Sarah has this duck, "duckie", who she is very attached to. Actually, it was Emma's first (poor Sarah IS a hand-me-down girl). Sometime after she became so attached to "duckie", I bought another one, as a backup. Sarah was aware that there were 2 duckies, but could be comforted by either one.

Those of you who have kids will recognize that Sarah is of the age where not only does she love band-aids, but she likes to decorate with them. Currently, my dishwasher has been "upgraded" (my quote, not hers) with 3 (or maybe 4) Barbie band-aids.

(Believe it or not, that was NOT an aside.)

So, she has decorated her "duckie" with band-aids. Tonight she only wanted the "duckie" with the cars band-aid. Unfortunately, I could only find the "duckie" with the Hannah Montana band-aid. It was an ordeal. It involved a lot of crying. I have no idea where car band-aid "duckie" could be. I was quite sure he/she/it was in the van, but an exhaustive search of the van could not produce the correct "duckie". I looked in all the usual places, too. No car band-aid "duckie".

So, after my search, I headed upstairs to let her know that I could not find the proper "duckie" and that Hannah Montana band-aid "duckie" would have to do. On the way up the stairs, I felt something was wrong, or missing somehow. I grabbed "Ringo", her brown dog, just in case, sometimes she will allow me to substitute. I got upstairs and she wasn't crying. She was quietly laying in her bed with the Hannah Montana "duckie". I sat on her bed and said, "Sweatheart, Mommy is so sorry, but I couldn't find car band-aid "duckie". Could "Ringo" help?"

OOOPS! I don't know why I did that. I'm acting like I'm new or something. She was quiet, she was snuggling with Hannah Montana "duckie". She was almost asleep.

She sits straight up and yells "I don't want "Ringo". I want "duckie". So, I asked her if she could remember where she last saw "duckie", as if the 100th time of asking would somehow produce an answer other than "I don't know." What she said though, was . . . "silly Mommy, "duckie" right here", and she held up the Hannah Montana "duckie".

Luckily, I had enough sense about me to agree with her that I was, in fact, silly, and that clearly she had her "duckie".

Ok, a friend just sent me a website that seems great. It rates movies and (it appears) non-judgementally describes movies so you can have more information in choosing which movies you will let your kids watch. I am so impressed by this site that I'm passing it on whatever way I can. You can become a member by donating (lowest price seems to be $12.00/year), or use the site for free with ads. This had to be created by a parent! Check it out! (you'll have to cut and paste until I can figure out how to make it a link!)

http://www.kids-in-mind.com/

Emma has list of the different things she wanted to learn or try this summer. We've been trying to tackle them a little at a time. The one we've been working on lately is sewing. She made a rough purse in one day. Now she's making a bag for Sarah to bring with her to Braz's house. With embroidery. It's going to be nice. She stuffed the handle, which made things awkward, but we've been able to work it all out - getting lot of practice pulling out stitches. She's almost done. All she has to do is to sew up the 2 sides, then turn it right side out. Probably a 5 to 10 minute job. That's it. I told her we could start another project on the weekend, but I would like to put away the sewing machine once we were finished with this project. You know, just until the weekend. I think that sealed my fate.

So, Sarah loves that she knows how to spell her name. She will frequently pop out into an "S-A-R-A-H" chorus of some sort. This afternoon, she was playing a Dora game on the computer. She called out to me, "Mommy, my spelled my name." I went in there. Sure enough, on the screen, was . . .

Ok, so we've been listening to last year's VBS CD. It has a song on there called "Be Strong and Courageous." Sarah sings "Be strong, and tomato". Very cute!