Halloween 2009 (2 months later...again)

So, here's another long-overdue post about our Halloween festivities.

September and October meant several trips to farms to see animals, pick pumpkins, and enjoy some hayrides. Our first excursion was in mid-September with some friends from church. We took a "girl's trip" to tour some local farms one Saturday, and both the kids and adults had a blast! The most interesting farm we toured was a lily farm, but the most exciting farm we toured was a more "conventional" farm which came complete with a hayride across the farmland. Sarah and her friend Sophie had a blast on the hayride, which really helped to kick-off our fall 2009 farm experience!

The first farm we visited as a family was Hill Ridge Farms in Youngsville, NC, which is about a 40 minute drive from Cary. This is definitely an all-day trip since there are so many activities on the farm. We didn't pay the extra costs for the gem mining or the train ride, but there were lots of other activities included in the admission price. We fed the farm animals, played in the house of corn (my FAVORITE activity), took a ride in the tunnel slide (Sarah's LEAST favorite activity), jumped in the hay barn, and had so much fun on the hayride out to the pumpkin patch where we picked our pumpkins!

Later in October, we took a trip to SC to visit Mimi and Papa Bagwell. While we were visiting, we took a trip to Denver Downs Farm where we enjoyed the corn maze, the hayride, and the various activities in the hay barn.

Needless to say, after all the farm festivities, we were feeling sufficiently "fall-ish" and we were excited for Halloween and trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood. Sarah's preschool had a Halloween party and parade where all the kids paraded through the school in their costumes. Halloween night itself brought unseasonably warm temperatures in the 70s, which meant that Sarah was sweating in her witch costume that was complete with hat and tights. Despite the summer weather in October, we had a great time trick-or-treating this year. Sarah really got the hang of ringing the doorbell and saying "trick-or-treat" and then saying "thank you" when she received candy. There were tons of kids and families out in the neighborhood and the Halloween festivities ended in a sort of impromptu neighborhood "street party" in one of the cul-de-sacs. The kids were all eating candy, and the parents were drinking their alcohol of choice and chatting, so everyone was happy. Sarah loved being a witch for Halloween, which was a welcomed relief from all the other 3 year old girls in Cary who were dressed as princesses. She was by far the cutest witch I've ever seen! (Please note my craftiness in making the striped tights which got LOTS of compliments...I purchased regular white tights, taped them off in stripes, and spray painted them with a metallic black paint.)

Sorry again for the delay in posting. Now that Christmas is upon us, I venture to say that the Christmas pics and updates will make it on the blog in, oh, say mid-March! I'm joking. Sort of. I hope. Maybe one of my 2010 resolutions will be to resume my blogging more regularly. But in the event that it IS March before you hear from me again, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2010!

Sarah's 3rd Birthday (2 months later...)

Wow! Really??? I really haven't posted any updates since August? That's just inexcusable! So here goes the first of (hopefully) a series of posts to update you on the highlights.

This post is dedicated to Sarah's 3rd birthday back in September! We had a party at home again, this year with a Princess theme. The highlights were the Disney Princess birthday cake and the Disney Princess bounce house.

Unfortunately, rain was in the forecast for the day. It held off for most of the party, but it did start to rain eventually and we had to move the party inside for opening gifts. Sarah was thrilled to have her friends and family at her house to celebrate with her, and they all enjoyed playing together!

So far, age 3 has been soooo much better than age 2 was for us! While many of Sarah's friends and classmates are challenging their parents at this age, we seem to be coming out on the other side of that phase. We dealt with a lot of drama and tantrums at age 2, but things are a lot calmer in our family at age 3. That's not to say that we don't deal with our share of disrespect, general sassiness, constant questioning, and negotiating. But at least we are able to reason with her on a very basic level now. And she is beginning to understand the concept of consequences. And TIME OUT IS EFFECTIVE NOW (in case you weren't aware, time out was very ineffective this time a year ago)!!! It's amazing to watch her develop a more complex personality!

Since she has moved into the 3-year old classroom, Sarah has really blossomed developmentally. She is making good progress with recognizing her letters, learning what sound each letter makes, and writing her capital letters. She can count to 20. She can draw several shapes, and most recently she has mastered the art of drawing stick figures (although there is no torso, only a head with arms and legs attached). She continues to enjoy her weekly tumbling class and has recently begun having weekly Spanish classes at preschool.

Physically, she's been extremely healthy and is growing like a weed! In the last year, she grew 5 1/2 inches but only gained 3 pounds...she weighed a little over 28 pounds at her check-up. So we are still 20th percentile in weight, but the height growth put her above 75th percentile in height. She doesn't look tall and lanky to us, but the doctors seem to think she is. Oh well...better to be at that end of the spectrum than the other!

Yeah, age 3 is off to a good start. Here's hoping the next 10 months are as enjoyable as the last 2 months have been!

Sorry it's been a while...

WOW! I think this is a personal record for the longest lapse in posting. I don't even know where to begin with the updates.

1- The house. We closed on July 10th, and the rest is history (and rather uneventful). We did most of the moving ourselves over the following week, and the movers came after that to take care of moving the last few pieces of big furniture that we couldn't handle ourselves. All of the boxes are unpacked, and for the most part everything is in its place. We are all loving our new home, and Sarah has particularly enjoyed the community pool and the playground.

2- Sarah updates. Since my last post, a lot has happened. First and foremost, I would like to proudly announce that SARAH IS POTTY TRAINED!!! This amazing feat happened virtually overnight, and she has not really had any accidents since then. It was truly amazing to see her figure this out in a single day with no real learning curve. In other news, she has learned how to ride her tricycle really well. She can pedal like a pro, and she enjoys riding around the neighborhood on the flat sidewalks. Upon successful completion of the potty training, she got to pick out a cool bike helmet so that she can ride uninhibited on the sidewalks. She chose a Dora helmet that came complete with matching knee pads. Swimming lessons continue to go really well! Sarah is in her 3rd set of lessons, and can now float on her back (almost) unassisted and can swim underwater for short distances. She has enjoyed spending time at our neighborhood pool, and has recently become fearless and goes down the water slide all by herself. As we approach her 3rd birthday (YIKES!), we continue to be amazed at her developing personality and independence. She LOVES to talk, and sometimes when we are all in conversation together it is hard to remember that she is only 3. Some of her sayings are so adult, such as:

"I just wasn't thinking, mom!" or

"Turn the radio up, mom. I LOVE this song!" or

"Don't be ridiculous." or

"I'm NOT two, mommy. I'm two and a half!" or

"My hairbow doesn't match my shirt."

Of course, the antithesis of this is some of her very "two and a half" attitude, such as:

"I just don't wanna!!!" or

"Because why, mommy?" or

"Yes!!! I WANT to!" or

"Mommy, Winston's looking at me. Make him stop!"

3- Allison and Duane. On the job front, things are going well. Last week, Duane's company, Athenix, was purchased by Bayer CropScience. If you're interested in reading the press release, click here. Not a lot is expected to change immediately, so it doesn't really affect his day-to-day work at this time. The immediate advantage to this acquisition is the fact that Duane gets to cash in his Athenix stock options, which will be some nice extra cash for us. There is not much new to report from my work...I am scheduled for my final fellow's evaluation the day after Labor Day, which means that if all goes well I should get an official scientist offer and a coinciding pay increase.

Duane and I celebrated our 5th anniversary at the beginning of August. We celebrated by taking a trip to New York City while Sarah spent some time with Mimi. We had a fabulous time doing some sightseeing that we had not done before, the weather was perfect, we saw "Wicked" on Broadway (FANTASTIC show!!!), and tried to weasel our way as extras onto the set of a movie being filmed in Central Park. We were unsuccessful, of course, but we did stick around long enough to find out that the movie being filmed was "Going the Distance" starring Drew Barrymore. We watched several scenes being filmed, and we got lots of close-up shots of Drew as she made her way back to the Paramount trailers. All in all, a very fun and eventful trip!

Guess that's a very condensed version of our life updates. Now that things have settled down for us, I'll make an effort to update more regularly. Hope you are all doing well and are enjoying your summer!

A few recent pics of Sarah (and updates)...

Swimming lessons have been going really well. Sarah has completed her first series of lessons and can hold onto the wall without assistance, can float on her back with minimal support, can glide forward, and can jump in and go under water while holding her breath (and without freaking out). We will begin the second set of lessons this weekend, and she is really excited. Duane gets in the pool with her for all the lessons, and she loves this special time with her daddy.

All ready for the first day of swimming lessons.

