Last Day of School

Today was Sara's last day of her first year of Preschool. I really can't believe how fast the past 9 months have flown by. On Wednesday she came home with some papers from throughout the year. There was one with how she tried to write her name the first week of school and how she can write it now. She went from scribbles to writing her name with all the letters in the right direction. They also sent a picture that they took on the first day of school. She looked so baby-ish at the beginning of the year and now she looks all girl. There's no baby left in her.

I am constantly amazed by Sara. She is such a big help to me and loves to entertain her brother. She is so thoughtful and caring. Sure, she has her cranky bratty moments, but as a general rule, she's a great kid. She makes me laugh all the time, whether it's when she sings along to "Big Girls Don't Cry" on the radio, or when she says things like, "I wonder if it is toe jam day. It IS!!!!! I like to get my toe jam." I feel so blessed to be her mom and share these days with her.

....I say....

This morning I was feeding Aaron when Sara decided she was starving for breakfast. I told her she would have to wait and her reply was: "I'm HUNGRY!!! I'm hungry, I say, I'm hungry." Later she was invited to play with a friend, but she didn't want to. She told me, "I want to play with you mom, I say, with you." Where does she get this stuff?

Midnight Musings

Right now it is late at night--minutes until midnight. This is so rare for me. I have never been a night person or a morning person because I love sleep so much. But tonight I was working on a project while Than was watching the Jazz game and before I knew it, it was 11:30 and we were just going to bed. I laid there tossing and turning with my mind racing and so here I am.

I was looking through pictures on my computer and came across some of itty-bitty Aaron. I could look at those pictures for hours. It is hard to believe that he used to be so small. And now, all of a sudden he's huge. Ten months old, full of grins and giggles. He doesn't even look like the same baby to me. Today, for the first time he got up on his hands and knees and, for a second, it looked like he was going to do something. Then he plopped back down on the ground, but I think he might be on his way to crawling soon. Now, that I've put it down in words, crawling probably won't happen for a few more months. He's doing really good at holding himself up with his hands while he lays on his tummy. He scoots backwards a lot and can maneuver himself around in a complete circle, so he just needs to get the forwards thing down. He's so different than Sara was as a baby. Once she could roll over both ways she would roll herself anywhere she wanted. One time she followed my down the hall, rolling the whole way. Not Aaron. He can roll anyway he wants to, but he doesn't use it for getting places. Rolling is more like just a fun thing to do while he's on the floor. He's so laid back--I love it. Look at those chubby cheeks--I can't get enough of them. I'm always kissing and squeezing them. I want him to stay so squishable, but I know if he does I'd be squeezing his cheeks his whole life and he wouldn't like that.

By the way, he's eating a strawberry in that contraption and loving it. Then again, this kid hasn't yet met a food he didn't like.

Tagged, Yet Again

This is all about my sweet hubby Than!!

What is his name? Nathanael James Murphy

How long have you been married? 6 years

How long did you date? 5 Months

How old is he? 30

Who eats more? Usually Than, but I have my days, or meals too.

Who said I love you first? ME!!

Who is taller? Than, by a whole foot.

Who sings better? Than. I think I might be tone deaf.

Who is smarter? We're both super smart, just in different ways :)

Who's temper is worse? Mine, when it comes to dealing with the kids. His when it comes to dealing with everything else.

Who does the laundry? Laundry, what's that? OK, I do it very reluctantly.

Who does the dishes? We both do.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Than.

Who does the cooking? I do.

Who drives when you are in the car together? Always Than.

Who is more stubborn? We're both pretty stubborn.

Who proposed? Than did. We went to San Francisco to visit my dad and go to my friend's wedding. Than took me to Muir Woods and proposed among giant Redwood trees.

Who is most likely to admit when they are wrong? Than. He is a bigger person than I am.

Who's parents do you see the most? Oh, that's hard. We see them about the same I guess.

Who pays the Bills? Than.

