Gender Bender
Sarah has a Ken doll which my sister Susan gave her for her birthday. And if you know my sister, that was as far as she would bend when it came to something related to Barbie dolls.

He is what I call "surfer dude Ken." He came with a tank top, shorts, sandals, a shell necklace, streaked hair you can really brush and sunglasses permanently attached to his empty melon. A younger Ken than what I grew up with - the last one I got was the Metrosexual Ken - or "swinger Ken" - he had an earring and some swanky clothes. You could also paint a beard or moustache on him and "shave" his face with a "razor" which was actually a tiny sponge on a piece of plastic. Simply wet the sponge, swipe it across his "facial hair" and Voila! He is clean shaven. He had plastic hair, too.

Now if you know Ken, if you played with one, owned one, had a friend who had one, or were just raised in the USA you *know* that Ken... well, he's not very well endowed. I like to call him Transgender Ken because he seems to be in the process of becoming male.

Tonight Sarah was playing with an old Strawberry Shortcake doll of mine (the blue one - I can't remember her name) and a very small rubber duckie in the bath. Ken was on the counter. "I want the mommy, Mommy," she said pointing to Ken. "What mommy?" "The mommy!" as if it was perfectly obvious. So I handed her Ken. She cooed to Ken and had him coo to the other doll, talking about mommies. I said, "Ken is a boy" to which she replied "No, Ken is a girl."

Seems she agress with me. ;)

Suckers
Sarah loves suckers. Each day when I pick her up from school she wants a sucker. Usually, she will get one for using the potty all day. But when Georgia is out of suckers - oh beware the tantrum.

Okay, it's not that terrible, but it sure is sad. Those big fat tears, quivering chin and trembling lip. Awwww, okay, I'll get you a sucker when we get home.

I'm such a sucker. ;)

Snow White or Cinderella?
For the past few days, Sarah has been insisting that she is Cinderella - "I'm Cin-la-lella, Mommy." It is particularly cute when she has a dress on. She will proudly announce that she is Cinderella and spin around so the dress flares out - she thinks this is the bomb!

She also insists on wearing the pull-ups with Cinderella on them. There are two different pictures... one with just Snow White, the other with Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella. Recently, her dolls, bears, and bunnies have been very supportive in this area by graciously wearing all the Snow White pull-ups so I have no choice but to let Sarah have the Cinderella "clean diapers." Sneaksy hobbitses!

Speaking of Snow White, yesterday Sarah came downstairs wearing a hat and mittens. "I want snow, Mommy. Let's play in snow!" Hmmm. "It's too warm for snow, sweetie," I replied. "Huh?" she asked (she really does say this now when she doesn't understand something - it's cute). "Snow, Mommy. I want snow." *sigh* We discussed the absense of snow, but I don't think she totally grasped the idea. I would love for her to experience snow - maybe this winter.

Home Sweet Home
You never know how much you'll miss someone until you're not home for a while. I was in Nashville most of the week and I missed Daddy and Sarah terribly. Calling home didn't help me because I would cry when Sarah would say, "I lub you, Mommy." Daddy assured me that Sarah missed me, as well. She would ask at least once a day "Where's my Mommy?" That would make me cry, too.

Of course, this made coming home exciting. She had changed so much in just four days! She was bigger and seemed to be saying more mature things. I got lots and lots of hugs and kisses from my two favorite people and it was the first day this week I haven't had a headache.

Stickers
Sarah loves stickers. She will take an entire sheet of stickers and apply them to various parts of her body (and yours), the carpet, books, cats, toys, etc. in an expression of toddler art. In the event that we have no stickers, a piece of scotch tape or even a postage stamp will do (if she can get her hands on one).

The other night, she had such a sheet of stickers and was happily sticking them all over her belly while sitting on the couch. As it was time for bed, we headed upstairs, the stickers were removed and she snuggled into bed.

Now if you know toddlers, they like to pick their noses. There's just something about sticking your finger up your nose that is so....

Anyway, Sarah kept digging for gold up in them thar hills and it was really annoying me - it was very distracting while I was reading her a story. I kept saying, "Please don't do that," or "That's yucky." Finally, I gently extracted her digit from the nostril and she said "It's stuck, Mommy." Okay, so I got her a tissue and she blew, and blew and blew. "Stuck." I got the Boogie Sucker® and went to town. She looked up at me again and said, "Sticker is stuck, Mommy." I thought for a moment.... oh no.

Getting my Mini-Mag flashlight, I shined it up her nose to see... a sticker! Oy vey! Not only that - it was one of the small stickers and it was pretty far back there, too. After minutes of boogie sucking and blowing her nose, it finally released its hold and came out. She smiled after it was over - I bet it was a relief - and went to sleep shortly after.

I suppose I should be glad that it was just a sticker and not a dried bean, a penny, or a rock. She's never done something like this before and, knock on wood, she won't do it again (ha ha - yeah, right). Well, she did try to stick a toothpick in her eye one night - but only because Pete told her to "be careful, or you'll stick yourself in the eye." Hey, at least she listens... that's good, right?