Milestones

Sadie has been sleeping in a toddler bed for over a week now and it's going well so far. She is so proud of her little bed and is very excited to get in it at night.

Just like Mommy and Daddy, Sadie loves to read in bed. This basket keeps books handy for her, although we have a feeling that she quietly slips to her bookshelf to read different books.

Lately, she's loving Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent. We read it to her and then she reads it to herself once we leave the room.

Look how happy she is in bed! Too cute.


In an unrelated milestone, Sadie jumped for the first time today. She actually managed to get both feet off the ground! Phew. Her pediatrician said this was a 24 month milestone, so we've been working on it for a while.

Concentration

Hard at work at the sand table at the Family Place playgroup in Norwich.

Friendship

We managed to catch this picture just before Beth had to reach out and catch Samuel. This also captures Sadie's not-so-lovely fake smile, which is more like a grimace and is produced in response to us saying "smile!"

Beth and Samuel came for a visit on Sunday. We went to the Montshire Museum and then home for a nap for the kids.

The Montshire was actually fairly quiet and Sadie had plenty of time to build a big tower without any other kids stepping in. (Good view of her rapid recent hair growth as well...)

Freezing!

It's cold here! Yesterday, when we left for playgroup, it was just 1 degree out! Today, it warmed up to about 7, but that's still cold. Sadie has been a really good sport about getting bundled up for the cold, wearing snowpants, parka, hat, mittens and a scarf over her clothes. She doesn't like to have the scarf pulled up over her face and remarked, "Not put on ma face. Only Mar-ta wear a skaf on da face!" Mar-ta is Martha, one of the teachers at her daycare. I've never seen her with a scarf on her face, but I bet Sadie is right.

Art and Talk

Sadie did this drawing on Saturday morning. It is "a snake and Sadie and a cat!"

Two interesting examples of developing language and word understanding:

1. While building with legos with Daddy and Aunt Lolly: "My put this byock ovah-neath the other one!" (Well, since there is underneath, there certainly should be an overneath, right?)

2. This morning:
Sadie: Mommy, my have coffee?
Me: No, it's not for children. When you are a teenager, you can have coffee.
Sadie: (pauses and thinks for minute) When my a tee-ager, my have tea!

Adventures in Quechee

We had brunch at the Farmer's Diner in Quechee with Laura, Andy and Isaac today. It's a diner that buys as many of the ingredients locally as possible. So, they use things like Cabot dairy products, local eggs, maple syrup and even meat. In the summer, almost all their produce is from area farms. In the winter, they do buy some from further distances, because it's basically just squash and that kind of stuff. Sadie and Isaac both had the kid's pancake and each of them ate almost the whole thing.

After we ate, we walked around and visited the Cabot store and the Vermont Toy and Train Museum. We didn't pay admission for the museum, but Sadie rode some of the vintage rides and both she and Isaac played with the train table for a little while.



These rides cost 25 cents each and start immediately after you put the money in. And they move fast! They also do not have seat belts or any kind of safety devices. The similar but more modern rides they have outside the local Kmart are much slower, all have seatbelts and cost at least 50 cents.

This piggie moved so fast, all the pictures came out a little blurry. But you can still see how much Sadie loved it!

Assortment of Sadie

Just an assortment of recent snapshots...


Sadie enjoys a breakfast of Puffins cereal and milk. She calls this "penguin ce-yul". In her hair, she is wearing a little plastic, retro style barrette. When I was little, these came in a package of all different shapes, sometimes animals, sometimes bows/flowers. The only ones I can find are all butterflies.


Just a few minutes later, Sadie pretends her bracelet is a camera. Very post-modern...I am photographing her and she is photographing me at the same time. Note the spilled milk down her shirt-front. We changed shirts before daycare.


In her playhouse on Monday. She brought so many toys and dolls into the house she barely had room for herself.


A serious expression, but I think she looks pretty. When she wears this sweatshirt, she calls the pictures on it "tattoos". She never says this about any other item of clothing.


We lent this costume (from Halloween '05) to a friend. When they returned it, Sadie wanted to put it on. It still fits!

Snow Day

On Monday, we were all home for a snow day, or rather a snow/ice/sleet/freezing rain day. It was pretty gross outside. In the afternoon, Sadie was getting a little stir crazy, so we went out to play in the yucky weather. After about ten minutes, she said she was cold and we went in.
As a treat, I made some hot chocolate. Sadie had never had hot chocolate before and she was a little hesitant to try it because she hates anything hot. Of course, hers was just barely warm, because I had diluted the hot cocoa with cold milk. She finally took a little sip from Mommy's cup.

She liked it! No, she loved it and drank her whole cup of "hot chocolee!" And she was wide awake and chattering to the toys in her crib until nearly 9:30 that night. This child is sensitive to caffeine!

Go Pats!

There's a very important Patriots game on right now and Sadie is watching with Daddy.

After she put on her jersey ("ma football shirt"), I jokingly called her Tom Sadie, but she quickly corrected me..."Sadie-Baby, not Tom Sadie!"
We're hoping that we see a lot of touchdowns by the Pats. Sadie likes to do "touchdown!"

Even though football is fun to watch, it's good to have a back-up activity as well, such as a coloring book, crayons and stickers.

"Kriffin's ovah! Hanukkah ovah!"

I asked Sadie a couple of days ago if she would sing "Jingle Bells" for me. She replied, "No, Kriffin's ovah!" but then she did sing it. She also saw me lighting a candle and told me, "Stop Mommy! Hanukkah ovah!". It wasn't a Hanukkah candle, just a regular one.

Even though the holidays are "ovah!", I wanted to share this picture. She's sprinkling reindeer food on the yard at Nana and Bob-Bob's house on Christmas Eve. The reindeer food is a project she made at daycare...oatmeal, glitter and confetti mixed together and put in a babyfood jar. "I mixed it! I scoop it! Spinkle it!"

Sadie's language is amazing. Looking back to last January, when she had about 10 words and wasn't combining any of them, it's hard to believe how much this has developed in a year. We're amazed with what she can express verbally. Two nights ago, in the bath, she announced, apropos of nothing, "I have Mommy and Daddy. Baby Samool has Beth and Jake!"

Many of the blends still gave Sadie trouble. S blends are particularly hard for her to pronounce, as are the sounds cl- and fl-. But this is very typical for her age. Other than those, her speech is quite clear and easy to understand.

Sadie's first joke?

"Daddy, my have a question," says Sadie.
"What is it?" I reply.
"Turtle turtle!" Laughter ensues, on both of our parts. Where does she come up with this stuff?

Da Pigeon Book!

One last Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year present arrived for Sadie last week.

It was a copy of "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus". We love this story. Nana has a copy at her house and we have taken it out of the library before. Sadie was thrilled to have one to keep. She was also delighted with the giftwrap, which she announced was a "hehban cown" (headband crown) and immediately put on her head. Nice '80s look, right?

Thanks for thinking of her, Liz!

Please keep de-lurking! We are loving all the comments.

Small Artist

One of Sadie's favorite holiday gifts was this easel from Auntie Lolly and Auntie Kara. We keep it in the guest room and in the morning, Sadie often asks, "I check on ma easel?" If we say yes, she runs in and yells, "Good-mornin', easel!"

She loves to use the easel to draw with crayons or to do "stickah work" as seen here. I'm hoping she continues to enjoy art. Drawing and painting were some of my favorite things as a child and through high school and then I guess I ran out of time for it. It's nice to have art supplies around again, even if it's just crayons, and to do some drawing with Sadie.

A lot of you have noticed that Sadie suddenly has a lot more hair! Last week, she came home from daycare with this funny hairdo created by her teacher Sonya. Dan and I thought it was pretty funny so we had to snap a picture.


(Also, it is National De-Lurk week again! Please take a minute to leave a comment. Getting comments makes us so happy and is really motivating to keep the posts coming!)

City Fun

We had a wonderful weekend in Boston with Grandma and Grandpa. We visited the New England Aquarium where Sadie loved the penguins and the fish. This little sculpture of a penguin was at just the right level for Sadie to snuggle with.

She was a little hesitant to touch a hermit crab in the tide pool exhibit.

After, we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and walked over to Quincy Market for a snack. Sadie was mesmerized by a street performer and watched intently for over 30 minutes.
Other weekend highlights included dinner Friday night with Auntie Lolly and seeing Nana and Bob Bob on our way home on Sunday. Also, the Patriots won their playoff game, so Dan was happy about that!

Dressing Up

Sadie posed for pictures while wearing one of my scarves. This one reminds me of one of my favorite baby pictures of Aunt Jenny. Jen, do you know which one I mean?

Sadie loves having her picture taken...she will strike a pose and then ask, "Cheese me?"

More Adventures of Sadie and Peddy

"Mommy, put Peddy in da p'yay-pen! Me too! We need byankets! We're seepin'. Shhh."

"Cam Chowdah for Yunch!"*

For the past few days, Sadie has been asking us to read "One Morning In Maine" by Robert McCloskey every night. I love this story about Sal (the same Sal from "Blueberries for Sal) and her loose tooth and put it out on Sadie's shelf just see if she would be interested.
We're amazed at how much Sadie likes this story. It takes at least 15 minutes to read it out loud and the illustrations are black and white drawings, but she happily listens the whole time.

Here, Sadie is reading it to her doll Peddy. Her favorite part is the last line of book, when Sal calls out *"Clam chowder for lunch!", which is the translation of the title above.

Little Dutch Girl

Doug and Kristin are living in Amsterdam for a few years. When we saw them yesterday, they showered Sadie with fabulous Dutch paraphernalia.

Sadie is wearing Miffy pajamas, holding a cuddly Miffy doll and on her feet, she is wearing slippers that are made to look like traditional wooden clogs. Sadie isn't up on her world geography and insists that they are "duck shoes", not Dutch shoes, which is what I told her they were. She's pointing at Samuel trying on his "duck shoes".

Miffy is a children's character from author/illustrator Dick Bruna. The Miffy books are available in the states (I actually remember having them as a child myself) but she's not a very well known character. Over in the Netherlands, Miffy is hugely popular and is featured in all kinds of children's products. I think she is so cute and Sadie certainly loves all the gifts.

Thank you Doug and Kristin for being so generous to Sadie...we love having these special gifts from your home-away-from-home, but we wish you didn't live so far away.

New Year's Kiss

Happy New Year, friends and family. We wish all of you a 2007 filled with happiness, health and dreams come true for everyone. It's been a good year for some and a hard year for others, but I just know that 2007 is going to be a great year for all. I'm excited for it!

Sadie kissed Samuel last night while demonstrating the use of her old Baby Einstein playmat. Actually, this morning, we hadn't put it away yet and she played with it for almost 30 minutes straight...I guess two years old can still like their baby toys.