Clean Little One

Helena is 4 Months/Quotable Sadie

Our little Nellie is four months old!

She's been growing so fast and doing lots of new things. On Friday, she rolled over from her back to her front for the first time and slammed her face hard into the floor. She was not pleased. It may be some time before she tries that again! She's starting to sit on her own. She smiles, giggles and screeches with delight. She also coos and gurgles. It's pretty cute. She has lots of cute baby chub. Her four month appointment is this week and we are eager to see how much she weighs.


We borrowed an exersaucer from the Isaac/Naomi family and Nell loves being in it. She has been having a great time with it all weekend.*


She and Sadie are loving each other a ton.

Sadie's learning how she can play with Helena and do things the baby likes. Helena remains very cooperative to Sadie's ideas for activities. She actually really enjoyed being rocked in this doll cradle.


And now for Quotable Sadie (or, PreLiteracy Sadie):
Dan: Sadie, what's a word that starts with "i"?
Sadie: iTunes!

Sadie is having a literacy explosion over the past 10 days and can read a bunch of words. And she understands us when we spell. Yikes!

*Yes, we used to own an exersaucer, but we lent it to Aquila, Sadie's old daycare provider, and it got broken.

Sadie in the News

This is our local weekly paper, the Connecticut Valley Spectator, which we rarely read. My co-worker subscribes and she noticed this picture of Sadie. With the excitement of the election, I had forgotten about the photographer who took Sadie's picture and hadn't checked to see if it was published. I hurried out and bought a few copies.

Winner!

I feel like we're all winners since Barack Obama won on Tuesday night. I'm so happy that Obama will create Sadie and Helena's first memories of what a president is. I feel good that a father of daughters and the husband of a strong, smart woman will be in the White House. I know he'll make decisions thinking of what would make a better world for his girls and it will be good for my girls too.

I'm pleased to announce that the voting post contest winner is Cordelia (and Yuliya). Yuli is my good friend since second grade and Cordelia is her beautiful little daughter. Keep your eyes peeled for a little prize in your mailbox Miss Cordelia!

VOTE!

VOTE!
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Remember to vote today!
If you vote and then leave a comment that you voted, we'll do a drawing of those who commented and award a fun prize.

Let's Dress Up Again!

Sadie woke up on Saturday morning ready to dress up again. This time, she wanted to wear her Cinderella costume. While she was wearing it and playing with her Cinderella doll, I had the idea that I might be able to rig Sadie's less favored Cinderella costume to fit Nell. Sadie couldn't believe her eyes when I brought out Nellie also dressed as Cinderella. She was delighted and Nell was a very good sport about the whole thing.


We're all Cinderellas!


Baby Helena, we're Cinderella together.


(It's hard to see because the dresses all blend together, but Sadie has Nellie holding her little Cinderella doll so there are three sizes of Cinderella in the picture.)

Halloween, afternoon and evening

Our next stop after the baby party was a little trick or treating in Norwich before Library Lunch.

Sadie loved this pumpkin outside the library. It's Cinderella!

After the library, we went to visit Daddy at his lab.

We relaxed a little in the afternoon before heading to the Powerhouse Mall to trick or treat there. After the Powerhouse, we went quickly to the Lebanon Green to see those activities. Isaac and Naomi were there and it was fun to see them.

There was also this tiny horse that Sadie loved. It's a real live horse.

We came home and Dan took Sadie trick or treating around the neighborhood while Nell and I waited for trick or treaters. We got a few. Sadie came home with quite the stash!

Halloween Recap

We started the day with store-to-store trick or treating in Hanover. I had to do a couple of errands in Hanover, so we multi-tasked.

Most of the Hanover stores had candy for trick or treaters. The bookstore was giving out adorable canvas trick or treat bags.

At Lou's, all the waitresses were in costume. Sadie was mesmerized and delighted. We also saw a Dartmouth student dressed up like a crayon and the front desk ladies at the Hanover Inn were the three little pigs.

Helena slept through our entire trek through Hanover, which was great because the next activity was for her. It was a baby costume party. These are the babies that Nell became friends with at the new baby group when she was a newborn. Now they all look so big!

Sadie was a great big sister at the party. She was nice to all the babies, ate a pumpkin muffin and then played so well by herself.

Nell fell asleep after the baby party.


This was our day up until 11:30. I'll post about the afternoon later. There are many Halloween pics on Flickr, so be sure to visit.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our Princess Witch and our Chili Pepper!



More tomorrow, showing all the activities of the day.

Pumpkin Carving Results

4 Pumpkins
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Here are our jack o'lanterns for 2008. Left to right...Dan's Monster, Ann's Kitty Cat, Sadie's Happy Face, Helena's Baby Face ("Mommy, make her look like she's a little bit yelling!").

Tomorrow is the big day!

Pumpkin Shell

A slight variation of a favorite nursery rhyme:

"Mom and Daddy, pumpkin eaters, had a Nell and couldn't keep her.
We put her in a pumpkin shell...

And there we kept her very well."

Sadie and her pumpkin

I love this one!
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

We have quite an assortment of pumpkins at our house right now. Inside the house, we have two tiny pumpkins that Sadie has drawn faces on with a sharpie, a slightly larger pumpkin that I drew a face on and a medium size pumpkin that Sadie decorated with felt, googly eyes, pom poms and gems at the Etna Library Spooky Halloween Craft Party.

