Sara Jane

Before I had kids, I had an idea of what I thought my first daughter would be like. I pictured a solid, tall little girl with curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and a huge personality. I guessed that she would love to sing and perform, love to run around and be active, and love all things princess. I figured she'd be a little type-A and we might butt heads sometimes, but I would love her for her confidence and strong will.

Of course, I was just picturing having a little girl not unlike myself. And guess what? I was so right! Sara Jane is everything I had hoped for in a daughter, and more. She is so active and fun and loves to sing more than any kid her age that I know. In fact, she was named "Most Musical" in her preschool class last year because, apparently, she never stops singing, even at school. She's also very friendly, so articulate, and brave enough to ask adults for just about anything. She is my little best friend, and being her mom for the past 3.5 years has been the greatest joy of my life.

SJ was born the day after the snowiest night of my life. I couldn't believe how much snow fell in about 8 hours! I wrote my whole birth story, and you can read it here.

I also did a really great job of documenting her first year of life, which you can read by clicking the links at the bottom of this post. How I wish I had continued and done the same for Julia! Oh well. That's why I'm here now!

After she was born, she didn't pass the hearing screening test in her right ear. We could tell that the ear was a little small and misshapen, but we didn't know much about her hearing until later on. It was really hard those first few months, not knowing whether or not she could hear much out of the right side. I remember listening to the most beautiful Christmas music a couple of days after her birth and crying so hard, not knowing whether or not she would be able to hear things the same way I could. Considering she can now sing full Taylor Swift songs perfectly in tune, I'd say she can hear the music quite well. :)

We did some further testing with her, and she was issued a Baha hearing aid when she was about six months old. She HATED it. I mean, I would too! It sounded like a microphone being pressed to your head at all times. As she grew, her speech was developing very normally; in fact, she was far above average in learning words and speech clarity, so we didn't think much of the hearing defect and just moved on.

Last year, just before she turned three, the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind contacted us and said that she could start going to full-time, free preschool after her third birthday. I was a little apprehensive about sending my baby to school so young, but I knew she would love it, so she started going back in January! She LOVED it, of course, but spent basically the entire months of January - April with a stuffy nose and a cough. It was the WORST.

After a wonderful summer, she's back in school now and still loving it. Her "driver" comes to pick her up at 8am, and she doesn't get home until 4pm! Which is crazy and almost as long as I'm gone when I go to work! She's a champ and comes home with the cutest crafts, singing the cutest little songs.

Here are some things about Sara Jane that I don't want to forget:

  • She loves sleep. I've never heard of a baby, toddler, or kid who sleeps as well as SJ. From age two months on, she has slept through the night (except for little regressions and sicknesses), and I don't know what we did to deserve that. We let her use a binkie (and this is one of our parenting blunders) her whole life until about a month ago, when she started school again. We wanted to hang on to her two-hour naps for as long as possible, and we did! She took the transition to no binkie like a champ, so I have no regrets.
  • That leads me to the next point...she has taken every transition in her life INCREDIBLY well. Swaddle to blanket? Easy. Crib to toddler bed? No problem at all. Potty training? Took three days, and that was IT. New sister? Well, we had a few melt-downs, but she was great within a couple of weeks. New house? Great! School? Awesome. I am so impressed every time she goes through a major change and crushes it.
  • SJ basically won the genetic lottery. She has my body type, but Hayden's gorgeous curly hair and tan skin. Everyone says she's a clone of her dad, which is true, but as she gets older, I see myself in her more and more. Maybe because she acts like me.
  • SJ loves dress-ups! She is really into princesses (of course) and can sing so many Disney songs.
  • Her best friend is Hadley, who was born just a month before her and lives two doors down from our old apartment. They get along really great! Until they don't. But they are the cutest friends! 
  • She loves to collect "beautiful things" in her little treasure box.
  • Her favorite color right now is "dark blue."
  • She's very good at making new friends! She will approach kids on the playground and say, "Hi, do you want to play with me? What's your name?" and it makes my mama heart melt.
  • She loooooves swimming. I should probably be a better mom and demand that she wear her floaties at all times, but she just loves to go under the water, and that's hard to do with a floatie.
  • As much as she loves running around in the splash pad and swimming, she HATES getting water on her clothes. Even the tiniest drop sends her into a fit. I try to explain to her that it's not a big deal, and it will dry, and she's getting better, but man. It sets her off.
  • She loves our wedding video and will sing "I won't give up...on...us..." quite frequently. When we're in St. George, she will point out the temple and say, "That's where you and daddy got married!" She also says she wants to get married there too someday, which is wonderful, except that she wants to marry her daddy. Which is totally fine for now. :)
  • She loves playing with her cousins! She also has a bit of a lisp, so it's really "couthinth."
  • She loves books! I just set up her "reading nook" in our house, which is the little area at the top of the stairs. She has her own chalkboard, bookshelf, lamp, and "thinking chair." Reading to SJ before bedtime is one of my favorite parts of the day. She gets fixated on books for about a month at a time and will memorize them, so when I'm reading, I'll read half of each sentence and she'll finish them. Such a smartie girl.
  • Her current show obsessions are Blue's Clues, Peppa Pig, Daniel Tiger, and Carl the Collector. She loves watching TV SO much it actually scares me, but I think it's because we do so many fun activities that sometimes she just needs to chill, especially when she gets home from school. Oh well, I think back to how much TV I watched as a kid, and I think I turned out okay. I try not to let mom guilt get to me when I let her watch two hours of TV while Julia naps and I get work done.
  • She loves her baby sister! Sometimes a little too much, of course. She recently started picking Julia up and carrying her around, which is a little worrisome. But she loves her so much and calls her "our baby," which I think is sweet. They're best friends in the making!
  • SJ is a "helper girl." She wants to help with evvvverything: cooking, cleaning, hanging up photos, pouring herself cereal...if she sees us doing something, she wants to help. It's a great quality, but also sometimes dangerous.
  • SJ is a planner. She will say, "Hey, I have a plan!" and then explain that first, she wants to go to the park, and then when Julia takes a nap, she wants to watch a show. And THEN we'll have chicken nuggets for lunch and go to the splash pad. She doesn't have a great sense of time, but boy, she can scheme.

I could go on and on about my girl. Not that we can take full credit for how amazing she is, but I am very proud of the way we've raised her. To SJ in 20 years when she's reading this: I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Again, here are the blog posts I made during her first year of life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts