Kindergartener

Sara started school this year and LOVES it! She was SO ready. During the few weeks before school started, I tried preparing Sara for all-day kindergarten by doing some "school time" at home with her during the day. She loved it! And if we missed a day, she would ask, "why didn't we have school time today mom?" It was nothing fancy, usually just reading a book and doing activities to go along with something we read about. But she loved it so much that I knew she would love going to school. And she does!

The school year started with a "meet the teacher" night, where Sara got to see her classroom and meet her teacher and a few other students who were there when we were.

Then a few short days later, it was time for the first day of school! Sara loves posing for the camera, as you can see with that fancy middle pose there. :)

The photos above are really washed out, so here is a better picture to see the shirt she chose for the first day. It has a million sequins on it forming the shape of a heart. 

Here is Sara in her classroom on the first day. She was so excited!!

So proud of my little Kindergartener!

We live about 4 miles away from the school, which means the bus comes to our neighborhood! Sara was unsure about it at first, but now she likes riding the bus! Mommy still drives her to school on the mornings when we don't get ready fast enough to catch the bus, but she rides it home everyday since it actually gets her home faster than me going to pick her up would. (Waiting in the pickup lane takes forever!) Plus, it saves me from having to interrupt Ava's nap, and I get another half-hour of quiet time before Sara comes home since I don't have to drive to the school and back. Hooray for the bus!

A funny story about Sara's first day of school: at "meet the teacher" night, Sara met a boy in her class named Max. He is a cute boy and was very friendly. He was talking with Sara and said to her, "Maybe we'll be best friends!" -- I thought that was a funny and cute comment. THEN, after Sara's first day at school, I was talking with her and asking how her day went, and she told me another cute thing Max said to her. He said, "All the boys have girlfriends, and you're mine!" -- Haha! She snagged a boyfriend on the first day of Kindergarten! I don't think I'm ready for this. :) 

half a year

Little Ava is halfway through her first year. How did 6 months go by already? They grow so fast. Everyone says it, but it's true. 

Her latest accomplishments include: sitting unsupported...

...and rocking tummy time.

And for some fun comparisons, here is another tummy-time shot from today:

...compared to a tummy-time photo from when she was 1-month old.

This one shows you how much bigger she has grown. The blanket she is laying on is folded in fourths, and at 1-month she is fully contained on it, but at 6-months, both her head and feet hang off the ends. :) 

Happy six months little cutie!

Graduation

As most of you saw on Facebook already, Rob graduated from Westminster College with is MBA on Saturday. Yay! Three years and lots of night classes later, he is finally done!

 

A special thanks to everyone who came to any and/or all of the many graduation events. And WAY TO GO ROB! We're so proud of you!

A very merry un-birthday

Sara's new ride in celebration of her half-birthday
(18 months).

At our apartment complex, there are sidewalks galore for her to ride on. A little biker's dream!

Okay, let's see this thing in action! (well, sort of.)



Thanks Mom!! She loves her new "car"!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p.s. -- a funny side note: we purchased this bike on Saturday with money from my mom (Grandma Christine). The next day when we brought it with us to Rob's parent's house, they had also purchased the exact same scooter for her! So now she has two; one for our house, and one for Grandma and Grandpa Hinckley's house!

Walk this way

Sara has finally decided that walking is preferable to crawling. She's been using her feet as her primary mode of transportation for a little over a week now. Here's some video to prove it!

{Click here} to view in separate window.





Hmmm....for some reason these videos don't seem to be working. {Click here} to view them online.

Baby Talk

It's so funny to see Sara's first words emerge. The first word we noticed her use was "hi", and she has been saying it along with waving for a few months now. Here is a complete list of words she knows:

She can say:

• Hi
• Bye-bye
• Da-da, but she doesn't seem to know ma-ma yet :(
• Bottle (ba-ba)
  
• Baby -- we discovered this one on her birthday when she got a doll as a gift and said "baby!" over and over when she saw it.

She can sign:

• Hi
• Bye-Bye
• food
• water
• bottle
  
• cheese
  
• all done

In addition to speaking and signing words, she has started to babble incoherently, but I'm sure she thinks she's speaking full sentences! It's fun to just make up a conversation to talk with to her when she babbles.

She can do the actions for:

• Pat-a-cake
• Itsy-bitsy Spider

She also claps any time she hears applause, or if she sees somebody else clapping.

It's so fun to watch her learn and grow!

{Click Here to view videos of Sara saying "Baby", opening her first Christmas present, walking, playing with her birthday balloons, and eating birthday cake.}

Repurposing

<-- I'll be purchasing this tomorrow (used. $6.00. Score!)
















because the babes has been using this -->
as if it were one.







It's time to get the real deal.

Ambidextrous?

Sara uses her left hand for eating finger foods, and her right hand for playing with toys. It's probably too early to tell, but my younger brother is a lefty, and my older brother is ambidextrous, and I'm starting to wonder if maybe it's genetic. I suppose we'll have to wait and see!!

Other fun facts about the wee babes. She:

* is 9 months old! (Already?) I know.
* likes to crawl through tight spaces, like under chairs or between the ottoman and couch, and frequently gets stuck in such places.
* usually makes a Rachael Ray "Mmmmm" sound when she eats, which is handy for being able to tell when she's found something on the floor to snack on that I need to fish out of her mouth.
* loves any toy that squeaks, jingles, chirps, or rattles.
* recently re-discovered her hands. She loves to hold them up to her face or above her head and study them while she turns her wrists or opens and closes her fingers. She also loves studying my hands, trying to figure out how all the joints and knuckles work.
* is still pretty bald, but is starting to get just enough hair to have fuzzy bed head in the mornings.
* has started to mimic. Sometimes I copy the noises she makes, and then she gets a smile on her face and plays along, copying my noises too.
* really loves bath time and enjoys splashing to her heart's content.
* is a true master of crawling and can now get from crawling to kneeling or sitting with ease. It's not really a huge accomplishment (kinda the next step after crawling), but I just think it's so cute every time I see her stop mid-crawl and push her weight back on to her bum to sit for a spell.
* is starting to play "peek-a-boo"
* loves to watch herself in videos (who doesn't!) and already understands the concept of immediately watching what I just recorded.
* is cute. Here, see for yourself!

TOOTH!

(click on the picture to enlarge--at least that works for me)

Crawling

She's been doing this for about a month now, but only doing it this well for the past few weeks.

Rollin'

After lots of practice....




...she finally did it!

On the move

This nakey baby started out here:

and ended up here:

Top Heavy

With Sara's new trick of holding her head up so high come the inevitable consequences:



ROLLING OVER! (albeit accidentally, but a girl's gotta start somewhere)

And all that lifting her head up and rolling over results in this:



A TIRED AND SAD BABY.
but she did so great didn't she?

Sara's new trick

This may not look like much to you, but holding her head up so high while on her tummy is quite the accomplishment! And she held it up this high for several minutes! Then she was ready for a nap after all that hard work.