Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty average. We didn’t do much at the beginning of the week because the weather was miserable. Luckily it warmed up as the week progressed. To usher in spring break (which officially started today), we popped over to the zoo this morning. It was a bit crowded, but we got to see all our favorites (including the new rhino enclosure that just was completed last week).

The Weekly Weather: As I mentioned, the beginning of the week was a bit rough. Overnight lows below freezing, daily highs not much warmer especially since it was a humid cold). I was grateful to have it warm up a few days later.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Mainly his normal stuff. He went to see the newest Marvel movie (Captain Marvel) with friends last night. He’s looking forward to a bit of relaxing (and time to get some projects completed) since he’ll be taking this next week off.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Pretty much normal stuff for me. More of my students started this week (I’m up to eleven, but some are waiting until after spring break to start). It’s nice to ease into it before hitting my full load.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a fun time at his school field day (they did both indoor and outdoor activities). He also has been a huge help watching Abigail while I teach piano.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She continues to strive for independence which sometimes means tantrums when things don’t work out the way she wants them to. It’s a challenge to be sure, but she is so sweet the rest of the time that there is some respite. She’s also starting to string more words together to form simple sentences. For example, last night she said, “Go sit couch?” when she wanted me to sit on the couch with her to watch a show. One funny thing she’s started doing is when I put her in her room for either a nap or to go to bed, she’ll lay back on her bed and start “snoring”. It’d been entertaining watching her continue to grow and learn.

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: It was a week full of fun dress-up days for Joseph, fun projects for me and Paul, and fun new-to-her toys for Abigail. I’ll explain more as we go. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: It’s been all over the place. We had one day that got into the 80s (most days have been in the 60s-70s), but it’s supposed to drop drastically tomorrow night when a cold front moves in and we’ll only hit the mid-40s. Guess I need to pull my plants in at least one more time (since our lows are supposed to be below freezing).

What Paul’s Been Up To: Every once in a while, Paul will have meetings at our house (either related to church or to our HOA) and he’s thought for a while that it would be neat to have a TV in the dining room that he can connect his computer to, essentially creating a large projector of sorts. Well, this past week, he made it happen. He’s even framing it out so that it looks all pretty. 🙂

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve done some organizing, some donating of unused items, re-homed Abigail’s crib, and the like. I also attended my monthly book club meeting. I seriously look forward to this night all month. It’s so nice seeing my friends and having an intelligent conversation about the book we read is rather refreshing after a day full of cartoons, toys, and the occasional tantrum. Oh, and I started up teaching piano. I had one student start this past week and more start next week. I have a total of eight signed up so far.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had dress-up days all this past week to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday. I didn’t get a single picture, except one that a friend got of him dressed up as his favorite book character during a parade (which I missed since it was during nap time)…oh well! He was also a huge help watching Abigail during my piano time. There are times when I dislike the gap between them (mainly because I often feel like I sort of “started over” because they are so far apart), but other times it’s great (like when he can watch her).

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s getting used to her big girl bed and the freedom that comes with it. She’s also been throwing more tantrums…I try my hardest to put myself in her shoes. How frustrating it must be to want something (or not want something) and not know how to express it? To feel a sense of independence but find that you’re not completely free to do as you choose 24/7? This too shall pass, small one. Momma loves you!

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: After our fun rodeo day on Monday (see previous post), we had a rather low-key rest of the week. We did our routine things and just plugged away. Paul and I ended up both getting new phones. I dropped mine and damaged it and we decided it would be a better idea to replace it than pay for repairs since it was already getting on the older end. When Paul went to purchase my phone, he discovered a really good “buy one, get a certain amount off another” deal that was just too good to pass up, so we decided he would just upgrade now as opposed to a bit later (thus missing the deal at that point).

The Weekly Weather: Mild and sunny…just the way I like it!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s getting settled into his new position at work. Other than that, it’s been a pretty average week for him.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much on my end, either. I did the typical mom stuff during the week. I did decide that I’m going to start back up with teaching piano. I have two confirmed students and several others who showed interest in getting more information, so we’ll see how many I end up with. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a good week at school, but was excited for the weekend so that he could relax a bit more (his words, not mine…I love when I hear him use phrases that don’t usually come out of a seven-year-old’s mouth).

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She had been giving us fits at night because she would wake in the middle of the night, want out of her crib to snuggle, and then not want back into her crib. That meant I either slept with her on the couch (often waking up with her feet in my face) or took her into the big bed with Paul and me (where she would promptly position herself horizontally, leaving the rest of us a sliver of bed space a piece). This was getting old, fast. Enter the unexpected solution: my friend gave us the toddler bed that her daughter no longer slept in. I hadn’t expected that we would set it up for at least another six months, but with yet another night of fractured sleep appearing eminent, 2 AM on Tuesday morning, Paul dragged the mattress from the toddler bed into Abigail’s room and put her on it (on the floor). She happily went to back to sleep. She also happily took a nap on it that afternoon, so that evening, Paul took apart her crib and put up the toddler bed. She was ecstatic. She’s been sleeping in it since without complaint. Well alrighty-then, miss! The other fun thing that she’s started doing this week is saying, “Ta-dah!” after she does something she thinks is amazing…which is usually something we’ve asked her to stop doing (standing on the coffee table comes immediately to mind).

This Week in Pictures: