One Year Old!

My baby is one!  Amazing.

Some things about Sal:

• She stands all the time, but has only taken one step (a few times).  She took her first step two days before her birthday.
• She still does not say any words.  I'm afraid she's going to be like Elaine, who wouldn't say anything until she knew she could say it just right.  She's perfectly capable, however, of getting her point across, using grunts, "mmm-mmm-mmm" noises, squeals, and a few signs (more, all done, tired). She accidentally said "Da" the other day and looked shocked and sheepish. She would not say it again.
• She is feisty and can definitely hold her own with the other two girls.
• She gets her feelings hurt and takes a long time to recover.  She gets especially sad when Elaine tells her "No."
• Not a fan of 3-hour church.
• She loves going outside and practically jumps out of my arms in excitement whenever I open the door to go out.
• She crawls crazy fast, most of the time with her left knee and right foot.
• Loves her daddy, but needs her mom.
• She likes oatmeal, black beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, prunes, and loves watermelon, corn puffs, raisins, and freeze-dried apples.
• Her favorite games are peep-o and patty-cake.
• She loves to look at books and sing songs.
• She throws tantrums (see previous post).
• She loves blowing rasberries.
• She still only has 2 teeth, but several more are working their way in.
• She finally learned how to drink from a bottle a couple weeks ago.

Birthday pictures:

Sampling the coconut cream:

 Opening presents:

Strawberry shortcake:

Videos of the event:

Happy Easter

I love Easter, and I'm so thankful for the knowledge I have of the Savior, His Atonement, and His resurrection. I love knowing I can be with Mike and our family forever.

Here are some photos of our Easter celebrations over the last couple of days:

On Friday, I saw a tutorial for tie-dyed easter eggs. So, I loaded the girls up and headed to goodwill, where I bought 8 silk ties for $8.  Then we headed to the grocery store to buy eggs. I decided to do some of our weekly grocery shopping at the same time. We were quite the sight, I'm sure. I had Sal in the backpack and Mariah and Elaine in the stroller; I pulled the cart behind me. I'm pretty sure we didn't go unnoticed.

The girls were fascinated with the eggs; being vegan, we don't ever buy them . . . . In fact, Mariah accidentally broke one (Kudos to her: she very calmly said, "Oops. Sometimes we make mistakes.") while we were "tie-ing" them up, so I cracked it the rest of the way so the girls could see the inside of an egg. What a sheltered life they live.

Anyway, it was a fun activity to do with the girls. Elaine lasted for one egg (then she headed outside to take her monkey to the zoo), but Mariah stuck with me for the whole time. (Which, actually, shows amazing progress on her part. I used to try to do fun projects with her, and without fail, she would have a melt down, or destroy everything we made, or both.)

Wrapping an Egg

Sally Supervising 

Elaine heading to the Zoo

Pleased with the Fruits of their Labors

Yesterday morning, we headed to a community egg hunt.  The girls had a good time gathering lots of eggs, all filled with candy.  (Last year, the eggs were all filled with little toys instead of candy.  We were a little disappointed this time.  Oh well.)  As I should have expected, the crowd scene, etc., were too much for poor Mariah, who had a complete melt down on the way back to the car.  She hasn't had a public melt down in so long, my brain froze, and I had no idea what to do.  We just calmly continued to the 5-minute walk to the car with her screaming her little head off.  Poor poor girlie.  She did recover quickly once we were home, though.  Phew.

There was a cute little bucket available to Elaine.  She insisted on using her Halloween pumpkin.  Whatever.

After the girls' naps, we did our own hunt in the backyard with "healthy" candy.  The girls had a good time.  We came in and sat up for dinner, only to realize I had forgotten to give Mike our tie-dyed eggs to hide.  So, out we went again, for the third hunt of the day.

Green Drink

Sally LOVES spinach smoothies!  (This one has blueberries in it, so it's more brown than green.)

16 Minutes

A couple weeks ago, Mariah earned 16 minutes of princess dancing time by making eye contact for 16 seconds during cuddle time.  She was in princess heaven.

I would love to see this face more often.  It's pretty rare.

The amazing thing was she actually went the whole 16 minutes without getting silly and/or hyper.  (Elaine was at Evan's house.)  At one point, Sally went into the room, and she started getting a little silly.  I told her, "Even though Sally's in the room, I want you to stay calm.  Take some deep breaths and make little mountains with your brain." And she did.  I heard her a few times over the next 5 minutes, starting to get silly and then taking deep breaths and calming back down.  Now, if only she could do that with Elaine.  Will it ever happen?

"I Belong . . ."

This has been Elaine's favorite song for a long time now; she sings it all the time.  I've tried several times to get a video, and she's never cooperated until today.  So, for your viewing pleasure:

Five Months Ago

Five months ago tomorrow, little Sally was born.  Crazy how time keeps moving.  She had a doctor's appointment today.  Here are the stats:

Weight - 15 lbs 10 oz - 69th percentile
Height - 51st percentile
Head Circumference - 3rd percentile

So, she has a tiny noggin.  The doc's not worried because she's obviously not developmentally challenged.

A few things about Sarah:

• smiled - 6 weeks
• rolled front to back - 2 months (really since day 1, but very consistently at 2 months)
• laughed - she's subtle about this one - 3-4 months
• rolled back to front - 3 days shy of 5 months (2 days ago)
• scoots backwards
• slept from 7-7 last night - yay, baby!!
• very content baby - even when she was not sleeping well at all
• "talks" in a high, raspy voice
• wants to move move move
• has started lunging for things - books especially, and her sisters
• has very squishy thighs - I was in the mother's lounge at the stake center; a woman I do not know came in.  We talked for a moment, and then she asked, "Is she the one with the big thighs?"  Apparently, the word had gotten around.
• has very expressive eyebrows
• loves blowing rasberries
• does this thing with her lips - sucks in her bottom lip and then pushes it back out, making a little spitting noise - hard to explain, but funny and cute
• needs to see what's going on all around her - very alert and observant
• loves the pack - squeals when she sees me put it on
• recognizes the sign for "nurse" - gets very excited when I do it
• likes her momma best - She's been a momma's girl since birth.

Here's a very long (possibly boring) video of the Sal Bug: