Happy Birthday Uncle Jason & Uncle Justin!

Stop getting older, you goobers! I joke, I hope you both have great birthdays!!

Happy Birthday Aunt Susan!

Hope you have an excellent birthday!

It Takes A Village...

I just wanted to take a moment and recognize some important people in Sariah's life. It is always wonderful as a parent to know you can get some help and you're not alone.

First off, our favorite librarian, Miss Tiffany. Its been almost a year since we started story time with Miss Tiffany and we think she's the best. She teaches us songs and rhymes and gives us great ideas for learning at home. I've pilfered one or two things from her for our church callings as well! She genuinely loves kids, and she loves books! I attribute Sariah's love for "the itsy bitsy spider" to Miss Tiffany. I trust her so much, she even babysat for us once. She makes the library fun for us, which is why we're there 2-3 times a week! We're very thankful to have her in our lives!


The second person I must mention is our peditrican, Dr. Lo. I hadn't met Dr. Lo before we had Sariah, we just chose him because he was the only pedi at the closest clinic to us, but I'm so thankful he was there. He's been the best doc ever. A few examples. Just this weekend Sariah ended up with hand, foot and mouth disease, and when I realized yesterday what it was, I emailed him, just to check if we should take her in, or if what we were doing for her was enough. It was kinda late yesterday, so as soon as he got to the clinic today I got a phone call. It wasn't from his nurse, it was from him. That's what I appreciate from him. He's attentive to detail and making sure the kids are treated right. Just read the statement he gives on the hmo website:

“I enjoy working closely with patients and providing the best care possible. I try to present all the information and options so parents can make the best decisions for their child. My goal is to treat every patient the way I want my own children to be treated.”

And that's exactly what he does. Two other examples. When Sariah was a month old, she got that typical newborn acne rash. When we went in for our one month he explained her rash to us (not that we were worried) but he couldn't remember exactly the name for it. Thirty min. after our appointment, I got a call from him (again, not his nurse) letting me know exactly what the rash was called. He had taken the time to look it up. I appreicate his dedication.

Also, when Sariah was almost 4 months old we were visiting my mom in Austin when Sariah had an allergic reaction to something and got a rash on her hands. I emailed Dr. Lo and got a response right back with how much medication I could give her. I don't think I'm the type of mom that calls the dr. over every little thing, but its nice to know that I have a caring Pedi. when something does come up.

There are really so many other people that bless our lives and help raise Sariah, and I'm thankful to all of them. Hopefully, I can highlight some others soon. For now, I say a big THANK YOU to Miss Tiffany & Dr. Lo!

At the Beach

There are some very nice local beaches around the lakes in our area. Thursday we went with a couple of friends to the closest one.



Sariah has never been in water she could just wade in like this. She thought it was awesome. She was so fearless and just waded in! She got a little nervous when the "tide" pushed her over early on, but she got use to it quick and was quite the trouper. It was tons of fun, but I don't know if we'll go again soon, I can do without the sand in her hair, and she swallowed some of the water, which gave her some gnarly diapers.

She's such a brave girl; I think she's just wonderful. ;)

Anybody have a solution?

Here's our quandry for the day. I think I've known since before she was born that Sariah was a little monkey, and now there's no denying her ability to climb onto almost anything. She's quite the little tumbler too, she loves sommer saults. All this would be fine, EXCEPT...

She likes to look out the window. She's already bent the blinds on one of her windows in her room. Not a huge deal, but if I wanted to keep the windows open, I couldn't have her pressing her nose against the screen and having the possibility of her tumbling to her doom. So, since her bed was right next to the window, we just scooted it a couple feet away. Problem solved? Um, no. Sariah's next feat was to climb from her bed to her night stand diagonally so she could get back to the window. I found her this ways twice before the night stand had to be relocated.

Okay, problem solved, right? WRONG. She has been climbing out of bed, so I removed her stool and set it over by her desk (bad move mom). Of course, she doesn't need the stool anymore to get in and out of bed, so that didn't slow her down. In fact, it just enabled her to then (and this is what I found this morning) get out of bed, walk over to the stool, climb up the stool, open the keyboard drawer on her desk, climb INTO the drawer, get on top of the desk, scatter all the books off the desk and knock over the lamp in her goal to get to the OTHER WINDOW. Which she was looking out of this morning.

I guess I should've seen it coming, she's been pulling out the drawers of the dressers and sitting in them lately when I'm not looking. (Bad habit!) So now, I've removed the stool completely (it works well in the bathroom anyways.) And the books now live on top of the dresser instead of the desk, but frankly, I'm sure she'll find a way if she REALLY wants to get up there.

So anybody have any ideas on how to keep my monkey grounded? Is there even a way? I don't know of one. Doug thinks we should just enroll her in gymnastics, which she'd probably be good at. And just so you know, I made her clean her room up with me before nap. That's my Sariah, quite the handful!

EPICnic 2008

Yesterday was the annual company picnic! We had loads of fun this year, probably because we got there earlier and Sariah was old enough to enjoy more of the activites. We enjoyed our steak & lobster (even the corn on the cob was good this year!) Sariah munched on mac & cheese and hot dog. We all enjoyed cookies and ice cream too!

There were fun crafts for kids, a big kiddy pool full of bubble liquid, a bouncy house, a juggler, and a bunch of other things. We had a good time, managed not to get too sunburned and avoided any major meltdowns even though we played through nap time. We can't wait for next year!



EPICNIC 2008

an Artist

Gone are the days of one color scribbling. Sariah has really turned into a budding artist. She picks her colors, examines the paper and decides if she's going to dot or draw lines. She gets very upset when she accidently colors off the paper. (We do it on our floor that I can just wipe up the marker, so no worries for me.) Usually she colors right handed, but this masterpiece for Daddy was done with her left hand. Pretty good, no?

Oops!

Every kid has to have her first major accident, and Sariah had hers today. Wednesday morning is our ward playgroup and the weather was so nice so Sariah and I headed out to the park in Verona where we met. She was having a really good time climbing with the other kids, playing in the sand, etc. She's quite fearless and a monkey (her nickname suits her!) and she's really good on the playscapes (usually.)

So she was crossing the bridge on the playground and playing with some other kids, but she wasn't getting anywhere where I would be concerned, so I was keeping one eye on her and having a conversation with another one of the mommies, when the other mom noticed that it seemed that Sariah had fallen off one of the platforms. I turn around and sure enough, she's on the ground. It happened so quick! I think she got the wind knocked out of her, and I'm sure it scared her, so she didn't start crying till I picked her up.

I cuddled her for a bit and she seamed to be better, she even got upset when I thought we should probably leave. It wasn't until we got home, and I got her out of the car to walk into the house that I noticed she was favoring one of her legs. She kinda shuffled into the house and then I picked her up and carried her upstairs. Sure enough, she wouldn't put any weight on her right ankle/foot. This was not good.

The next step was to put a tired Sariah down for a nap. Meanwhile I called the doctor and got an appointment with urgent care for 3:30. We picked Doug up on the way.

Long story short. They did an x-ray but the doctor wasn't 100% sure there wasn't a break. She's pretty sure though, so she gave us an ace bandage for her foot and told us to help her take it easy for a couple of days, but we should check back w/ our Peditrician the next day and make sure the radiology report verified this. There was a tiny line on the x-ray but it could've also been a blood vessel. The dr. also said that little kids are kinda like jello, and she should bounce back pretty easily.

EDIT TO ADD: I just got the report back this morning (Hurray for MyChart!) And there are no breaks! Yay! It still pretty sore & she won't put weight on it, but she should be okay.)

So here's Sariah's poor bandaged foot.
It makes her a little less mobile, but she's really not that concerned.
She's still getting around and climbing all over, so I take that as a good sign.
She's taking it pretty well.

