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9 row(s) meet your search criteria for December , 2002.
Happy Birthday Sara - December 31, 2002
My precious daughter Sara turned 1 today. We didn't do much to celebrate today. Sure we sang songs and opened presents for her, but no pomp and circumstance. That was last Friday when we went to GMa & GPa Tankersley's house for a family celebration. She got to smear some chocolate cake on her face and hair in typical 1 yr old style.
After 1 year, what do we know about little Sara? She is vocally gifted, and motor skill challenged. She only within the last month or so started crawling, and only in the last week has begun standing on her own. She still does very little cruising, and seems to have little interest in walking. However, she does have her voice. What a screamer she is, never failing to let us know where she is. Like most of us, her favorite place for "singing" is in the bath, where it echoes the best. Unfortunately, the bath is also the loudest place in the house, and ear protection is recommended.
We also know that little Sara is a tenacious one. After removing her from a hazard, she simply returns to the scene to try again. One of her favorites is our computer printer. It has lots of buttons, some of which cause noise. Remove her from playing with that and you have one upset little girl.
Words of wisdom from our friend Pete, himself a father of two nearly teen girls:
You spend the first two years getting them to walk and talk, and the next 16 trying to get them to sit down and shut up.
Words I'm sure I will echo as time goes by.
Happy Birthday Sara, Daddy loves you.
Wireless Desktop - December 28, 2002
One of the new toys I got from Santa, was a "Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop". This consists of a wireless keyboard and a wireless optical mouse. I was initially a little concerned on how it might work through the a/b switchbox I use to connect to both my server, and Marie's Dell. Sometimes that box has been a little unreliable (it is a mechanical connection). However, I installed the software according to the directions (install software first, then connect the corded receiver, then install the 2 AA batteries in each device, and start the computers. It installed effortlessly and am using it flawlessly on both computers. While I'm not typically prone to hype Microsoft products, this one was a great investment. The keyboard has a good feel to it, and the mouse has been excellent. It will be interesting to see how long the batteries last.
Get this product. So far, so good.
Take Them All Back - December 25, 2002
Christmas Eve. A relaxing night with family, by the fire, stockings hung with care, halls decked with boughs of holly, sugarplums dancing in our heads, and poop on the carpet.
Did you just say "poop on the carpet"?
Yes I did. That was our Christmas Eve surprise from Garrett.
While we were helping Santa unload the gifts from the sleigh and constructing the array of "some assembly required" gifts, the boy decided to poop, take his diaper off, and clean his bottom with a diaper wipe. A good start, but sometime after the first wipe, a second wipe was out of reach, or forgotton. So he finished the job by scooting across the carpet of his room, and using his hands - on the carpet, walls, bed rails, dresser drawers and bedsheets.
As usual, Marie was the first upstairs and the discoverer of this surprise. Garrett was sound asleep in his bed, all cuddled up with the blanket, with no diaper and no pants. Several "oh my gods!" as well as a few choice "f" bombs brought the rest of the family upstairs to join in with her gasps of horror. "Take them back" I said. "All the presents. And get me some coal!".
After getting Garrett out of bed, cleaned up, and changed to clean clothes, we put him in bed with Jeanne for the night while the "Bissel" vacuum came out and the window was opened wide (it was about 35 degrees - happily not raining).
Garrett heard the vacuum come on in the next room and said to Jeanne, "Mommy vacuum to clean up Garrett's poo poo". That's an understatement.
Even the neighbors commented that they new something was up with the open window, bright lights, and wailing "Bissell" alerting the neighborhood to our excitement.
Potty training. We have to get started.
2 1/2 year old math - December 17, 2002
Last night Garrett took a three hour nap starting at 4pm. This was residual sleep missed from the prior nights "bag balm" disasater. We hoped he might sleep all night, but that was not to be. Consequently, we knew that sleeping might be another battle.
At about 8:30, we began the effort to entice him to bed. He was playing nicely with his Hot Wheels cars at that time. Now normally, we don't allow the Hot Wheels into his bedroom because it does prevent him from going to sleep. But tonight, I felt some incentive was necessary. So I gave him the opportunity to "take two cars to bed". All he heard was "bed" and the game was on.
After a few minutes of moaning and whining, I got him to focus on my earlier statement. "You can choose two cars and take them to bed". He looked at me with those big brown eyes and said "Three cars?". I found it hard not to laugh. But mom came to the rescue and began the "caretaker" routine so I left the room.
A few minutes later I heard the cry and the cars hitting the wood floor. It seems that the actual act of starting up the stairs started the rebellion again. When I came into the room and the cars we being picked up I noticed there were now four cars heading up stairs. Big Bad Daddy took over and decried "throwing cars mean no cars go upstairs." Marie picked him up and carried the upset child up a couple of steps, and said "Do you want to give Daddy a kiss goodnight?". Between sniffles he managed a vindictive "Nnnnnnooooo".
