Sarah Comes to Visit

On Tuesday Sarah came over to play with Holly in the afternoon. As usual we had a wonderful time. Sarah is such an animated baby, she is very expressive and communicative which is very neat to see.

She is just 11 months, but bigger then Holly, so she can certainly hold her own when Holly Shows her toys, points to Sarah's eye, or tries to take away the lid to the container. We have a whole container of little shakers and the girls had a great time taking them out and putting them back in and shaking them all about. Isabel takes Sarah to several Story and Singing along groups and the various local libraries in the mornings around 9 or 10. We haven;t made it to one yet, but Sarah loves it and she is a dancer. So she was excited to have the shakers and would twist and turn and play.


It is so interesting to see how different babies develop, Holly is a very active baby and is motivated by motion, so early on she wanted to sit, scoop, crawl, stand and walk. Because she was so motivated to do things herself she didn't have to worry so much about communication, because she could simply get the item she wanted.


Sarah on the other hand doesn't move around a lot yet, but because she stays put she explores toys much more then Holly, figures out how they work, and she points and tells her Mommy what she wants. She is adorable and starting to reach further and further and I think will be scooping very soon. When we stood her up against the couch she held herself like that for a little bit, but I think her legs aren't that strong yet. She is only 11 months, and she weights maybe 28 lbs, so she is large boned, but i could imagine that pushing it would have to take a lot of strength. Holly is very little for her age only 25% so I think that made it a little easier, of course she is also 3 months older, so I wouldn't be expecting Sarah to be moving around nearly as much.

I have really enjoyed our play dates with Isabel and Sarah, Isabel and I get a long so well and we just talk the whole time, she is very easy going and I think a lot of our parenting philosophies and styles are very similar. it was also really neat seeing Sarah today because she recognized the house, and she was comfortable almost immediately which was a lot of fun. it's the third time she has come over now, and last time it took her a little while to warm up, but today she was off and ready to go, grabbing toys, reaching and pointing, she noticed Nemo tucked away in Holly's little fort under the table and she pointed and called and fussed until her Mom brought it over, then the girls played peek-a-boo with him, they had a blast.

After a little while we decided to head over to the park and take a walk. It was a really nice day out with a very light breeze and the walk isn't very far. We saw a number of dogs on our way and when we arrived there were a lot of other babies too.

This is Sarah and Osgood playing on the see saw. Osgood is about 15 months old and was a little cutie, it was our first time meeting him.

Sarah loves to play in the sand, she is really good too because she almost never puts it in her mouth. Holly is getting much better at that, but it has only been in the last few weeks. lately she will hold her hands up to me and fuss or grunt a little if she has sand on them. Then I say Mommy Help and I wipe them off. Since her finger's are always in her mouth, her hands are wet, and if she touches the sand it sticks, but now she is starting to learn to ask me to help clean her hands off which is very cool.

Holly is showing Osgood how to drum in this picture. For mother's day I got a drum, for Holly, that I had wanted after seeing her play with a similar one at Cole's house. It is one of those drums when you use a mallet and it is tonal. She now loves to pat the drum, take the mallet and hit everything with it to see how the "hits" sound different. Today she hit the drum, then her book, then turned the drum and tried to bottom, then turned it back and hit the top. It was cute. So she pats everything now.

Here we have Sarah riding the horsey's with Elka. Elka and her mom Wolven live right across the street from the park side of the park. I had talked with Wolven many times at swim class, Elka is going to turn 1 in about 2 weeks. I haven't seen them for a really long time and I never new they lived in my neighborhood. Wolven knows several of the other mom's who live around us and come to the park. Since they are right across the street she said that they sometimes come 2-3 times a day.

Wolven is working part time as a Therapist which is a very flexible job for a mom, and she says she has been doing some baby swapping for Elka's care with another little boy, zen who lives in the neighborhood. i asked her if she new about the babysitting co-op and she said like me she tried to join, but nothing ever came of it. The woman said she was going to organize something in the neighborhood but I never heard anything back, but I think I will contact her again. I would really like to be able to take turns with a baby for a few hours a week and have play dates, maybe 3-4 hours, to run errands, go to a movie, take a ceramic class, something like that.

I have been talking with Isabel about it as well, and I think she is interested, so maybe after her and Sarah get back from Spain in June we can try it out. I think though, that it will be hard for me to leave Holly with anyone. I hoped that I would have been able to work out a Swap with Tracey and Lucian, I was even willing to just watch him normally, especially since Tracey needed the time to finish her thesis, but I think she isn't ready to leave Lucian with anyone, but last I talked to them, I heard he might start part time daycare at the presido, at ILM, two times a week. They are in San Diego this week, and it has been ages since we have seen them, I am hoping to try and get together on Sunday.

We played in the park until about 6:30 and then walked home. We hung out on the front steps while Sarah and Isabel got into the car, and we saw a few more dogs and some of the neighbors and a kitty cat. It is amazing how much Sarah loves animals, Holly doesn't really notice them that much, she isn't super exposed to them, but Once her Aunt Kat is here she will certainly get lots of kitty time.

Next Wednesday Sarah and Isabel and Richard will be leaving for a visit to Spain for about 9 days, we will miss them while they are gone, and then in June Sarah will be having her Birthday Party, which is very exciting.

After they left we decided to walk towards San Pablo and we met Daddy on his way home from work. Then we walked around the block before going home. Holly had a really fun day.