difficult, hard, strenuous...

The girls were trying to blow up the pool in the backyard when Sarah came in and said, "Mom, I think we'll just have to wait for Dad to come home and help us. It's just too arduous!"

Here is Sarah at the end of her performance as the lead character in the 4th grade play/musical.

Sarah was naming things in her purse when she said, "and my license that I can show to authorities if I get lost or something." Her "license" is a small plastic Utah plate with her name on it, intended to be put on a bike.

homework

Upon checking Sarah's homework I came across this gem.

half asleep

The other night Sarah got up around 9:30 to go to the bathroom. I was in the family room watching Dogs 101, if you must know. After she went, she wondered out toward the TV. I said, "Sarah, go back into the bathroom and flush the toilet and wash your hands."

"Okay," she said and returned into the bathroom where she turned around and immediately headed for the TV again. So I repeated the same instruction. This time she did go wash her hands before coming back into the family room.
Once again I sent her back into the bathroom, this time to flush the toilet, which she did. She walked out past the TV before I stopped her. "Sarah, where are you going? What are you doing? You need to go to bed."

She paused for a minute and said, "I don't actually know."

"Well," I said between giggles, "You need to go to bed."

"Okay, can I go to bed now?"

"Yes, go to bed." She started toward the stairs. By this time I was unable to contain myself and laughing got up and led her back into her bedroom where she found her bed and very willingly climbed in and went back to sleep.

A lot of littles.

"I like to read in littles. I read a little here and a little there."

"Guess what Emmie. Today at school it was Veterinarian's Day. When they said it was Veterinarian's Day I thought at first that they were talking about people who take care of animals."

Sarah the Viking

Sarah had to be a Viking for her history fair. I sewed this costume, yes me! I didn't even get super cross doing it. We had a hat for her too, but apparently horned hats weren't historically worn by women or girls during the Viking Era so Sarah refused. (There was $7 down the drain.)

Sarah is amusing at the least, and hysterical at the best of times. We love having her in our family. One day in August I noticed these on her bedroom wall.

confirmination

"Daddy, it was a special day for you. 'Cause you got to do your own daughter's baptism and confirmination."

Huh?

"I might call you 'Da-Da' for the rest of your life because I'm teeming with growthment."

She does it again.

At dinner last night we were telling Alan/Daddy about the game I came up with to get the children to pick up. It involved a volcano in the bedrooms and lava slowly moving down the stairs and throughout the rooms, necessitating the immediate pick up off all items that we didn't want to burn up. The girls were very enthusiastic about the game and it was several minutes before they could walk into a room without burning their little feet. The house got picked up faster than ever before and everyone had fun. As we finished telling Alan about it, Sarah said, "Did you make up that game to get us to clean up?" I admitted that it was my intention, but didn't she have so much fun as well?
She replied, "I am seriously offended!"
I was seriously entertained.

Worries

About twenty minutes after we put her to bed tonight, Sarah came downstairs wailing, "I don't want to die!"

Shannon was on the phone so it devolved to me to handle the situation. I said, "It sounds like you've been thinking about death while trying to go to sleep."

"Yeah, and I don't want to die! Especially I don't want to have a heart attack."

I tried to reassure her that she was not in danger of a heart attack. "Sarah, I'm sure some children have died of a heart attack, but I've never heard of anyone as young as you having one." I also explained a little bit about what causes a heart attack so she'd know she wasn't much at risk of one.

"Okay, but can I sleep down in the office so if I have a heart attack you can take care of me?"

"No, you'll be fine upstairs."

"Can I at least sleep downstairs so if I do have one I can wobble into the office and find you?"

I nearly lost it at "wobble." Fighting to keep a straight face, I assured her that we'd be able to help her no matter where she was in the house.

Then she asked about what they do to help people who are having a heart attack. I told her that they use a technique called CPR to push against a person's chest and get the heart to start again, and that sometimes they also use electricity to send a signal to the heart to tell it to start. She was calmer by this point and presently went back upstairs to bed.

After Shannon and I had a good laugh about "wobble" and I had started this blog post, Sarah reappeared in the doorway and asked in a mildly concerned tone what would happen if you pushed on your own chest when you weren't having a heart attack. "'Cause I just pushed on mine," she said apprehensively. We told her that you couldn't do CPR on yourself because it took much stronger pushing. "Oh," she said in relief, and scampered back to bed.

Well, I declare

Sarah wasn't feeling well a few days ago and left the table early to go rest in her room. Several minutes later she came out and said, "Well, I declare I'm feeling a trifle bit better." She didn't understand why Alan and I found that so amusing.

ready?

Setting: After her shower

Mom: Sarah, are you ready yet?
Sarah: I'm done lotioning. (sigh) All I need is faith.

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

On the way to our surprise destination on Monday night: "Daddy and I ransacked a plan," she said.

Who does this remind you of?

Active

On the way home Sarah was playing a noisy squealing game with Alyssa. Eventually we told her to quiet down and play something quiet. "But that takes all the fun out of it," she complained. "I'm active and high-spirited!"

Wow! America

This is Sarah's reflections entry.

Reflections Contest

Sarah won the art division of the Reflections Contest at her school and took 3rd place at the city level. We are very pleased with her efforts. :)