Save it for a Rainy Day

Grandma and Grandpa got this playhouse for Sadie and we've been saving it for a surprise one day. Yesterday, trapped in the house by even more rain, we decided it was the day. While Sadie was eating her lunch, Daddy set the playhouse up. She was so excited to see it!





We had fun with it all Saturday afternoon and evening. Daddy put it away after bedtime to make another exciting appearance in the future.

Gymnastics!

Daddy came to gymnastics today to take some pictures. We thought it was the last class, but it turns out we get an extra week because we missed a class for Memorial Day, so next week will be the last week. Gymnastics has been a lot of fun! Sadie loved doing all the activities at "nastics". We will sign up again in the fall.

Today's theme was Bugs, which the older group of children enjoyed. Sadie's class, the Baby Bears, had mixed feelings about the many plastic bugs which decorated the gym. Sadie wouldn't swing from the bar, which she usually enjoys, because rubber spiders were dangling from it. Sadie did like the warm up, where the children danced to a song called The Pillbug Dance.

Clapping to the music during the warm up.


Walking on the balance beam.


Jumping on the mini trampoline.


Climbing over an obstacle.


Gathering little plastic bugs and transferring them to a jar.

(Left to right: Josh, Liam, Charlotte and Sadie)

In the foam pit with Mama. The kids run and jump down a long trampoline and jump into the pit with their parents.


We had a great weekend in NYC and got to spend lots of time with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jenny and Grandma Bev as well as a short visit with Auntie Lolly. We'll post some pictures from NY later this week.

One and a Half

Sadie is 18 months old today, so she is now one and a half. Her language development is amazing. It's hard to believe that our little tiny baby, who was just learning to sit up at this time last year, is talking to us. Every day, she says something new or funny. She is combining words now, like "Daddy shoes!", "More cereal!" and "My sandals!".



She likes to name everything she sees and if she says something, she definitely sees it, so we look around and she's always right. A couple of weeks ago we were at the Coop talking to some friends and Sadie kept saying "kitty!" and making her cat noise, which sounds like "reow". We didn't see any cat at the store, so we weren't sure what she was talking about, but she was insistent. Finally, we realized she was looking at a box of kitty litter illustrated with a cat.

She loves to ask for the "ceet!" (receipt) whenever we buy groceries or anything else.



Another recent development is hair. It is no longer true that Sadie is bald. Her hair is still sparse, but she does have some. It's coming in a very light brown/dark blonde, so it's hard to see it in pictures. It curls up in the back. Very cute.

Happy one and a half, Little Sadie! We love you. Love, Mama and Daddy.

Sipping

Sadie drinks water from a straw at the Pub at the Norwich Inn on Saturday.

Now that the outdoor tables are open for the season, we can eat here again! The small indoor dining area at the pub is not entirely baby-friendly so the outdoor tables are ideal. We love this place.

Summer Fun

The Family Place in Norwich, VT offers a toddler playgroup on Friday mornings. In the warm weather, it's outdoors. We tried it for the first time today and we will be back! Lots of our friends were there as well as some older kids. Sadie loves watching bigger kids, so that was a lot of fun for her. In the picture above, Sadie is playing with her friend Hanna, who is 15 months and much more advanced in the hair department.

The facility is amazing and perfect for toddlers...lots of grass and playground equipment such as baby swings, small slides and a wooden climbing structure.

And not only that...

Drawing activities! This is a clear plastic board that the children can draw on with "chalk markers". This was a very popular activity and Sadie took a few turns with it.


There were imaginative play items including 3 or 4 cars, little bikes and scooters, shopping carts, and best of all, a playhouse. Sadie especially liked that it had a phone inside.


On top of all this fun, they serve a snack...goldfish crackers, apples and water. Everything's free.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy birthday Grandma! I love you and I can't wait to see you in a few weeks!
You are one of my best reading buddies.
Love,
Sadie

Happy Anniversary

This weekend, we celebrated Dan's paternal grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary with a family party. What an amazing milestone! Not only have they been married 60 years, they started dating when Regina was sixteen and Chester was seventeen and he invited her to the prom. They are role models of a good marriage, of good parenting and of good grand-parenting. Sadie is their first great-grandchild.


(Great-Grampy, Sadie, cousin Anabel, in the background are Chester and Regina on their wedding day)

We hope Sadie will grow up to have a happy marriage. Luckily, this seems to run in her family. Her maternal great-grandparents were married more than 60 years as well, and both sets of her grandparents have been married more than 30 years. Mommy and Daddy have only been married three years (it will be four in August) so we have a way to go.

Sweet Sadie

Sadie enjoyed her vanilla "ah kree" cone from the Dairy Twirl. Liz K., we were thinking of you because we know how much you like the Dairy Twirl.

Singing in the Rain

I'm singin' in the rain
Just singin' in the rain,
What a glorious feeling,
And I'm happy again.



