Old and New

We are excited to be finally connected to the internet at our home. This afternoon, I looked for photos on the computer of the family but there are none that are current... However, I found a cute one of Sabrina from this summer when we were still living in Everett. She is already getting ready for Christmas and reading a book about Santa. This was in July! The funny thing is that she really doesn't know what is going on right now but loves to play with the decorations on the tree. Her favorite is a felt Santa that Randy made when he was a boy. Santa cruises around the house with her and is found in various locations.

Connected finally

We moved several months ago and found out that getting everything up to speed takes time. For example, five weeks ago we tried to hook up our internet at the house. Needless to say, since this involved trenching in the yard and dropping lines under a road that required a permit, it took a long time. Today our long wait was over. At 6:30pm we were connected! Yeah!
Now to figure out how to download photos and post and send.

Poster child for the local veterinarian

Sabrina is really into brushing her teeth. She loves to take a soft tooth brush and massage her gums which we take as a sign she is teething once again. However, in the spirit of her yogurt sister sharing mode, she tried to brush Annie's teeth, too! Can't you just see her in her her stroller extending her arm out trying to brush Annie's teeth as a poster in a vet clinic encouraging pet owners to properly brush their dog's teeth regularly? The science teacher in me wonders when I can show her a slide of germs under a microscope and have her comprehend what she is seeing.... Meanwhile, I see years of diligence and patrolling the stroller and high chair to keep these germ exchanges to a minimum. Or I can be thankful that this, too, will build her immune system. (Recently, I read how American children are more apt to develop childhood colitis because the environment is sterile....not my child!) :-)

Yogurt Sisters

There have been many changes the last few months, but the cutest changes have come with Sabrina and her bond with her Grandparents' dog, Annie. These two became fast friends while we lived with Grandma and Grandpa while closing on our house. They team up on unsuspecting family members and help each other with their goals of exercise and food. Sabrina has been known to have a dish of yogurt and spoon a bite for herself and then spoon some for Annie. We also noted that Annie was a little reluctant to eat her own dog food.... basically she wasn't hungry enough after cleaning up the floor under a toddler.
In the the subject of exercise, Sabrina has been known to find the leash and drag it around and carry it to another family member and hand it over. This, all to the delight of Annie who dances at her feet. Sabrina might be small, but she stops the huge dog with a wave of the hand and holds her ground. On more than one occasion she has grabbed Annie's collar and herded her around the house. It is hard to tell who is more excited by this bond as they both dance in delight when the other comes for a visit.

Pictures in the camera

These last few weeks have been crazy with putting our condo on the market and packing. Still Sabrina finds ways to entertain us. In the 100 degree weather she found a stocking cap and pulled in onto her head and walked around..even into walls. She also enjoys putting blankets on her head for her Casper routine. We have photos but don't have a way to upload them to the blog at the moment. Randy has the laptop which is our usual computer for blogging and so I have to learn the tricks on the HP.
Meanwhile, we pack to the Wiggles, Raffie and Baby Beethoven. Sabrina entertains with her little dances and giggles. What a crazy but fun time.

Polly the Parrot

Yesterday, I was complementing Randy on how nice the bathroom looked and said, "Looks good". To my surprise, Sabrina parroted "looks good" right after me. Time to really make sure I don't say something I don't want repeated....

Potty humor

Amongst the new fascinations in life, is Sabrina's new found interest in the toilet. She likes to jiggle the handle, watch the water go down and of late use it as a water source to wash her stuff animals. This morning while her dad was "watching" her she managed to get her washcloth out of the bathtub, dip it toilet water and then go back to her bedroom to "wash" her stuffed dog. That is when I entered the room and pieced things together. The bathroom door was shut for about an hour when I reopened it with Sabrina hot on my heals with her frog puppet. And you guessed it, she was heading straight to the toilet to give him a bath. After all frogs do like water! Ugg!

On other news: Sabrina now gives high fives, claps and waves her arms at the sliding glass door when she sees a squirrel on the bird feeder, and puts shirts or blankets over her head for her walking ghost imitation. Her favorite new gesture is to point with her version of "What's this?" This is found to be a great question right at bed time. She has already learned how to play the Stall Game!

The quilt collection

Optical fish quilt that I am working on finishing touches now.

Scrapy play quilt for Sabrina.
Sabrina's dog theme quilt.
Balloon quilt of Sabrina's made with scraps from other quilts made and given away.

Activities this week...

What an active week it has been. Sabrina started walking...then almost running...then climbing! One morning I turned my back for a second and in that time she had climbed to the middle of the coffee table and was standing! So, we have been working on keeping her feet on the floor. Even the care givers at the gym commented on how she climbs on chairs and tables if they don't watch her closely!

In the mornings, her new thing is to point at things and say "what's this" or something close to that. She wants to know what everything is called. Her favorites are paintings and photos on the wall. These have cats, fish and dogs in them that she loves to see. She also enjoys pointing out the window at the bird feeder where the birds and squirrels are very active. The live animals bring much amusement!

