Checking In

I have a series of photos of young Sarah I plan to post but I've been busy doing other things. For example, last night I was committed to 2 full hours of 24 and I was baking cupcakes for Kate & Sarah's daycare Valentine's Day party. I spent the evening running into the kitchen during the commercial breaks, and running back upon hearing the "beep...beep...beep...beep" signifying the return of what I now must confess is basically a soap opera with torture instead of sex. So. Pictures are forthcoming, but give me a break, I was watching my stories!

Sarah's growing up quickly. She likes to sit on her own and even gets a bit cranky in the exersaucer lately. She prefers the freedom of a playmat and some toys. I see her eyeing Kate and I know she wants to be unencumbered because she's trying to figure out how to chase after her sister. When she is in the exersaucer, she laughs and laughs when Kate comes over and starts shaking the thing like there's a collision of exersaucer tectonic plates. Yesterday Kate was singing and beating the time on Sarah's hands. I started to affect my sharpest mommy tone to say "KATE! Don't hit your sister" but I noticed that Sarah was giggling so I shrugged and decided to save that energy for more necessary castigation later. You know, like "KATE, don't set your sister on fire" or something.

Speaking of that, I continue to try to figure out how to discipline Kate. She makes me think of the verse my mom used to chant to me - "there was a little girl, who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good and when she was bad she was awful." Kate doesn't have a curl anywhere but she goes from sweet to monstrous so quickly it can't be measured with our current increments of time. Sunday I was trying to get her dressed to go to the park. The park, for heaven's sake! She was refusing to put her sweater on and would squirm and run just out of arm's reach. Finally I said "Kate! You can put your sweater on and go to the park and play or you can sit in time out!" I'll be damned if that kid didn't say "I'll sit in time out!" and march into the kitchen and pull out the "time-out" stool. I was ticked because I really wanted her to get outside and run around until she passed out. But there you are. I wondered if maybe daycare isn't a bit too liberal with their use of time out, she's only had a couple times at home. We did eventually make it to the park, and she did wear herself out making dirt angels in the infield of the softball field with Ali from 3rd Ave. At the park, she was very, very good. But man, sometimes she is awful.