thinking

Today Sarah tapped Alyssa's temple and said, "I'm helping her think."

I wish someone would help me think.

Vox purpli

I was driving the girls home after visiting Shannon and Alyssa in the hospital today. Sarah apparently had been working out her best shot at the Random Question of the Day, because she suddenly queried, "Daddy, what color is your voice?"

I wasn't sure I heard that right, but upon my request she repeated the question. Now, I've learned from experience a bit about how to respond to questions that don't seem to be founded on aspects of my daily reality: I acknowledge the question and then return it. It often helps to clarify exactly what the person had in mind when they asked. So, in this case I responded, "That's a good question Sarah; I'm not sure I've thought about that before. What color do you think your voice is?"

"Well, I think it's kind of yellowish."

So I guess she did mean to ask what the color of my voice was. "I suppose my voice is probably dark blue...or dark green. Probably dark green," I said. "What color do you think Mommy's voice is?"

"Pink. And Emmie's is brown."

So, sorry, Shannon, we're mostly a warm-color family.

Last night at dinner...

After a thousand or more questions, many of which had obvious or no answers available (like why does Emmie like milk, why are you setting the table, and when are we going to bring Alyssa home) Alan told Sarah that we would not answer any more questions until after dinner. She turned to him and said, "But Honey, if I don't ask any more questions my body will get angry."

Ahhh, so that's why they ask questions. It's a method of anger management. Someone should get their PHD on this.

err... whoops

Sarah's mommy and daddy have communication problems.

Bunnies and carrots

Mommy was explaining to Emmie that the reddish-orange things in her soup were carrots, not tomatoes, when Sarah piped up with an observation. "Bunnies make carrots for us to eat, huh?" Er, no, Sarah, it's the other way around: Carrots make bunnies for us to eat. Make sure you understand that by the time you start school so you can impress your friends with your knowledge.

where carrots come from

Last night at dinner Sarah announced, "Bunnies make carrots for us to eat." Apparently she missed the primary lesson on where carrots come from and we have failed as parents.

Sarah's latest

Sarah's latest accomplishment is to be able to read words with the silent "e" on the end. Let me specify that it must be words that follow the silent "e" rule. Words like "some" don't count. She has also learned to use a number line to subtract numbers and can add small sums without problems. From reading with us during family scriptures she has learned "and it came to pass that" and also "Spirit", "Lord", and "wilderness".
Sarah likes to ask questions to things she already knows the answer to. This drives her mother crazy sometimes. Today she asked, "Mom, what does meal mean?" as we were eating lunch. I might point out that I've already defined this word several different times in a couple of different ways including giving examples. Every day she also asks, "Mom, how big is the baby?" and "Mom, how big is your tummy."
Sarah enjoys remembering fun family activities and sometimes amazes me with how long ago she can remember. She remembers, for example, going on an airplane to visit my grandparents when she was still not yet 2 years old.
Every morning Sarah starts the day by telling us about her dreams. She always asks us what we dreamed and we seldom remember well enough to suit her.
She is also curious about how the baby got into my tummy and how it is going to come out. This was evidenced one day when she was telling me a story and it involved the doctor cutting a small hole in my tummy to put the baby in so it could get big and then cutting another bigger hole to take it out. (I have tried to explain is the simplest way possible how the baby thing works, but she is clearly not convinced or else doesn't quite get it yet.)
She is perfect with elderly people. We did our family home evening with the "grandmas and granpas" at a rest home near here and they loved her. She is not at all reserved and talks plenty loud. She allows them to pet her face and hair and doesn't mind answering the same question every 30 seconds from the same person. She sang and prayed right into the microphone and they loved her. Emmie followed her lead and also did her share of talking and singing into the microphone.
Sarah is a delight as always. We love her.

no more questions

Alan is way too busy and stressed to blog this even which happened to him last night so I will. Yesterday evening Alan was in the office frantically trying to do his consulting work, which is way behind schedule. Sarah is "hanging out with him" in the office, climbing onto the back of his chair and hanging over his neck while digging her little elbows into his shoulders etc. So Alan suggests to her that she "close the door on your way out okay?" "I'm not going out," she responded. "I am going to stay in the office." Alan tried to resolve concerns. "Why are you going to stay?" "Because I want to stay in the office." Again Alan tried, "Why do you want to stay?" "Because I want to." Alan: "What do you want to do here? Why do you want to stay?" Sarah: "No more questions daddy."

Counting

Sarah has learned how to count to 100. We are surprised (maybe) and happy (definately).

a conversation with her apple

Today at lunch:
"No apple, you may not get down. Why? Because I have to eat you."

Cute phrases

Yesterday Sarah came down from breakfast and said, "My tummy is full. There is not room for one more chex."
This afternoon she came downstairs and said, "The juice is on its way down to my tummy."

temple recommends

Tonight Alan and I had temple recommend interviews with the Stk Pres. We brought the girls and it just happened that we were both called at the same time so I took Sarah in with me. (This was what Pres. suggested.) Tonight at prayers it was Sarah's turn. She said, "Thank thee that we could go to temple square and I could sit and feel the spirit thing. In the name..."

holding hands

While crossing the street Emmie asked to be picked up. Sarah said, "But I need someone to hold my hand. How about if I hold my shirt. I will keep me safe." And she did. The end.

a trip to the dentist

On the way home from the dentist Sarah is going through the bag of goodies they gave her. "Look Mom, I got a new toothbrush, and they gave me some bum bum meddies for Emmie." (Bum bum meddies?? Also known as desitin, it makes me curious enough to glance around at what she is holding up. ) Ahhh, a small tube of toothpaste...

a whole new meaning

During the Sunday meeting of stake conference Sarah and Emmie ate some snacks. Afterwards Sarah said, "Mommy, I'm still hungry. I want some snackrament now."

A disaster area

Today after lunch I was washing Sarah's spaghetti face. Sarah said, "My face is a disaster area! Sometimes my face is a 'aster area and sometimes it's not."

The fools came up

Just now I heard Sarah singing with her dolly. She was singing the Wise Man and the Foolish Man. When she got to the foolish man verse it went like this. "The rains came down and the fools came up, the rains came down and the fools came up, the rains came down and the fools came up and the house on the sand washed away."

I like to look for...

Sarah likes to improvise her own lyrics to songs she knows. Last night she started out singing the primary song "I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain..." which is actually called the Baptism song. Anyway then she changed it to, "I like to look for Daddies whenever there are babies..." which we thought was very funny and very perceptive.

some fruit don't come from trees

I've been reading Sarah Charlotte's Web at nap and bed-times. Yesterday Wilber got out of his pen and went into the orchard. I was trying to explain what an orchard was. I said it was a place where lots of fruit trees grew. Sarah said, "Not all fruit comes from trees." True, I replied, some like grapes comes off of a vine. "And some, Sarah injected, come from Walmart."

Words

Remember when you were little and you would hear an unfamiliar word. Usually you would just substitute it for a word you knew. Like Sarah in her song "Nephi's Courage". It goes like this (With the real word in parentheses) The Lord commanded Nephi to go and build a boat. Nephi's older brothers believed it would not float. Laughing and mopping (mocking) they said he should not try. Nephi was courageous and this was his reply...
I actually like the mental picture of Laman and Lemuel mopping.