've never had a child who refused fruit!  Kind of crazy.  But she makes up for it in cuteness.

Almost 2

We had out the water guns yesterday just for fun & Sarah ran inside so that she could put on her "swim SOUP".

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She's started this habit of sitting down on her couch, crossing her ankles, & saying, "So..."

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Since I dislocated my elbow, we've had to make a few adjustments.  This included *gasp* TEACHING Sarah how to climb in & out of her crib since I can't lift her well.  She has tried maybe once 6 months ago, but has never attempted since; never thought I would be the one to show her how!  So, we dropped the side, pulled up the couch, & she climbs in & out like a pro.  She thinks it's hilarious!  Even better is the fact that she went a full TWO weeks staying in there until given permission to get up.  The streak has ended.  She decided to climb out multiple times yesterday, so we put the side back up & pulled the couch away... she screamed for almost two hours before giving up to take her nap.  This morning Teresa pulled the couch back for her & she climbed out with the side still up.  Geesh.  At least she thinks she needs the couch there to do it.  Gave up with just 45 minutes of screaming tonight.  I guess the heavenly sleeping streak had to end sometime, too.

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She's rediscovered a love for eggs & is now a pro at opening the refrigerator, so four times this weekend she got out an egg to eat... only two of them ended up cracked on the floor & inside of the fridge.

 

Terrible pre-twos???

Thank goodness she's adorable.

Chatty Curly

She may look relaxed, but this little lady is busy having a verbal explosion! New words within the last week: eat, hot, Becca, happy, shoes, coa(t), Nicho(las), (Te)resa, buckle, baby, (pop)corn, door, milk, Wow! (which she says whenever she sees Christmas lights or shows me one of her drawings)
And just today: dog (as in corndog), Henry, boot, bag, & tree
I'm probably missing a few but holy cow! She also keeps falling over & clunking her head as well... maybe she's repurposed all of her balancing brainpower to speaking brainpower.



Ub you

This sweet 16 month old little lady is on the cusp of her language explosion, I believe.  When I laid her down last night & said, "I love you", so returned the sentiment with her own "Ub you" for the first time.  :)  We discovered that she will say "Go!" if any one says "Ready, set...", so everything seems to have exciting starts around here these days.  Sarah also approximates words for milk, cheese, doll, juice, bye, & please along with her already mastered Dada, Mama, hi, & hug.

At her check-up she was 31.5" long & 20.8 lbs heavy.  Finally, getting higher up on the charts.

Curly

This curly haired little lady keeps me hoppin'!

She loves to dump out baskets, boxes, tubs... then flip them over to use as step stools to get where she wants.  We often find her just relaxing in the middle of our bed, head on the pillow, binky in mouth, & content as can be.  She still refuses to sit for long in her high chair & houdinis out of any strap regardless of how tight we make it.  The stroller is one exception where she simply enjoys the ride.  She ooh oohs & aah aahs then grabs her shoes when anyone walks out the door in hopes that she can join them.  Still not very talkative, though her squeals & grunts are getting more specific based on what she wants.  She has a definite "That's funny" laugh as well as a "Look at me; I'm being funny" grin.  Love her to pieces!

13 months

Sarah is 13 months old.  Crazy.

 She's walking pretty well, though really dislikes wearing shoes.  She'll almost always go back to crawling if I put shoes on her!

 

She is drinking well from a sippy cup *finally* & loves milk, yogurt, cheese, sweet potatoes, chicken, & anything crunchy.  She no longer nurses.  She constantly throws her cup on the floor, so we've seriously appreciated this new little "sippy strap" which ties the cup to her high chair / stroller / car seat... where was this for the last 3 kids?  Simple & smart. 

 

She also likes to climb out of her high chair regardless of how tight we make the strap; notice the extra belt under her arms?  Well, that at least slows her down a little bit.  Houdini baby.

 

She still babbles but not a lot.  She's moved on from her "gung gung" word when she likes something to "Yes" or "Yeah" & nodding her head profusely.  Mama, Dada, Bubba, Bu (for bye) with a wave, Guhguh (for grandpa) & a random squeal are her most common sounds.

 

She likes her bath but only in her little tub... freaks out if I put her in the big tub with the girls!  Ironically she likes the pool.  ???  She crawls up stairs but doesn't understand down yet.  She climbs on EVERYTHING & usually does a little dance when she gets to the top.  We find her on the coffee table, ottoman, kitchen chairs, beds, piano bench, etc.  The world is her stepstool so she can really get anywhere she wants.  She's starting to understand backing down feet first, but it is still seriously nerve-wracking.  I want to put a sippy strap on that girl!

