4 Years Old

Sara turned four on August 18. It was a very exciting day for her! She had been talking about turning four for days (well, really months) and it had finally arrived. She was blessed with lots of love and nice gifts. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends. We did a small family gathering at our house. She had a Hello Kitty cake (not pictured because someone dropped the camera on the street in NYC and it works sporadically now). It was very fun and she feels loved :) She is already talking about when she will turn 5. She is still very into the princesses. She really wanted princess dolls for her birthday, the ones that are the size of barbie. She has been asking me about them since January. Whenever we go to a store, she will point them out and ask me "to keep them in mind for her birthday." She has had a lot of fun playing with the princess dolls and dressing up. I can hardly believe she is already four. She has grown up so much in a lot of ways. I am thankful that she still loves "snuggle time", reading, cuddling, and just hanging out. I'm so thankful for our Sara.

Missing Shoe

So, all week I've been looking for one of Jonas' sandals. I had gotten them out to put on him and one just disappeared. I looked everywhere. Tonight, I was emptying the recycling into the recycle bin, and what should I find? That's right one small brown sandal. I just had to laugh. Never thought of looking there. I'm glad I decided to take the not lazy route and empty the bag instead of putting the whole thing in. There is a toddler in the house - be ware :)

The things they say...

This morning as soon as Jonas woke up, he started saying, "ssssss" and pointing at Sara's door. This is the first time he has tried to say her name. Pretty cute. At quiet time, Sara put a new CD in to listen to. I asked her to turn it down a bit, and she did. She came out and said, "I turned it down just a tad pole." Too cute :)

Jonas Walks

It happened today! Jonas walked four different times. He took four or five steps each time. The first time I don't think Jonas even knew what he did. Sara and I started clapping and cheering for him. He tried to duplicate it and ended up doing a bear crawl. Then, he figured it out later at the Smith's house where he walked two times. The only down side is that Jon is out of town and coming home tomorrow. He did see Jonas' first attempts at one step adventures.

Jonas, 14 months

Jonas is now 14 months!! Crazy! I've completely forgotten to take bear pictures the last two months, but here is the most recent one. Current things Jonas is doing - He's cruising everywhere. He has taken one step a few times but not really walked. He loves balls. He just throws the ball and crawls after it all over the house. He also really enjoys the animal train and stacking large legos on top of each other. He loves bath time. He has been trying to jump in on his own recently and cries whenever he has to be done. His favorite room of the house is Sara's room, which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. Sara has been really good about sharing (most of the time) and engages him in play quite a bit. The other day, she brought her My Little Ponies to the living room and had him "playing" with her. It was really cute. Jonas is sitting through books a bit more now, but mostly wants to be down and moving. He understands lots! He used the sign for help for the first time today.

Cousins

Sara and Jonas and all of their cousins (Max, Will, Reese, and Kelsey - not pictured here) were together for the first time in history over 4th of July weekend. They had a lot of fun playing together. Sara and her cousin Reese are the same age and they played together a lot. They have seen their CT cousins 3 times and will see them once more before they go home. It is so fun having cousins the same age (for everybody). We are so blessed to have family that we get along with and love :)

Toledo Zoo

We took the kids to the Toledo Zoo two weeks ago. They had a lot of fun. Sara was excited to see the wolves. One of her favorite movies right now is Balto. She likes to howl and learn about dogs and wolves. Jonas was amazed by the fact that animals were real and moving. The hippos were the hit for both of them. They swam right in front of us a couple of times. We'll be going back.