Gliding to the wall.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to stay home all weekend in an effort to make significant progress with potty training. As a quick summary, it didn't go well. We were all frustrated by the end of the weekend, so we're back to diapers for a while longer. We learned that we have a strong-willed child (and we're currently reading books on how to effectively raise a child with this personality) and that she has the bladder of a camel. On one of the days, she "held it" for almost 20 hours. This resulted in a trip to the pediatrician, but luckily no bladder infection and no need for a catheter at that point. The doctor advised that we go back to diapers and re-visit the potty training in a couple of months, so that's what we're doing.

Potty training weekend. Sarah ran around the house in nothing but "big girl panties" and her sneakers for a portion of the weekend.

A couple of weeks ago, we traveled to Charlotte to visit Grammy and Paka and to visit our friends Jennie and Julia for Julia's 3rd birthday party. The girls had so much fun at the Princess Ariel-themed party, playing in the inflatable bounce house, and riding around in the new Barbie mustang that Julia got for her birthday.

And here's one last picture of Sarah being silly, wearing her daddy's socks like legwarmers.

Hope this post finds everyone doing well! Look for upcoming posts with details of the move and life in the new house.

More House Updates

Here are the latest pics of the progress on the house, weeks 9 through 11. We are scheduled for our walk-through on July 3rd, with closing on July 10th. I'll try to post one more installment of pics from week 12 until closing.

Week 9. Kitchen counters going in.

Week 9. Trees in the process of being cleared from back yard in preparation for landscaping.

Week 9. View of the family room downstairs.

Week 10. Finished family room. All painted (just waiting for floors).

Week 10. Tile work completed in master bathroom and granite countertops go in.

Week 10. Tile backsplash, sink, and granite countertops go in kitchen.

Week 11. Kitchen is completed and appliances go in (just waiting on floors).

Week 11. Dining room is completed and painted. Light fixtures go in.

Week 11. Exterior is completed. Just needs a few finishing touches (paint on the columns and accents on the roof peaks, gas lamps to be installed on either side of garage).

Progress on the House

Since I haven't posted pics of the house since week 1 of construction in March, I decided it's time to update you on the past 7 weeks' progress. So here's the progression, week-by-week. We are looking at a late June/early July closing. I'll try to update again with pics before the big move. Enjoy!

Week 2. First floor is framed.

Week 3. Framing is completed.


Week 4. Roofing shingles go up and windows are installed.

Week 6. Siding and cedar shakes go up.

Week 6. View of the back of the house.

Week 8. Stonework on the front completed and drywall installed.

Week 8. Back deck installed.

Life is but a vapor...

James 4:14 reads:

"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."

I was not familiar with this verse until this week.

My Grandma passed away last Friday, April 17th, quickly and somewhat unexpectedly. For those of you who may not know the whole story, she suffered from Alzheimer's disease for almost 10 years. This devastating disease took my "real" Grandma from us several years ago, leaving behind only a physical shell and the memories of how she used to be before the disease robbed her of her mind, her own memories, and ultimately her dignity.

She was 87 years old, and lived all her life in the house where she was born. It was her wish to die in that house, and she all but got her wish. My dad is an only child, and he patiently and devotedly cared for my Grandma every day of those long years that she was sick. She had recently become so ill that he and my mom could no longer care for her in the ways that she needed, so they had made arrangements to admit her into a nice nursing home facility. She was only there for a couple of hours on Friday before she was diagnosed with pneumonia and sent to the hospital. She was only away from her home for a few short hours before she left this earth. My dad (and my mom) are to be commended for the dedicated care they provided her, and the efforts they made to help her fulfill her wish to die in her home.

At her funeral on Monday, one of the pastors referred to this verse from James and charged us all to remember that our own lives here on Earth are fleeting, but that our spiritual lives with God are everlasting. It was a good reminder for all of us, and provided me with comfort and hope.

Just wanted to pay this tribute to my Grandma and pass along this verse as a reminder to all of us that life is short in the grand scheme of the world. In the words of Swiss philosopher Henri Frederic Amiel:

"Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind."

Baby Angelina!

Sarah took a tumble in the house this evening and landed on her face on the stairs. We had a bloody mess to clean up, and she now has a nice fat lip to show for it! It actually looks much worse in person than in the pictures...guess it didn't photograph well. We think she looks a little like Angelina, especially since she's all dressed up in her "evening gowns" (aka Disnesy princess constumes). She milked it for all it was worth though...had a Chick-fil-a milkshake for dinner!

