Happy Birthday Sara

After a decade of waiting, the past two years have passed by in the blink on the eye. Two years ago I started my day waiting for a bed beginning at 5 am. Finally getting a bed around noon and then having an Amnio to check to make sure Sara was ready. Finally at 5pm I made it to the operating room and Sara was safetly delivered.

We had a fantastic 5 day weekend. Wednesday we picked up our pictures from JCP, and did some shopping. Thanksgiving we spent at my Moms and started putting up decorations. This is the earliest I have ever put the tree up. Next weekend we have Sara's birthday party so I figured we would decorate the house for it. Evan loves the decorations. We started decorating the tree while Sara napped. After putting on a few boxes of ornaments he told me " I love your ornaments, I love you, I love your hugs, I love your kisses, and sometimes you are so sweet" So many endearing words at once. I told him he was melting my heart.

I have a ton of ornaments, my Grandma would give me a box of ornaments each year for my Birthday and I told Evan this he told me I love your Grandma. My Grandmother passed away two years ago.

Sara has been such a joy. I had to travel to Philadelphia during November and it was my first trip away from the kids. She keeps telling me Momma home. Evan did surprisingly well, I left him a small gift each day. We have a countdown to Thanksgiving calendar and this helped him count the days until Mom came home.

The kids are making great strides, Sara is singing learning a few colors and saying the words for everything when we prompt her. She usually only strings 2-3 words together. She loves her dollies, and Elmo.

Evan is counting to 50, and wants to spell everything. He reads the letters on every sign he sees. The other day it was Pharmacy on Targets sign and he attempts to spell his own words. He can spell Mom, Dad, Evan & Sara. He has no interest in writing or learning to write. We can correctly identify all lower and uppercase letters.

We started Elf on the Shelf. Evan named him Gordon after his favorite train. He leaps out of bed each morning to see where Gordon is and two mornings I have had to dart downstairst ot move him. The Christmas season is so special having these miracles and now sharing the entire Christmas story with Evan. We set up the Fisher Price Nativity set and last year I thought we had misplaced baby Jesus and bought an extra baby Jesus at the Fisher Price store. Of course this year we have two. Well there was a big fight over baby Jesus. Sara insisted she needed two babies and Evan wanted one. We had a full religious war over Baby Jesus! Life is never boring.
My post is very random I've attempted this many times and its been a crazy week. Sara had her two year appointment she is 24.7.lbs naked and in the 23% her height was not measured correctly they measured her lying down screaming at 36 inches.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Working full time, taking care of the kids, trying to keep up with housework is crazy. Marc is gone by 5:30 am before we get up and either home between 6-8:30 or gone overnight a few nights each week. He is always home the weekends. I really feel like a single parent and overwhelmed at times. Maybe I need a cleaning service. Although then I would feel compelled to clean for the cleaning service. Laundry is a full time job alone, if its all done its never all put away. As I'm putting it away the kids are pulling something else out upstairs. Its and endless cycle. My neighbors house is always tidy I'm so envious. She can't go to bed unless her kitchen is clean. Mine is clean but there are nights I leave dishes in the sink or am running late in the morning and don't get everything cleaned up. I guess I'm missing the OCD gene instead I think I have ADHD !

Evan is trying to read. We picked up a book from the library about a Dog and each page has upper and lower case letters on it. He amazed me by sounding out the majority of the letters. He loves to watch Word World and I think it has made a huge impact on him. I swore my child wouldn't watch a ton of TV but the things he watches have increased his vocabulary tremendously. Thomas the Train has great vocabulary and concepts. Although it puts me to sleep, we were in love with it here for a long time. Today I picked up CARS 2, he was more excited about November 1 than Halloween. We had to watch it twice tonight, that won't happen again but it was like Christmas for him.

He suddenly is obsessed with Lego's and has added them to his Christmas list. Luckily I found some great deals at Disneystore.com and the Lego's were 30% off and I added a code for an additional 25% off. I love to shop online. I can usually find great bargains.

Today my houseparty.com kit came for Shutterfly Christmas cards. It included a code for 15 cards for each guest and a free calendar code. (If anyone needs one email me!) This is my 5th Houseparty, I had a Hershey Bliss, Sex and the City, Fisher Price, and Boston Market party. Usually I just share the wealth at another party.

Sara is a little terror lately. She hits and bites Evan. I think she has some major jealousy and wants him to play with her. When he doesn't respond she acts out. Evan doesn't hit her back and part of me wants him to. Time out hasn't worked, any suggestions? On a good note she is talking up a storm. We are up to four words at a time. She will repeat anything we say, her speech is not as clear as Evans was at that age.

Tomorrow I am off to Preschool with Sara, my Mom had to do the last one. I can't wait to see how she interacts and follows directions at school. Evan loves school but was very upset when he came home Monday. It took me a while to get him to tell me what happened. I even had to tell him if he didn't I would call his teacher. His little lip quivered and he told me I would be mad at him. After lots of prodding he told me that he got of his seat and his teacher had to tell him to sit down. He was very upset that he was scolded at school. Of course things like this don't upset him at all at home. I was surprised at his reaction but reassured him it was okay and his teacher isn't angry with him but he needs to listen. I hope he learned his lesson and behaves for the rest of the year. I guess I'll count my blessings I was waiting to hear something much worse!

Evan's Prayer

My parents gave our nieces and nephews $10 for learning the Lords Prayer. I told Evan this last Thursday and by Saturday he had most of the prayer memorized. He wants to buy a boat from Cars 2. I was amazed he memorized this so quickly. My parents were blown away when he said it for them. He is a little distracted in this video but does very well.

Potty training is on...

Sara has been waking up from her naps dry and sometimes she is dry in the am. She will sit on the potty but hasn't actually went on it. This morning she woke and told me potty and book. So we both went on our potties at the same time. Sara went potty! I am so excited hopefully it will happen again soon!

Puzzle season has begun again for Evan he completes 4-8 puzzles during a sitting. He wakes in the morning and wants to do a puzzle before breakfast. He is usually completing 48 piece puzzles but can do a 100 piece one. He likes to do puzzles of his favorite characters last year they were all Thomas puzzles and this year its CARS. CARS is not easy to find in anything bigger than a 60 piece. He has such patience and will stay until they are completed. Sara wants to play too, although last week when we were busy she took 4 puzzles and dumped them in a pile. It was not fun on a busy day to have to put all of Evans puzzles together to straighten them out.

We also love to watch Word World on PBS. The kids have a few DVD's and recently Evan has been making a game of building a word. He takes the magnetic letters and has to run like a crazy man around finding more letters to build a word. He then sorts the letters and numbers and groups them by color. He can use them to spell his name and Sara's name. Hopefully he will show some interest in writing soon!

It is supposed to be a miserable weekend. Marc won't be home until this afternoon. I'm ihoping we can go to the big mall 20 minutes away and stop at Sams Club and Hobby Lobby too. I think Grandma will tag along for an extra set of hands/eyes. Her wrist is slowly healing she has OT twice a week.

More Cheese Mama

Our first phrase! Yesterday I heard me up, and today we are up to a 3 word phrase. She is advancing quickly! Sara had her first solo day of preschool this week. My mom takes the kids to preschool on the days that I don't have to co-op. Sara took off and played right away, my mom snuck out without tears. Sara had a great day! Evan has had 3 solo days he goes twice a week. The first day he had a few tears but has done well ever since. He was the leader his third day, I'm not quite sure what this entailed but he was proud. He also earns a little piece of paper with WOW on it if he follows directions during storytime. He told me they couldn't move their mat in order to get a WOW this week. He is very proud of them. Hopefully we continue to earn them. I do know they become harder to earn throughout the year.

My brave little girl has climbed up the slide on our swingset and climbs over the back of the couch if there is a laundry basket or anything to stand on nearby. She nearly caused me to have a heart attack this week. I was desperate to get the kids in the tub and Evan reminded me that I had promised a freezy pop. So in desperation I told them they could have them in the tub. Sara was mad I wouldn't open it downstairs. As we were almost upstairs she headed back downstairs. I figured I would start the tub and she would be back up. Well a few minutes later I hear her say cut, cut and she hands me a very sharp paring knife. She had gone in the kitchen drawers and found a knife ( I thought these were far enough back that she couldn't reach them) and carried it up the stairs. Needless to say the knives were moved as soon as she finished her bath. Yikes! She is willing to do things Evan would still never consider doing.

Bouncing, bruises and babies.

We had a first black eye this week. Sara hit the drain on the jacuzzi tub. Poor baby, she thought it was fun to stand up and fall to her knees, yes she is my daredevil child. I thought she just fell in the water and when I calmed her down we had a cut under her eye and an instant black eye. Almost a week later its healed to a yellow eye. The following day she fell at the playground and bruised and brushburned her forehead.

The bouncing in this house is non stop. I remember taking Evan to gymnastics at 18 months and I had to hold him to bounce on the trampoline. Sara has been bouncing for months. Evan climbs in his toddler bed which has 3 crib sides and holds on the side and says Sara lets bounce. The two of them have a ball yelling bounce, bounce, bounce and jumping up and down. I think Evans feet are a foot off the bed. We had a new couch delivered yesterday and I told the kids the delivery men would take it back if they bounced on it. So far its worked but they rip the pillows off instead.

Evan gave Sara a Fisher Price doll for Christmas. After meeting one of my friends babies Evan decided it was his baby Dani. He went through a phase where baby Dani slept with him and he wouldn't let Sara touch her. We bought a new baby for Sara and she calls it ba-be. She pretends to feed her and insists on sleeping with ba-be. She even pretends to feed baby, its so sweet.

This morning at 6:15 Evan came in our room as I was getting ready. He said Mom I looked out my window and there were stars. He asked to go outside and see them, we haven't done this in ages. There couldn't be a better way to start the day then outside holding our miracle baby and looking at the moon and stars. He asked me what if Sara wakes up, I assured him she was safe sleeping in her crib.

Evan makes me laugh yesterday we saw the neigbors lap dog and he said Mom when is that dog going to get big? On the way home today he said Mom I need to poop, I asked if he could hold it we were 2-3 minutes from home. He became very quiet, Evan usually verbalized everything. So I asked if he wanted to sing a song hoping it would distract him. He said no I need to worry about pooping. I couldn't stop laughing! When I left him at the sitters today he said goodbye Holly (the girl secret agent in CARS) I told him goodbye Finn (the boy agent) he said keep all the bad guys out of school today. His vocabulary and imagination are so fun these days.

Saras vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds. She will tell us miss you, love you, diaper and hold it to tell us its dirty. Evan has her say Chick Hicks, bad guy, and Minnie. One of the clearest words is apple she says it perfectly.

Summer Vacation Comes to an End

Why does it feel like each summer vacation passes quicker than the last? When I was pregnant and on bedrest each day felt like eternity. I was excited each evening when I could empty my vitamin box and take the days vitamins. Each week it felt like a major milestone to be able to refill the box. I had 42 days of complete bedrest and never craved grocery shopping so badly! Now I feel like I blinked and our summer has ended.

I told Evan that next summer will be even more fun. Sara will be older and we will be able to do even more. Hopefully he will learn to swim next year.

We spent ten minutes doing a photo shoot around the yard and the pictures turned out really well. Sara poses much better than Evan.

Evan came in our room this morning at 6:15 and asked why I had those clothes on, meaning work clothes. He said the hair dryer woke him up. We managed to get out of the house on time, although no one was hungry at 7am (we have been sleeping in to 7:15-7:5). Today I took them to the sitters. They haven't seen her since June. Evan ran inside and was all smiles, Sara took off for the toys in the living room and pulled out the stroller. No one seemed to care that I was leaving. Evan gave me Holley Shiftwell to keep in my pocket in case I needed help at school. He is so sweet. At the end of the day everyone was still happy. Evan took a one hour nap, something that doesn't happen at home. I said did you have a fun day or did you miss Mommy he said he had a fun day.