Actually, we're getting pretty darn sick of all this rain.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mommy, Daddy said he would type this for me. I love you very much and think you are the best mommy around. You are always taking me to do fun things like gymnastics and sing-alongs and play group. You also make me such delicious food! And I am especially thankful for how nice you were to me when I was sick; I know that all of those snuggles made me better! Happy mother's day!

Love, Sadie

Fashionistas

It's not quite as bad as showing up to the Oscars with the same dress as another starlet, but at playgroup yesterday Sadie was wearing the top to a set and her twin friends were wearing the bottoms. This fashion faux pas can be seen on Sarah and Lauren's blog.

Helping the grad students

Sadie helped put cans of PBR into a cooler at a party with Daddy's classmates earlier this week. Very helpful.

Note the barrette...she doesn't yet need to wear one, but it's funny, right?

Healthier

Saturday morning, Sadie woke up feeling much healthier. Finally! She had been sick for 6 days, which is the longest she's ever been sick. We decided we had to get outside for some fresh air.

Sadie lost 2 pounds from the rotavirus. We think you can especially see it in her face. She's starving today, so she'll probably gain the weight right back.

Sick

Sadie had rotavirus this past week. She did her best to remain cheerful, but she wasn't feeling so good, as you can see.

She's feeling a lot better now. She went back to taking two long naps a day, so we can tell that she's still recovering, but she's our peppy little girl again.

Guessing

Yesterday, we were eating lunch at Hanover's newest eatery, Quizno's. It's not that much better than Subway, but it's fun to try something new. They have a toppings station, where you can help yourself to pickle slices, so Sadie loves it since she's a big fan of "peek-als". While we were eating, Dan overheard a group of three people talking about Sadie.

Person #1: How old do you think that baby is?
Person #2: Well, she's sitting up, so she has to be 6 months. (Sadie was sitting in a high chair)
Person #3: But she's picking food up with her hands. So maybe older. (She was eating pickle slices, little bits of turkey and some Veggie Booty)
Person #2: Yeah, 6-12 months old for sure, since she's sitting and eating with her hands.
They continue along for a few minutes. Then, they approach us.

Person #1: Hi! We're medical students and we're doing pediatrics right now. How old is your baby? We were trying to figure it out.
Us: She's 16 months.
Person #1: Oh, we guessed 6-12 months.
Us: That's ok, she looks younger than she is because she doesn't have much hair.
Person #1: Does she know how to walk?
Us: Yes, she's been walking for a while.
Medical students: Bye, baby!
Sadie: Buh-bye!

Keep studying, med students! You'll get it soon.



The pics with this post are from today's visit to the playground. They don't have anything to do with the medical students at Quizno's, but I like to include pics with every post.

Fun Friday

The sun is out! The air is not freezing cold! It's a good day for the swings.

I'm pointing at a little boy I see in the distance.
Then, we got new books at the library, blew bubbles and met Daddy for lunch in Hanover!

PS Is no one reading these days? We love to get comments from our visitors, please don't be shy!

Her own door

Sadie's favorite part of her new climbing structure/slide is the child-sized door. She loves to open the door, go in, shut it behind her, open it, go out and repeat. The slide is fun too, but the doorway into the little "house" is even better.
This photo is from last Friday when we had pretty nice weather.

Gymnastics, the Aftermath

Today was Sadie's first gymnastics class, Baby Bears, at Northern Lights Gymnastics. She loved it. I think she would have liked to stay all day. Her favorite part was running down the giant trampoline and jumping into the "pit"...a big hole filled with small foam blocks. Unfortunately, you can't bring a camera into the gym area, but here is the immediate aftermath of class.

Note, I am not driving while taking this picture. She was fast asleep in the parking lot, before the car was even moving.

Here is Sadie standing in the entryway, watching the other children come in for the class. There are five girls; Sadie, Tieran, Charlotte, two Sophies, and one boy, Josh, in her group.

It was a good Easter

Easter was a really special time for Sadie to see many of her relatives from Daddy's family. She got to spend time with Nana, Grampy, Auntie Kara and Auntie Lolly, as well as her great-grandparents, cousins Karen and Barry and little cousins Anabel and Sophie. Sadie loved playing with the girls, who were so sweet to her! The egg hunt was a particular favorite.

We're hoping to have an album of spring pictures on Ofoto within the next couple of days, which will include all the Passover and Easter pictures as well as lots of other cute ones!

Special Visitor

Grandma came all the way from New York to see me!

We had such a good time. I love you, Grandma!

A Zeisen Pesach!

A Zeisen Pesach is Yiddish for a "Sweet Passover" and is a traditional way of wishing someone a happy Passover. Sadie is very sweet, so it's definitely a Zeisen Pesach with her. We all enjoyed our seder at Andy, Laura and Isaac's house....thank you so much for inviting us. Sadie's favorite part was the yummy, yummy matzah. She also enjoyed finding the afikomen and asking "why?" when it was time for the Four Questions.

More pictures tomorrow!