Outside the house, we have four pumpkins waiting to be carved. A very big one for Dan, a big one for me, a big one for Sadie and a smaller one for Helena.

On the deck we also have a gourd which Sadie drew a face on with marker. It's getting kind of rotten, so I made Sadie take it out of the house. She can't bear to throw it away yet.

After Halloween, we are going to put the pumpkins in the woods and watch them decompose. Sadie saw this on the PBS Kids show "Sid The Science Kid" and is eager to try it at home.

Getting Ready for Halloween

3 pumpkins, 2 kids
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

We are all getting very excited for Halloween. These are our pumpkins that we got at Poverty Lane (yes, we have been to Poverty Lane a ton this fall!). They are waiting on our deck and we'll carve them this week.

We're also going to bake Halloween cookies for Sadie to bring to daycare for a special snack on Thursday.

There will be a Halloween themed post every day this week and lots of pictures of the girls in their costumes on Friday.

Grandma and Grandpa...we know you probably will not be able to comment, but do you know if children in Israel celebrate Halloween? I told Sadie that I didn't think so, but that they wear costumes on Purim.

Feel better, Grandpa!

Mommy and girls on the tractor
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Grandpa's foot got run over by a car! We hope it's feeling better very soon and you and Grandma can go and have a fun time in Israel. Sadie says, "I love your foot, Grandpa!"

We love you (not just your foot)!

Bonfire

Some pictures from the Homecoming Bonfire...

Warming up in the gym lobby:


Alumni Parade:


Sadie exhausted (we woke her up to see the fire once it was lit):


Nellie and Daddy:


Go Big Green:

Pre-Homecoming

Sadie, Helena and I headed into Hanover this morning to see what was going on before Homecoming Weekend starts tonight. We watched them building the bonfire.

Sadie would have watched indefinitely, but it was cool out, so after a while, we went and got some lunch. I decided to take the girls to the Hop, which was our favorite campus lunch spot back in the day. Nell slept through lunch, but Sadie had a great time eating with the "college teenagers". I let her get chocolate milk as a treat.

After lunch, we went to the Hood Museum. They had a family guide with pictures we needed to find and Sadie had a great time finding all of them. They also had some pencils and paper out to sketch with. Sadie drew "that naked baby with no diaper" (it was a renaissance Madonna and Child, and she was right; baby Jesus was not wearing a diaper).

We went outside to play on the X Delta, a moving sculpture.

And finally, we came back home!

Sister Time

Sadie and Helena love to be together. Although they go to the same daycare, it doesn't seem like they see much of each other during the day. The preschool room is all the way at the other end of the building from the baby room.

Lately, they have been able to play with each other a little bit. Nell is becoming interested in toys and is very interactive with smiles and coos when Sadie talks or sings to her. Sadie especially loves it when we let her cuddle with Nellie before bedtime.



Thanks to Nana for this cute set of matching blanket sleepers!

Good times outdoors

running between the rows
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Sadie and her friend Katie had a wonderful time running around among the trees at Poverty Lane yesterday. The weather was gorgeous and the orchard wasn't too busy. The girls picked apples in the heirloom section of the orchard and Sadie picked quite a variety of different kinds and mixed them in one bag, so I also bought a bag of Macs, just in case her mystery choices weren't delicious.

Another one from the orchard

Looking studious
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

It's important to always have a pen on hand if you're with Sadie because if she notices a desk or table anywhere, she will want to sit down and write.

At Povery Lane Orchard, this litle desk is in the shed where they have the gourds and squashes. Sadie sat at the desk and wrote for a while. This was just a quick candid, but the light and colors came out well and I love Sadie's intent expression.

Cuter by the Minute

Cutie Nellie
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Nell has reached the age in babyhood where she is getting cuter and cuter everyday. She's full of smiles and is trying to laugh. So far, all we get is a little "heh!" but the giggles are on their way. She's reaching for toys and starting to notice her own hands and feet. She loves to "sit up" and stand with support, just like Sadie did when she was a baby. She is eagerly trying to roll over but hasn't managed it yet. If we put her down on her back on her playmat, she tries and tries to roll to her front. Tomorrow, she'll be 3 months old.

Just FYI, although it looks like it in this picture, Nellie does not have gigantic feet. I just bought these furry boots in a larger size so they would last through the winter.

Halloween

halloween portrait
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Sadie is very excited about Halloween this year. She has her costume and loves it. Today, she drew this picture of herself in her costume. Can you guess what she is going to be? My favorite detail is her trick-or-treat bag in her hand!

I asked her to tell me about the picture:
"It's me and my friends trick or treating near a pumpkin patch. The ghosts are my friends. We all have treat bags!"

Over the last few weeks, Sadie has started drawing people with specific facial features or clothes to distinguish them. We've seen drawings of Grandpa with glasses, Santa Claus with a beard, Mommy wearing an apron, Nellie in her Halloween costume, and Daddy at the lab.

Poverty Lane Orchard

Mama, she tipped over!
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Sadie's song about apples, sung to no particular tune while eating a free sample apple and dancing around while I was holding Helena under my arm and trying to pay for our apples, cider and a little gourd.

"I love this apple!
It's juicy.
It tastes like apple juice.
I'm chewing it...it makes apple sauce in my mouth.
My lips taste like apple juice.
Oh apple, apple, apple!
Juicy and yummy, oh apple, apple, apple!"

Happy Birthday Mommy!

A very happy birthday to Ann, who is the best Mommy anyone could hope for!