What, no room service?
So, last night we spent the night at a hotel - Sarah's first experience with that. We're having plumbing problems (AGAIN) and decided that we weren't going to suffer without the creature comforts of a flushable toilet and taking showers.

Sarah was very excited that we were going to a hotel. She wasn't exactly sure what one was, but happily packed her bag full of toys for the trip. I told her to bring just a few toys.... she jammed as many as she could into her bag! She had a large dog, her star pillow, a plastic brontosaurus, a plastic monster/alien, a little dog, a beanie baby kitty, a baby doll, and a toy whistle/accordian that was mine when I was a kid. She might have had other things stashed in the numerous pockets, who knows.

When we arrived I extended the handle of her bag and with a huge smile she trotted off into the hotel with it in tow (it rolls, btw). We got our keys, went to the room and began to settle down - at least Pete and I did. Sarah, on the other hand, was so psyched up she couldn't sit still. "Let's go to the hotel!" she squealed. "This is the hotel, sweetie." She shook her head. "No, this is our room. Let's go to the hotel."

Okay, so she didn't understand that we were in the hotel. "The room is in the hotel, Sarah. This is the hotel." Still, she didn't understand and kept trying to leave the room to see the hotel. Finally I had to throw the deadbolt and latch that "chain" thingie at the top of the door so she couldn't escape.

To shorten this already lengthy story, we ate pizza, turned the lights out at 9:00, she gabbed and bothered Pete for a while (she slept in his bed), and at 9:30 began to cry saying, "I want to go home! I miss my kitties! I want my Cinderella pillow!"

*sigh*

That went on for about 15-20 minutes. Needless to say, she finally fell asleep, as did I, but I woke up about once an hour coughing my head off. Bleh. At 4:30, Sarah woke up, began chatting with her toys, bothering Pete again and jumped up to look outside. "It's morning! The sun is up! Time to wake up!" Ugh!

All I can say is the plumbing better get fixed today! *yawn*

Sarah's pet snail
Sarah found a tiny snail at school yesterday and decided it needed to come live with us. "He needs a family, Mommy." She has a very strong maternal streak in her - which is good - for just about anything she finds.... rocks, bugs, very small beans, and so forth. And she'll make a family for it if she has enough similar items. There's a mommy bean, a daddy bean, a sister bean and a baby bean. Mmmmm, yummy!

She talked about how she was going to change its diaper ("It's a baby snail, Mommy.") and rock it to sleep. Having peeked inside its shell, I thought it was a goner, but while we were in the grocery store, she piped up with "I can see his face!" Yep, it was alive. She showed everyone we ran into at the store her snail, she was very proud. She also told me the things it would eat: bugs, worms, hot dogs, etc.; and that it drank juice.

"He needs a house," she informed me on the way home. As I was unloading the car, she gathered up some small rocks, piled them on top of the snail in the middle of the floor and went off to play. A little while later, while she wasn't looking, I emancipated the snail into the back yard - I didn't think it wanted to live under all those rocks. Plus she would want to take it to bed with her and who knows what would happen then.

Later, when Pete got home, Sarah naturally wanted to show him the snail. When she discovered it missing she said, "Mommy! My snail is gone!" "He must have run away," I replied. I can see it now, in the years to come, when she reads this, she's going to accuse me of being a mean mom, throwing her pet snail away. *sigh*

Itchy Spot
Yesterday morning when Sarah got up she kept scratching the back of her head in one particular spot.

"Is your head itchy?" I asked. She nodded and scratched again. I felt the spot she was worrying - there was a bump. "Let me look at that." Nothing special. Just a red bump. "Hmmm, not sure what it is. Just leave it alone."

"There's a bug in my brain! It's itchy."

Don't throw that away!
Today is what I call "Big Ugly Garbage Day." In other words, when the street & sanitation department picks up the stuff the regular garbage truck won't - trees, mattresses, big boxes, etc.

We had quite a bit of big ugly garbage needing to go to the curb this morning - mostly big boxes - one of which was the box Sarah's play kitchen came in (yes, from Christmas... don't ask). So Pete started hauling it all out when Sarah offered to help. They began toting items to the back porch, and when Pete grabbed that big play kitchen box, Sarah yelled "No Daddy! We need to make that a puppet show!" He and I looked at each other. "Well, you'll have to ask Mommy." Gee, thanks. I said we could keep it to make a puppet show, but I really have no idea what *she* thinks it should look like.

Back to the basement goes the big box. Maybe we'll get around to making this supposed puppet show this Christmas.

New Pictures
Here are some pictures from Ms. Georgia's birthday party. The girls dressed up as Disney Princesses.

Mother's Day
This Mother's Day, Sarah and Daddy treated me to breakfast at the Original Pancake House where Sarah ate her weight in pancakes. While we were waiting for our food she pointed out all the strangers (anyone that walked by) and then she and I played the salt and pepper family - "Hello Mr. Pepper, how are you?"

When we got home we all took a nap - ahhhh. What a lovely lazy day. Afterwards she and Daddy went to the park. I went shopping and did a few light chores around the house. I made dinner and everyone cleaned their plates (even Miss Picky). Then we got to have some ice cream for dessert. When it was time for bed, she gave me a big hug and lots of kisses, "Nite nite, Mommy. You're my favorite Mommy. I love you." I read her several poems from "Where the Sidewalk Ends," she gave me another kiss and went to sleep.

I love being a mom!

3 year check-up
Sarah had her 3 year check-up yesterday. When I told her she was going to the doctor she asked, "Am I going to get a shot?" I reassured her that she wasn't and that made her happy. "I don't like shots. They hurt girls and boys and babies! They make me cry!."

She was very excited when I picked her up at school. "I'm going to the doctor and not getting a shot!" she exclaimed. "I'm going to get a sucker!"

Aha! That's why she was so happy to go!

She was very, very good with the nurse. She happily went with her to get weighed (29.5 lbs.) and measured (36" tall) and tinkled in a cup (I helped her with that). But then there was something neither of us were expecting - the drawing of blood! Uh oh, I thought. Sarah, of course, had no idea what the little rectangular thingie was. Oh man! It was one of those spring-loaded things... even I hate those. I'd rather have that big fate needle they siphon you with when you give blood at the Red Cross than that finger doohicky! Those suckers hurt. The nurse held her hand, isolated her ring finger and said, "This is going to pinch."

Naturally Sarah lost it. But she got a band-aid (which she loves - hopefully this one won't end up in her nose!), I promised her she could have 2 suckers (I felt I had betrayed her - it was akin to a shot), and she calmed down. When Dr. Levin came in she was all smiles again. She showed off for him, charmed him and told him a story about a bug. We talked about the band-aid up the nose incident, but he didn't seemed too concerned about it (I'm sure he's seen worse). He agreed that it was probably the source of the dragon breath.

She's in perfect health and the doctor was very impressed. And she got to have 2 suckers for being a good girl. :)