Our family blog

I am reviewing my last blog post and cannot believe (once again) how much the kids have grown in the past few months. Amara will be 5 in less than a month and Sage is 20 months. We have had many fun moments and life has been busy and simple at the same time. Thanksgiving Day conversation: Patty Ann: Who is your favorite princess? Amara (wearing a fancy princess dress): I am not really into princesses; I like kings and queens. Patty Ann: Ok, you are a queen, Amara Amara loves her preschool and talks a lot about her friends there. One neat thing they discuss at preschool is how to fill each others "buckets". If you say or do something nice it adds a drop of water to the person's bucket. And of course, the opposite could be true. I once heard her say "Don't be a bucket dipper". Amara is a wonderful problem solver and is always thinking of a solution to a problem or a work around. Mom and Dad end up changing our answer from no to yes sometimes when she pres...

Summer fun and more growing and changing! Amara has been enjoying her "puddle jumpers" (floaties) and swimming in the Y pool this summer. She has also splashed around with delight in the San Diego Bay. Amara is 4.5 and she just amazes us with her creativity and articulate speech. She used the phrase "I lost interest" referring to doing something she was into and now less excited about. That impressed Mom this morning. She also plays very nicely with Sage which absolutely makes his day. She does peek a boo, tickles and finds toys to keep occupied. Like any sibling there are times when she needs space but it is fun watching the two bond and hang out together. Let's talk about Sage for a moment. It seems as though as soon as he learned to walk most of his remaining baby teeth came in. This must not have been comfortable but he dealt with it well. He still mostly eats soft foods but has mastered crunching a good cracker or tortilla chip. One fun treat is eating yo...

Hello! We enjoyed the month of June and were fortunate to have Papa and Janny visiting for 3 weeks. They stayed in Del Mar and enjoyed beautiful ocean views and fresh air along with many bike rides, trips to the Farmer's Market and some fun and precious moments with the grand kids. Janny and Carol surprised Papa with an early birthday celebration for him with the California cousins (Paula, Leslie and Paul, Trish, Carol and Ed). Papa is 80 and lookin' great. In other news, Amara was home from preschool two days a week this summer. This enabled us to do a few extra fun outings and see some friends and family during the week. She loves seeing her Papa and Janny. Now let's talk about Sage. In June he went from a crawler early in the month to a full fledged walker. There is no going back. He loves his new skill and the freedom it brings. Both kids enjoy playing in the backyard with our water tables. Summer is in full swing!       ...

Sage is very very close to being 14 months old. And very close to walking. I wanted to report on his exciting 13th month because a lot happened. 1. We took a family trip to Kauai 2. Sage began to stand for a few seconds on his own. 3. Sage took a few steps from standing to get us as we cheered him on. 4. He feels very proud of #3 and #4 as evidenced in his expression. 5. Sage is communicating more than ever. He points at what he wants or where he wants to go. He uses sounds and basic words (done, Mama, Dada, air (for airplane)). He also uses some signs. The sign language milk sign he uses for when he wants milk and sometimes when he wants to be picked up or just "wants" something. He waves bye. He uses the all done sign and more often tells us "Done, done" when he wants to change or move to different activity. Kauai was a lot of fun for all. Brian, Carol, Sage, Amara, Grandma Patty, Grandpa Hamid, and Uncle Cyrus all flew Alaskan Air direct to Kauai on April ...