Easter Eggs Wanted

So I'll tell a little story on myself and hope it makes you smile as much as it makes my husband laugh.  I decided weeks ago that we'd take Sara to an Easter egg hunt at a local park.  Sara has gotten really good at picking up objects and putting them in baskets or containers, and she usually thinks it is very thrilling, so what could be more exciting than repeatedly doing just that with colorful eggs and a pretty purple basket?

Well to Sara, there are probably a lot of things that could be that exciting, but for some reason, I had gotten my hopes up about how fun this was going to be.  So, when McDonald's conveniently forgot about our coffee while we waited in the drive-thru for 10 minutes, I was only a little nervous that we might miss the beginning. The hunt began at 10:00, we pulled up and parked at 10:05 and as we walked towards the egg field around 10:08, we quickly realized we missed the beginning, middle and end.  As we passed hundreds of kids with baskets full of eggs, and looked out upon an expansive, empty field (which only 4 minutes prior had been covered in 10,000 eggs), I turned into a disappointed 6 year old.  I was very grateful for my sunglasses as I actually got very close to crying over the situation.

But my sweet little girl and her pretty purple basket bounced along happily looking around at all the kids, and racing towards a couple of plastic egg halves, and cheerfully putting them in her basket.  Then she found some tootsie rolls that had gotten loose and tossed those in there too.  She didn't have a clue what the event was supposed to be like and was perfectly content to run in circles in an empty field with her basket full of rejected egg halves.  Then a very sweet family saw our predicament and donated 3 (complete) eggs from their basket so that Sara could enjoy a "real" Easter egg hunt.  Egg charity feels pathetic, but is actually quite funny.  Admittedly, I pouted, but the whole thing did have a very nice silver lining.

See, as we walked onto the scene and Sara began to participate in what she thought was a very fun Easter egg hunt, a young lady from the Northwest Herald walked up and asked if she could take a picture of Sara.  Apparently in the frenzied mess of the actual hunt, getting a decent picture of wild, egg-craving savages was impossible.  But Sara was able to conduct her miniature hunt with lots of room around her and plenty of excellent photo opportunities.  It paid off.  She made it into the Sunday paper.

So after all the pouting and disappointment, Sara's first Easter egg hunt turned out to be a more lasting memory than if I'd had my on-time way.  I do think it would've been funnier and more truthful if the caption read that Sara Tinsley picks up the 10,000th egg.  No matter; she didn't care that it was the last egg, but rather that it was hers and she got to take it home.

Carrot Craze

So far, Sara loves to "eat eat eat apples and bananas," hates any kind of cereal or oatmeal, and thinks carrots are nice to play with.

Carrots were EVERYWHERE.  On the floor, on the blanket, in her hair and on her ear.  Oh the fun!

Enjoy the weekend, especially those of you in the Southeast with ridiculously warm weather.  And go VCU!

Tooting Is Funny At Any Age

No, these are not real.  And, yes, there is an app for that.

A Tale Of Two Ducks

We have the best dog in the world.  I know everyone probably thinks that (although my family went through a four year period of knowing we had the worst dog in the world - poor Buddy).  But we really do have the best dog in the world.  He is obedient, patient, very sweet with Sara, and has somehow always known that he could play much rougher with John than with me.  He has also always known the difference between his stuff and our stuff (except for a few minor puppy incidents).  He does not mess with our stuff, including food that might be sitting right under his nose on the floor.  He doesn't touch it!

But alas, baby toys just look so similar to dog toys. Somehow he still knows they're not his, but it tortures him so! Every time a new toy gets introduced to Sara, Bear has a fleeting moment of hope that we're simply informing her that we've got a new toy for the dog.  He watches the new toy intently and may even venture to put his front teeth around it gently until we inevitably say "No Bear, that's Sara's." He does a good job of leaving it alone after that.

However, after saving several miniature rubber ducks from the woods at my parents' home over Christmas, the introduction of a rubber duck to Sara's toy collection was too much for the dear ol' boy to handle.  We let Bear take home the first rubber duck he rescued and that of course has been his favorite toy for the last few weeks (evidenced by the missing duck head).  So when I decided to get out Sara's rubber duck, it was just too confusing.  We caught him licking it a few times, and when we put it up on a shelf in the living room, Bear sat staring up at the duck, whining softly.

You know he just wants to grab that duck and run!

John then thought that putting the duck in Sara's crib might drive home the message that the duck belongs to her.  But when I put Sara down to for a nap and moved the duck to a new, out-of-sight location, Bear secretly pushed open her bedroom door and sniffed the perimeter of the crib while she slept.

