Our Little Helper and OUCH!

Yep it's true - Sakura is quite the little helper around the house...

I'm sure it won't last forever so I'm relishing in it :) LOL!

She got this adorable dress from Auntie Jill and I was trying to get a cute picture of Sakura to send to Auntie Jill - which wasn't easy, she was moving moving moving!

I did get a few cute ones though. Sakura says "THANKS for the dress" Mommy says it looks super cute on me!

The other night I was watching TV in the living room and Daddy was in the bedroom - Sakura was in the bedroom with her Daddy - she came strolling through the living room, went to the garbage can and threw something away - I didn't think much of it, figured Daddy asked her to throw something away for him. A few minutes later here she came again - same deal, went straight to the garbage can, threw something away and briskly walked past me and said "Bye" - I laughed. I asked Daddy what he had her throw away, he looked at me in puzzlement....our little helper is finding things to throw away on her own I'm afraid. I'm not exactly sure what it was, I sort of looked but didn't see anything. Wonder what else she's tossed?

Mommy trying to capture a cute moment - as you can see the doll was 'dancing'.

Yesterday we were out running errands - Sakura got a new toy organization shelf - LOL - I hope it helps organize her toys!

Here is the little helper throwing away some UNused Kleenex!

On a mission - to get MORE! Ugh!

Sakura being silly!

Right after I finished snapping a few pictures, I put Sakura down for her afternoon nap. About an hour after putting her to bed, we heard screams from her room, I figured she didn't go to sleep at all, which she probably didn't - but when I went in to check on her, she had her leg STUCK in between the crib rail - I'm not sure how she did it, it's never happened before, but it took both of us to get her free and she was NOT happy - Poor Sakura I'll bet she has a bruise by tomorrow!

San Diego Zoo!

Today Sakura and I ventured to the San Diego Zoo to meet up with Jill and Camden! We enjoyed a 'girl' day...no Daddy's I mean...and of course sweet baby Camden - I should say no BIG Boys allowed :) LOL! It's always nice to have a girlie visits, the babies don't care if we enjoy girl talk, but the Dad's get bored with it real quick!

It was kind of funny, as soon as I pulled into the parking lot at the Zoo, Sakura woke up and said "MOM"...I said "Yes?" She said "Dada?" I told her no, Daddy isn't here. She's funny how she 'addresses' you now - definitely "Mom...I have a question tone".




While we waited for Jill and Camden to arrive we hung out by the Flamingos. With each 'animal' Sakura would get upset - she didn't quite understand there were more, and thoroughly enjoyed EACH and every stop....often complaining when we'd leave.

Sitting patiently....

Trying to get a closer view!

I am FREE for a few - it's not a great thing to take Sakura out of the stroller right now - at this age, which I think is totally normal, she protests when she has to go back in - which she did every time we got her out! Ugh!

My beautiful little girl watching the flamingos

Here she was actually waving to them --- and saying HI!

Jill and Camden arrived and our first stop was the petting zoo!

Hmmm, these don't look like my dogs?!

Jill and Camden petting the goat

Sakura refused to pet the sweet little brown goat above, but she did pet this white one - Jill assessed that it might be because our dogs are white? Interesting, hadn't thought about that, but probably pretty accurate!

Our Little Primates!

Sakura picked up on the "E-E-E" sound right when I told her, and kept repeating it. Too Funny!

LOVE the Koala's

Aren't they the CUTEST!

I think this one was saying "Hi Auntie Misty"!

I LOVE giraffe's - they are one of my very favorite!

There was even a BABY - HOW adorable is that???

Sakura with the giraffes

And we saw camels too

One has CRASHED and one is wide awake! I figured Camden would crash first since he's younger, but he had other ideas..

Sakura crashed hard!

Another of my favorites - the Panda's - oh so adorable!

I have always loved these guys - here is Bai Yun eating away on bamboo

More of Bai Yun

And more....I can't get enough of their adorable faces!

Next stop (the hike to the pandas was brutal!) Jill and I headed to the aviary where we were able to sit on the benches, it was so nice and cool in there, and just chat - what more could girls ask for :) We enjoyed listening to the birds chirp away - these guys were right across from us, aren't they sweet?!

Lorakeets having a snack

I think these were Lorey's if I remember correctly from the sign, the colors were SO brilliant!

One more fav - the sea otters - they were romping and playing it was hard to get any shot of them not in the water.

Goodbye San Diego Zoo...Goodbye Jill and Camden - we had a great day visiting!

Sakura and I left the house about 7:45 and got home after 8:00 p.m. so it was a long day, but well worth it. Sakura was a complete ANGEL in the car - no fussing, crying or anything, she was an awesome little trooper. She did sleep about 40 minutes on the way there, just before we got to the zoo, but no sleeping on the way home - she had zonked out in the stroller just before we left and I will admit that made me a little worried, but she was like I said, an ANGEL all the way home - her only complaint - she missed DADA! Half of the drive home, she kept saying "DaDa"...

What we've been up to...

Not a whole heck-of-alot :) It's been tough going back to work, I missed everyone there, now I miss Sakura again - luckily she is having a GREAT time being back at Katie's - she truly loves it there, loves Katie, loves the kids and misses them when it's just 'us', so that's nice! We haven't been doing a lot, since it's so hot right now we've been staying indoors!

Sakura got a new baby though....she loves her baby, and often tries to put the baby's binkie in her mouth - there is no 'nipple' just a magnet, so she turns it around and puts the handle in her mouth...guess she thinks she should have her own binkie more than I do :) She only gets it in bed!

Here she is opening her baby.

She knows that the baby came in the box, so she puts her back in...upside down box :)

When I was in the hospital back in July I had this lovely exercise to do with this fine contraption....Sakura saw Mommy do it, and found the machine and gave it a go...except she blew out instead of sucking in :) Gotta give an 18 month old credit, I thought it was GREAT!

Just being cute while she eats....it comes naturally :)

Even with tofu on her chin!

Sakura figured out how to get more out of her bowl all on her own - we never showed her how to do this, she figured it out and did quite well with her miso soup! Sakura is growing up WAY too fast for me, I might add!

Playing with Daddy is fun, no matter what you're doing...in this case Sakura found Daddy's hat and put it on Daddy, then took it off and put it on her head!

Snuggling with her baby while watching TV.

When we went to California a few weeks ago, we took the dogs, so we made a few stops along the way to walk them - Sakura hasn't ever seen them on leashes, so she thought that was pretty funny - every since we got home, Sakura has grabbed Daddy's belt and put it around her neck.

Milk goes well with boots right? Sakura seems to think this is a great holding spot!

Today I took Sakura out to work so she could visit everyone. My boss Zack said it had been 2 years since he saw her (his way of saying it's been a very long time, and he missed her!). It was a lot of fun getting Sakura dressed, I figured I would put the dress that she threw a fit about a few weeks ago, since we weren't just hanging out at home! So I got her dressed up and off we went - before we left she kept pulling and twirling the ruffles on the skirt. When we got to the office, I was trying to work, but Sakura was hungry since it was just about lunch time, so Heather and I walked across the street with Sakura to get some french fries. When we walked into the building someone walking by said "The Princess with her entourage" - I hadn't even noticed that there was about 15 of Dean's engineers walking behind us...they didn't pass us even though we were walking at Sakura's pace. Pretty sweet!

Sakura watching TV before we left....last weekend I tried my hand at clippie making - so today Sakura wore my 2nd clippie creation - the first is red and she will wear it for Christmas pictures we have scheduled in a couple of weeks. I'm sure not an expert, and hopefully with practice I get better, in the meantime Sakura doesn't know the difference :)

Sakura was talking on the "phone" (aka: DVD remote) - pretty funny, she kept saying "Hello"!

"Hello --- Hello --- Hello....Dada???"

Sakura in Sepia

Yes I am a sucker when it comes to pictures of Sakura - but Daddy went with me to pick this one up and we were able to walk away with just the picture I had already paid for :) We have additional photos coming up and I'm SURE we will be spending lots of money on those so not being tempted was probably a good decision!

Here is Sakura posing for her sepia old-time picture, which I was very pleased with!