We don't call her our monkey for nothing. ;)

4th of July! In with a bang, out with a boom!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday yesterday! We had an action packed day of fun! It started in the morning with a bike parade through the neighborhood. We snagged Sariah a trike when I was still pregnant at a garage sale for $10, and although it was suppose to be a birthday present, she's not going to get much use out of it durning the winter, so we let her have it. Her feet don't quite reach the peddles yet, but she didn't care, she loved it! We just pushed her around (at one point we rigged a rope around the handle bars and pulled, which worked much better until Sariah realized she could stear.)
The bike parade started at the park near our house, and went around the block. Here they go! But wait, where's Sariah?
She's on the swings, where she stayed until the parade came back. It was just as well, its was hard on daddy pushing her around!

She still got a balloon though!And a popsicle!

And she had a fun time playing with Daddy!
After the morning's festivities, we came home, had lunch, took a nap, and then went to a park up in Middleton that has a great smaller play area, just for Sariah. I forgot to bring the camera though, so no pictures. After playing the day away, we came back home for dinner... roasted hot dogs, watermellon, chips and smores!

Here's my Doug, he makes fire, big strong Doug!
After dinner we cleaned up. (Sariah got a bath to get the marshmellow out of her hair.) Then we relaxed while Sariah slept in bed, and we read books until about 9pm. There's a big park not far away from our house that has the only fireworks display in the city on the 4th. (The orchestra does Rythem & Booms the Sat. before the 4th, I don't know why...) We can almost watch it from our house (we have a wonderful tree line for shade, but not for firework watching), but we can def. see it from the smaller park where the bike parade started and ended. That's great for us, because its a much shorter walk and less crowded than the main park is.
We had to wake Sariah up from sleeping to go, and she wasn't quite sure what we were doing, but she warmed up to it. I'm not sure what interested her more, the fireworks, or the stroller straps, but at least she wasn't scared!

I have some great videos from the day, but because of Window's Vista, I can't download them. If that ever changes I'll try.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Independance Day!

Swim Lessons: Day 8

We survived little dippers swim lessons, YAY!!!

Okay, I'm going to rewind a little bit and just give a HUGE thank you to Doug, who stayed home with a seriously crabby Sariah last night while I ran far, ran fast and had a mommy's night out. If there was ever a day that I needed some away time, yesterday was it. I went bowling with friends (and lost, badly, twice!) then I still didn't want to go home, so I bummed around best buy, walmart and then saw the 10pm showing of Get Smart (which, btw, I really enjoyed!) Today I woke up refreshed and ready to be more patient with Sariah and myself! YAY!

Speaking of waking up, there's a new rule in our house: No Sariah sleeping with only a diaper on. Why do you ask? Well, last night was really hot and humid, so Doug put Sariah to sleep in only a nite nite diapy, and this morning when he went to get here, she was naked! After closer examination of sheets, there were little wet spots all over, leading up to believe she took the diaper off last night before she fell asleep (plus said diaper was totally dry...) Thankfully there was nothing worse than just a little pee, and we learned a lesson. :)

Okay, is this post about swim lessons or what? So today was our final day! I'm happy and sad at the same time. Its been an intense two weeks and we're thankful they're done, but on the other hand, Sariah loves to swim! She was really trying to stay up all by herself today, and sure, she didn't want to participate in any of the activities, but she still had fun. We did have one incident where I got her out of the pool to practice jumping and she moved out of my reach and stood there shivering, and Angie (our teacher) had to jump out and bring her back to me. Silly girl.

Anyways, I'm really glad we did lessons, and I think we'll continue, and maybe even find more to do soon. :)

So I was really evil yesterday posting that recipe in German, but I do have it translated into English w/ converted measurements (sortof).

Apple cake by Brother Kuhrmeyer

1 cup (plus a titch more) flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 packet german pudding (or you can use jello cook and serve, but NOT INSTANT) (Vanilla)
.783 cup (I just used 3/4 + a bit more) sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
.435 cup (or 100g if you have a measuring cup that does it) Milk (You can also use soy milk and it still works okay if someone has allergies)
.435 cup (or 100g) veg. oil
just over 1/2 cup butter (okay to use vegan butter if someone has allergies)

Mix all ingredients except the oil and butter in a bowl. In a second bowl mix add the oil and butter and heat (in microwave) until the butter is soft, mix, let it cool a little and then add it to the other ingredients. Pour onto a cookie sheet (one with sides so it doesn't run everywhere. I think I also sprayed the sheet with pam for baking, but I'm not sure). Cut your apples into thin slices and place onto mixture. (I did mine in rows, but feel free to be creative if you want.) Sprinkle the whole thing with cinnamon/sugar and bake for 30 min in a 390F (or 200C) oven. (although I took mine out after only 27 min. and it was pretty brown so I'd watch it carefully).

