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. :)

So she is like me after all

I found this while tidying Sarah's desk.

We should have named her Anne-spelled with an "e"

Sarah is so much like Anne, in Anne of Green Gables. She is dramatic, emotional, and delightful. She reads voraciously and incorporates the characters into her own life regularly. Sometimes though it gets her into a crazy crying state. Tonight at bedtime she for some reason asked Emmie who she (Emmie) liked better: her (Sarah) or Alyssa. Emmie, being brutally honest, said without any hesitation that she liked Alyssa better because Alyssa didn't pester her. Naturally this was not what Sarah wanted to hear. 2 minutes later she was sobbing about trying to not pester and working so hard at being kind and it being just so hard and being so devastated and sad that Emmie didn't love her best. I let Alan deal with her directly because sadly I am more like Marilla, I just want to tell her to be sensible and quit overdoing the drama. However I did suggest that Emmie go give Sarah loves and reassure Sarah of her love. I reminded Emmie that Sarah is doing so much better at not pestering and that of course she loves Sarah and so forth. I am left thinking this child is not like me. She is like my mother. I sometimes wonder how she ended up my daughter and not my mother's. Regardless we should have named her Anne with an "e".

Dialogue

Setting: The whole family is in the car, on the way home from having dropped off Grandma P. at her house.

Sarah: This is the Addams Family song: [Sings the ditty: "They're creepy and they're kooky...."]

Emmie: I think Adam and Eve's family are creepy.

Dad: Emmie, the Addams Family was a TV show, and Addams was their last name. It wasn't Adam and Eve.

Sarah: I don't want to talk about the Addams Family anymore. It creeps me out.

Sarah to Emmie

"Will you stop talking like a grown-up! You're always talking like a grown-up and I'm sick of it." (Sarah lost her glasses and Emmie was suggesting she put them away when she takes them off so she knows where they are.)