It is funny and heartbreaking to me at the same time.  After all, he does try to share his toys with Sara.  But that's not a two-way street, at least until Sara's old enough to decide on her own to share with him.  It will be so much fun though to watch them become good friends.  Until then, poor Bear will just have to show some restraint.  I wonder how long it will be before we come home to a second beheaded duck...

One of Bear's other exciting finds over Christmas!

What Sara Wanted To Say...

I have some more posts up my sleeve but Sara wanted this one to herself.  So since she's can't write yet, it had to be in video form...enjoy!

Five Months Later...

My apologies for taking such a long break.  It has been a busy few months, so I will take a moment to update you.

On September 7^th, our beautiful Sara Jane entered this world, and nothing has been the same since.  She has been loud and energetic since that first day.  I love that she is going to be a girl who knows what she wants and lets the world know about it.  It has been the greatest joy of our lives to watch her grow and learn.  This past month in particular has been very eventful.  She was four months old on January 7^th and over the past few weeks, Sara has:

Started grabbing…everything.  Toys, jewelry, hair (dog and human alike)…everything.

Really started talking.  She makes all kinds of sounds and obviously enjoys listening to herself make those sounds.  It is very common for her to wake up in the morning or after a nap and spend 10 minutes talking to herself in her crib.  Eventually she stumbles upon a thought she wants to share with others and screams out for us to come get her.

Laughed!  She’s quite stingy about this talent but it has happened (evidence below).  Frankly, I think she knows she’s teasing us by getting really close to a laugh and then stopping, or even eeking out a small giggle.  But she’ll erupt one day and I can’t wait because it is just the cutest thing ever.

Got her roll on! She is rolling over from back to belly, and usually gets mad within a couple minutes because she doesn’t like being on her belly.  I guess that’ll just be motivation to learn how to flip the other way.

Started solid foods (just tonight).  She had a small bowl of rice cereal, and in spite of the odd faces she made to begin with, and the fact that most of it ended up on her face, bib, and eventually her pajamas, I think she really liked it.  Bear was also quite fond of the activity and was ready and waiting to take the clean up shift.

She also met an enormous amount of doting relatives (Aunt Cat, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Justin, the entire Franklin clan, a few of the Rosses, and her namesake, Great Nanny).  She handled the attention like a pro.  She also mastered a 13 hour driving trip.  I was very nervous about that one, but she proved once again to be a very content little girl.

She loves music and being sung to.  She also loves when we read to her, and thank goodness for cardboard books because Ms. Grabby Grabbingston loves to help turn the pages.  John’s goal is to teach her some Italian and we’re also going to do some basic sign language.  One sure way to get a great big smile out of her is to boisterously exclaim “Buon giorno Principessa!” (pronounced “bone jor-no prin-chee-pay-sa”).

She was a party girl on New Year's Eve with her best buddy Phinn.  Thanks for the party dress Aunt Sarah!

We've also been enjoying some strangely warm Chicago weather by taking Bear for a walk every day.  I think she's a big fan of walking!

We are loving every minute, and trying to just treasure them as they race past us.  I will admit that I can’t wait to see who this girl grows to be, but I suppose I’m also glad to wait.  She certainly makes waiting a lot of fun.

My aim is to begin sharing the fun stories of Sara here on a regular basis.  Thanks for your patience!

Sinks & Showers & Bears, Oh My!

We are victorious! My handy husband conquered in a major way in our semi-renovated bathroom this weekend.  We now have two beautiful, granite-surrounded working sinks in our main floor bathroom, and just in time for my "the-baby-could-be-here-any-minute" deadline.  I'll spare you the details of the last 9 weeks of sinklessness, but it was worth every minute of waiting.

The title may lead you to believe we have also gained a functioning shower, but I am tricky one (we were fortunately not really ever without a functioning shower, don't worry).  I was sweetly showered though for several hours on Saturday with all kinds of baby goodies, and this helped boost me solidly into the "stick-a-fork-in-me" phase of pregnancy, because I'm done!  While I do want time to continue earning my final paycheck and to organize all of the aforementioned goodies, I am quickly losing my pregnancy graciousness, and gaining in pregnancy irritability (just ask Handy Husband).

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the Bear.  He has a keen fascination with anything we bring home for the baby and does a very thorough job of sniffing each and every item (I'm sure to guarantee Tinslett's utmost safety).  We had several gift bags lined up on our hearth on Saturday evening and Bear took a good 2-3 minutes (that's 15 to 20 dog minutes) to inspect the gifts, sometimes moving to a new bag only to return to the previous bag, for comparison's sake I'm sure.  He seemed content with the results, although he looked confused as to who these items are for, since they are surely not for him.  Don't feel too bad for the chocolate buddy, since he did get a tasty squeaky lobster for his third birthday last week.

Speaking of third birthdays, happy anniversary to my handy husband!