"Mommy, wow! I'm a big kid now!"

Yeah, cue the music from the commercial for the above title! ;) But it seemed appropriate, given some of the "big girl" moments we've had here lately. :)

The first "big girl" moment had to do with her bed. Even though she's now over three years old, we've left Sarah in the crib. She's small for her age, so she still fits in there perfectly, and she seems to find it comfortable, cozy, and safe. Or at least she did until a few days ago. Suddenly she decided she wanted a "big girl bed." Since the crib is a convertible model, Nelson make the necessary changes to turn it into a toddler bed. Sarah was thrilled...especially when she discovered an advantage she hadn't thought of! Now instead of having her pre-bedtime story on Mommy's and Daddy's bed, she could be read to on her OWN bed! How exciting is that?

Here is Sarah (along with her daddy), enjoying the before-bed book.




Sarah is also good about helping around the house. She helps me dust and wipe the table and sweep the floor. Here she is sweeping. No, this picture isn't staged, even though it looks it. She just happened to look up right when the flash went off!




And the last bit of "big girl" news? Sarah has been wearing "big girl" panties for the past two days! She even asked to use the potty and Meadowview gymnastics yesterday! She did have two accidents yesterday, but both were later in the evening when she was getting tired. Today, she even managed to do "number 2" in the potty! We're so proud of our big girl!

Now, excuse me while I go grab a tissue! ;)

fun day at the gymnastics place!

Today Sarah had a play date at a local gymnastics place. (I can't even think how to type the way Sarah says "gymnastics gym", but she usually follows her pronunciation with "That's hard to say!"). I will apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photos here. I had two strikes against me in the picture-taking department: 1)I forgot the camera and had to use my cell phone, and 2) Sarah was constantly in motion, so several of the pictures came out blurry! But here is my best attempt to capture the highlights of our visit.

Sarah on the balance beam. "Mommy, I'm doing my balancing!"




Rolling down one of the inclined mats...




Bouncing on one of several trampolines...




A running trampoline. Each time she dashed down it, she would proclaim, "I won at the finish line!"




A large foam pit. Sarah was hesitant to try this at first, and she never would actually jump into it or swing on the rope into it. But she liked scooting in and wading through it.



This particular place is really neat. It's owned by Christians, and "To God be the glory" is painted on the wall for all to see. If Sarah ever becomes interested in taking gymnastics classes, this would be the place I'd choose. :)

Anyway, we had a great time, and Sarah really got a lot of energy out; she is now sleeping peacefully in her bed. :)

piggy banks

Sarah has a piggy bank. She plays with it more than anything--we haven't really started any kind of allowance or saving money or anything like that as yet. She mainly thinks the piggy is a fun friend. Well, she did until recently.

Curious George on PBS is one of Sarah's favorite shows. And there is an episode where George is saving for a special toy. Not only does he put his allowance in a special piggy bank so that he can save it up, he begins doing extra chores for the man in the yellow hat, so he can earn money faster and buy his toy sooner. Sarah was playing with her pig today, when suddenly an idea occurred to her. "I need to put money in here! I need to get a job to earn money!" So we'll see what wage-earning endeavors we can find for a 3-year-old! ;)

Interesting tidbits (completely off subject): I experimented with plugging various Butterworth names into a search engine. Karen Butterworth yielded gobs of hits, absolutely none of them me. (There is a Karen Butterworth who is an author--that's pretty cool!). Nick Butterworth also gives tons of results, the majority for the famous author who shares that name (do we have a good name for writers, or what?) ;) Tara Butterworth gives plenty of results, but you'll find Tara and Nick's website about halfway down the first page. But plug in Nelson Butterworth, and the first two hits are both for MY Nelson! And in the number 2 slot is this blog! Wow! I guess Nelson Butterworth is not one of your more common names! ;)

Happy Friday!

modeling her new duds...

Sarah loves clothing and shoes. She really is quite the girly girl. Since we've recently made a few new purchases, she wanted a chance to show off all her new stuff. So here it is, the Sarah modeling show...


First up, her new sandals...





Next, a new princess shirt. She picked this one out herself, and you can just imagine how much she loves it! :)

Last, but by no means least, her new Crocs. She has loved having these, and now she tells me that I need to buy a pair for me. :)

bath tub art

We bought one of those special crayons that are designed to draw on the bath tub. Sarah has a great time playing Picasso on the side of the tub. The other night, she told Nelson she was writing letters. He was quite impressed with how much like letters her scribbles did look, so he snapped a few pictures to preserve the effort. Here they are...

