Letters to Sara on her third birthday, part two

Sara –

You are a big girl: three years old now! How did time go by so quickly? I remember bringing you home like it was yesterday.

This past year was a big year for you; you started preschool and really got into your books and puzzles. You enjoy singing and dancing more each day. I am proud of everything you have become. You treat your friends and family very kindly and sweetly, and are a good listener.

This next year promises to be a big one. First, we’ll be adding to our family and you’ll get to start your lifelong job of being a big sister. You will get to climb into a “big girl bed” every night. And I think we might start introducing you to an organized sport or two (if Daddy has his way).

I look forward to seeing you grow and progress again this year, and no matter what, I love you very much.

Daddy

Letters to Sara on her third birthday, part one

November 1, 2010

My precious baby girl:

You are three years old today! I can hardly believe it. You have become such a little person in such a short amount of time.

You are so much fun now. I mean, you have been fun all along, but watching you continue to develop and grow brings your dad and me so much joy. You sing songs all the time, both ones you have learned and ones that you have made up. You love to dance, too. You also love to play pretend. You love to pretend drive and pretend cook. Sometimes you just want to pretend to be someone different altogether. On more than one occasion, I have had to be “Miss Jeri” while you pretend to be Hayden. (Jeri is the mother of Hayden, one of Ryan’s friends and neighbors.)

You’re still pretty shy around strangers, but at home you are very outspoken. “Mommy, don’t say that. “ “No, you don’t sing. I have to sing.” “Mommy, I need milk!” “Thank you for breakfast, Mommy.” “I don’t want to snuggle.” “No, you have to read this book!” “Mommy, I’m ready to be wiped!” Your world is the Sara show, and I am merely a supporting character—and I love every minute of it. I take such delight in watching you figure things out and use your creativity.

You can do so many things now. You go to preschool two mornings a week, and you seem to love it. You are pretty well potty-trained during the day, and today you insisted on napping without a diaper, so we’ll see if you’re ready to give up all diapers during the day! You throw things in the trash for me, and you put your bibs in the sink after breakfast. You wash your hands by yourself, and you try to put on your “big girl panties,” but sometimes they end up kind of backwards or inside-out. You are very good at taking off your pants, shoes, and socks, and you love to “help” me with cooking and with making your meals. I think this is because you like to sneak bites of applesauce and jelly, though.

Even though you are getting to be more independent and more of a big girl, you are still—and will always be, as I continue to tell you—my baby girl. I love when we snuggle in the morning and you insist that I put on my glasses to read you a book. I love how you have to know where Baby (your lovey) is around sleep times, and how you love to hold her and kiss her. Lately, when I’m reading books to you, you kind of snuggle up against me. It might be because my belly is starting to make you uncomfortable, but I am loving every second of the snuggles. Sometimes now, when I’m rocking you for a moment, you ask to be rocked a little longer. Sometimes you just want to crawl around and act like a baby. I think you know that a big change is coming, and one time you even asked to feel the baby, even though we aren’t talking about him with you just yet.

In a year that has been so dark and so hard for me personally, you were a shining light. Your twos were not terrible; they were terrific. I have been told repeatedly that the threes are what are really terrible, so I guess I’ll hold my breath and wait to see what three brings—aside from the move into a big girl bed and the arrival of a baby brother, two events that are sure to rock your world! Whatever curveballs you throw at us, your dad and I will continue to delight in you as you embark on your fourth year. You are, and forever will be, our baby girl, our Sweet Sara Jo.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl. I still love you more than I ever thought possible, and I still thank God for you every single day. I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always; as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.

Love,

Mommy

All quiet on the blogging front

As my few (very few) dedicated readers have surely noted, the Mowles Family blog has been silent for over four months now. To be honest, I'm a little bit torn.

There have been several factors that have slowed down my rate of blogging.

1. Grief. Between our Trisomy 18 loss and an early miscarriage in February, these past months have been very difficult. I have not been or felt like my best self.
2. Busy-ness. Since I'm now teaching online during Sara's naptime, the only time to blog is the evening. By then I'm usually trying to do laundry, hang out with my hubby, and possibly do a little exercising. I also like to veg in front of the TV or the computer.
3. Facebook. First of all, it's a major time-suck. Second of all, when I post photos on there, I reach a very similar audience to the one reading my blog. Commenting is easier, too.

