Sarah Jane at 24 months

This is going to have to be a quick update as according to Dr. Kim I am already in labor with baby number two. Poor Sarah Jane, already getting shafted! Before we head to the hospital we wanted to record some of our favorite things about Sarah Jane at 24 months and some of her exciting summer events.

Sarah Jane had a very busy summer. We started off by going to Uncle Nat's graduation in Hanover, stopping first in Boston to visit Tuck friends. While there we had dinner at Pico close to our old Southend apartment and Sarah Jane was an amazingly good sport playing under the bar for almost three hours while we socialized and ate dinner. She definitely established herself as a rockstar good baby with that feat. Our friends who are parents of boys couldn't believe it. Nat's graduation was Sarah Jane's third trip to Hanover (forth if you count in-utero.) After Nat's graduation, we spent Forth of July in Tahoe and then got on a redeye, flew to Miami, then took a 3 hour flight to St. Kitts and then a taxi/boat/taxi to Nevis for Uncle Matt and Aunt Julia's wedding. Sarah Jane was a rockstar through all of that travel, never once breaking down though she did call our bluff in the Miami airport at one point when we threatened to leave her in the seat she refused to vacate. She happily waved goodbye and we caved first. She was a very little girl at all the wedding celebration, enjoying pancakes every morning served by Leslie the clairvoyant (maybe?) baby whisperer waitress and thoroughly enjoyed all of her Aunt's and Uncles - Kiki, Hef, Mike Ju-ya, Lolo and "Don". We weren't sure how she turned Matt into Don but it was pretty funny. Sarah Jane was very hesitant in the pool and did not like to go off the steps though we did manage to get her to jump off the side of the pool eventually. She made a beautiful little flower girl in a gorgeous dress which matched Aunt Julia's (second dress) and behaved very well during the both the procession (escorted right before the bride but "cousin" Laurie) and the ceremony. That said, she refused to take a half-way decent picture with her mother the entire evening though she took many perfect ones with her beautiful Aunt Julia. Hmph.

After we got home, she had one last week with Veronica and Brady and then we headed up to Tahoe. Leaving Veronica was very hard for me and for Veronica (many tears) though thankfully Sarah Jane didn't realize what was happening. Up at Tahoe Sarah Jane definitively established that she did NOT want to go anywhere near the water. It was NOT her thing. She did enjoy playing in the baby pool on the front porch and she particularly likes filling up buckets of water. Grandma got her a little beach chair just like mommy's because Sarah Jane learned a good trick. She would tell me that she needed to go pee-pee so I would get up from my nice comfy chair to help her and the next thing I knew, she would be sitting in my chair. I fell for it every time. I was very glad when Grandma got her her own chair. On the pee-pee topic, Sarah Jane loves the "potty book" and has shown lots of indication that she is ready to be potty trained. However, when we tried at Tahoe to do the full immersion method, we discovered that while she can hold it, she can't or won't "go" in the potty and it makes her very distressed so we put the project on hold until after the chaos of the summer calms down.

While up in Tahoe we closed on the house in Berkeley. We drove down with Grandma and Aunt Ellie on Thursday night, packed on Friday and moved on Saturday. Sort of busy. Sarah Jane rolled with it at every step. She loves her "NewHaaus" and particularly enjoyed running through the empty house yelling with Aunt Ellie the day of the move. For the record, I think Aunt Ellie might have enjoyed the run/yell as much as Sarah Jane. She had a tough time sleeping the first night and spent a good part of that night chatting in mommy and daddy's bed which we did NOT appreciate but she seemed to adjust just fine after that.

We then spent three weeks moving in, getting used to our new neighborhood (she LOVES neighbor Nico!), planning for Nana and Papa's visit and getting ready for Sarah Jane's 2nd birthday party which began with a petit guest list of ~20 but suddenly mushroomed into a gigantic party of 55. Sarah Jane enjoyed getting to know Totland (the park near our house.) Her favorite toy is the big red plastic car with the door that closes. Unfortunately the wheels don't work that well and she either doesn't get it that she can push it herself or realizes that she can get mommy to push her around and around but in either case mommy spends a lot of time pushing her around and around. Not so fun when enormously pregnant. We have limited our trips to Totland as a result. Sarah Jane also likes the swing, the cooking stations and the vacuum toys.

This follows a big theme in Sarah Jane's life currently which is cleanliness. She LOVES to be clean and hates to be dirty. She sits quietly to have her face wiped off, insists on having a napkin in her lap for meals and generally wipes her hands after each bite. She still sings the "clean-up clean-up" song which she made up herself and usually puts away whatever toy or book she is playing with before she moves on to the next toy or book. When in the bath, she not only puts all her toys away when she is done but carefully squeezes and shakes all the water off of them before putting them in the basket. It's a little strange. Aunt Dr. Whitney says it's not a sign that SHE is psychotic, just that her parents have problems. Could have told you that. She also loves to cook and "wash" which involves standing at the sink and filling up cups with water and washing them. She can do it for hours at Grandma and Zeke's house. We are worried about their water bill. Other things she loves at Grandma and Zeke's include Pickle (and Pickle now loves Sarah Jane), the chickens, picking tomatoes and strawberries (which get eaten right away) and the swing seats. She also loves Grandma and Zeke and Uncle Nat. Sometimes she says "Miss Uncle Nat, miss Uncle Nat" over and over until we call Uncle Nat on the phone. Uncle Nat is the only person she has ever "missed". I'm not sure what it means. Grandma incidentally now seems to be "grama", not "mama".

