Dancing

Technology and I do not get along. Just ask Nate. I have the hardest time working the tv, our camera, my computer, etc., and things often don't work for me. It's frustrating because everything seems to work just fine for Nate. Luckily, it appears that Sanaa inherited Nate's ability to work with technology. Take for example our camera. I have no idea what Sanaa did, but she obviously change some type of setting on the camera and now the video I shoot is clearer. Amazing! I really wish she could tell me what she did.

Sanaa has been dancing recently and I've tried to catch her dancing on video, but she always stopped when I pulled out the camera. Today she kept dancing while the camera rolled. Enjoy!

Some fun pictures

Sorry this picture is so dark, but the sun was nearly down at the time. Apparently Sanaa wanted to see what Aria found so interesting. Both Aria and Sanaa were peering under the gate together.

Um? It now takes 2 hands and 1 foot to hold up her milk. I guess I've been letting her watch too much Curious George on tv.

Our unexpected day

Today did not go as planned or expected. As you may remember, back in September our water heater flooded and part of our flooring in the dining room was pulled up. Last week our new flooring arrived. On Monday I called to schedule a time for our flooring to be installed and had asked for it to be installed today because Nate had off and could hang out to supervise the installation and answer any questions the workers may have. Well, on Tuesday I was told our flooring wasn't going to be installed until Friday. I was fine with that. It would make things hard, but at least it was still getting done this week. This morning around 8:45 my phone rang. It was one of the workers calling to let me know that the installation was actually scheduled for today and not tomorrow and they wanted to know what time they could show up. Yikes!

Keep in mind, we had moved nothing out of the dining room or living room and had planned to do that today. I asked the workers to give us an hour. Nate and I hurriedly cleared out both rooms in about 45 minutes. By the time the workers showed up, only our large pieces of furniture were left. The workers moved most of the large pieces into the kitchen, but left our couch and one chair in the living room which they just moved around as they put the flooring down. By 5:15pm our flooring was finished! Wow! It's pretty much the same color we had. It looks great and I'm glad it's finally finished despite the crazy start to the day. Most of our things are back in the rooms. Now it's just a matter of putting books back on the book shelf. I think I might just head to bed early tonight.

Our dining room almost finished.

The living room almost finished. All they had left to do at this point was install the trim around the room.

Finished dining room.

Finished living room. And yes, Sanaa is lying on the floor. Poor thing was quite tired from all the activity today.

Our little butterfly

For Halloween Sanaa was a butterfly. It was a hand-me-down costume from the family I use to work for, but was in great condition. Sanaa did not mind wearing the costume at all and didn't even put up a fuss when we put on her hat. We took Sanaa to an event at our church called Trunk or Treat. We had never been to it before but had a great time. Various members from the church dressed up and decorated their car trunks. The kids from church and the community were able to walk from trunk to trunk to collect candy. It was so much fun seeing all the different trunks and the ideas that people came up with. Sanaa's favorite trunk had a jungle theme and she found the giant stuffed giraffe fascinating.

A shot of Sanaa's butterfly wings.

Nate had to hold onto Sanaa so that I could get a decent picture of her from the front. She was very busy walking around and checking out all the different activities.

Sanaa's other favorite trunk had a dog dressed liked a bee. The dog was actually right next to the giant giraffe, so she spent quite a bit of time walking back and forth between the two trunks. She tried to kiss the dog a couple of times, but in this shot she decided to just sit down and hang out with the dog for a little while.

The newest discovery

This week I introduced Sanaa to chalk and coloring outside. I was getting tired of her pulling the dirt out of my plants, so I hunted around our house and was lucky to find some chalk. She has been loving it.

Sanaa wasn't the only one to enjoy the chalk. For some strange reason Silver was very curious about it and kept getting in Sanaa's way. Silver even tried to grab the chalk and run off with it.
This picture is for all of you who have not met my daughter in person. People are constantly commenting on her curly hair (and her long eye lashes). So I figured I would snap a picture of her ringlets. I took this picture last night after her bath once her hair was dry.

My little helper

I have found that I have a hard time accomplishing anything without a little help from Sanaa. If I'm doing laundry she is right there next to me either sitting on the clothes I need to fold or unfolding the clothes I've just folded. If I try to work on the computer, she suddenly stops what she's doing and makes a beeline over to my side to "help" me work on the computer. This consists of her trying to bang on the keys and most of the time she hits a very random key combination that makes my computer do things I never knew it could.

But the best part of her wanting to help is how she has started to help take care of our cats in her own way. Last week she was snacking on some goldfish when I told her I needed to feed the cats. Silver was driving me crazy and getting under foot, so I figured I would feed him to get him out of the way. I turned my back to get the cat food out of the pantry and when I turned around Sanaa was trying to share her goldfish with the cats. Of course, neither cat was interested. Sanaa also feels a need to sit with the cats while they eat and I can only think that this is because we sit with her when she eats. She also attempted to wipe off Silver's mouth after he was done eating with our hand towel. Isn't she great? I just wish our cats appreciated her efforts more.

This was a rare moment when Sanaa sat in one place for almost 10 minutes looking at her books.

Sanaa loves to be outside. It's raining here today and we've already had some minor tantrums because I'm not letting her outside. She has played outside in our backyard all week, so being stuck inside today is not pleasant for her. The other day while I was getting dinner ready I let Sanaa out on our patio. When I checked on her I discovered that she was pulling dirt out of my plants and spreading it around on the patio. I'm not sure what she was doing, but she was having a great time. Maybe the cracks between the bricks needed filling in.

Back home

Last week Sanaa and I returned home from a week in Oregon with my parents. It was a lot of fun. Nate wasn't able to be with us because he was off having fun in Egypt. Now we are all back home together. Sanaa was very excited to see Nate at the airport when we picked him up. I'll try to get Nate to share some of his pictures from Egypt. But for now here are some more pictures from our time in Oregon.

Sanaa loved swinging at my parent's house. We were constantly outside swinging. Sanaa even learned the baby sign for swing from her Baby Einstein video and would walk over to the door signing swing. If we didn't take her outside right away, she got very upset!

One afternoon we stopped by the airport where my dad works and Sanaa was able to check out one of the planes. She loved it and didn't want to come out when it was time for us to leave.

Helping grandpa play a game.

Climbing on uncle Ryan (my brother).