Horsing Around

Sadie is like a little sponge that absorbs all the information around her.  She has figured out that"up" means to put her arms up because she's going to be picked up and to quickly scan the room if someone says "kitty" because one of her favorite playmates has probably entered the room.  She has known names like "Puddy," "Mommy," and "Daddy" for a while (I honestly believe that "Puddy" is probably the name that is first and foremost in her little head), but now she seems to be recognizing actual words.  

She is also more determined than ever to stay awake from 6:30 in the morning until 7:30 at night.  She doesn't believe me when I say that babies need to take naps.  She secretly believes that we have wild parties the minute that she closes her eyes, eating rice cereal with bananas (her favorite food) and apple juice and milk.  Lately the only way to get her to go down for a nap, for any length of time anyway, has involved putting her in her stroller and going on a walk.  She usually stays awake for the first mile, before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.  

She wakes up the second that I stop walking, which is why I've been walking so much lately.  Today we only walked three miles, but I've been averaging five to six miles a day!  Sadie's new stubborn refusal to go down for a nap may be what I need to keep my new years resolution.  

Grumpa helped me put Sadie's Crawl and Cruise Musical Jungle together today (it would have been really hard to assemble on my own!).  She was hilarious.  She rolled across the room so that she was positioned next to Grumpa's feet and then she tried to wedge her body underneath the pieces of the jungle so that she could see what he was doing (he was screwing the pieces together with an electric drill).  With Sadie's help we got it pieced together and she was motivated to sit up to play with the monkey who drops the ball down the ramp (she can sit up pretty well, but she's so into rolling that the moment I put her down in a sitting position she lunges forward and starts to roll across the room.).  

After playing with the Jungle we went outside to watch Grumpa work with the horses.  Sammy was first and Sadie's eyes were like saucers when he bucked and kicked and got his wiggles out, after not being handled all winter.  Grumpa worked with Black next and before Black went back to his stall he came over and sniffed Sadie (including her diaper).  Sadie was a little bit braver at this point and reached her hand out and touched the velvet on Black's nose!  We watched him work with Starr, before going on our last walk and heading back to the house for dinner. 

It's been another busy day and tomorrow is Sadie's first Super Bowl!