A Day in the Life of Saryn...

To fully understand the Monkey that is Saryn, I thought I'd observe her for a few days and write down pretty much everything she did. I started on Thursday, which is when I wrote the most down. Over the next couple days I added a few things that are more typical of her and some funny things she said. For sake of simplicity, we're just going to say that all of this happened in one day....Nov 5. (Everything I write is just about Saryn. Please don't think I was just sitting around twiddling my thumbs while I watched her do this. I was with other kids, or cleaning, or actually even sewing through this all)

Now, before I have you read this, you need to get in the right frame of mind. Picture, if you will, Saryn:


She is my little monkey. She does not walk like a normal person, she prances. She does not merely stand, she has her hands on her hips, or in some sort of ballet position. She does not simply talk, she demands or she sweet talks. She is FULL of personality, emotion, energy and incredible amounts of FUN. She loves everything Princess and beautiful. I have found that there's no middle ground for Saryn. She is like the girl with the curl, for when she is good, she is VERY VERY good, but when she is bad, she is HORRID!

So, please imagine, my little prancing princess in all her glory waking up on the morning of Thursday, November 5th (ish).

It's approximately 7:30, Saryn walks in the master bedroom, looks at herself modeling in the mirror approvingly, holds out her nightie and sways back and forth. She does a quick pirouette, and then joins me in bed for a good snuggle. If I'm already up for the day, Saryn just goes downstairs and skips this step.

After a good snuggle, Saryn goes downstairs and begins to sing "Mom, could you please put on Fantasia" over and over again. (All of her little songs are 'originals' and are very rarely the same tune. There are occasions, however, that she does use a song from a musical etc. where she just changes the words.) After I have told her that we can't watch a movie, we have to get ready for school/cello lessons, Saryn tells me, "I'll NEVER!" (This is her most common threat. She will NEVER do what I ask or what is required of her. I have found that if she is ignored when she says that she very quickly does do what you have asked.) So, I walk upstairs and Saryn yells, "You get back down here right now!!" That doesn't fly well, but eventually, Saryn comes upstairs gets dressed and gets her hair done. Afterwards, she says, "I just need to see how beautiful I look." Once again, she stops in front of the mirror in my room and gives herself approving looks (her self-esteem is not a worry of mine).

On Friday, I told her to take off her Little Mermaid nightie and then come downstairs because I had her clothes downstairs with me. She gasped and then said, "But then I'll be HUMAN!"

After breakfast and everything, everyone gets their coats and shoes on after Kaia has gone to school. Saryn begins singing, "Let's go to Cello Lessons" (from Annie). As the family heads out the door to go to cello lessons, Saryn suddenly and desperately needs to go potty... she sings "Mommy, I need to go potty!!!" (doesn't talk - sings). Exasperated, I tell her to go as fast as she can. She runs upstairs and goes potty and comes back down. "Did you wash your hands?" "Um, someday I will....". After washing hands, we are one our way to Cello. She's singing "Let's go to Cello Lessons" the whole way there.

At Cello Lessons (which are actually Kienna's cello lessons that she sits in on), she is very excited to do "growing music" where they are plants that grow either up or down with the music; do rhythms on the drums; clap a songs "heartbeat" and many other things. She periodically will pout because the teacher doesn't ask her to do the rhythm as much as the paying students, and she's only 3, so she doesn't really understand that it's not all about "her".

At around 10, we are heading home. Saryn begins to sing the theme song from "Strawberry Shortcake" at the top of her lungs. Perfectly pitched and very "pop" like, just like the movie.

As we arrive at home, the Woodruff's arrive. We are watching Sarah and Matthew today (usually we only have Sarah). The kids all want to watch Fantasia - and who am I to stop them. It's great music and they all dance nicely to it. Saryn dances ballet to almost the entire show. Except for the times that she's playing the box violin that Kaia's teacher has given to her to practice with.

Kienna brought up a box of cars for the boys to play with and suddenly Saryn and Matthew are fighting over them. Matthew wants them to drive, but Saryn wants to play house with them. Yes, house with the cars. There are the mommy cars, the baby cars, the daddy cars....you name it! I give Saryn a warning that if she doesn't start to talk more nicely, she's going to have to sit down on the step. Her response is, "Not until YOU ask nicely..." So, Saryn has to sit on the step for a little bit until she's ready to be a little bit less sassy.

After about half an hour of playing, Saryn decides it's clean up time. She lets everyone know by singing the clean up song. Oh, how I LOVE the clean up song. It really is a miracle worker around here.

Suddenly, magically, lunch came. Shortly after it was finished, Saryn had a cheese string and was prancing around the kitchen and playing the box violin. Then she decided, "It's CANDY TIME". After a piece of candy, everyone piled in the car and dropped Kienna and Sarah off at school.

We come home and Saryn and Matthew play with the cars some more. Now we don't have the other girls as buffers and Saryn is getting REALLY frustrated. She comes up to me with her hands on her hips and says, "You tell Matthew to give me that car RIGHT NOW!!!". She later came up to me with a car and says, "Mom, is this a Kalickalo, or a Faleefalo?"

After about 20 minutes, Matthew leaves and I tell Saryn that it's time for her to go to sleep. She stamps her feet while she's walking away saying, "I DON'T WANT TO!!!" She remembers that she gets special snuggle time and a story when it's bed time though and so she surrenders. Mom, can you read me "I Love you Forever"? Of course! This is a favorite book of mine.
When we get to the part where the boy is 2 years old, the mother says, "THIS KID IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!" Saryn laughs and says, "That's just like you!"
As we're snuggling after the story, I asked her, "Are you my baby?" "Yeah..."
(This is a big deal. Usually she won't even let us say that she's our little girl....she's our big girl.)

Now, of course, every normal three year old just falls right asleep, right? No? Okay, good. It took a good 40 minutes before she finally stayed in bed long enough to do that. In between she went to the bathroom a couple times, she climbed onto my bed with vaseline in her hands, comes out to ask if I'll snuggle her about 100 times. When she WAS in bed, she was singing many songs at the top of her lungs. When I snuggled her, I gave her a kiss and then she said, "Okay, now I give YOU a kiss." She always wants to kiss me on my cheek after. If it's on the lips, she feels like perhaps she didn't kiss me. She HAS to kiss me on the cheek. After she went to the bathroom....."Did you wash your hands?" Her response is most often a shrug of the shoulders. So she gets sent back to wash up and then put back to bed. She FINALLY fell asleep. It was a miracle day and she slept for about 3 hours. Hallelujah!

On Friday, we skipped the nap and went to Costco and Old Navy. This could be a whole other post, but my favorite thing was in line at Costco. She runs around the posts in circles and then she stood at the back of the line and would dance and sing and then curtsey and say, "Okay Mom, clap for me!!" She is such a little diva. Always on stage....

With the shoes that she got at Old Navy...

I actually was able to be pretty productive during her nap. I haven't sewn for SUCH a long time, but I've had some fabric that I wanted to make into a table cloth sitting around, so I decided to make it up. I think it turned out pretty awesome.....

Anyway, when she wakes up, she plays with her doll "Baby Monet" (named after her baby cousin) and watches the pony part of Fantasia with her sisters, who have come home from school. Saryn asked specifically for the Pony part "Can we watch the Pony Part? cuz' I LOVE the Pony Part..."

Dinner time comes around (Kienna had fallen completely asleep before dinner was ready and she forfeited eating.....poor little thing). We have been talking about manners....and Saryn decided to remind us of one by singing, "Nee-na-no, Dee-da-do, don't sing at the table". After dinner is dessert and then bed time. She is such a big girl and gets herself almost completely ready for bed by herself. I just have to help her with the teeth. At bed time we read. Right now we're reading Little House on the Prairie books. We are currently reading "Farmer Boy" and Saryn is listening while dancing around the bed singing "Boo doo loo moo moo.....".

The night before, we read the last of Little House on the Prairie. Kienna asked me if Indians were real. I said that they were and we knew a few. We talked about people in the ward who are Indian, or who had parents who are. Even Saryn's nursery leaders are. We talked about how they are just like other people. Some of them are great people and some of them make bad decisions. I thought the talk went really well and that the kids had a new understanding until Saryn surprised me with....., "Oh, and an Octopus is an Indian too, right?"

She is in bed by 7:30, still moving by 8:30. At around 9, she comes downstairs, sits on my lap and looks at pictures on the computer with me. I had decided that since she slept for over 3 hours this afternoon, she can stay up for a little bit. She stopped and looked at me super sweetly and gave me a big hug and kiss and told me, "Mom, you're the best Mom EVER!"

Sigh, this is why I can do this every day with her.

Jarett called shortly after and talked to her for a second. Then she went to bed and fell fast asleep... This is a VERY typical day for Saryn. We don't always go to Cello, and very rarely take naps, but when we do....that is how it goes down. She is my monkey. She has all the energy that I wish I could have and I love her to death. Although there are many days that I feel like she could be turned into the zoo....I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world.

Isn't she an angel?