Have fun baking and enjoy!

Swim Lessons: Day 7

Our Penultimate Day of swim lessons was today! We were there a little early, so I took the time to take a couple pics of Sariah in her other swim suit. In case you were wondering, this one was my choice, but she wanted the brown one. (as opposed to a plaid pink one that was also pretty cute.)
Sariah and I are at war today. It a war to see who can be most stubborn. There are no winners in this war, only losers. And we've graduated from saying "no!" to everything. Now she says "No WAY!" Its quite fun. Regardless, swimming was okay today. Sariah refused to follow the teacher, or to look at me, or to do anything that everyone else was doing. On the other hand, she thinks she can swim all by herself, and she sure tried to swim away from me several times. One day she's just going to do it, and won't we be impressed? But don't worry, I won't let her drown.


After swim lessons we tried to go to playgroup and I would've taken some pictures there if it hasn't started pouring rain about 10 min. after we got there. So I scooped a screaming Sariah up ("NO WAY, NO WAY!!!") and ran for the car. Its a shame too, because it was the best park for Sariah sized kids that we've been to all Summer. I set her down to unlock the car and she made a brake for it. I'm talking a full out, (Monty Python)RUN AWAY! and finally stopped about 15 feet from me after I managed to throw our bags in the car. (Meanwhile my phone is ringing and I'm trying to make sure Sariah doesn't run into the street, its raining and I accidentally hung up, so, sorry whoever that was.) So she's scowling at me because I'm ruining all her fun, and I pick her back up and finally get her into her car seat.

Luckily, all this wore her out, so after lunch she went quietly to nap (for the first time in like 3 days!) We had to move her bed away from the window or all she does is stare out of it instead of sleep.

So its been a crazy morning! I hope this afternoon is calmer. At least I get a girls night out tonight (we're going bowling...)

Oh, and since I'm feeling generous, here is my Apfelkuchen recipe. (Just for you Julie!)

APFELKUCHEN by Brueder Kuhrmeyer

250g Mehl
1/2 Paeckchen Backpulver
1 Paecken Puddingpulver (Vanille)
180g Zucker
1 Paeckchen Vanillinzucker
4 Eier
100g Milch
100g Oil (Pflanzlich)
120g Butter

Alle Zutaten bis auf Oil und Butter in einen Schuessel verreichen, Oil und Butter zusammen in eine Schuessel u. hitzen, bis die Butter fleissig ist, etwas abkuehlen lassen und mit den restliche zutaten verreichen und dann auf einem Blich glattsbeichen. Apfel klein schneichen und daraufstelen. Der Kuchen mit etwas Zimtzucker besbencn und bei 200C ca 30 min backen.

Viel Spass beim nachbacken un einen Guten Appetit!

Swim Lessons: Day 6

Another day of swim lessons. Nothing really new to report. Sariah is still doing well, although she's shyed away from jumping off the edge. I think it's because the water is pretty cold, then getting out is even colder, then she has to get back in the cold water. It makes her shiver.

I took some pics in the locker room before we went out this morning. Here's Sariah waiting for me to finish putting our stuff in our locker. Now she's wondering what all the other kids are squealing about.
Now she's playing in the shower area.
She thinks the showers are pretty cool, too.
In other news, we had to go back to the car service shop today because my a/c stopped working again. After almost 2 hrs of waiting, it turns out the my a/c is cracked in a very bad place and has to be totally replaced. Total cost? Almost $900. (Thanks Jason.) So I'm undecided if we're actually going to fix it right now. We're really trying to save some money and have other costs coming up in Aug/Sept/Oct.

Meanwhile, Sariah is over tired. She was really tired after swimming and waiting around, and now she's gone on a nap strike. She's been in her room for an hour now crying. I don't know what to do. I think I need a nap. :(