So, for now, I think I might try using Facebook to post pictures a bit more often. I am not ready to completely call it quits on the blog, but we'll see.

So, if you happen to be a reader of my blog who is not on Facebook, I encourage you to join!

The time I dislocated your arm

My sweet baby girl, yesterday morning you and I were being lazy at home. I had canceled our park play date due to your very runny nose and the threatening skies. It was an uneventful morning. I let you watch lots of Dora (your new favorite) while I browsed the web, started laundry, and did dishes. Around 11 am I decided you and I should go run a few errands. You lay down on the ground when I told you it was time to go to your room to change, which was my cue to take your arms and start pulling you to your room. We had done this many times before. You were laughing. And then--

Crack.

It sounded like a knuckle cracking. I asked you if you were okay, and you started to cry. Oh, how you cried. I had been on the phone with Auntie Anna throughout this whole incident, and she could hear how upset you were. I hung up with her to calm you down, and you did calm down, but you wouldn't use your right arm at all. If I touched your elbow, or if you shifted your weight onto your right arm, you started to cry.

I started to panic. I called the pediatrician's office, and thankfully, the physcian's assistant agreed to see me on her lunch break. Everyone figured you had nursemaid elbow, otherwise known as a dislocated elbow, which is very common in kids your age. The PA tried four different times to put your elbow back in its place, but she said she actually thought it was already back in place, because she didn't hear the characteristic "click" of it popping back into position. She thought it was perhaps just sore, so she advised me to follow up in a day or two.

I took you home for a nap, but when you woke, you were miserable. All night, you would not use your right arm. It was the same thing when you woke up this morning. So, today, back to the pediatrician's office we went. You got x-rays, and the pediatrician couldn't see anything. So, after a nap, off to the orthopedist we went.

The orthopedist thinks that your elbow did, most likely, get dislocated. You might be having some residual soreness, or you might have a small fracture in your joint that is not visible on the x-rays. He advised that we put you in a cast for a week. The cast will prevent you (or me!) from re-injuring your elbow. It will give your ligament a chance to tighten. It will also give any possible fracture in there a chance to heal.

So far, you don't seem to mind your cast.

Baby Girl, I'm so sorry. I feel so badly that you were injured in my hands, that I caused your injury. I'm afraid the days of that little game are now over. I love you and would never purposely cause you harm. I guess this is just one more good story you can give me grief about in the years to come:

"Hey, Mom? Can I go to the dance? Before you answer, remember the time you ripped my arm out of the socket?"

The Dulles girls...and me!

My friend Melissa is a die-hard University of Alabama football fan. She went to college there and loved the south so much that she now lives in Georgia! She was fortunate enough to get tickets to the BCS Championship game, so she came out for her second visit in eleven months. This prompted a get-together with some high school friends. Actually, all of the girls went to Dulles Elementary except for me. :)

Me, Jenny, Karen, Melissa, and Paige (and baby Parker under the blanket)


Sara, Milo, and Drew were all born within about six weeks of each other


Here we all are in February 2009. What a difference a year makes!


Trying to capture eight kids in one frame can best be described as CHALLENGING!

Knott's Berry Farm

Tanja and I made a relatively last-minute decision to get annual passes to Knott's when we found out they were only $60. Tuesday was our first trip there with the kids, and they both had a ball!

Ryan laughed hysterically on this!


Sara LOVED the planes. She wanted to ride them over and over and over!


I took the kids on the balloon ride. I think they look like they could be siblings.


Thankfully the kids were big enough to ride this unattended. I'm pretty sure Tanja and I would have gotten sick on it!


One fun thing about Camp Snoopy at Knott's is that the kids can ride so many of the attractions by themselves! Sara is about an inch too short for many of them, but I'm sure she'll grow into those soon enough!

Sara loves Barney

This video is from Christmas night. Sara was watching her beloved Barney and dancing along, all the while pausing to give Daddy occasional cuddles.