Who wears the pants in your family? Than is definitely the man of the house, but I wouldn't have it anyother way!!

Tagged: Anyone who wants to share a little about the man they love.

ABC Tag

A - Attached or Single: Attached
B - Best Friend(s): My hubby and my sister
C - Cake or Pie: Cake--chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting
D - Day of Choice: Saturday--Than is home and lets me sleep in and then we usually do something fun as a family
E - Essential Item: Dr. Pepper
F - Favorite Color(s): Orange
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Worms
H - Hometown: Chicago?
I - Indulgence(s): Extreme Moose Tracks Ice Cream
J - January or July: JULY!!!
K - Kids: Two gorgeous ones
L - Life is incomplete without: Family, The Gospel
M - Marriage Date: November 10
N - Number of Siblings: 1 sister
O - Oranges or Apples: Both
P- Phobias or Fears: Too high places
Q - Quote: "Pardon me for being rude. It was not me, it was my food. It just popped up to say hello and now its gone back down below." Austin Powers
R- Ring size: 5
S - Season: Autumn
T- Tag 3 Friends: Andrea, Cheri, and Allison
U - Unknown fact about me: I've been to Kuwait (well, just inside the airport).
V - Very favorite stores: Target, Naartjie, The Red Balloon, Archivers
W - Worst Habit: Biting my fingernails
X-ray or Ultrasound: Baby ultrasounds for sure!
Y - Your Favorite Food(s): Bombay House Chicken Tikka Masala
Z- Zodiac: Virgo

Tulip Festival?

We've been going to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point for the past 3 years. I guess it has become a fun little tradition. Sara and I (and now Aaron too) go with my sister and her kids and we usually have a good time. Maybe that's not really true. Last year, when I was 6 months pregnant I thought that Sara could handle the very long walk and decided not to bring my stroller. Well, she could handle the walking, but she could not resist the beautiful flowers. After being warned, she continued to pick them and the only thing I could do about it was carry her, a screaming 3-year-old, a half of a mile back to the car. So I guess that wasn't a good time. But the flowers have always been beautiful.

This year we've had a long winter, but I thought that if they were advertising for their tulip festival, there must be tulips. Boy, was I wrong. Sure, there was one here or there, but nothing substantial. It pretty much looked like what's going on in my yard. Therefore, I have no pictures to commemerate the event. So why am I writing about this? I guess I just want to put down in words how I wasted money this week. Sara also revealed her disappointment by asking, "Why was there no dancing?" Turns out she thought the tulip festival should include dancing tulips.

Sittting, At Last

Finally Aaron is sitting up on his own!!! I've been stressing out because he is 9 months old and can't sit up. Since he was born a month early, I've known that he will probably learn to do things like sitting, crawling, and walking a little bit later than the other babies his age. But I didn't expect sitting to take this long. My sweet baby has always had a special love for me, his mommy, in that if I'm around the only thing he wants is to be held. So the past months have been hard on me because I can only put him down for literally 2 minutes before the wailing begins. This makes doing anything around the house (like sweeping, dishes, laundry) nearly impossible. Anyway, enough with the "waah, waah, waah, poor Veena." Than has been working with Aaron more the past few days to help him sit, since it wasn't working to well with me. And then last night--Aaron turned into a "big" baby. He sat for 10-15 minutes and loved it. He was laughing and playing and just as happy as could be. I didn't get a picture last night, so today at lunch--yes, McDonald's--I snapped a few. If you look closely you can see that Aaron is NOT resting his back against the highchair.
Now for a Sara story. She is 4, but I find that she still needs to take a nap everyday or else she turns into a grumpy beast of a girl. Today we were driving home in the afternoon and I knew that she would not be keen on the idea of a nap, so I tried to strike a bargain with her. She likes driving home one way where we go up this big hill. She asked if we could go the big hill way and I told her we could, but then she'd have to take a nap when we got home. Her response was, "So if we don't go up the big hill, then I don't have to take a nap?" She's getting too smart for me.