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?