I have to focus sometimes....he will learn by dealing with consequences and our adherence to set limits and rules.... sometimes its hard to remember but he is sooooo cute....
Slippery when left alone - December 16, 2002
Garrett and I went over to the Brown's yesterday so the boys could run around and Dave and I could watch some football. Needless to say Garrett was pretty run down by the time we left and fell asleep in the truck on the way home.
Upon arriving home we left him asleep in the truck, as we know that waking him up gives us a very grumpy boy. After an hour had gone by, it was time to get him up or else it would impact his ability to go to sleep that night. So we did, and he was for about 20 minutes.
After we got him calmed down, ate dinner and generally went through the evening routine, it was time for bed. After an initial protest, the deal was done and both kids were in bed. Garrett putzed around like he normally does, playing with toys, reading books and generally not going to sleep for several hours.
About 10pm, Marie checked in on him and got a surprise. Garrett was without pants standing on the dresser. On the floor was the now poopy diaper. And Garrett was covered from foot to chest with "Bag Balm" (a diaper rash ointment) and had both his hands in the small container of said ointment. He looked like Burt Reynolds in the Demi Moore movie Striptease, when he covered himself in vaseline. What a mess ! It was all over the dresser, the wall, on his clothes, everywhere.
I did my best to wipe him down with the baby wipes, but there was just too much "yellow stuff" (as Garrett calls it). I took off his shirt and we headed to the shower. A very slippery few minutes in the shower and another 90 minutes or so of goofing off and he was asleep.
Pouting - December 10, 2002
Where do kids pick this stuff up? Garrett was addressed in a "stern" voice the other night, and he immediately fell on the floor, face in his hands and got really quiet - pouting.
I'm sure it won't be the last thing he learns from his peers. Certainly this will be the cutest though.
Sara's Nicknames - December 10, 2002
Over Sara's short life so far (less than a year) she's had several "pet" names. First was "Butterball", as she was on the round side as a youngster. But we didn't want that to stick, thinking it might cause serious psychological issues in the future. So we started using "Buttercup" instead.
As her teeth began coming in, "Fang" was her name. This was because the outer front teeth came in before the center front teeth giving here the vampire look.
Her current nickname is "Sarazilla", because she plays so rough with all the toys. Her standard procedure is to see if she can eat the toy, then bang it on something to see what kind of noise it makes. If that doesn't meet her needs at that moment, it gets tossed to side.
The other night, Garrett called her "Zilla". Maybe we should just stick to Sara from now on?
More Pictures - December 09, 2002
While I've posted about 5 new rolls of film into the Gallery, I've still got about 10 to go to get current. I've loaded them in reverse order so you will see the most current photos first. As we get new rolls in I will continue to post in that direction. It takes me about 30-45 minutes to load a roll, so while that's not a lot of time, it is tedious and repetitive work. That is why it hasn't been done much over the last year or so. However, I am working on trying to make it easier, and will teach Marie how to do it too. Hopefully, between the two of us we can get motivated to share the pictures.
The other thing that is apparent..... I need to take more pictures of Marie with the Kids. She is always the one to grab the camera first, so I am part of the picture more often than she.
Sara's First Christmas Tree - December 09, 2002
This past Saturday, we got our Christmas tree. With a brief trip to one of Marie's friends (very expensive) tree lot, we ended up back in Scholls again at the same tree farm we've been to for several years. Marie stayed with the sleeping carseat kids while I selected and chopped down a fine $35 6 foot Noble Fir. It was pretty obvious that the lack of rain this past growing season had taken it's toll on the tree farm as so many were very dry (dripping with dead needles). The owner also said that much of his new saplings had died due to the lack of water. That only says that the prices will be going up in a few years.
After a wash and a vigorous shakedown, we brought the tree in, mounted it in the stand, and placed it on the coffee table so to make it look taller. Garrett, in his classic style, said "whoa....big tree", but Sara barely noticed. At least that is what we thought. Marie and I spent the evening "decking the halls" and adorning the tree with a tasteful array of decorations.
The next morning, "Sarazilla" took notice and headed straight for the tree. After several assaults and distraction attempts, we were required to find the fold up fence previously used to keep the dog penned up, and wrap it around the tree. While this was somewhat successful, the fence has to maintain about a 15 inch buffer around the widest part of the tree as that is about as long as her arms are, and she has found that the fence does provide a suitable base for standing up and reaching over.
At the same age, Garrett never showed much interest in the tree. Just another example of how different I think our kids will be as they get older.
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