Dirt monkey, new job and REAL SL

Our little dirt monkey! Yesterday Sasha and I were swinging on our swings out back. After a few minutes, I glanced over and noticed that Sasha was kneeling on the ground. I thought she was probably doing her typical activity of grabbing long pine needles and dragging them through the dirt. All of a sudden, Sasha layed flat on her belly and took a big bite of dirt. She immediately spit out the mouthful of dirt and stood up to look at me and secure some sympathy for her predicament. Her face was covered in dirt, which she promptly started wiping all over her coat sleeves. I was laughing too hard at this point to prevent the massive amounts of dirt from getting on her coat, but I did manage to persuade her to pause in her dirt wiping long enough to get her in the house to wash up. She wanted to get in the tub because she doesn't like being really dirty so she started stripping off clothing left and right in order to expedite the process. We ran into Aaron inside and I had trouble stopping the giggles again as I retold the story of Sasha's dirt adventure. Thanks for the laughs, sweet Sasha! So, for the last month we've been adjusting to life with Aaron at his new job, which has been wonderful and challenging at the same time. Aaron began work as an account manager for Cisco systems (i.e. routers, wireless connectivity, etc) in mid-February and is really starting to get a feel for things. It has been a challenging transition for Sasha since Aaron was previously working from home for the past year and a half. Aaron watched Sasha on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings/afternoons while I went to work. Sasha loves her papa and was so sad when she couldn't spend her days with him. Now, Sasha is watched by Deanna (our wonderful neighbor, who has 8 beautiful children of her own, who are now all in school) on Mondays and grandma and grandpa Hull on Wednesdays and Fridays. She used to cry everytime I dropped her off anywhere at first, but now seems to be adapting to the change. Another big change for Sasha happened this weekend when Sasha finally gave up her binky. I know, Sasha is 2 1/2 now and long past the time when we would have wanted to get rid of it. For the last 1 1/2 years, she's only had it at naptime and bedtime so we wanted to take the final step to get rid of it 4 months ago. However, right as we started, she got extremely sick off and on for about a month and we didn't have the heart to finally toss it out when she was so miserable and wanting it so badly. Needless to say, it's finally gone and we're so happy about it! It only took 2 nights and one day of some crying and being upset for her to adjust. Phew! Now (as soon as our crib modification set comes) we can put her in a big girl bed and make the final leap in potty training. We've been hitting the part or playing on our playground out back as often as we can when the sun comes out and Sasha loves it. Our tulips are poking through and it just feels like spring should finally be here. We can't wait! We were able to go a REAL Salt Lake soccer game on March 1 and see an impressive 4-1 victory. The game started at 8 pm and it was COLD so we weren't sure how Sasha would handle it. She actually did really well since all bundled up in coats and blankets. We lasted until about 9:30 pm when the score was 3-1 so we saw most of the exciting action. I love soccer and am so excited to pass that on to Sasha. Just yesterday she was kicking the ball around the yard and I couldn't help but feel a swell of happiness to her enjoying herself. I know it's cheesy, but what can I say? I'm sure she'll find her own things that bring her happiness, but I do hope that soccer get a little piece of the pie at some point. :) We were sad that the free tickets for our REAL passes ran out for yesterday's game against the LA Galaxy, but we were still able to go on a double date with Drue and Maggs to a fun (and free) comedy show at Wiseguys. It's great to laugh for a whole evening and have sore cheeks from smiling so much. Thanks to my parents for watching all the kiddos on short notice - they had such fun being all together and thanks to Drue and Maggs for finding the free deal and inviting us to go! It definitely kept me from feeling sad about not going to the game (what can I say, I've always wanted to see David Beckham play). I do have to apologize for the lack of photos - I will try to be better in the future. :)