Unfortunately Mommy had to work on Valentine’s Day, apparently a good massage therapist is in demand on the day of roses and chocolate hearts!

That left Sarah and I to fend for ourselves. I asked Sarah what she would like to do and her reply was quick and calculated, “I want to go to the boardwalk to play games & eat ice cream!” So off we went on a trip down to Pt. Pleasant.

Hey Carly, catch!

Since Thanksgiving Sarah has been asking when it was going to snow. We kept telling her it had to get cold, really cold. and with any luck we would get a real snowstorm that would cover the ground with a fresh blanket of snow. This was something we had to explain to our impatient 4 year old almost daily all winter long.

December and January came and went with nothing more than a flurry. Finally in February the conditions were just right and the Jersey Shore got one of those rare storms where we get dumped on and up north doesn’t get nearly as much snow.

Sarah really enjoyed the snow that night, it came down pretty heavy and she was very happy to help shovel and clean the cars off. Carly and Sarah even had a snowball fight, or what qualifies as a snowball fight between a dog and little kid.

Wiped Out!

There’s nothing worse than watching your kid get sick and suffer through it.  You know she will be OK but there just isn’t much you can do to help. Towards the end of the month Sarah caught a nasty little bug that put her out of commission for a while. It was the flu or like the flu with all the symptons from fever to nausea. Sarah spent a day or two napping on the couch with her cat Homer while she recovered. He was a good kitty and stuck by her side the whole time. Funny how animals seem to know when you aren’t feeling well.

Smile!

Sarah likes to draw faces on her belly button, or around her belly button. Maybe it’s because we have asked her not to draw on her hands, arms, legs, face, etc. We never said belly button. At least it remains hidden when he take her out of the house.

Other goings on in January 2009 include a visit from Liam all the way from California. Liam and Sarah started out the day eating at Clancy’s and ended the day eating popcorn while watching a movie. There was also some playing with toys of course. Both of them had a great time!

"Presents all for me!"

December started off with a bang when Sarah’s karate teacher, Mr. Jackson, from Full Circle DoJang came to her Montessori school for a demonstration! It looked like all of the kids had a great time and Sarah was thrilled that Daddy was able to come and bring his camera.

Of course there are some Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pictures of a 4 year old, spoiled rotten, little girl getting more or less everything she wants from Gramma & Papa, Mommy & Daddy as well as the big guy in the red suit. The entire month of September Sarah kept saying, “When Santa Claus comes I’m gonna be so excited!” If you look closely there are some pictures of Sarah giving her “smile or your grounded” smile for the camera, she’s very convincing. Even Homer the cat couldn’t believe the pile of toys Sarah had laid out before her with not a single ball of catnip to be found!

"Let's go ice skating everday!"

A few days after Christmas Sarah went to an ice skating birthday party! Needless to say it was her 1st time out on the the ice. After the screaming and crying calmed down Sarah really enjoyed it. Don’t know if she will be pulling figure eights anytime soon but she did say she would like to come back and give it another go.

You can navigate your way there from the menu up top or head directly to the December 2008 photogallery, your call.

Here is Sarah taking it to both Mommy and Daddy in Wii Sports. I no longer have to give an old, uplugged, controller to her and pretend she is playing along with us. She can join in and is starting to really get the hang of the Wii’s motion controllers.

Even with a cold and a nose full of snot she was able to take Daddy down in a game of bowling. She’s a little ringer, innocent and harmless but with a hustler’s edge ready to take on anybody foolish enough to have a turn at a 4 year old version of Tom Cruise in the Color Of Money.

There has to be a game of Pac Man or Mario Bros. I can beat her in around here somewhere…

“Double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn, and cauldron bubble…”

Cooking Up A Witches Brew!

Now that’s a couple of the scariest witches I have ever seen. Given the full range of kid costumes: pirate, cat, princess, doctor, etc. Sarah chose to be a witch… Again… The good thing about it, her witch costume from last year still fit!

So off she went Trick Or Treating. Sarah was able to walk up to people’s doors knock and call out the standard Halloween phrase with no problem. The past year or two we more or less carried her from house to house and did most of the work for her candy! So this year was much nicer and much more fun to watch.

Let's pick pumpkins!

Wow, it doesn’t seem like it’s been a year since we visited the pumpkin patch but it must be. Poor Sarah has been wanting to go pumpkin picking since the 4th of July! Sarah loves apples picked fresh off the branch and she thinks that Daddy should carry the big pumpkins that she picks out. Last year Sarah picked a little pumpkin and painted it all black, maybe this year she will give it a face.

Check out more pictures from her adventure in the October 2008 photogallery.

Little kids always smile on the 1st day of school...

And just like that the summer was over. Time for Sarah to head off to preschool, her last year before kindergarten! This year Sarah couldn’t wait to see her friends and tell them about all of the fun things she did over the summer!

Back to school for Daddy too. It’s not as fun or as exciting for him though.

Summer stretching on the grass, Summer dresses pass.
In the shade of a willow tree, Creeps a crawling over me.
~ U2 – Staring At The Sun

Sarah chasing after the rockets, well the ones we didnt lose in the trees.

It had to happen sooner or later, the long endless days of summer always come to an end. For both Sarah and Daddy the bike rides in the sun and hot days at the park grabbing an ice cream before we head home start to fade away the moment September 1st pops up on the calendar. We spent the remaining dog days of August having fun together before we both had to go back to school. We spent an afternoon launching and losing some model rockets. It was a good, long summer, we’ll try it again in 10 months.

Sarah loves playing with her Legos as much as her Daddy did, and still does. There’s nothing better than cooling off on a hot day with a tub full of lego boats and minifigures. If that makes no sense to you, you’ll have to look at the pictures from August 2008.