Not bad, huh? :) Hope you enjoyed!

fried velcro?

Today at lunch, I heated some leftover fried okra to eat. Sarah looked curiously at the dish and asked what it was. I told her fried okra. "Fried Velcro?" she asked, sounding terribly confused. "No, fried okra," I explained again, and Sarah decided to give it a try. (She approved, by the way).

It was kind of funny, though for two reasons. One, it was reminiscent of her mispronunciation of Dick Van Dyke (and, if we're feeling really nostalgic, all the many things she used to mispronounce--like root beer). But I was also amused because, frankly, fried okra doesn't reheat well. It loses the recently-fried crispiness--a very important factor when it comes to fried okra. So fried Velcro isn't really all that far off when we're talking leftovers! :-p

all dolled up

I had a Mary Kay appointment this morning, and (as usual) Sarah went along too. Often my clients have children Sarah's age, and the kiddos play together while I do the facial or makeover or whatever. Today's customer, however, has no children at home. So I allowed Sarah to play with some makeup samples while I conducted the appointment. She had a great time doing her eyes, lips, and cheeks. Here is the look she created for herself (sorry for the poor picture quality; my cell phone doesn't have quite as good a camera as Nelson's).

She may be the one selling makeup in a few years! :)

classic tv

With so many TV shows coming out on DVD these days, Sarah has had the opportunity to watch old classics that aren't shown on regular TV anymore. She enjoys the Flintstones, the Pink Panther, and Yogi Bear. Recently she has discovered that she likes another classic as well...one that happens to be MY all-time favorite!

Cue music here. (Sure wish I had a music file to add!).

Da da da da da da da da da da...

Yep, it's the Dick Van Dyke Show! I used to watch it with my dad. For Christmas, I got Season 1 on DVD (DVD on DVD!). The past few days, Sarah and I have been having our own little "mini marathon." I started watching a few early in the week when I wasn't feeling well. Sarah enjoyed them, and she has continued to ask for more since then. It took her a few tries to get the pronunciation right! She asked for the "Dickety Dyke Show" a few times at first! But doesn't she have good tastes? She already knows enough to appreciate one of TV's all-time best shows! :)

baby pictures

Tonight Sarah and I were looking through some older pictures. Sarah enjoyed looking at herself as a baby. She talked excitedly about the pictures as we viewed them. One picture especially captured her interest and caused a reaction.

Here is the picture:




Sarah commented, "That's at Mike and Mumsy's house! And Mumsy is taking care of me!" She paused for a moment, then exclaimed, "How cute can a baby be?"

I think we have a long way to go when it comes to working on that whole modesty thing...

it's a plastic world

We took Nelson to Outback Steakhouse for his birthday dinner this evening. When the meal was over, the waiter jokingly asked Sarah if she was buying. Sarah decided she liked this idea of paying for the meal! So Nelson allowed her to hand the waiter the debit card and bill. She got a big kick out of that and has spent the rest of the evening bragging about how she bought Daddy's birthday dinner!

When we got home, I sat at my computer to check email and such. Sarah picked up a small plastic license plate (it has her name on it) and began swiping it along the side of my keyboard. She said she was paying with a credit card! We live in such a plastic world! Even three-year-olds know how to swipe credit cards!

Oh, and speaking of birthdays, Sarah's prayer today included "Thank you, God, for cake." :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Nelson/Daddy!
Happy birthday, Darrell/Dad/Grandpa!

We hope you both have a wonderful day! We love you very much and are blessed to have you in our lives. Happy birthday!

Love, Karen and Sarah

unique rendition of "Jesus Love Me"

Sometimes some of the most memorable moments occur when there is no camera handy...or in this case, no tape recorder. Yesterday, Sarah and I were hanging and reading on my bed. Suddenly Sarah decided to sing "Jesus Loves Me." Only she altered the lyrics a bit! Unfortunately, I couldn't quite catch ALL of her words, but I do have a couple of the highlights! She sang, "Jesus loves me, yes I know!" and then "Jesus, you're so cool!" (Spontaneous and heart-felt praise, that last one!)

She continues to like to ask the blessing over meals, now usually saying, "Thank you for all our food and all our drinks!" I guess she figured she had better stop neglecting the gratitude for drinks. :)