What? FOUR Already?

Saturday was Sadie's fourth birthday. This morning, I told her that it was her birthday, and she said, "What? My birthday!? Already?? I'm FOUR!" She had a good day.... we went to a real tea room with the 2 grandmas, Aunt Becky, Teagan, Aunt Cindy, and Laura. She loved all the china teapots and cups for everyone, the tiny food, the whole nine yards. She wore a blue polka dot dress that she picked out herself, a pearl headband, AND white kid gloves. She was so grown up. I couldn't talk (I'm in the throes of laryngitis again), but I could bask in the glow of her cuteness. :)

She spent the rest of the day (and night) with Grandma Beth (her choice for a happy birthday! :) and then after church on Sunday, we had a cake and ice cream party (courtesy of Grammie) at our house.

Josie went on a special Josie/Daddy trip to the zoo today and had a fabulous time. She came home hyped up on sugar (rock candy) and thrilled with her gift shop purchases (a snake for Sadie's birthday party and a "purse" full of tiny little animals for herself, which she played with ALL night and talked to as if they were 20 babies of her own.

Can I Get a Cotton Ball?

Well, Josie has pretty much potty-trained herself over the past week and a half. Neither Jesse nor I thought that she was ready yet (she won't be 3 until the end of July) but give that girl a little incentive and she goes for it! We made her very own potty bank a couple of weeks ago (she gets a cotton ball for going #1 and 2 cotton balls for going #2). Whenever she fills it up to a certain line she gets a) Candy b) a trip to the playground at the mall c) eating at her favorite place (Mexican) and seeing the Mariachi band and the best of all --and hardest to achieve -- d) Chuck E. Cheese's! She filled the whole potty bank up in record time, let me tell you. She would go potty over and over and over again, and every time when she finished, she would say, "Give me some toilet paper, please. Now, can I get a cotton ball?" She's been wearing cute little Winnie-the-Pooh panties around at home and today she wore the same big girl pull-up ALL DAY LONG! Coincidentally, today was the day we took them to Chuck E. Cheese's, too (even though both Daddy and I have colds). They had a blast, and Sadie has been great as far as "peer pressure" goes. She knows that when Josie wins, SHE wins too. So she's been saying, "Hey Josie... don't forget to go potty! Do you need to go potty? Good job! High Five!" Anyway, tonight, the funniest thing happened... There's this clock ride there (think Hickory Dickory Dock) that has a little chair the kids sit in and it goes all the way around the clock a few times while playing a little song (the kid has to buckle in before it starts). Josie picked this particular ride as her very favorite for tonight, and she must've ridden it 10 times or so. The funny thing was, she would climb in the chair, Sadie would buckle her in, put in the money, then tickle Josie's feet - when she could reach them - as the chair went around the clock. Josie thought this was hilarious. THEN, they traded places. Sadie got in the chair, buckled in, Josie put the token in, and then she ran around to tickle Sadie's feet. Somehow, instead of tickling and letting go like Sadie had done, she somehow decided to latch on to Sadie's feet with both hands... in a death grip. The ride, oblivious to what was going on, kept going up, up, up... and so did Josie. The highest the thing goes is about 5 feet off the ground, so the highest Josie got before she lost her grip and went Kerplunk! on her butt was about 3 1/2 feet or so, but you should've seen the look on her face!!! I thought Jesse and I were going to crack up. It was great.

Bunny and Big Wheels

This past weekend Jesse went to visit our friends in Illinois with Darryl, Lydia, and Sadie. Sadie was not homesick in the least, but Mommy had a rough time with her being gone! It was the first time she had ever been away from me - I've left her, but she's never left ME before! They had a blast, though... Sadie was the world's best traveler, apparently. She spent hours playing with her "activity bag" that I packed for her, and Jesse let her watch Happy Feet on the laptop with the headphones. This was her first experience with headphones, and Jesse said that Darryl and Lydia were cracking up because every five minutes Sadie would shout, "HEY LYDIA! HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE?!" while wearing the headset.

Sadie and Simon (Aaron & Lydia's son in Illinois) got along really well all weekend. They have similar temperaments, and although she's a year and a half younger than him, she's about the same height and she's a BIG talker, you know. Sadie was also great with Miriam, Simon's little sister... she always invited her to play with them - I guess because she's so used to playing with her OWN little sister. I was pretty proud of her for that!

Jesse said that it was kind of cold there this weekend but the kids wanted to play outside. They were racing around on the bike and big wheel when the grown-ups heard a crack and a big thud - they turned around and saw Sadie looking down at the ground with the front fork of the big wheel all the way down on the driveway with the front wheel completely broken off. Simon was a little bit concerned over his big wheel at first, but since he just got training wheels on his big-boy bike, he handled it okay. This is a re-enactment of the "Big Wheel Incident."

When they left on Friday, I said to Josie, "I'm going to miss Daddy and Sadie while they're gone, aren't you?" Josie turned around, looked at me, and said, "Nope!" So while they were on their big adventure, Josie and I spent the night at my mom's house on Friday night and then went to have breakfast on a farm with the Easter Bunny on Saturday morning. Afterward, we visited the animals on the farm and Josie had a great time... we rode on the wagon behind a tractor, saw all the new baby lambs (they all loved Josie and came right up to her so she could pet them), taste-tested silver-dollar pancakes, and took a pony ride! She picked out cherry rock candy as her special treat, but she decided it was too hard for her. She had a great time. Later that day, we met Grandma at Sam's Club and Josie went into the jungle (the plant display) and got a Slushee. Then we spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Josie loves being the center of attention, so a good time was had by all!

Snow Funny

Yesterday, Jesse, Uncle James, and Grandma took the kids sledding down the hill at her house. They had a blast... Sadie didn't last as long as Josie did, though. Josie was out there for hours, eating snow and making everyone pull her back up the hill so she could go down again all by herself. And, although we just got like 4 feet of snow, funny things are still happening around here.

My mom was talking about "keeping her foot in the door" at her old job, and Sadie said, "But Grammie, if you keep your foot in the door, it's going to get squooshed!"

The girls and I were goofing around on the bed, tickling each other, playing 'footsie,' and telling stories. I was telling them about a mean old crocodile who was sneaking up on a baby hippo, and we were all being really quiet, waiting for the crocodile to pounce, when Josie goes "thpppt! I TOOTED!" We all cracked up, and Josie said over and over, "I messed up you story, Mommy! I messed up you story!"

We were at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and the girls were upstairs. Suddenly, things started flying over the railing on the loft down into the living room. I said, "Sadie, I don't want to see you throwing stuff off of there ANY MORE." She said, "But Mommy, I didn't think you could see me!"

Josie was wiggling around on the bed and she kicked Sadie in the nose. Sadie almost started crying, then Josie said, "I kicked you in the schnozz! Sadie, I'm sorry I kicked you in the schnozz!" Sadie forgot all about crying and we all started saying "Schnozz! Schnozz! Schnozz!"

From out of nowhere, Sadie said, "Mommy, you know those strings in the bathroom where Grammie works? So the little old ladies can pull them if they fall down and they can get help? We need one of those in our bathroom so I won't have to wait so long for you to come help me when I go potty."

Josie singing the wedding song at Grammie's house: "Here comes the pig, here comes the pig!"

Sadie when confronted with a no-no: "Hmm. Mommy, I think one of your children did it. But it wasn't me, so it must've been Josie."

Sadie when cleaning behind the bed: "Hey look! A cobweb! One of those "cob-spiders" must have built it."