Is it Summer yet?

Sara asks me several repetitive questions a day.  She always wants to know if it's my birthday yet and she asks me every day if it's summer yet.  I've tried to teach her to count days and I think she kind of gets the idea behind days, weeks, and months now.  Also she has a calendar in her room but she still asks me anyway.  I told her it will be summer when she looks up on the mountains and there is no snow and she can see green all the way at the top. 

She is getting so excited that we get on a big jet plane to Alabama in a few days. She does not remember being on the airplane when she was younger.  This will be the first trip she is likely to really remember.  I hope she has a really good time and especially at the beach.  I loved it in Florida when I was a kid.  It will be her first time at a warm beach, not the cold one like Oregon. 

She has been improving at home.  We've had less tantrums this week.  I don't know if they are totally done but it's been better.  We've tried to be really patient with her during her tantrums and maybe that helps her, I don't know.  I figure she is feeling frustrated but doesn't really know why.  Sometimes I notice too that she has tantrums worse if she's hungry, hot, or tired.  I think those things overwhelm her or add to her discomfort.  I hope things are getting better thought because she is so sweet when she's not a sassy lassie. 

I really like her new summer haircut.  A lot of people have said they like it that length too.  It helps keep the hair out of her eyes and I don't have to put pony tails in it every day.  I think it'll be a good haircut to have at the beach too, so she can see and swim and we can just hose her down.

She has been helping me in the yard a lot this year already.  She waters, plants, picks up sticks, and helps me get beds ready.  she also was really good at holding the hose and filling up the tomato water walls, she did all 6 of them for me.  She loves to be in the back yard.

She's been begging me for sand and I've been stalling but I was at Wal-Mart the other day and saw colored kids sand and thought that would be fun.  I put it in her box and didn't tell her so she'd look in and be surprised.  It was pretty funny. She's had fun playing in it although we have colored sand everywhere now.  The neighbor kids came over and shoveled it out everywhere, not cool.  There is still plenty left though and Sara knows better so she should still have some to play with this summer.
Maybe next time I'll get green and yellow.

Sara get so much exercise during the day.  We are walking about 5 miles a day now.  We take 3 or 4 walks a day.  Brennan loves sitting in his stroller, it's filled with toys and blankets.  He loves just looking at everything too and we play the radio.  He has never cried once in there.  Sara rides her scooter, bike, or pushes her stroller with her bear in it around the neighborhood or on the river trail.  She gets more exercise than any kid in the neighborhood and if she gets tired we pile up all Brennan's toys and she can ride home in the stroller.  It's good for everyone to be out walking and it gives me a major break.  I hope I can hike with them this summer some too. 

We'll be there soon Nanna!!

Self Aware at Easter

Sara has become more self aware lately and maybe that's why we've been seeing the tantrums.  I think she notices more what people say and do at school and how people react and treat her and she can't express it any other way.

I've been trying a few new things with maybe a little success.  I think it will also be interesting to see if her tantrums stop when she does not have pre-school this summer.  If the disharmony is coming from being in that class.

As an example of being more self aware, she has started spending a lot of time in front of the mirror.  She has never done this before so it's kind of weird for me.  She spends a long time brushing and spraying her hair, putting hair things in, putting on chap stick, and brushing her teeth.  All good things to learn I suppose.  Also she puts on her braclets and jewelry.  She says she has to make herself look pretty.  I guess all little girls probably go through these phases even though I can't conceive of myself as a kid doing this, maybe I did or maybe I didn't and maybe that's what's wrong with me.

 

 Sara has been talking for WEEKS about how she's excited about Easter and asking everyone she knows if they are excited about it too.  Finally the day came, Saturday we dyed eggs.  She really loves dyeing eggs.  She helped me dunk them each into their color solutions and then she dutifully dried them off with a hair dryer when we were done. 

She was also really looking forward to going to Granny KP and Grandpa's house to hunt eggs with Benny.  Their yard is a wonderful place for an Easter egg hunt, lots of fun places to hide the eggs. 

Benny and Sara had a great hunt.  Benny did the same thing he did the previous year, following Sara around instead of taking off on his own.  One of these years he'll figure out that he gets more loot if he goes it alone.  It was really cute to see him want to hunt eggs with her though.  They had a whole crew of paparazzi following them.  Also, at the end we made Sara, Benny, and Brennan all pose for a pic.

And as I was uploading that photo, Google tells me that I am out of storage and can't upload any more photos :(  So I finally caved at paid the $20 annual fee to get more storage.  Small price to pay I guess for blogs for the Grandparents to enjoy blogs and hopefully the kids will appreciate someday :)  Now it tells me I can start uploading 40 thousand more pictures, yay.

I can't wait until next Easter when all three of them can run around the yard.