Sar bear - or Sarah bear

That's what we call her around here, it doesn't just sound cute - it fits her personality so far! She is so darn cute and cuddly and so hard headed and determined to get what she wants!
Here are some pics I took of her today:

Here she is doing her best to get to the camera

Looking stylish in her stroller (sweater knitted by the late GG Dode and pants by Auntie Rebecca!)

Riding in the swing and watching the "guk" aka ducks


Climbing up the play structure - the hard way.
Sweet success!
Heading to the slide, head first

Realizing she is going down on her bottom! Sarah usually backs up to the slide and goes down feet first but on her tummy, not today - she's 13 months working on 2 years! Of course, she flew down the slide and landed in the soggy wood chips at the bottom, this didn't stop her from doing it over and over again!

Sleep

Oh to be able to sleep like a child...

Jakob Funnies

On Friday, Mark took Jakob to the Pediatrician b/c he was peeing a lot during the day, so I wanted him to be checked - the highlight of the visit "I pee'd in the cup Mommy, Daddy held it and I pee'd in it!" Turns out everything was fine.

Today in the car
J :"What does Men mean?"
Me: "Men, means 2 or more boys who are grown up."
J: "Oh, like I will be a man and Daddy is a man?"
Me: "Yep, together you are men."
J:"Yeah and we will do what men do."
Me: "Oh really, like what?"
J: "Like the man stuff. Work on the computer (Daddy and I can share the computer), wash dishes, cook, and tough stuff." (I am thinking, that's darn right!)
Me: "Tough stuff, like protecting women? Or maybe work on cars, fight fires?"
J:" Yeah, but why do we have to protect girls?"
Me, quickly thinking and not wanting him to think women are weaker by any means "Well, sometimes girls get scared at things and like to have someone to protect them."
J:"Oh, yeah, like Sarah if she sees something scary, right?"
Me: "Yep, but remember that women can do what men do right, we are equal"
J: "Yep, that means we are the same, equal."

Tonight in bed
Me: "What are you going to dream about tonight?"
J (usually comes up with something fun to dream about): "I don't know, the videotape hasn't been made yet?"
Me: "What videotape?"
J: "The videotape in my head, that has my dreams on it. Sometimes I have bad videos, like the dragon eating the person video. Or, sometimes they are good like the George (Curious George) and funny."
Me: "Oh, well let's press the erase button in your brain on all the bad videos."
J: "I don't know where my erase button is."
Me: "Oh, it's in your brain, press on your forehead and say "erase" and then it's gone."
J: "Oh, okay. I think I should dream about George and have that videotape in my head tonight. Now can we say our prayers?"

Finally, hiking again

It seems like it's been so long since we last went hiking, maybe in Sept/Oct, then the Winter hit. So, we braved the cold today, it was dry, but probably 40 degrees out, a bit of sun. We went to Mt. Tabor, did a little bit of a hike and let the kids play at the park there. At the top of Mt. Tabor there is a great view of downtown, but it was so cold up there! It felt heavenly to get into a warm house, have some soup for lunch, followed by a nap - all in all an pretty OK Sunday!

An attempt at a family photo at the top of Mt. Tabor
Jakob, quite excited to be hiking!
At the park

Sarah, has to do everything that brother does!
View of downtown Portland

Button!

Sarah has discovered her belly button and is fascinated with everyone elses!
Really, she is obsessed with bare skin, she will lift up shirts to touch your back or your tummy - weird, but so cute!

Serious tummy time - Sarah did just finish a very large dinner and has taken a liking to beer - kidding!

Jakob Funny!

As we were driving to the Pediatrician today (the whole family went today), we drove thru an area that smelled like asphalt.
Me: "Ew, it stinks, it smells like asphalt."
Jakob: "What are as@ balls?" (yes that's an expletive - Jakob didn't know this obviously!)
Oh Man, it took all my will power not to laugh and I totally failed, luckily Mark chimed in before he lost it and said "Asphalt, Jakob asphalt."
Jakob:"As# balls?"
Me: "No asphalt...(and I quickly went into an explanation of what asphalt is to distract him from this phrase as much as possible)." Of course, I am crying and laughing at this point and Mark is desperately trying to hold it together.
All I could think about is Jakob walking into Dr. Joel's office and asking "What are as@ balls?"
Luckily he forgot about it before we got there!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Well, Sarah's first Valentine's Day was rung in with double ear infections and bronchiolitis! Mark took Sarah in to Dr. Joel on Thursday (I worked part of the day, to get some things actually done). She was fine the day before and over night got worse and what do you know she has dual ear infections and bronchiolitis - poor baby.  On Friday, she was running a fever, so I stayed home with her. Well, Jakob started coughing on Friday, which we are always on high alert for as he has asthma (but has been under great control this past year), on Saturday he woke up coughing and had a bit of nasal drainage. Saturday evening started coughing more and more and by 4:00 am on Sunday am he was up coughing every 30 seconds or so - dry cough, which the Albuterol didn't help, so it was mostly honey for the throat, water, hot packs on the chest - Jakob likes that and back rubs. I should mention Sarah was up from 2:15-3:45 am on Sunday also! Oh, and Mark and I decided to foolishly stay up to watch SNL, so we weren't in bed until about 1 am!! And, somehow, Mark slept thru all of this! 
Ok, getting back to Valentine's Day, Sarah was home, Jakob went to preschool where they had a little party. He came home so excited to see his candy and cards - in that order! I should mention that Jakob says "Valentine's Day is about hearts, because hearts mean love, and about candy."On Saturday, we spent a romantic evening with the Brink family and their kids (both of them also have ear infections), ordered Thai food and wrangled kids - nice!

Here are the Valentine's we came up with at the last minute, since I hadn't been able to shop being home w/Sarah - red tissue paper, wrapped around Hershey's kisses - with little heart tags, decorated by Jakob. I forgot how messy glue and glitter gets - it's awful!

Here is a picture of Sarah, wearing her little Valentine's dress that Julie H. gave her, it fits more like a top - it is a small 18 months size! Super cute!