Hunt and Find

This morning, we took Sadie to the CCBA (our local community center, like a Y) to meet the Easter "buh-neh" and hunt for eggs. By the time we got there, the toddler egg hunt area had been picked clean, so we took Sadie over to the older kids area where she quickly found two eggs. Since it was only 30 degrees out, two eggs was plenty.

Sadie liked the buh-neh just fine as long as Daddy was holding her, but she didn't like him at all if she was alone.

This kicks off our busy Spring Holiday week. Wednesday, we'll have a Passover seder at Andy, Laura and Isaac's house and next weekend, we'll go to Nana and Grampy's house for Easter. Sadie will have lots of opportunities to hunt and find: first for the afikomen at the seder and then another Easter egg hunt at Nana and Grampy's.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Happy birthday to my best Nana!

Nana, I am looking in this Pottery Barn Kids catalogue to see if I can find you a good present. There are a lot pictures of babies in this catalogue, so I like it, but I'm not sure if there is anything you would like. I love you so much and am sending you lots and lots of kisses!

Excursion

Here's Sadie in the car, ready for a ride to see Beth and Jake. She's got her sippy cup, her Bay-Bee doll and her cute baseball cap. We had a great time visiting with them and their "baby to be" on Saturday. We're so excited for them and Beth is looking adorable. Her belly is just starting to poke out!

Yard-work

Sadie is helping Daddy with springtime yard-work. Thanks for the little lawnmower, Nana!

Snack in the Open Air

One of the joys of springtime is being able to have snack outside. Sadie enjoyed her "mulk" and a big "cooo-kee" on a bench in Hanover. Don't worry, she didn't eat that whole cookie! She was kind enough to share it with Mommy.

She's a little teapot...

Here is a video of Sadie and Mommy playing "I'm a Little Teapot." It cracks Sadie up every time.

New Conveyance

Sadie got Daddy this backpack for his birthday. I think she likes it even more than he does. We used it today and had a great time. We were going to walk to the playground, but there were a lot of dark clouds and we decided to just walk the loop around our block.



Sadie has already learned to say "bah-pah" and tries to climb in on her own so we've had to hide it in the guest room. The backpack will surely be getting a lot of use this spring and summer and for a while into the future. It can carry up to 40 pounds and Sadie weighs about 23.

This morning

A sideways glance...

Pointing at a birdie..

Say "cheese", Sadie!

Tidbits

Here are a couple funny things about Sadie:

• She says "muk" instead of "mina" for milk. I think most of you would be able to understand what she means, too.
  
• The other day, I was singing along to the radio when I was strapping her into her car seat. "I Want You to Want Me" by the immortal Cheap Trick was playing. When I got to the title line, Sadie pushed my face away with her hands and angrily said "No! Mine!"
  
• If you are walking along with Sadie outside and she sees or hears a bird, she will immediately become rooted to the spot at which she is standing, point to the sky and say "birdie" over and over. If you whistle like a bird, she will do the same thing. This makes it a bit difficult to walk anywhere with her.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Dear Daddy,
Happy birthday! I hope you have a great day. Since it is your birthday, I can tell you in front of everyone how much I love you. You are so fun! I like to play with my toys with you because you do funny things and you showed me how to build very high towers. You make a lot of sound effects when you read to me. You are the best at giving me baths! I love to see you at the end of the day when you come to pick me up from daycare. You are my very best Daddy!
Love and sloppy kisses always,
Sadie

25% Irish, 100% Cute!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our little leprechaun.

(green sweatsuit a gift from Nana and Grampy, little chair a gift from Grandma and Grandpa)

Helpful

After a fun visit to the Montshire with Isaac and his dad Andy, we were ready to head home. Sadie was determined to push her friend across the parking lot to his car. She was able to push the stroller for quite a while, despite it being loaded with 6 month old Isaac, Isaac's diaper bag and assorted other baby gear.



While at the museum, another mother asked if Sadie and Isaac were both my children. They are 9 months and a few days apart in age, so perhaps it is technically possible, but yikes. They are just friends, thank goodness, and Isaac has his own very nice mommy.

Sit at Table, Drink Milk

I like this picture from Monday's library outing because it's a good view of Sadie's recent hair, plus you can see her cute feet dangling in her new LLBean knock-off Merrell shoes. Doesn't she look like a genuine toddler sitting in a chair like that?

Wishing for Spring

The slightly milder weather today meant we could go for a quick swing before Mother Goose Time at the library.

Maybe Spring really is coming.

Cold Morning...

Yesterday morning, we went to watch the US Junior Olympics Team ski jumping event at Storrs Hill in Lebanon. It was a good time, but chilly.


Sadie liked being held in Daddy's arms and she was interested to hear that Daddy had been a ski jumper in high school.

Sadie fell asleep on the way home.
It turns out that watching teenagers ski jump is very, very tiring.

New Baby Cousin and New Baby Friend

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Sadie's new cousin William (the son of Daddy's cousin Kate and her husband Will) and to Sadie's new friend Marin Pearl (the daughter of Mommy and Daddy's friends Holly and Adam)! They were both born today. Sadie can't wait to meet the little bay-bees.