We had another first--high tea at the Brown Palace in Denver! It can be hard for a three (and a half)-year-old to sit still, especially hopped up on copious amounts of sugar and her first caffeinated drink (pomegranate black tea) but Sabine really tried hard. It helped that we went with our friends and neighbors, who set a good example of how a big girl behaves in an elegant restaurant.
"I LOVE CAFFEINE!" (direct quote, moments before she took this sip:)
And she was enthralled with the harp, just as mommy has always been.
In other news, we play a lot of Candyland these days. Sometimes by the traditional rules, but more often it's role-playing with the figurines. Green-y, Blue-y, Red-y, and Yellow-y all have homes on different parts of the board, and take turns visiting Lord Licorice, with whom we have a love/hate/fear relationship.
In other imaginative goings-on, we now not only have brother and sister (Eric-y and Glinney), but we Sabine has also introduced Baby and Sweetie (both babies) into our family. She likes to buckle them ALL in before we go anywhere in the car. It can take a while, but the girl does like her routines! And happily, imaginary friends (or family) are easier to keep clean than stuffed animals, so I can't complain when they join us.
We have also spent a ton of time with real friends recently. I'll let the pictures show more of that.
Post-watermelon feast:
At the farmer's market:
Mommy and Daddy got a new loveseat for the front porch, but as far as Sabine's concerned, the real treasure was the box it came in. It has made her the belle of the neighborhood. The box has been a house:
Spaceship:
And theater:
We've been to birthday parties:
And to check out the new Food Truck night in downtown Louisville.
We've done some relaxing at home: (train 'em young)
With family
And when that gets to be enough, there are always sprinklers to run through
Or ice cream shops to walk to with friends we don't get to see very often!
Sabine also recently decorated herself with wildflowers. It was darling, right up until we walked inside and the decorations started shedding everywhere.
In other developmental news, Sabine has been doing more figurative drawing, and can now write most of the letters in her name legibly. She is finally (knock on wood) sleeping through the night again, and is getting better at helping with chores around the house, like feeding the cats and putting away silverware from the dishwasher.
Sabine still goes to a dance class once a week, and farm school. She loves to play doctor, and is a bit of a task master when it comes to my PT exercises.
Sabine has also started to play around with gibberish a lot. The baby-talk gets old quickly, but somehow it's funnier when she adds an accent and tells us she's speaking French.
Related anecdote, while we were in New Mexico and Sabine was with her grandparents, they apparently started speaking French when they were trying to decide what to do one day. They thought she was busy reading her Highlights magazine, but somewhere in the middle of their conversation, without missing a beat, Sabine said, "Bonjour!" Grandmom and Grandpa got quite a kick out of that!
And one final picture, the next-door-neighbor let Sabine shoot his new rocket in the park in front of our house. She thought that was very cool.