March Updates

It appears as though I have defaulted to monthly blogging rather than anything more frequent than that, so here goes with our March updates:

The House:
Ahhh, sweet success! Things are finally underway! Construction began March 17th, and during the first week and a half we have footers dug and poured and the foundation is in. Trusses are scheduled to be delivered to our property on Monday (March 30th), with framing beginning next week. If everything stays on schedule, we should be closing sometime during the second half of July. Here are a few pics of the progress that has been made so far.

Day 1: We have footers and our building permit!

Week 1: Foundation (view looking at front steps)

Week 1: Foundation (view looking at garage)

Sarah:
This month has been busy for Sarah, but that has become rather routine recently. At the beginning of the month, our family joined the church we have been attending since we moved to Cary (Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian). At this time, we also had Sarah baptized into the church. It was so nice of all our family to be there to share in this special time with us. Sarah did great and didn't freak out when standing in front of the congregation or when getting sprinkled during her actual baptism.

Sarah in her baptism dress

The three of us outside the church

Lehtinen and Bagwell families

Preschool is going great for her. She really likes her teachers and most of her classmates, and she is learning so much! Still no success at the potty training since we had our potty boot-camp at the end of February. She had great success that weekend, but has remained uninterested since. She keeps informing us that she's not ready and that she'll learn soon. If you ask her when she's gonna learn to use the potty, she answers with, "Soon. I not quite ready yet." So we have decided to be patient a little longer and let her indicate to us when she is ready. She knows what she needs to do, and I guess she'll do it when she is ready and not a minute before!

Last week she developed pinkeye in both eyes, so we have been recovering from that this week. Sadly, I think I have it now, so I guess we'll just pass the eye drops around the family!

We are signed up to begin parent-toddler swimming lessons after Easter. Hopefully this will be a positive experience for Sarah and we will be able to continue with additional swimming lessons after this first set of classes is complete. I think it will be harder for me than for her. I am a tad overprotective and I have a fear of letting her go completely underwater. I have to keep telling myself that she will not drown in a controlled setting!

Allison and Duane:
Things are about the same for us. We are finally getting excited about building the house and moving soon. We have been in a holding pattern for so long now, not knowing when things would get started or how long we would be stuck in this apartment, so we are glad that things are finally underway and the end is in sight!

Our jobs are both good. Duane is always busy, and my work goes in cycles. Some weeks I am swamped and other weeks I have nothing to do. After a couple of weeks of nothing to do, I think I am finally getting fairly busy again, so that will certainly help pass the time at work each day! With several of our friends and family members getting laid off during these tough economic times, we both feel blessed to have jobs that seem stable.

We celebrated my 32nd birthday last weekend...boy, am I getting old! I took a vacation day from work on Friday with the plans to have a "me" day of haircut, shopping, and a girl movie. I made it through the haircut and some of the shopping, but then received the phone call from daycare about Sarah's pinkeye, so my afternoon was cut short. Oh well, still nice to have a day off from work! Sarah and Duane took me out for dinner, and they gave me two nice gifts (digital photo frame for my office at work, and a nice new rain jacket). We are planning to have a delayed birthday celebration/get-together with some of our Winston-Salem friends next weekend.

Guess that's all the news from here. We have had quite a bit of rain recently, which has led to some LONG weekend of being cooped up inside. We've made the best of it though, and have managed to get out a bit. Last night we took Sarah to Barnes and Noble for kid's storytime. There was a special appearance by her favorite storybook character, Curious George. So I'll close with some pictures from that. More updates to come in April!

Sarah waiting for storytime at the bookstore

Sarah even got to meet Curious George

At last...Sarah Singing the "Baby Bumblebee Song"

Update While I Should Be Working...

What can I say? Things are a bit slow for me at work today, and likely the rest of this week, so I thought I would take advantage of the situation and update the Lehtinen Family Blog!

