Today I finally figured out that I could sit myself up from my hands and knees. I'm really on the move now! I can crawl, sit, and pull myself up to stand. With a little more practice, nothing in this house will be safe from my grabbing hands! Or my little tooth for that matter.

For my 8-month birthday, I celebrated by crawling a "step" or two for Daddy. I also went to Uncle Michael's 8th birthday party. Happy birthday to both of us!

We are back from our annual family trip to Arkansas over Labor Day weekend. It was lots of fun to see John, Leah, Abi, Faith and Parker. I even liked riding in the car. We got up really early, while it was still dark, on Friday and drove until dinnertime to get there. I slept, played, colored, watched videos, and ate in the car. Eliana didn't like the car ride as much, but she still did really well. Mommy sat in the back most of the time to play with her and Daddy drove.

William and Abi swimming

When we were at John and Leah's, we had a lot of fun playing together. I liked riding bikes, watching and playing Brother Bear, and playing play-doh. We went to the swimming pool on Sunday. There was a big slide there and a shallow wading pool. It was a nice, hot day for swimming!

Petting a kangaroo

Then on Monday we went to a drive-thru safari. They also had a petting zoo where we got to pet goats, kangaroos, monkeys and even a tiger cub! After we finished the walking tour, we all hopped in John and Leah's van and drove around the 5 mile safari. There were emus, camels, zebras, and other animals that would come right up to the car. There were also cages with more monkeys, lions and tigers. The thing I was most interested in while we were driving was Faith's Leapster. Mommy said I couldn't play it during the safari, so Leah let me try it out when we were driving back to their house. Eliana loved the animals on the safari, especially when they would come right up to her window. She also liked it when I made faces at her from the backseat.

Tuesday morning we piled back into the van and headed home. It was a long day of driving made longer when we stopped in Garner, Iowa to visit Auntie Dawn, Tiernan, Caedmon and Brayan. But it was worth the extra trip. I got to play with the kids for a little bit at their apartment.

The whole crew

And then we all went to the Pizza Ranch. We had quite a crew of kids there! It was a fun time with good food. Their buffet had something for everyone. Eliana even got a taste of some mashed potatoes! Then it was time to head back to the road for the last few hours of the drive. We finally made it home at 10:00.

I've been gnawing on my hand a lot tonight feeling the new sensation of a sharp little tooth poking out of my bottom gum. What an exciting day! Mommy tried to take a picture, but it's still pretty much impossible to see. But it's definitely there.

Today was my first day going in to my new job! I had new staff orientation with the director of the early childhood program in Sauk Rapids. I was inundated with papers, manuals, curriculum, building details, and there's still more where that came from. Thankfully I've been a part of this program with William for the last three years and I did my student teaching there last fall, so it wasn't all brand new information. This made it possible to digest. My mentor is the same teacher I student taught with, so I know she'll be a great help when I have questions.

I suppose it's a little belated to mention now that I did get the job. I got a call from the director a week and a half ago. She was happy to be calling, not to schedule an interview, but to offer me a job! I had interviewed with them last summer, but wasn't licensed at the time. This year I was the only applicant as they posted the position for just a short time internally and called to encourage me to apply. It feels great to know that everyone is looking forward to having me on the team. It's an awesome program with a phenomenal staff, so I have a lot to live up to!

I will be teaching two parent education sessions two nights a week. Both will be groups of parents of 4 and 5 year-olds, so it's a great age level for me to start off with. Not only will I have my own 4-year-old who is in the program, but I also taught kindergarten for seven years, so I know what's coming up for these families. I have some work ahead of me now! It's pretty exciting!

It's official! I'm four! We celebrated with a trip to Cold Stone for my free birthday ice cream, ToysRUs to spend my birthday certificate, and then to the pet store to pick out a fish for my tank. At Cold Stone I got Blueberry Muffin Batter ice cream with M&Ms, sprinkles and gummy bears - it was delicious! At ToysRUs I was looking at some really sweet HotWheels race tracks, but Daddy reminded me that my bat was broken, so I decided to get a new bat and ball instead. Then we went to the pet store.

Royal (with scuba bee in the foreground)

It was tricky to pick a fish because there were so many! I wanted to get a catfish, but Mommy thought they were a little big for my tank and the sign said they like to live in groups. So instead a picked a really pretty red betta. I named him Royal. I got some black rocks with colorful neon ones mixed in and a scuba diving bee to decorate the tank. Daddy helped me make Royal at home in his new tank for the night. It looks like he likes it!

Yesterday I visited my new doctor. She is very nice. And she works with the same nurse as my old doctor, so that was nice. The nurse measured me and said I'm very tall. I was 42 1/4 inches (89%) and 41 pounds (86%). I didn't have to have any shots. I was glad for that! I did have my hearing and eyes checked which was fun. I got Star Wars stickers for doing a good job! And my doctor's nurse gave me a new book! It's a fun one called "Maybe a Bear Ate It." I could read a lot of it all by myself. Mommy found a SORT reading test in some of her teaching stuff and had me read some words because she was curious. My reading level was .8 (almost first grade). It was fun to see how many words I could read. And then I asked Mommy to read the rest of the words to me. They got really hard!

If you ask me how old I am, I'll tell you I'm three. But we had my 4th birthday party yesterday with my grandparents and Uncle Michael. I can't wait until my actual birthday on the 20th when I turn four and I get bigger. We're also going to go get my fish that day. I got a new fish tank from Mommy and Daddy for my birthday, but I don't get the fish until my real birthday. The fish tank makes a great night light for my room. Mommy and Daddy also gave me the new Tag Reading System from LeapFrog. We love it! I've already taught Daddy what a compound word is - I learned that from my Diego book. The other thing I got from Mommy and Daddy was new swim goggles. My dollar swim goggles didn't last long because I've been playing Olympic swimmer so much lately. I break world records swimming across the blue blanket on my living room floor, just like Michael Phelps. Or I set up goals and play water polo. I also do lots of flips on the blue blanket when it becomes a gymnastics mat. That's why Mommy made me an Olympic cake.

William's been playing Olympics, so he had an Olympic birthday cake

I sat and watched her put all the rings on the cake and do all the decorating. It took a long time, but it was worth it because I got to taste all the frosting colors. And then everybody came over on Sunday to help eat it. Grandma and Grandpa Lanz and Michael came and brought me some Hotwheels race track and cars. I can make the cars do lots of cool stunts with all that track! Grandpa Ron and Grandma Barb brought my present in a bag with pictures of money all over it - that was cool! And inside was a Twins' helmet and a Mauer jersey! It helps me play really great baseball (and the jeans from Grandma Lanz help, too). Tomorrow I get to go to the doctor to see how I'm growing. Then the 20th will be my real birthday and we can go to ToysRUs to use my certificate and the pet store to get my fish!

Getting ready for the pool

Today was a hot day, so we tried out my new swim goggles at the wading pool this afternoon. Eliana got to try swimming, too. She's feeling better now. But she didn't like swimming too much. Mommy thinks she would have liked it better if Mommy and been wearing her swim suit so she could get in the water and hold Ellie close. I said that next time I could hold her. Mommy thought that was a nice idea.

I just wanted to post a quick update for anyone who is worried about me. I'm feeling much better today. I still have room for improvement, but my fever is gone and my smile is starting to come back. My appetite is returning slowly, but my tummy is still upset. At least the antibiotics seem to be doing their job quickly. Hopefully we can have a fun weekend. I'll have William update after his birthday party on Sunday and let you know if I was back to my usual self - life of the party!

These last two days have been the most miserable days of my life. I've been running a temperature and my tummy has been upset. It's been hard to sleep and eat. Basically all I do is sob in Mommy's arms all day except when I drift off to sleep for a little while. All the pounding on our roof from the workers reshingling has been making it even tougher to exist in our house. So today Grandma Lanz let us come over and hang out at her house. William and I didn't nap any better than we did at home yesterday with the banging, but it was a lot less stressful. And Grandma lives really close to the clinic where Mommy took me this afternoon. My regular doctor's office had no appointments left, even though they wanted me seen today. So we went to the express care over by Grandma's house where they found both my ears were infected. That explains why I have been so miserable and had such a high fever. Now I have some medicine that will hopefully make me feel better quickly. Everyone misses my smiles.

The lego table

Yesterday Mommy and I took one last trip to the old St. Cloud Public Library. Eliana was napping at home with Daddy, which was nice because she's too little to remember this library. But our weekly visits have been one of my favorite activities since I've been able to walk. And now they're going to tear it down. So Mommy brought the camera and we took some pictures of the old children's room with the red carpet everywhere. The same red carpet I peed on a couple times and that Mommy played on when she was a little girl. In a few weeks they will open the new library. I've been watching them build it for a long time and I'm excited that I will soon be able to go inside. I wonder if they'll hide Remy (a stuffed rat from Ratitoulle) in the new children's room. Yesterday I got to find him hiding and pick a prize. The librarians are always thinking of fun new games for the kids. I also wonder if they'll bring the legos and the train table to the new library. Those are some of my favorite toys. Or maybe they'll have new toys! I'll let you know when they open it in September!