Happy 9th Birthday Sarah!

I often get the girls a balloon for their birthdays. Angela and I found this eyeball since it was Halloween-time and knew it was just quirky and funny enough that Sarah would LOVE it. She was so excited when we walked in the lunchroom. She loves funny stuff like this. And all the kids in her class were loving it too. They would try to avoid its gaze as it floated around in circles (like the eye on Lord of the Rings) or make jokes like, "Sarah's got her eye on me!" and add "Get it?"

What in the world?

I say this every year for every one of my girls' birthdays. How did this happen? How do I have a 9 year old? This parenthood thing is going way to fast for my taste. I always feel a little panicky like, "Okay I better really start doing all the things I know I should before it's too late." There's not much time to teach Sarah everything I want to teach her. Unfortunately, a lot of the things I want to teach her are things I need to do by example and I have a lot of flaws. But so far, Sarah is turning out pretty great despite my weaknesses.

Despite the fact that I hate seeing my baby grow up and get ever closer to spreading her wings, I am really enjoying the age that Sarah is at. She is a lot of fun and constantly making me laugh. And when she sees that she's really said or done something that crack me up, she gets this twinkle in her eye of pure joy. She loves to be funny. (o: Sarah is a prankster and the party theme she picked for her party that I'll write about later was so perfect. Every day she is sneaking behind me trying to surprise me with a little tap on the back and a loud "BOO!" because I am so jumpy. She loves to make up her own jokes, write silly stories, and do little pranks around the house. For instance, on my Personal Progress whiteboard - where I keep track of goals I am working on (which hasn't been updated since the summer), Sarah added her own note, "I must feed Sarah brownies." which I discovered later. (o: Sarah still enjoys playing with her sisters, but usually in a leading role now. As the teacher, reading them a book, folding origami shapes for them, etc. She is very sweet with them about 70% of the time. The rest of the time she is annoyed. (o: She insists on her own space more these days and can get a little snippy.

Sarah is at an age where fairness is a HUGE deal. Everything should be equal - at least when it's something she is missing out on. (o: There are many injustices in her world these days. Like when I try to make her eat healthy things. The other day we had a standoff over grapes. She refused to eat them, I refused to back down. 2 1/2 hours later (of doing nothing because she wasn't excused from the table) she ate her grapes. Then promptly after she was excused I received a paper airplane note that let me know, "You are mean." (o: It was kind of cute, actually. We made up and I explained why I was being so stubborn - the "I love you and want you to be healthy and strong" speech. I think she still thought it was unjust, but she was able to move on and stop being mad.

Sarah is a very sweet girl and has lots of friends because she is just a lot of fun. She is thoughtful and tries to be kind and loves to be good for her teachers at school and church. I really enjoy being with her. I loved the times in Disneyland when it was just the two of us. She is my good buddy and we have some pretty good talks now that she is old enough to understand more about life. I love the way she really thinks about things and asks really deep questions. She is a smart cookie.

I love you Sarah!

What better way to celebrate your birthday then to visit the pediatrician? Why not? We first met Karen back when Sarah was first born. She's been our pediatrician since I became a mom and has always lent an empathetic ear and shared good advice through our various illnesses and check ups.

I've mentioned in other posts, Sarah's bout of nausea that has been getting worse and seemed to peak on the morning of her birthday. I was so sad that she couldn't even be happy on the morning of her birthday because she didn't feel well and scheduled a checkup that day. She felt much better after Dr. H. talked with her about some changes she could try with the way she eats. It has helped and the vicious cycle of nausea and anxiety has significantly dropped since then. Thanks Dr. H!

Sarah talking to Grandma P. about her day.

Presents! Sarah's favorite part of her birthday.

SpongeBob and Legos - the perfect combination for this 9 year old. She and daddy had this completely built by the next night. Since then she has performed several entertaining episodes using this set.

Sarah requested edemame and Swedish meatballs for her birthday dinner. I know it's lame, but I didn't make her a cake because we just had cupcakes for Twilight's celebration and we were making more for her friend party. So she got a candle in her meatball! (O:

Sarah loves everything Roald Dahl (author of several books including Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, etc.) She loves this movie Angela gave her. It's pretty cute and we highly recommend it, but watch out if your kids scare easily because Ms. Trenchbowl (not sure if I spelled that right) is a bit scary to little ones. We all think she's hilarious though. Our favorite line is when a little girl at her school says, "I know how to spell Difficulty with a poem Mrs. Honey taught us. Mrs. D, Mrs. I, Mrs. F-F-I, Mrs. C, Mrs. U, Mrs. L-T-Y." Then Mrs. Trenchbowl replies with an angry snarl, "Why are all these women married?" he he - makes us laugh every time.

This is Sarah's invitation she made for her friend birthday party. A Party Full of Pranks! I originally had it typed up as a Prank Party, but Hal* pointed out that it might confuse people into thinking the whole party and invitation were just a prank. (o:

When the girls opened their card, this little spider popped out at them. (o: