Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: Well, I know it won’t officially be spring until later this month, but the weather we’re having sure makes it feel like it is. I was able to take Joseph to the park three times this past week (he was beside himself because of it). Tuesday, I was able to take Joseph downtown to meet up with friends to go see a kids’ play. It was about two characters of a popular kids’ book series called Elephant and Piggie. It was hilarious! After the play, which was only an hour long (perfect for preschoolers), I splurged and bought Joseph one of the books they were selling that also had a picture of the cast (along with their signatures). The book is also really funny. Joseph has had me read it to him so many times that he practically has it memorized. Wednesday-Friday we practically lived at the park, yesterday we had our turn with cleaning the church (Joseph helped me wash windows and also “helped” Paul vacuum, though I’m not too sure how much help he actually was) and then headed home to get some stuff done around the house, and today has been the typical Sunday (get up, go to church, come home for lunch, go to choir, come back, etc.).

The Weekly Weather: The very beginning of this past week was kind of cold and dreary, but by the time Thursday came around, it was beautifully sunny and warm (but not hot). This really is one of my favorite times of the year in South Texas. There was even one evening where I spread a blanket out in the shade (of the fence, our trees are still babies) and relaxed while Joseph played around me (he also joined me on the blanket for an impromptu game of “I Spy” which is one of his current favorites). When Joseph joined me on the blanket, he made sure that we were laying in identical positions (with arms under heads) and then sighed, saying, “What a beautiful blue sky!” I couldn’t agree more, kiddo!

What Paul’s Been Up To: Work and school as usual…he also did a bit of work in the yards, getting them ready for spring.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much, actually. We are having our Easter program next week (what with fast Sunday being moved up and General Conference being on Easter itself), so my choir is getting ready for that. We’re also getting ready for the Easter fireside our stake is putting on in two weeks. Each ward choir from the stake is going to perform a piece, there will be a combined choir piece that all the choirs will be singing together, and there’s even a Primary combined piece that Joseph will take a part in. It’s going to be great!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s had a really good week with hardly any challenging behavior moments. I think it’s partially because I’m trying really hard to redirect him when he starts doing something instead of just snapping at him. He also got to do something really fun with his Primary class today. They cut apart an apple and each of them got to plant an apple seed in a cup. They then got to eat the pieces of apple. According to his teachers, one little boy decided to throw his apple piece instead of eat it, and Joseph grabbed him by the shoulders (not too roughly, they assured me), and said, “We don’t have flying apples!” His teachers said that they were so surprised that all they could do was laugh, especially since the little boy wasn’t in the least bit upset (and he didn’t throw any more apples, hahaha). Oh, and something cool that we discovered is that somewhere, at some point, Joseph has figured out which hand is his left and which is his right (he gets mixed up on occasion, but for the most part, he’s got it). Pretty awesome for being three. 😀

This Week in Pictures:

 

Weekly Happenings: We didn’t do too much this past week because the weather outside was rather frightful (and it isn’t even Christmas!). I made some decorations for St. Patrick’s Day for our door and we went to the library to exchange books for Joseph. He loves books…often I will hear him via the baby monitor, “reading” (basically recapping) some of his favorites to himself. We also did some running around for my visiting teaching calling and music calling. There was one day when it wasn’t absolutely freezing/raining, so when some friends invited us to the park, we jumped at the chance and Joseph had a great time (even though he and one of his friends crashed head-on into each other and both ended up with goose-eggs on their heads). Last night we set all the clocks forward an hour to transition to DST. Consequently, Joseph slept in and so did we (since we’ve grown accustomed to him being our alarm clock), making it so we barely made it to church on time. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: As I mentioned before, it was rather atrocious this week. It was cold (and I really mean COLD) and wet. Either Mother Nature forgot it was March in South Texas or she was reminding us that it’s still technically winter. This week looks much more promising. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary. He finished up interviewing with our bishop and stake president as part of the admissions process to get into BYU-Idaho. No, we’re not moving. He’s working on completing his Bachelor’s Degree in IT online. He also put up some hooks for me so that we have a place to hang hats and whatnot. The hat rack was nice, but was a little more cluttered-looking than I liked looking at all of the time.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Pretty much the same old-same old. I really can’t think of anything too out of the ordinary happening that I haven’t already mentioned elsewhere or will be bringing up at a later point in this post (other than the fact that I did a bit of spring cleaning in addition to my regular cleaning, so the house is looking pretty good). 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: A lot of pretend-play. Earlier this week he was pretending that I was Princess Peach and he was Mario, so he had to protect me from Bowser (all from Mario Brothers). He’s also loving the fact that I’m allowing him to be a bit more independent. The other day, he hopped down from his place at the table (oh yeah, Paul pointed out that he was almost outgrowing his booster seat, so we took it down and now he sits at the table with us in just a chair…another thing that he loves) and put his plate in the sink and his cup back in the fridge, all without being asked. It was such a great parenting moment! Finally, he’s showing even more of his sweet side. He’ll ask/tell me and Paul if/that we’re his best friends and ask/tell us if/that we love him. Oh, and he’s decided that his current favorite church song is “I Love to See the Temple”. When I go in to sing him a bedtime song and ask what song he wants me to sing, he’ll almost always pick that one. I love it!

