Sabrina: Eleven Months

Sabrina. How do I put her into words this month? She's a climber. Here's a series of things she's capable of climbing up on. (Also featured is her new squinty-eyed smile she's been doing recently.)

Child-proofing for Celia was a one-day thing. For Sabrina, we're constantly having to move things and rearrange things. Sabrina knows she's silly. She'll do something and then look at us and laugh. She still doesn't communicate. She mostly just grunts and growls (as Celia says: "She's like a bear!"). She will sign "all done" SOMETIMES and it still means a lot of things. Mostly she just grunts until we figure out what she wants. So then she tricks me into thinking she doesn't understand us. But then anytime I say: "Let's go find your sister" or "Daddy's home" she gets really excited and crawls over to me to pick her up. Also, when she's tired, we'll lay out her SwaddleMe and she'll crawl over and lie down on it. (Not sure how we'll ever wean her from the swaddle or the binky.)

She still nurses 4 times a day and sleeps from about 9-8 with a feeding at 6. Still no teeth. But she can gum anything. She's still a big eater. Salmon and avocado seem to be her favorites. She can eat a whole avocado and a salmon fillet in one meal. She is a big meat-eater which is pretty funny. And she always wants whatever Celia has.

Sabrina is really into putting things in and out of things. Yesterday, I found a toy in the dish soap spot of the dishwasher, a bunch of the train tracks in the dress-up box, and several refrigerator magnets in one of the kitchen drawers. Everything still goes in her mouth.

Sabrina is a champion crawler. So fast. And she's fearless. She's pretty sure she can go and do anything Celia can do. She doesn't seem close to walking. She walks along things but when we try to get her to walk, she dives down to crawl. I don't mind.

Sometimes, Sabrina will just throw herself backwards and start kicking the floor and cackling. (Like right now at my feet.) She's still clingy but also plays well on her own if I'm close (or completely out of sight) and if she's fed, rested, and happy. When I turn on a movie for Celia, Sabrina pulls herself up right in front of the TV to wave at it. Then she usually ignores the rest of the movie.

Celia and Sabrina are still great friends. They love taking baths together and Sabrina loves bouncing to all of Celia's silly songs. Our days are full of singing, dancing, laughing, and two crazy girls.

Celia: Reverent Prayers PART 3

Celia's prayer before bed last night: "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and be reverent. And Sabrina is watching me be reverent. And mommy is being reverently and daddy is being reverently. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Then she quickly folded her arms and closed her eyes again like she forgot something and added "And I'm a pillow!"

** As a side note, arguing with me about how she's not a pillow is her new favorite thing. She will start the argument by saying something like: "Mommy, can you say 'You're totally a pillow?'"

Celia: Reverent Prayers PART 2

This morning, Celia said the prayer for breakfast. Sabrina was busy dumping magnets out of their box and then throwing them (usual). Here was Celia's prayer:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and be reverent. Thank you for Sabrina will get bigger and bigger and learn to be quiet and reverent. Thank you for the oatmeal. Please bless it. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Celia: Reverent Prayers

We just got back from a trip to Denali where we took a million pictures. I'll get to that someday. I just wanted to document Celia's prayer for dinner tonight. As I was setting dinner on the table, I said: "Okay, let's say some prayers so we can eat dinner." Celia said: "I'm gonna say it" and then immediately started saying it. Tom was still trying to get Sabrina in the high chair, so it all went down like this:

Celia: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for this day and be reverent. (looking up and seeing Tom strapping Sabrina in) HEY! BE REVERENT!

Tom: Just a minute.

Me: We're not quite ready to say prayers yet, wait just a minute.

Celia: (immediately) Dear Heavenly Father, my daddy's not being reverent. Please help him to be reverent. In the name of... oh! And bless the food. The tomatoes (potatoes), green beans, and that. That food right there (pointing to stuffing on her plate). In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Daddy Kisses

Sabrina is a big kisser. And sometimes we don't see it coming. She just attacks our face. With tongue. And then eats our nose. Here she is in action.

Celia: She likes Tangled

- Today at lunch, Celia and I were talking about movies. Apparently Sabrina's favorite is Ratatouille, Tom's favorite is Cars, and my favorite is Kung Fu Panda (I told her this one, so she got at least one right). I asked her about her favorite and this is how it went:

C: Um Tangled is my favorite.

Me: What is your second favorite movie?

C: The lantern one.

Me: Isn't that the same movie?

C: Yes.

Me: Well what other movie do you like?

C: Rapunzel.

- The other day, she looked outside and said something like: "It's a nice cold day today. The wind is blowing all around. The sun is gone. The rain is all over the ground." Our little optimist.

- Last week or so, Celia was sitting at the dinner table. Her foot fell asleep and she told us that it had "spicies" in it.

Baby Bakes!: Kid 2

Other than noting how great that beach house kitchen is compared to our lovely home kitchen, there's one major difference in these pictures. With Celia, she came and clung on to me so rarely we thought it was cute. With Sabrina, this happens ALL THE TIME. I spend most of my time in the kitchen cooking saying: "Can someone come get this baby so I can finish dinner?" She's cute, but clingy. Oh so clingy. Tom took a picture because I was commenting on how much I loved it when Celia did that but am so sick of the commonality of the situation with Sabrina. Even as I type this Sabrina has pulled herself up on my knees begging me to hold her. Back to the regularly scheduled pack mule part of my day...