What's New?

cute
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

What's new here?

This week, Sadie officially moved to the Toddler 2 Class at daycare with her teachers Sonya and Martha. She's been spending a lot of time with these teachers, but now she is a real member of their class. A lot of her friends moved up to the preschool rooms, but she still has good friends in her current class. In September, her class will study shapes and colors and take a field trip to the apple orchard.

My students come back to classes next week, so I will be back to my busy life after a slower paced summer. Dan is continuing his busy grad school life the same as ever. In August, he was the overall winner of a local homebrewing contest and is planning to enter another contest soon.

Our good friends Reggie and Rebecca welcomed a beautiful baby girl named Mira. Auntie Lolly and James moved to Illinois...we are getting excited to visit them over Columbus Day weekend. Bob Bob went to Kansas to play in the US Senior Amateur Golf Tournament. Kate and Liz had milestone birthdays.

On Labor Day, we'll celebrate Sam's first birthday and Isaac's second birthday. Should be fun!

She Loves to Cook

Sadie loves to help in the kitchen! Some of her favorite kitchen activities include grinding coffee beans for Mommy and Daddy's coffee, spreading butter on toast and using the salad spinner but her number one favorite thing to cook is English muffin pizza...she loves to make these and eat them.

If I get the ingredients out, Sadie can almost make these by herself. She spoons the sauce onto the muffin halves, spreads it around and tops them with a good handful of shredded cheese. We melt the cheese in the microwave, heating it for just a few seconds so the pizza doesn't get too hot.



She made herself some tonight and also helped me with making the carrots. " I want some carrots. Mama, did you know big girls like to eat carrots?" she told me.

Sadie asked me to photograph her meal. As I snapped the picture, she said, "Say cheese, dinner!"

Last Time This Season?

We went to the Montshire this past Friday with Isaac and Laura and saw some other friends there as well. As usual, Sadie had a great time playing in the water park. I believe the water exhibits close after Labor Day so it was probably her last time there this summer, although we'll still be at the indoor exhibits all the time.

Sadie loves Storyland!

She's running out of the Shoe belonging to the Old Lady Who Lives in a Shoe to show us the sticker that the Old Lady gave her. Yes, there is a real live old lady who sits in that shoe all day long and gives stickers to children.

"Storyland...Where Fantasy Lives!"

We stopped at Storyland on the way back from our week in Maine. Sadie loved it! It's perfect for a small child and the park is really clean, family friendly and very nice.

Sadie loved the rides and also liked posing with these things:

Sadie and Daddy as Heidi and Peter.


Mommy and Sadie as "Sambo" and the tiger. I was very surprised to see Sambo at Storyland, as I didn't think this story was widely known among kids these days. It has fallen out of favor for sure. Note that Storyland refers to this character as Sambo, rather than "Little Black Sambo" from the original story. I guess that makes it more PC?

How?

Lots of curiousity about how Sadie got out to the float and how far was the swim...

Here's a picture of the float from the beach, so you can see how far out it is. Not that far.

An adult can walk about halfway and then needs to swim. Sadie, of course, has to swim the whole way.

So, does she swim? Well, in her life jacket, she kicks and paddles and covers some ground. But to get the float, Dan essentially pulls her the whole way.


"Hi Mommy! We made it!"

Funny Expression

Sadie, captured with a thoughtful yet funny expression on her face on one of the cool mornings during our week in Maine...

Beach Fun, Two Ways

First way to have fun on the beach:
Play with sand toys and dig holes with Mommy...


Second way to have fun on the beach:
Swim all the way out to the float with Daddy, sit there for a while and then jump off a lot, a lot, a lot of times!

One from Maine

sadie and a little boat
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

I'm going to get some more pictures up soon, I promise. We had a lovely, fun, relaxing time and Sadie loved every moment, especially the moments in the water!

It's that time again...

Time to go to Maine! We leave tomorrow for our annual week in Maine. This week involves a ton of packing and organizing. There isn't any laundry where we go, so lots of toddler clothes need to be packed. It can be cool in the mornings and evenings and hot during the day, so we need things for lots of weather conditions. There are grocery stores nearby, but it can be annoying to go to them when you'd rather be swimming in the lake, so I have stocked up on lots of diapers, swimmies, pull-ups, single serving milk boxes and other crucial Sadie items.

Sadie at Migis in 2005, 8 months old:

Sadie at Migis in 2006, 1.5 years old:


And I need to put a delivery hold on the newspaper so we don't come back to a big pile of Valley News in the driveway.

Fun Times

On Sunday, we walked (Sadie rode her trike) to the playground at the local elementary school. It was a beautiful afternoon and we were expecting it to be crowded, but it was deserted...we were the only ones there. Sadie had great time playing on all the equipment and swinging "like a spider" with Daddy.

Birthday Time!

laughter
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Happy birthday to Auntie Lolly...yes, we know we are a few days late on this one...and happy 30th birthday to Kate (also not on the correct day, but fairly close!)

We're also getting close to some other birthdays, like Bob-Bob's and Reggie's, and are also eagerly awaiting news about the arrival of Reggie and Rebecca's daughter, who is due in a couple weeks.

Sadie Plays Her "Saxophone"

It's actually an airlock from my homebrewing supplies, but who's counting.

Just like Mommy

This morning, Sadie noticed that our dresses were similar, so we posed for some pictures together.

Hot

We're having a nice run of hot weather here. When I pick Sadie up at daycare, she is usually quite sweaty but very happy. She's been asking to wear a dress almost every day lately, which is fine with me. She has lots of nice light sundresses. It will be interesting to see how the dress phase works out in the colder weather.

Family Dynamics

Conversation with Sadie this morning while snuggling in bed.

Sadie: Why you wearing that ring in bed Mommy?
Ann: It's my wedding ring. I always wear it because I am married to Daddy.
Sadie: No! I married to Daddy, my husband. We married. We dance together. You the mommy.
Ann: No, Daddy and I are married, you're our little girl.
Sadie: I know a plan! We all married!


(Sadie and her "husband" dig on the beach)

Big Girl Swing

big girl swing at school
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Sadie still loves to swing. Ever since she was a little baby, she has enjoyed this kind of motion! She is getting really confident going on a "big girl" swing. She also loves tire swings...there is one in Norwich that she loves to ride on.

Nana and Bob-Bob's party was really lovely. I'll try to share some pictures from the party this week.

Similarity

the bell ringer toy thing
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

When we went to New York, Sadie had fun at this playground near Grandpa and Grandma's apartment. This piece of equipment makes musical chimes and is a lot of fun to play with. Sadie loved playing here, probably because it is the almost exact same equipment as they have at the Ray School playground here in the Upper Valley...the main difference is that the Ray School stuff is yellow, red and blue and the NYC equipment was light green and red.

We're off to Nana and Bob-Bob's today to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary!

Scenes from School

One of Sadie's favorite things at daycare is when Kathy comes. Kathy is a musician and children's music teacher who visits several times a month to sing and play instruments with the children.


Sadie loved playing with scarves while Kathy sang the "bird song".

Sadie and Isaac join the train of children around the play yard.


Sadie has a purple tambourine.

More Golf

I meant to share this picture in the previous post, but I guess I forgot.

Sadie's name for this slightly shaggy hairstyle is "Just fluff it up, leave it PLAIN, Mommy!". Sadie loves this yellow dress and wants to wear it frequently. I say that she has to wear it like a jumper with a t-shirt underneath because it is quite low cut in the front. The purple fake crocs add a perfect finishing touch.