This Week in Pictures: (rather light this week…a byproduct of our lazy week, I suppose)

 

Weekly Happenings: It is crazy to believe that we’re already in March. It seems like it was less than a month ago that we were in California for Christmas. Yet, this Saturday night we’ll be moving the clocks ahead an hour. Craziness. We spent most of this last week recovering from the cold bug that hit our home pretty hard. Joseph and I had it two weeks ago and then Paul got it at the start of this past week. It’s one that just seems to hang on (especially the cough), so we had a LOT of down time because I was too tired to do anything else. It seemed like the most common of tasks (such as cleaning the kitchen) completely wiped me out. I finally feel like I’m on the tail end of whatever it is, so hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to ease back into our routine. We did venture out of the house to do grocery shopping, a trip to the zoo, and to the repair shop to have some repairs done on the Honda.

The Weekly Weather: At church today, someone said they felt like we’ve experienced all four seasons over the past couple of weeks, and I have to agree with them. It has been crazy. We had an arctic cold front come through, then it warmed up (though not anywhere near summer temperatures, so maybe more like three seasons) for a few days just in time for another cold front to move in. We’re supposed to be warming up a little and then cooling down again. It’s seriously a roller coaster.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He had his normal work and school. He also taught his portion of his class for Pathway. Luckily he was feeling well enough to do so, after getting our cold at the beginning of the week. He took Thursday (the day of his class) off so that he could get everything ready. He was able to finish that by early afternoon and since my students for that day had canceled (thanks to a nasty flu bug going around), we went to the zoo. Since it was the middle of the week, it was pretty empty, which was great! Yesterday he took the Honda to the repair shop to have them replace part of the breaks.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly resting and making sure that Joseph got his antibiotics and eye drops all at the right times. Most of my students were able to come this past week (between illnesses in our household and their households, there were a lot of cancellations over the past few weeks), so that was good for our bank account. 🙂 I have also gotten completely back into ward choir. We’re getting ready for Easter, and an Easter fireside that is being put on by our stake (each ward in the stake will be performing a piece of Easter music, followed by all the choirs singing one piece together, followed by all the children singing a Primary song), and ward conference (coming up in April). I have a really great music chair who is keeping me on my toes. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Besides totally flipping out every time he needed an eye drop in his eye to treat the pink eye (so that was twice a day for seven days), he’s been his pretty happy self. He only fought the antibiotic for the double ear infection once or twice and we finished up that round today. Here’s to hoping that he can stay well! He’s got a follow up appointment next week to make sure everything has cleared up. He is exploring his new-found freedom (no longer being in the crib) by getting up early each morning to read books (in fact, he insists that I leave a book right by his bed so that he can read it when he wants to) and play with toys in his room while waiting for me to get up. The past couple of days it’s been a bit too early, though. Saturday he was up at 5:45 and today was 3:45. Yesterday, Paul ended up getting up with him, but today was a different story. I heard him, opened his door, was greeted with a “Good morning, Mommy!”, and given a sad face when I told him he needed to go back to bed. I snuggled him for a bit, explained that it was still the middle of the night, and told him that he needed to try to go back to sleep. He complied and was still heavily asleep when I went to get him at 7:30 so that we could get ready for church. I think tonight I will have to remind him that if it’s still dark in his room that he needs to stay in his bed and leave the light off (hopefully meaning that he’ll fall back to sleep). He did make a transition of sorts on his own. He insisted that I take the pool noodle that was under his sheets (keeping him from rolling out of bed) out. He seems to have a pretty clear concept of where the edge of the bed is and hasn’t fallen out. Finally, he has declared himself my little helper in all things. Friday, when I was making pizza, I decided to call him my sous chef since he was taking things and putting them in the trash for me. When Paul got home not too long afterward, Joseph ran up to him and told him that he had been my sous chef. I was pretty impressed that he remembered the words. He sure is one smart kid.

This Week in Pictures: