Oct 16, 2015 | Sesame, Uncategorized |
My peeps took me to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard. Mom said I had to wear my pumpkin outfit. As usual, I had little say in the matter.
A GOAT! A GOAT! I SAW A GOAT!
Dad got me my first set of wheels! Nothing less than a convertible for me.
I’ll pose with my mom but I refuse to smile. (Editorial comment. I’m questioning my sunglasses.
I wish I had questioned how they looked before wearing them the entire summer.)
I don’t understand what my parents wanted me to do. They kept sticking me up in trees and saying “Pick it! Pick it!” Pick what? I was so confused.
Apple picking is the best, you guys.
Oct 7, 2015 | Sesame, Uncategorized, What's going on |
Two doors down from our house is a bar. A few weeks ago they put out a sign announcing they’d be having a “family friendly” Fall festival over the weekend. I wondered what family friendly event could happen at a bar. Apple juice shots, maybe? Christopher went over to investigate but he reported there wasn’t much going on so it wasn’t worth us walking ALL THE WAY over there. That night we heard music blaring into all hours of the evening. We assumed things were in full party mode over at the Fall festival. The next night the music started up again. Christopher happened to be out in the backyard at the same time our neighbor Sue was building a fire in her fire pit. He said hi but she didn’t respond as she was high as a kite. Turns out the music was courtesy of Sue’s personal Fall festival complete with a 1990’s cd player and assorted things to smoke.
In case you’re wondering, Sue looks like this. Add fifteen years, change the hood to green and it’s 100% Sue.
Speaking of what people look like, the boy who cuts our grass looks EXACTLY like Jojo from Horton Hears a Who. He has shaggy black hair, the longest arms and has worn stripped black pants every time I see him.
The cast of characters around here is fascinating.
*
Lately I’ve been teaching Sesame state names. It’s more out of a desire to hear her say some new words than a desire to raise the 2020 World Geography Competition winner. Yesterday we had the following conversations:
Me: What do you want for lunch?
AB: Massa-CHOO-ses.
Me: Do you want more or are you all done?
AB: Massa-CHOO-ses! Massa-CHOO-ses!
Me: Go get a book for me to read you.
AB: Massa-CHOO-ses!
Whatever the question, Massachusetts is her the answer.
*
Today was the first day of my first annual Fall Fashion Fiesta with my favorite first child.
 |
| “I am so bored. I will gaze up at the sky and hope for an airplane to appear.” |
Stay tuned for future installments as we make our way through her wardrobe. It’s sure to be fascinating.
Sep 30, 2015 | Sesame, Uncategorized |
My favorite offspring turned one and a half yesterday.
 |
| On her way to the playground the very second she turned one and a half. |
She’s been a busy bee in the last six months. She walks up talking and rarely stops unless she’s being read to. A very small Sesame pronunciation guide follows*:
* This will be of interest to very few people
Mow! Mow!: More! More!
pops: popsicle
I shakey han/I holdy han: I shake your hand/I hold your hand
de-sing: dressing for whatever she’s eating. Her favorites are blue cheese and ranch.
amil cackers: animal crackers
humpy dumpy: Humpty Dumpty
She uses the signs for more, please, cook, banana, turtle, again and flower. She tries to do the letters with me when I sign the alphabet. I’ve been trying to teach her new signs but she doesn’t learn them as quickly since she’s started talking more.
She’s just started getting to the stage where she says cute things. The other day she brought me a bottle of Powerade and said, “Read to juice, Mama”. Now I can cross read Hop on Pop to a plastic bottle off my bucket list. She told me she wants to “huggy birds” at the park.
 |
| “Anybody home? Anybody home?” |
She LOVES reading. She loves playing outside and coloring with crayons. She will make sticker pictures all day, every day. One of her favorite activities is unrolling the toilet paper. She enjoys counting “one, two, one, one, two” at random times.
She’s getting so tall but is still a skinny Minnie. We brought four pairs of shoes with us when we left Tennessee and she outgrew three of them by the time we arrived here. She fit into the same 3-6 month pants for an entire year. They were pants last year and capris this year. It was almost like parting with a good friend when I packed them up.
She adores animals, especially goats and kittens. She loves when we visit the pet store. When we went to see the alpacas over the weekend she saw a flock of turkeys and said she wanted to “kissy the turkeys”.
She’s recently started watching shows and her favorites are Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh and her first great love- Minnie Mouse. Hours after I mentioned how she never tries to hum or sign she started singing, “medicine down, medicine go down” and “fly-y kite!” from Mary Poppins.
Last month Christopher showed her a video on youtube of mother cats caring for their babies. Something about the kittens and the classical music in the background brought her to tears. She wasn’t upset. She was so touched that she had the biggest tears rolling down her cheeks.
Girlfriend loves food. She will eat almost anything. She loves snacks and asks for one every hour.
Much to my great sorrow she’s started protesting bows.
Sometimes I still wonder when her mother is going to show up. When we’re out, especially when we’re visiting my family, and she needs something people will look to me and I look at them and wonder why they’re all expecting ME to fix it. Obviously I’ve got this mothering thing down pat.
Jun 29, 2015 | Sesame, Uncategorized |
Little miss turned 15 months old today.
She loves shoes, necklaces, balloons, music, playing outside, reading and Minnie Mouse. She couldn’t believe it when I bought her Minnie Mouse shoes. Her very favorite animals are cats and birds.
She can say about 20 words, knows 7 or 8 words in sign language and can say grandma in French. She’s basically trilingual. The other day I ate one of her hash browns and she said, “That’s mine!”
She loves to eat. Both the babysitter and the daycare lady commented on how much she eats after taking care of her the first time.
She loves swimming in her little pool. Sometimes she goes out after breakfast and climbs right in with her pajamas still on.
She’s been giving hugs for a while but she recently started giving kisses. She kisses whatever she likes. Our friend gave her his phone so she could see pictures of his cat and she kissed it over and over. She loves waving and blowing kisses at everyone.
I tell her 15 times a day that she’s growing WAY too fast and she needs to stop.
May 6, 2015 | Sesame, Uncategorized |
6:54- I wake up and start my morning monologue until Mama comes to get me up.
7:02- First breakfast!
7:08- Story time. We read Mother Goose four times. Mom tries to read me a chapter book while I pull everything off the shelves.
7:54- Time to go downstairs! We open the blinds and look at our neighbors driveways to see who’s home. Dad says it nosy but Mom says it being informed.
8:05- Mom gets dressed in the bathroom while I sit outside the door and holler.
8:10- I discover the closet door is open so I go right in and pull robes onto the floor.
8:20- Breakfast outside! We usually eat breakfast inside but we ate supper outside last night and Mom forgot to bring my highchair in so she said it would be less work to eat out there. I eat corn flakes with milk for the first time. I don’t understand this concept of eating crunchy and liquid food at the same time.
8:40- The neighbor’s cat comes over. BEST DAY OF MY LIFE.
9:02- The cat leaves and I’m bored so I start to climb into my pool. Mom says it’s not swimming time yet but I don’t mind because THE CAT IS BACK!!!!!
9:40- Daddy comes back from pt an hour late. I show him my shoes.
9:44- I insist Mom puts my shoes on before I enjoy my first morning snack.
10:00- Nap #1.
11:20- Naptime ends
11:22- I eat my toothbrush while playing with an empty vitamin container and a ball. I realize I’m not being held and start to cry. I cry almost every time I’m farther than 3 centimeters from Mom.
11:50- Mom makes me pasta for lunch but I want no part of it. I eat 3/4 of a banana instead.
12:20- I get my hand stuck in the trash can while attempting to pull out the banana peel.
12:50- Mom says we have errands to do so she puts me in my car seat. I sit there for at least 10 minutes while she cleans the living room and looks for my bow. She forgot she gave me it to me to hold.
1:15- Mom lets me hold a balloon at Walgreens. I am giddy with excitement. She shows me a animated card of Minnie Mouse using a hula hoop and I freak out. That’s not the Minnie I know and love.
1:32- We find Minnie Mouse fabric at the Hob Lob! Mom says she’ll make me a dress with it but then she puts it back and says it isn’t nice enough. What? Who will be wearing the dress? ME, that’s who. I liked the fabric.
2:10- Back at home and Mom’s laying on the floor “resting”. I stick my toothbrush in her mouth. She doesn’t like it.
2:22- Nap #2.
3:48- I’m up! I’m up! I want to play outside! Mama puts on my swim diaper and bathing suit. I walk around the deck while eating an apple slice and feeling very important.
4:14- I find a giant beetle in my pool and pick it. It gets stuck to my hand and Mom freaks out and smacks it off. I don’t care if it’s stuck to me so I pick it up again. Mom will only pick it up with a shovel. She says it needs to go “see its mommy”. (Editorial comment: I threw it over the side of the deck.)
5:12- I can’t believe Mama thinks she needs to make supper. I hold onto her leg and cry until she picks me up. I’m not interested in playing with my blocks. I want my mother.
5:47- I take a pause from holding onto Mom and recognize that Dad’s home.
6:12- Tacos for supper. I love it all, but especially the cheese. I make a huge mess on my chair and the floor, but that’s how I roll.
6:58- Mom gives me a bath and gets my pajamas on. I’m not a fan of having my hair washed. It’s like she thinks I have taco meat up there or something.
7:15- We go for our nightly walk. We see the cat on our way back and Mom names it Harriet Tubman. I think my favorite phrase “uh-oh” is a better name.
8:02- I go to bed 32 minutes after my bedtime. I decide I’m not into this bed business and cry until Daddy comes and gives me a bottle. He’s all I need.
8:44- One hour and fourteen minutes after bedtime and I’m just now about to fall asleep. I think I’ll dream about Harriet Tubman.
Apr 8, 2015 | Sesame, Uncategorized |
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it lately or not, but Sesame just turned one. As I’ve been planning for the last 10 years, she had a bumble bee party.
Naturally I planned everything perfectly and wasn’t one bit stressed the week before. EYE ROLL. I certainly didn’t spend forty minutes wrapping honey sticks in ribbon with her name on it (that I bought six months ago) to give as party favors then forget to put them out.
My mom always made our birthday cakes growing up so I’m carrying on the tradition. It’s a shame AB won’t remember and appreciate this cake. I doubt her future cakes will turn out so well.
I don’t mean to brag, but I really outdid myself with her birthday outfit. She looked so precious.
 |
Grampy carried the birthday girl around the like Queen Bee that she is.
Our sweet friend Tiffany.
Annabelle LOVED having Memere over. She walked around the house saying her name over and over. |
I brought her into this world, spent 365+ days caring for her and all I ask is a nice picture of her looking at the camera. Is that too much to ask? Apparently.
 |
|
Christopher- “I don’t like posing for pictures.”
Annabelle- “OMG THERE’S THE KITTY!”
Sarah- “I bet I’m going to be the only person in this picture who’s looking at the camera.”
|
This is what we’ll look like with two kids. Take a good look because I’m hoping we stick with one for a while longer.
In all the hours I spent analyzing her party, I didn’t spend much time thinking about how I should act while opening her gifts. She was tired and not into most of the process so I felt the need to over compensate. “Do you like this wrapping paper? LOOK AT THESE BLOCKS, AB! They’re so cute! Aren’t they fun!? Do you love them?” She responded with this overwhelming amount of enthusiasm.
Then she got her own little chair, a box of chalk and a paper cup and she was a happy camper.
I enjoyed giving her a party but I’m not in a rush to do it again anytime soon. She’s growing too fast and I can’t handle it. Besides, I’m too busy trying to eat those 32 honey sticks to plan another party.