She also loves to "fix" with daddy which generally involves projects around the house or putting together Ikea furniture. She is very good at screwdrivers. She was highly impressed when Dad and Uncle Nat moved the light over the dinning room table and tells me about it all the time.

Whatever "miss Uncle Nat" means, Sarah Jane truly does miss Brady. She has seen Brady three times since we stopped seeing them every day and each time has been a joyful reunion with lots of hugs and kisses and running around happiness. She also talked to Brady once on the phone and there were lots of "I love you Brady" and "I love you SarJane"s which made mommy very sad! We are looking forward to a weekly play date when Erin is home on maternity leave.

A typical day in Sarah Jane's life goes like this: She wakes up at 6:15 on the dot. She gets her diaper changed and then comes into Daddy's room for a bottle and some books (yes mommy lives there too.) Sometimes she brings the books in herself. The other morning she brought in 4 - one in each hand, one under an arm and one in her mouth. Then we get in the shower. She no longer likes to have her hair washed so there is crying every morning. After shower we sing the "Baby Burrito" song which sounds like the Baby Beluga song from Rafi and Sarah Jane calls it the BabyBu. She gets the towel wrapped around her arms and looks like a starwars creature. Then we get dressed. She no longer likes to get dressed so that now takes a long time. Then we brush her hair. She no longer likes to have her hair brushed so that takes even longer. It's a bit of a pain. THEN we go downstairs and have breakfast. When we get downstairs she says "New Haaus!" like she just noticed where she was. We have oatmeal. Sarah Jane's has bananas and PBs. Then we tend to do errands though that is going to change soon. After errands we come home and blow bubbles in the back yard. Sarah Jane LOVES bubbles and is very good at them. She likes to catch them and say "I got it!" when it pops. After bubbles, we eat burritos. Sarah Jane LOVES burritos. Then we got outside and have some fruit. At about 1, she tells me she wants to go night night. We go upstairs and she very agreeably gets in bed and makes like she is going to sleep. Sometimes she does but usually we spend 45 minutes manipulating mommy (Agua!!! Blankets!!! Mommy's room!!! Closedadoor!!! OpenOpen!!!!) THEN we go to sleep. At this point I'm exhausted and also go to sleep. She usually sleeps for 2.5 to 3 hours which is a good thing cause I'm beat. Then we get up and sometimes go to the park, sometimes go see Grandma and Zeke, sometimes pick up dad at BART. She eats dinner at 6pm and starts heading to bed at around 7:30. Bedtime routine involves a bottle, 3-4 books on the couch (two couches), brushing teeth and then three songs. She also needs to be tucked in with three specific blankets, the yellow one, the pink one and the green one and her head goes on the soft brown one. Did I mention very specific?

Before I sign out, I should mention all the medical ailments Sarah Jane has had this summer. It started out with an odd rash on her face, hands, feet and diaper area. At the same time she had another rash on her elbows and knees. It was all very strange, not diagnosed satisfactorily by the doctor, didn't seem to bother her and eventually went away on it's own. Then on the Saturday before the birthday she was hoisted into the air by her dad and straight into the low beam between the kitchen and the dinning room. Rather than crying Sarah Jane immediately went totally silent, held onto mommy very tightly, and then appeared to have her eyes roll up into her head. At that point we sprinted out the door on our way to the hospital. As we ran outside, she suddenly perked up and said, "Nana coming?" and was completely cheerful and didn't seem to have any recollection of bumping her head. All very strange. Thankfully we had a doctor and a nurse with us (Papa and Nana) and they monitored her very carefully for any signs of damage which did not appear. Then the day AFTER the birthday party she got a massive splinter in her finger which had to be dug out with a needle (she was not silent for that one!) AND she smacked her face on the bathroom floor after escaping from the shower at top speed not wanting to have her hair washed. Also not a silent aftermath.

She did have a good time at her birthday party and with her new stuff. She particularly likes her table and chairs from Grandma and Zeke and master-assembler Uncle Nat. She also LOVES the pink rocking chair from the Zelenaks which Papa assembled. She wants to take it with her wherever she goes. Including the aquarium. That one didn't happen, it is big. She also loves the tent in the backyard with the tunnel from Nana and Papa. She got lots of cute outfits, cooking stuff and books. She also got a tutu and leotard from Aunt Whitney which she is going to learn to love but hasn't figured it out yet.

And now on to the elephant in the room, Mom's tummy. Sarah Jane is NOT interested. She refuses to have a conversation about it though when I tell her that Daddy and Mommy are going to to to the hospital to get the baby she says "Jane Come?" Then I tell her she's going to stay with Grandma and Zeke she seems totally satisfied and moves on. That's about as far as we get. She is interested in the baby toys/gear and is a very good mommy to her dolls. Everything is a baby including her fork which she often wraps in her napkin and sings to sleep. It will be interesting to see what happens when she meets the baby! Sarah Jane is a VERY good little girl and I'm sure she will be a good big sis.