It is another slow blogging week for us. I can guarantee that next week will be more exciting because of the holiday.
Sarah is everywhere! She has finally discovered that she doesn't have to stay in our living room. Our living room is without borders and extends to an amazingly vast dining room, hallway, and oh, what's that? A kitchen! Wait, now there's a gate. Our kitchen will be uncharted territory for Sarah for the near future.
For the most part Sarah moseys on at a casual pace to whatever toy or forbidden object she has her heart set on. Sometimes though she unleashes her speedy army crawl. She is fast!
Another new skill Sarah has developed is drinking from a straw. Sarah often grabs the toys, snacks, and sippy cups Abigail drops on the floor. The other day she grabbed one of Abigail's sippy cups with a straw. I figured there would be no harm in letting her chew on it for a bit, but then she started sucking on the straw and drank Abigail's water! Abigail didn't do the straw thing until much later (although, we didn't give her all that many opportunities).
Ok, now some cute pictures related to today's topic. I'll have to find something else for this week's Photo Fridays.
Both photos relate to Father's Day. The first is a picture of the girls with their new cousin Bridget. We printed this picture out for a Father's Day gift for my Dad. The second picture is an outtake from when I tried to get a shot of the girls with Jonathan on Father's Day.
I "tweeted" about this last night, but a simple tweet does not do it justice. Last night we went on our monthly BJ's run. We normally do this during the day on the weekend, but we were getting desperate for diapers. We ate dinner, cleaned the girls, changed them into their pajamas and were off.
I thought we'd be adventurous and put both of the girls in the front of the shopping cart. Sarah had never been in the front seat of a cart yet and the carts at BJ's have two seats in the front. Jonathan hesitated a bit, but was up living on the edge.
Let me tell you, the girls had a blast. They were all smiles. They were just too cute sitting side-by-side looking all over the place. They giggled and squealed and made for a very fun time in the wholesale club. Who knew a family could have so much fun buying diapers and wipes!
I took a few pictures on my cell phone, but it will take a while to get them off, plus the quality is pretty poor. You'll have to take my word for it that it was just too cute!
The girls knew I had a big breakfast planned for Father's Day, so they wanted to make sure I was up bright and early: 5:20 AM. I'm glad we got up that early though, or we would have been late for church. I took such a long time making breakfast!
While things were bubbling along, Abigail and I got Jonathan's card ready. I was inspired to get this card when one morning at breakfast Abigail sang a song with me and practically hit every word. I was perusing the "record your voice" cards and thought of the awesome idea to have Abigail sing for it. Well, every time I tried to get Abigail to sing she would clam up. I had to think of an alternative and reciting the ABC's was not going to cut it. So, I had Abigail read a message for me. Can you decode it?
I didn't do a practice run. I asked Abigail to help me, pushed the button on the card, and asked Abigail to identify each of the "symbols". She nailed it! She sweetly said:
Abby.
Sarah.
Heart.
You.
Da-Da.
I couldn't figure out how to draw love, so we went with a heart. Jonathan loved it.
After church we went to my parents and had a cookout. The girls were tired and worn out after an exciting and long day. Now they are sleeping peacefully.
So, Jonathan is a great Dad. The girls and I are so blessed to have him. He balances me perfectly. Where I can be really uptight and worrisome at times, he is more relaxed and calm. He is always willing to tackle late night wake-ups and is happy to stay with the girls so I can get out some. I love to see the girls' reactions when they hear the keys in the door and Daddy is home for the day. Sarah gets especially excited and quickly starts to cry if he needs to leave the room for a minute. They love him so much and I love him too.
Happy Father's Day Jonathan!
A Happy Father's Day also goes out to the girls' Papas. Happy Father's Day to my Dad, Papa McEvoy. Whenever I tell Abigail we're going to see Nonna for the day she always quickly asks about Papa. She just loves him. He often has a VeggieTales video, a sip of his pop, or cheese-its on hand. He is also willing to let Abigail grab him by the finger and take him where she wants to play. Sarah loves Papa too and watches as he sings the same tune to her over and over.
Again, we don't get to see Papa Kapaldo as often as we like. During our last visit though, it was as if the girls saw him (and Grandma) all the time. Because of Papa Kapaldo Abigail doesn't fall out of bed (handmade bed rails), the girls things are organized (book shelf and diaper changing table). Come to think of it, the only things not built by Papa in the bedroom are the crib, end table, and rocking chair. It is so special to have Papa's handiwork in their room. And, of course, the girls love to be around their Papa too. Papas are just plain fun.
And we cannot forget our Grandfathers, Uncles, Cousins, and friends who are also fathers. Happy Father's Day to all of you!
Sarah is 8 months old today. Let me tell you, it is NOT easy to take her onesie picture anymore.
Sarah loves to explore. She'll roll all over the the place and has mastered the army crawl. She also gets up on her hands and knees a lot, but has yet to actually crawl. She'll play with toys, but if she sees something off-limits (a remote, wrapper, wire, diaper, etc) she's all over it.
Sarah is doing really well with her solids. It took a number of weeks to get to this point. We just had to be persistent and continue to give her opportunities to eat.
Sarah is a much better sleeper. She's pretty good about taking two 45 min-2 hour naps. Sometimes I end up putting her down asleep, but other times she falls asleep on her own. The same is true for the evenings for the most part. Bedtime does take a little longer though because the girls have slumber parties. Sarah squeals, Abigail chats and sometimes sings and if we're lucky they'll both eventually fall asleep without much intervention. This has been the exception rather than the rule lately though.
Let's see, what else does Sarah do? Sarah loves to clap now. She is also starting to grin ear to ear when she sees me point the camera at her. She also loves to jump and bounce in her swing and when I hold her in my arms over my lap. Oh, and she has three teeth out, with a few more on their way.
Here is Sarah with her big sister!
It's been a slow blog week for me. I thought I'd mention a bit about Abigail and her latest cute activities.
You will sometimes find Abigail busting out strings of words with a bit of a tune to them, but it isn't all that easy to figure out what she's saying. It's pretty easy to tell when she's singing her ABC's, but other songs are harder to identify. I must say I've gotten pretty good at naming her tunes. She sings the "Cliffs Notes" version of each song she knows. For example, when she does sing her ABC's she skips maybe 5-8 letters or combines them ("Q-RES" for Q-R-S).
Other songs are even more abbreviated and set on a loop. It's like she's got a song stuck in her head and she deals with it by singing it. Anyway, it's really cute to hear her sing "Twinkle Twinkle" or a VeggieTales silly song (her favorite is the Sneeze song). Maybe one of these days we'll get her on video.
Abigail also likes to mouth the words of songs that are playing. Whether it be a tv show theme song on one of her CD's, she'll move her mouth to the words and occasionally sing a word or two out of it. Oh, and when she isn't strapped in her carseat, she likes to dance too.
Another cute thing to see is her fashion sense. The other day we let her try on a new sundress. She decided to pair it with her snow boots and one of my old purses.