Victorian Star Quilt

Three years ago, I saw a photo of a Victorian Star quilt in a magazine. Doing my usual tinker and adapt method to quilting, the stars were pieced together. Each one took at least a day to piece together and I vowed this was the toughest quilt I have made to date. Instead of using my machine to do the quilting, I decided to hand quilt the stars. It was started before Sabrina was born. However, with her arrival, other quilts were started and finished.

Then we moved to Charleston. This quilt could tell stories of traveling by mail to Charleston and being worked on late at night. It could also share stories of Colonial America and the history of the country on the East Coast. This quilt which started as pretty fabric, represents a story and adventure in our lives. I will never forget stealing calm moments to stitch along the stars.

Friday Harbor on San Juan Island

Monday we decided to take a ferry ride to the San Juans and walk around Friday Harbor. Sabrina made friends on the ferry and loved the wind blowing in her face.

We loved the beautiful blue sky and the different views of Mt. Baker and the Olympic Mountain ranges. Friday Harbor itself was a cute little town with hilly sidewalks and streets. The town

was catering tourists' desires with shopping and ice cream shops in several areas of the downtown area. We had a picnic lunch on the lawn in the shade of trees of the Catholic Church. Next to it, was a homestead museum with

a log cabin house and outer buildings from a family that settled there in the 1890s. Many of the antiques reminded me of items my grandmother had on her homestead growing up: butter churn, stone tool sharpener wheel, clothing squeezers for line drying clothing.

Bon Voyage!

Grandma and Grandpa were in town on their way on a cruise. Sabrina had just enough time to dazzle them

Naptime!

Naptime with a great book!

Power Brush

Randy put Sabrina in the bathroom sink so he could brush her hair. She decided this would be a good chance to brush her teeth with my toothbrush!

"All I want for Christmas is a guitar"

Sabrina found a book her cousins gave her about Santa Claus. Already, she is practicing good reading skills and most likely will be handing us a list to mail at Christmas! (Ha! Ha!)After a bike ride, I picked up the guitar and played a few songs for Sabrina who was fascinated by the music and wanted to help play.

Giggles Everywhere

Sabrina's Seattle cousins came over after swimming lessons and everyone laughed as they played games with Sabrina. No one exactly knows the rule of the favorite game, but it involves Sabrina sitting in her rocker and the kids giving her stuffed animals which she then tosses behind the rocker chair and laughs.

Let the "fun" begin

We noted last night that Sabrina could take two consecutive steps before sitting down. Our sense is that we need to start growing eyes in the backs of our heads to watch her soon as she will be able to explore quickly everything that she hasn't been able to lately. Not that we are placing bets, but if we were, we think about one week left before she really takes off.

To our dismay, we also discovered last night she has outgrown two of her favorite pjs. One has little frogs on it and the other has zoo animals with rhino feet. Sigh....our little baby truly is growing up.

Photos posted

For those of you interested, photos have been added to the previous postings of our trip from the East Coast. The earliest updated entry was in Williamsburg.

The new "toy"

A few year's ago Grandma Judy went to Uganda on a Rotarian service project which accessed and donated medical equipment to hospitals and made wheel chairs out of bicycle parts. On her arrival home, she gave us a beautiful woven basket with a top. Inside are several baskets that fit inside each other with lids. (It reminds me of the Russian toy where a Santa fits inside of another Santa until there are five differently sized Santas.)

Recently, this basket was relocated to the coffee table, replacing a glass vase that Sabrina would have loved to handle and no doubt would have broken. Now that the coffee table is in scoot range, Sabrina stops daily or several times a day to play with the baskets. She literally is fascinated by how there are "surprise" baskets inside each other.

Aunt Alison's Pre-birthday gathering

The Wycoffs and Carvers got together at Grandma Joyce's condo for a little gathering the night before Aunt Alison's birthday (#40)! Sabrina once again was playing with cousins constantly! She wants to ride a horse and was bounced on knees, stomaches or just bounced in place. She met Joey and Claire's other grandparents and had much fun.

Annie the Nanny

From the first time they met when Sabrina was three months old to now, she and Annie (Grandpa's dog) have been great friends! This friendship was revived over the weekend and Sabrina learned how to gently pet Annie and sneak food to her. (The "sneak" was discovered when brocoli was offered and Annie refused, leaving Sabrina with little green tree.) The high chair and the stroller offered places of refuge from energized paws. For the most part, everyone behaved and had fun. Annie was often seen in the shadows of Sabrina as she scooted around the house.

Cupcakes!

Sabrina has extended her birthday for yet another celebration with her cousin in Oregon. This was her third celebration where she had her favorite new food: cupcakes!

Cousin Arthur's family gave her a tiger keyboard which she has fun "playing" with both hands! Not quite the talent of her grandpa, or uncle but with all the enthusiasm!

"Rubber Ducky..."