 

She's cute, happy, & not nearly as attached to mommy as she used to be.  She crawls/walks to the door as soon as she hears the garage go up to be the first to give Daddy a hug.  If anyone else is crying or hurt, she immediately toddles over to give them a hug.  It's adorable! 

 

Love you, Ladybug!

Guess who's walking?

13 months & she's on the move!

Big day!

On our anniversary we went up to Bellwood to the home of Darren's cousin to celebrate Great Grandma's 91st birthday!  She was having a really good day which was such a gift. 

It was already a big day, so Sarah decided to make it even more exciting:

she stood up without holding on to anything for the first time & second time & over & over & over.  We'll see how quickly she translates that to walking!

What Sarah's been up to

No good!

 Her first toilet paper unraveling,

 continually improving her cupboard destruction techniques,

and slobbering all over the back door window.  Lots of exciting things to see out there! 

(You can finally see those two bottom teeth peeking through in this photo.  Cutie pie.)

Movin' on up

 Sarah's bottom two teeth have officially popped through!  Ever since, she has her tongue sticking out like this more often than not.  Hilarious!  She's pulling up to EVERYTHING, emptying cupboards with flair, chatterboxing, & crawling on her knees about 50% of the time.  She's movin' on up!

She said it!

Sarah has moved on from saying, "Bubba" to an approximation of "Andrew"!  She says one or the other most times that she sees him.  He's thrilled.

And so it begins

Let the cupboard emptying commence!

8 months

My sweet baby Sarah is 8.5 months already!  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  She's been a little behind Teresa's learning curve... thank goodness... but is picking up quickly.  She army crawls all over the house, has learned to open cupboard doors, pulls herself up to kneeling, & goes through fits of babbling.  Most recently, she's lost interest in pureed baby foods.  She still doesn't have any teeth, but those gums are seriously impressive at mashing!  I've been introducing a lot of new foods.  Here she was enjoying her first avocados & she devoured them!  The next meal she wouldn't even touch them.  Silly baby.  We will try again!  She is also a little Houdini at escaping from her high chair, belt & all.  Though she hasn't done it yet, I fear she will hit the floor head first one of these days.  Not a lot of fear in this one!  Maybe that's because she has SO MANY attentive eyes?  You think that would be a bonus!

On the move

 At 8.5 months Sarah is on the move & learning new tricks like crazy!

 She found one of the few drawers that isn't locked & can slide easily... "Did you need something, Mom?"

 When she stops army crawling for a second, she'll hang out on her belly like this.  If she gets excited, especially if Daddy walks in the room, she'll swim & grin & swim & grin until he picks her up.

 She's found her knees but doesn't know exactly what to do with them.

 She's our first baby with a whopper of a birthmark. 

 She sits like a pro!

 She's fascinated by the phone, especially when it lights up.

 Love you, Tuti Fruiti!

6 months

Sarah LOVES Mum Mums.  They are easily her favorite treat.  She starts flapping her hands when she even hears a wrapper!  She likes fruit & orange veggies... not a fan of the green ones.

Under the jumperoo is one of her special places to hang out.  I often will find her having crawled or wiggled under there.  The big kids throw a blanket over the top & call it her "fort".

Her playmat has become more of a jungle gym as of late.  She likes to hook her leg around one of the supports & see how far she can wiggle it across the room.

My baby is trying to crawl!

Slow down, sweetie!  You're only 6 months... plenty of time for all that jazz. 

Gimme some of that

 It has begun!  Sarah has enjoyed her first tastes of sweet potatoes, peas, & carrots.  LOVES the sweet potatoes, dislikes the peas, indifferent to the carrots.  The big kids are just as excited about feeding her as she is about eating!

I've never started a baby this late eating solids & I've always started with cereals... so this is rather new.  She's taking to it pretty quick! 

Jumperoo!

Guten tag!

 Okay, she probably hasn't intentionally said THAT yet, but Sarah is all kinds of babbling lately. Lots of "mamama, dadada, bababa" with the occasional "hi" or "a-gen-da" thrown in there. With all these new words to practice, who has time to sleep? She fills my heart.

Favorite game

"Can we play 'the next day you came over'?"

Currently, this is Teresa's way of asking to play house.  :)  I pretend knock on a door, come in, & inevitably find her with a doll/baby/kitten/puppy that is the same name, age, & gender of MY doll/baby/kitten/puppy in an ironic twist. 

"My baby is Sarah Anne, too!"  "My kitty is 5 months old, too!" 

She's hilarious & NEVER gets bored with it.  What a gal!