The things they'll say

- This morning I pulled into the alley behind Georgia's house when I had to stop and wait for someone to finish pulling out of his rear parking area. Sarah peeked around my seat to look and asked, "Is that a jerk, Mommy?" So, was she was talking about the jerking movement of having to stop quickly or the guy in the other car? Hmmmmm.

- The other night while eating dinner, Sarah told Scout (a cat) to get down. Scout, of course, did not comply. "One!" Sarah shouted. "Two!" She yelled, pointing her finger. "Three! You go to time out, kitty!"

- Yesterday morning I went downstairs to herd Sarah upstairs and get ready for school. I turned off the TV and she said, "I want to go to Bizshunland, Mommy!" Eh? Oh! Visionland! That commercial was playing just as I turned off the boob tube.

- Last night Sarah and I were lying on my bed talking. She began to tap my belly saying, "Come out baby brother!" Nothing doing, naturally. She thought for a second and said, "Let's clap, Mommy! Then he'll come out." She began clapping her hands and singing "Come out baby Christopher. We love you baby Christopher."

Founding Father's Day

Yesterday, for Father's Day, Sarah and I took Daddy to the pancake house for breakfast. While we were waiting for a table, Sarah spied an elderly gentleman in a gray suit walk by.

"Mommy, who's that?" she asked, pointing at the man. I turned to look.

"I don't know, sweetie." I replied. She thought about it for a second.

"That's George Washington."

Food Mill
This past weekend, our fantabulous friends, Kim & Brian, hosted a great cookout/baby shower for us. (THANKS!) One of the gifts we received was a food mill - something I really should have used for Sarah when she was transitioning to real food. Hindsight, I know.

Anyway, at dinner Sunday night I decided to see how well the food mill worked. It is quite the contraption - very simple, in fact. It's like a mini meat grinder or potato ricer. It has a bowl shape at the top so you can use it instead of dirtying another bowl and comes with it's own little baby spoon. You simply drop some food in (I put in some green beans and chicken), turn the handle while pushing up on the base, and Voila! The end product is not as icky looking as you might think - it does not resemble your typical baby food. And, of course, it tastes just like it did before it was mushed up.

Well, all this experimenting piqued Sarah's interest. She was pecking at the food on her plate, but when she saw this she excalimed "I want to try!" So, I handed the food mill to Pete. She took the spoon and gobbled it all up. "I want some more." Okay! Well, she ended up eating all her chicken, beans and some dressing! As wonderful as that is, I just hope this won't end up as a "requirement" for cleaning her plate. But it'll be a while before Christopher can even eat real food. Maybe by then she'll become a full member of the Clean Plate Club. ;)

Let's make a deal
Sarah has picked up on something I've said to her a few times and it just sounds so peculiar coming from a 3-year old's mouth. For example, I'll say, "If you go clean up your mess downstairs, you can have _______. Is that a deal?" We'll shake hands to seal it, too.

Yesterday I took her to the doctor (again) for her nasty cold. To prevent boredom from setting in while waiting in the examination room, she decided she was going to pretend to be a princess lost in the woods. "Mommy, you be the princess mommy and I'll be the girl lost in the woods picking berries. And I'll meet the prince. You come looking for me. Is that a deal?" All I could do was chuckle and agree. She thought that was great, shook my hand and walked around to the other side of the table, singing and "picking berries" like Princess Aurora does in Sleeping Beauty.

"Oh princess," I called softly so as not to disturb other patients who might hear us through the paper-thin walls. "Where are you? It's time for dinner!" Sarah rattled something on the table (the doorknog, she informed me) and "came inside."

"I'm home, princess Mommy. I brought some berries and met a prince! We're getting married!" Uh oh. Looks like I have a wedding to plan for. I hope I can get a good deal. ;)

New Look!
Whoa! What's with the new look?

I'm getting ready for the new addition to our family, Christopher, so I decided to combine their blogs into an all new family web site. Click on the link to Christopher's blog and check it out.

Eels and Escalators
For a couple of weeks now, Sarah has been doing something that had me baffled. She'd take something very small - a rock, a button, tiny shoes off a doll, etc. - in her hands, clasp them together and shake them while saying "Escalator, escalator, escalator!" Then she'd toss the item(s) on the floor and say "I win!"

The other day it dawned on me that she was "throwing dice." DUH! Okay, that mystery was solved, but where did she get it from? Then I thought, "Hmmm, maybe they've been playing Shoots & Ladders at school." Sounded logical. But why was she saying escalator?

Well, last night we were watching one of my favorite episodes of Spongebob Squarepants on Nickelodeon titled "Sailor Mouth." In this episode, Spongebob and Patrick get in trouble for using bad words - it's quite funny. Anyway, I went upstairs to start her bath and called her to hurry up. "Just a minute, Mommy. I want to watch this one."

*sigh*

I went downstairs to shoo her to the tub when I heard Spongebob say, "Escalators, escalators, escalators!" Then he threw some dice. !!!! Sure enough, he and Patrick were playing Eels and Escalators, their version of Shoots & Ladders! Aha! My brain felt a great relief at finally finding the answer to Sarah's mysterious "game." Whew!

So now we know that:

1) Nickelodeon plays this episode way too much.
2) Sarah watches a lot of Spongebob (and probably too much TV).
3) She has a great memory - I don't remember when this episode played last.
4) I can finally play this "game" with her and not feel totally lost. ;)