If Sabrina was on Sesame Street she would have to amend the lyrics to "Rubber Ducky" to include sea animals, too! Not to mention the whole duck family....bride, groom, reader and thermometer ducks.

Philadelphia- after DC on the way to New York

Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed!
This statue was called "Freedom". We heard the story of this lesser known man who was among those who signed the Declaration of Independence and would have been hung for treason had we not won the war. As it was, several of these men had their homes burned to ground by the British.


Randy and Sabrina at the Liberty Bell!

More New York photos

Time Square
Paramount TheaterNew Yorkers get fined $300 for honking their horns. Here is the sign:

Toddler Adventures

The last few days have been full of growing up and exploring adventures. The most painful one is a bout with diaper rash. Thankfully, we discovered that Neoprene is a wonder ointment and things are on a mend. This morning it was noted that Sabrina was drooling a lot so we think another tooth is on the way. (We also are noting that the only time she has been pink with a diaper sensitivity she is also teething... is there a correlation between the two or is this a freak observation? We will have to keep taking data.)

Yesterday, Sabrina crawled up the stairs and then down backwards, with her rear in the air to avoid the rash, several times. She is quick so we must be diligent in watching her because she is definitely determined when she has a destination in mind.

The last few days, Sabrina has decided that being under things is fun. She climbs under the kneeler chair at the desk and looks out. This morning the kitchen stools were the place of investigation. I marvel at her ability to climb over the rungs on the chair to get to the center. For fun, I placed a blanket on the chair for a fort. Evidently, I was the only one who thought this would be fun as she ripped the blanket off to resume play.

This morning the curious side got to Sabrina. When I went to the sink to run hot water over her milk bottle, she decided that she had to see what I was drinking. Thank goodness I put soy milk in my coffee as she took the whole cup and poured it out on the cream colored carpet! When I turned around (and it was only a second I had my back to her) she was shaking the cup to get all of it out. She got a little on her, but since it was just warm, she was not harmed. Lessons we are all learning... drink coffee before Sabrina gets up!

Home for week

Today marks just over a week since we pulled into the driveway of our home! Yesterday, it finally felt like summer with sunshine and temperatures in the 70s! We literally went from wearing our shorts and summer clothes to wearing flannel and fall clothes! However, we know from the drive that Washington is not the only state with rainy conditions. Nebraska was in a deluge and flooding in places when we drove through and other states had thick black clouds.

Sabrina is loving being home and exploring the condo. She loves seeing new toys she did not know she had and she loves crawling up and sometimes down stairs. The new found open space has been a delight for her! We intend to post pictures on the blog, so in the next few days, please check out the pictures we will be adding to the old posts from the trip!

Howdy from Everett

The last few days of driving were beautiful! We traveled through the Grand Tetons to Yellowstone (saw Old Faithful blow) and then the next day we trekked on from West Yellowstone to Everett, Washington. Our original plan was to stop in Idaho or Spokane, Washington but as the trip went on, we like horses headed toward a barn, got the bug to just get home.

Wyoming and Montana were beautiful state. My plan was to continue quilting

, but I just couldn't do it as we were surrounded by rugged mountains, streams and a variety of wildlife. Our wildlife sightings included buffalo (bison), antelope, eagle, osprey, black winged black birds, pronghorned antelope, and ram sheep. Fishermen were abundant in the streams, flyfishing. We decided we might like to take a family vacation some day back to thi

s area when Sabrina is older.

Idaho was beautiful also, but since we crossed the panhandle, we didn't see too much of it. The West and Pacific Northwest offered clear crisp air to breathe! Refreshing. The temperatures varied from in the 70s down to low 40s where we could see snow in the mountains around

us!

Once we passed through the Cascades in Washington, a dark cloud and rain started. So far, it has been drizzling and cool with an afternoon break of sunshine. We are hoping to have more sunshine soon so we can take care of the weeds in the yard.

From Cowboy land to the Grand Tetons

Yesterday, our drive through Nebraska involved lots of grassy plains, rolling hills and rain. The weather forecast predicted flooding and maybe possible tornado winds near where we stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska but thankfully we did not experience the severe weather. Last night we stayed in Casper, Wyoming and struggled to find a place to stay as there was a rodeo in town. The cowboys as it turned out were noisy in our hotel...making all sorts of noise at 2 and 3 am. So as it was, we did not sleep well. Oh, well. there is coffee for these types of days.

Our

drive through Wyoming was the most scenic drive we have had! We enjoyed watching for wildlife and saw many groups of antelope. Then we entered the higher elevations to the base of the Tetons and were in awe of their majestic heights and rugged edges! We found everything around us with a light dusting of snow and quickly remembered that we have not been in cold temperatures for

a while so this might take a little getting used to. Our destination for the night is Jackson, Wyoming which is a resort town for skiing in the winter and white water

rafting in the summer. This evening we had burgers and strolled along the western decorated town. Overall, we are enjoying this evening and a chance to stretch our legs!