We're Baaack!

Hellooo....anyone there?? It's me, Sarah...attempting to re-enter blogdom! I'm sure that after my loong absence, I have no followers any longer! It has been, a-hem, about 2 years or so since I last thought about blogging. To say the very least, life has changed. Not in terms of

priorities, but the overall picture. We welcomed our second beautiful girl, Abigail Irene into our family on March 11, 2010 and then moved to Champaign, IL 4 months later.

So, here we are establishing a new life with 2 kids in Champaign, IL. Once again, away from family. Thank God for Skype~~it has kept the kids in touch with their Grandparents.

We are anxiously awaiting Thursday when Grandma and Papa will come visit us for Thanksgiving! I took the leap this year to order a free-range turkey from a local farm. I just went and picked it up---my 15 pounder grew to a 20 pounder! Thank goodness we have some friends joining us for Turkey day! Every day Ellie asks if tomorrow is Thursday?

Well, I'm going to keep this first blog short and sweet. I have to save something to write about in the near-er future!

Here are a few pictures of my adorable girls and their loving parents ;) Since yours truly is the family's self-proclaimed photographer, she has very few pictures of herself...however, I managed to have a couple taken in the recent months!

Looong time, no bloggy...

Well, helllloooo out there in blogdom! Why haven't I blogged lately? I fear that Facebook has taken a chunk out of my down time, actually it snatched it and kept it! Okay, really now. These last couple of days little things have happened and my brain nudged me "blog this!" So then tonight, I was completely astonished by Elle and was again nudged, "blog this!!!"

As Elle gains more speech and more mobility, the things that she is able to communicate are astounding me daily! She has a memory like an elephant (elephant's never forget, right?) and a lot of times I have to rack my brain to figure out what she is referring to. Also, she has an incredible sense and awareness of people and their needs. Ok, I'll get on to some stories...

Where to start...I'll start most recent and work backwards...

Tonight we had at my parent's house and my 2 1/2 month old niece, Mia, was there. She was crying and Elle took it upon herself to try and solve Mia's problems. On several different occasions Elle jumped up and went and got Mia's bottle, and even managed to put it in her mouth once. Then she got Mia's toys and gave them to her. After she kept crying, Elle said "blanket" and ran and got the afghan from the couch and brought it to her. It made me cry to see the sensitivity and problem solving skills of an almost 2 year old (22 mos. to be exact).

Tonight while at my parent's, Elle found a doll that she got for Christmas. She had accidentally left it there on Christmas and I haven't talked about it. Now the unique thing about this doll is that her name on the box was Mia....same name as Elle's new cousin. My father-in-law bought the doll so it certainly wasn't planned. When she saw it today she immediately remembered it's name! I couldn't believe it. It has been 2 mos. without mention of the doll or it's name!

Last night she was eating green beans like they were going out of style while I was talking on the phone to my mom. I casually mentioned that Elle's eating beans like their coming out her ears. Next thing I know, Elle is sticking the green bean in her ear :-) She doesn't miss a thing.

Now this is spanning back to Christmas time. We spent some time with friends from Texas, Todd and Amy and Elle saw and heard them play their instruments. To this day, without us mentioning them, Elle talks about them, prays for them, and frequently imitates them playing their instruments. Whenever she hears brass instruments in music she says, "Dodd, Mamee..." and then imitates them playing.

Elle is so aware and has such a memory that she often has a hard time turning off her brain to go to sleep. She frequently lies in bed for upwards to 1 1/2 hrs., talking about everyone she knows, everything she has done in the last week or more, and everything her friends have done in the past week or so. How do you tell a 22 mos. old to stop thinking?!?

Last week she talked about Isaac hitting the table ALLLL week! I would frequently hear this recounted: "Iia (Isaac in Elle speak) no, no, no. Yayee (Elle) no, no, no." Followed by the demonstration of hitting the table. "Mama, amen. Pizza." This was recounting the lunch of pizza we had at Jenny's house and I prayed. We determined that this must have been the highlight of her week.

When I came home one day last week while Bernhard had watched Elle, she came to me and said, "Mama, Yayee...(shows bouncing)...cryyyyy....Dada...signs help." Elle's story of how she was bouncing on her Rody horse, she fell off and cried and Dada helped her. Phew, I was able to decipher her story!

Wow, I could probably tell more stories, but I won't bore you to tears...they make me cry just because she is so aware and communicative!

The Santa Quandary...and Christmas Joys

Quandary. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word as:

"a state of perplexity or doubt"

Now put Santa in the definition, and you probably understand my dilemma. Let me take you back 30 or so years ago. My parents never told us that Santa was real (or the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy etc...). We just had fun with Santa. We went to sit on his lap at the mall. Got presents from Santa. We generally, enjoyed the concept of a Santa Claus, but I never thought that he shimmied down our non-existent fire place, ate the cookies that we left for him, or magically brought us our gifts. Our gifts appeared under our Christmas tree, wrapped by mom, about a week before Christmas. Our presents would start to appear and my brother and I would just sit and stare at our mysterious, unopened gifts. Occasionally, one of us would pick at the corner of our package to try and guess what it might be by the color of the box...always ready to blame the cat for the inconvenient rip that appeared. However, even though the presents appeared before Christmas, specially marked presents always managed to appear on Christmas morning marked "To Sarah, From Santa..." AKA "from Dad."

Now, as I grew up and realized that their were kids out there who actually BELIEVED that Santa was real, I quickly became confused. I vividly remember my neighbor who babysat us making up an untrue-grandiose story to her daughter about Santa, because, I, the unbeliever, commented that Santa wasn't real. I had strong feelings back then of being confused and angry that Diane would lie to her daughter?!? I didn't understand the "mystique" of Santa, but I did know the fun of the concept of Santa.

So, a couple of weeks ago I was driving with my neighbor's niece and nephew (ages 12 & 13) and I decided to ask them about what they thought. They said that they believed in Santa until they were about 9 & 10!! I asked them if they were disappointed or felt lied to when they found out that Santa wasn't real, and they said they didn't think so. I got the hint that they sort of did, but didn't want to admit it. I asked them why I should tell Elle that Santa is real, and they said, "so that Elle has something to look forward to." Now I tell you, "I certainly looked forward to Christmas. Are you kidding, all of those presents under the tree!!!"

I look at Elle and part of me wants to go along with the "norm," but a bigger part of me dreads all of the inevitable questions and lies I would have to make up in response....I had decided as I child that I would not lie to my kids. I think that kids need to learn the difference between make believe and real. That doesn't mean that you still do not have FUN with make believe. I want her to know that Santa is make believe, but Jesus birth was REAL! Some people teach that the Bible was just a book of made up stories...those were real, Cinderella was make believe. I want Elle to love God, but have fun with make believe. Am I philosophising way...

I interrupt this blog with a visit to the 1 1/2 year old who has
the post Christmas toy, have to go to sleep while all of my
new toys are lying there, wanting to be played with,
and I am in my crib fighting sleep...BLUES...

...too much? Oh well, I guess that I have 364 days left until next Christmas, where hopefully I will have been able to make peace with my childhood confusion, and have decided what to say to Elle about the man in the red suit.

(Just to be clear, we have a disagreement in the house. After Bernhard proof read my blog, he informed that that he was not disappointed that he had believed in Santa, and that I should indeed tell her that Santa is real...)

Yes, of course we took her to see Santa...Breakfast with Santa :-)

A few pics of Elle and her wonderful Christmas treasures...

Elle sitting at her new table, with her new dishes, and her new BIG BIRD!!!

The one and only BIG BIRD

Opening up her organic cotton Pixie doll from her Grandpa :-)

Elle on her new tricycle. She was so excited, she tried to ride it
before the seat or handle bars were on it.

A Fall Beauty :-0

My halloween flower :-)

The Dracula attacks the dear flower during dinner...she feeds Dracula!

The flower clings to her baby for dear life at a Halloween party

TRICK OR TREATING at our neighbor's house

Looking at pictures with Papa

Helping Grandma pick up leaves

Her annual leaf photo shoot :-0
~~~Smile~~~

Happy Fall...Now, onto winter...

A first prayer from the mouth of a babe!

When I think about how Elle mimics what we do, the good and the....not so good, I marvel in amazement. When I see her put her hands together to pray, I feel proud and humble, at the same time. I feel proud that she is learning, but humble knowing that she is watching how we relate to God in prayer. Lately I have been realizing that I need to be more routine about praying with her before bed. So, tonight, with the lights off, I said "Lets pray. Thank you Jesus for this day. Thank you for Daddy, Mommy, Grandma, Papa...Amen" Then I started rubbing her back and encouraging her to sleep, and thats when I heard her say..."mama, dadda, mama, dadda, bama, papa." Thats when I knew that SHE was praying! Yes, she repeated what I said, but she was talking with God in her own 1 1/2-old way. "Let the little children come unto me..." The sweet, sweet, love of God!

~~~F~O~O~D~Y F~R~I~D~A~Y~~~

FOODY FRIDAY Has returned here at Sarah's Spot! Now, Jenny's theme is party appetizer/fun food etc... Soooooo.... I have 2 for you all tonight....buhaahaahaa.... :-)

1st is what I made for our friend's party tonight, and I made last year for our Halloween party. Now, if you don't fancy making this for Thanksgiving or Christmas, tuck it away for next Halloween!

Spider Web Nacho Dip
Find a large Halloween serving plate. Line the plate with tomatoes and then smear the whole plate with refried (black) beans almost to the edge of the plate. Then smear salsa almost to the edge of the beans, the guacamole almost to the edge of the salsa, and then add your favorite toppings in the center (spicy corn, olives, peppers, onions, black beans, tomatoes... and then sprinkle the whole thing with cheese. Now, the Haloweeney part... put sour cream in a zip lock baggie and squeeze the air out. Cut the tip off the corner and draw lines like you are cutting a pie, and then connect them to make a spider web. The picture below is from a Woman's Day magazine from last year, and my variation of the recipe varied a bit, and so can yours!!! Decorate with fake plastic spiders....Enjoy!!!!!!

Betty Crocker's Oven Caramel Corn
My 2nd Fav fun food is caramel corn. NO recipe is better than the old fashioned Betty Crocker one. This time of year, with apples and candy, I start thinking about this, dreaming about this and salivating for this...

3 3/4 Quarts (15 C. )popped corn
1 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. butter
1/4 C. light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda


Heat over to 200 deg. Divide popped corn between 2 ungreased baking pans, 13X9X2. Heat sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt, stirring occasionally, until bubbly around edges. continue cooking over med. heat for 5 min.

Remove from heat; stir in soda until foamy. Pour on popped corn; stir until corn is coated. Bake 1 hr, stirring every 15 min. Lick spoon :-0 and gobble up the caramel corn!

A lttle parent perspective!

Look, can you see my new tooth coming in??

Dear friends, until now, I never really considered the "reason" that parents all around the world do things for their children. Ok, now that sounds vague. Let me step back. When our babies are born, we feed them, clean them, change them, etc., because we love them and want to take good care of them. Now she is 1-1/2 years old and times have changed! Before when I would see parents taking their children places such as the zoo, or amusement parks, I always just kind of thought that parents did these things because their kids wanted to go, and that they half begrudgingly were taking them. Don't get me wrong, I never considered my parents to begrudgingly do things with us. My Dad used to watch cartoons with us on Saturday mornings and I knew that he liked them as much as we did :-) (This kind of memory makes my heart smile) I was just never aware of the true JOY that parents get when they see their kid's face light up with pure enjoyment, awe, wonder, and happiness!!!! Wow, I find myself wanting to do things that Elle would like, just to see the happiness on her little, blessed, face. Buy a dish of ice cream at the mall (ok, so I just might enjoy that too), take her on a ride at the Mall of America, let her watch Sesame Street for the 5th time that day (ok, not really 5X, but she would if she could) so she can say "la, la, la" with Big Bird and dance during the theme song, read the same book over and over so she can learn what comes next, buy cute clothes for her instead of for myself (kids clothes are cuter anyways), etc....etc...

This may sound obvious to you veteran parents, but a true light bulb came on in my head not long ago. It wasn't until she started to really understand the meanings of things and began to show true excitement and anticipation, that it hit me with full force!

However, with it came the comprehension of the reverse. The extreme sadness of parents when they can't provide the things, experiences that their kids would love to have. It made me think of toys for tots and the angel tree at Christmas and how wonderful it is for parents to have a gift to give their kids, just to see their pleasure. I also thought about how many kids get SOOO many things that nothing is special any more and they begin to EXPECT these things. I realize what a balance parenting is and how I am grateful that we can provide so many things and experiences for Elle. I pray every day that we don't lose perspective of this and that Elle can one day come to understand how much we love providing for her.

Elle digging into the bag of my most recent bargain shopping indulgence for Elle...