Progress on the house...none. Okay, so maybe a little progress, but nothing substantial. This has frustrated us quite a bit the past few weeks (and months), but I dare say I think we are finally getting somewhere! The contract and purchase agreements are signed, we have written the check for our deposit and builder's fees, and as best as we can tell they have done nothing. For weeks, the mountain of dirt has remained on our lot and has not moved. We decided they must be moving the dirt by the handful, rather than using modern equipment. But alas, last week progress was made and the lot is now leveled. And even more exciting is the fact that we actually had our groundbreaking meeting with the construction supervisor today. Definite progress toward getting things started and finished. After some tense moments regarding the removal of pine trees from the back of our lot, we finally came to an agreement with the supervisor, the trees are scheduled to be removed, and construction should start around February 27. Eighteen weeks later, we should be done. So I really have no new pictures to post, since things pretty much look the same. Didn't have the camera handy today, but I'll try to take a picture of the level lot next time we are over there and post it for you to see. The changes that have occurred since the last picture are not impressive. I'm holding onto the hope that we'll actually move in before Sarah goes to college!

Sarah is great. Constantly challenging us and keeping us on our toes. She loves her preschool and is learning so much. EXCEPT for how to use the potty. Yes folks, we are still fighting the good fight with that one. I think we have decided that this Saturday is the day that we stay home and attempt the potty training again. I'll let you know how it goes...keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer for us that we all 3 survive the day!

Otherwise, she is beginning to develop quite the imagination. Besides there being a tiger in the toilet (see previous blog post), we also have a dinosaur that lives in the time-out corner (hence prohibiting her from remaining in the corner because the dinosaur will surely eat her alive if she stays there), a lady that lives on the time-out stairs (we moved the time-out spot in an effort to avoid the aforementioned dinosaur), and ladybugs that live in her bed at night (obviously a tactic used to get out of going to bed each night). So we certainly have a lively house!

This past weekend we traveled to Anderson, SC so Mimi and Papa Bagwell could take us all to the circus. Sarah had been talking nonstop about the circus for weeks, and had decided what circus animal each person was going to ride. Daddy would ride the tiger, Mommy would ride the elephant, Papa would ride the "rebas" (zebras), and Mimi would ride the elephants also. What was Sarah to ride? The polar bear, of course! Because every circus definitely has a polar bear in their menagerie! Luckily, once we got there, she was so mesmerized by the elephants, horses, "rebas", and tigers that she didn't notice that polar bears were not part of the act. Whew...close call on that one!

No big upcoming plans. We're planning to actually stay in town for a few weekends now. Hopefully we will conquer the potty training during that time. We also have Sarah's baptism and our joining of the church coming up in early March. Otherwise, no events on the horizon.

Hope you are all happy and healthy!

Two is a Funny Age!

A few funny things from Sarah lately:

1- We are working on potty training, and it's not going so well. She won't stay on the potty for more than 5 seconds. She wants to wear a pull-up even though she doesn't really have any desire to actually start using the potty. Tonight, she was sitting on her potty, and she kept jumping up and saying "There's a tiger in there!!!" Not sure where that came from, but convincing her that there is no tiger in the toilet has become our new challenge.

2- Sarah LOVES to sing! She has mastered her ABCs, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Row Row Row Your Boat," and a few others. I have been working with her on some of the simple preschool church songs like "Jesus Loves Me." So now, at night when we sing songs before bed, she says, "Sing Jeezy mommy, sing Jeezy." I'm sure Jesus would be thrilled to know that he is interchangeable with a rapper!
She's also still hung up on the Christmas songs. According to her, the lyrics to "Jingle Bells" go something like this:
"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way. Oh a farmer..."
She just sings that over and over. The song ends after "farmer" and we start all over again. We're hoping that the Valentine's Day unit will begin soon at her preschool so that we can get her mind off of Christmas...she has a LONG time to wait for Santa to come again!

3- Otherwise, she has just become very assertive and opinionated. When we ask her to do something, she will hold up a hand and say, "Wait a minute, wait just a minute." Then, a few minutes later, she will say, "Okay, I ready." A variation of this is when we tell her it is time to wind down and get ready for bed. She'll stop in her tracks and say, "Five more minutes!" in an effort to bargain with us and postpone the inevitable.

I'm sure there are plenty of other funny stories that I am just forgetting about as I type this. In the meantime, I will close with a video of Sarah's rendition of one verse of the "Baby Bumble-bee" song, followed by some other tunes you may or may not recognize! ENJOY!
(Technical difficulties with the video uploading...I'll try again later.)