Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Grandpas

It's a little bit embarrassing.  It happens when we're standing in line at Costco and when we're eating out at a nice restaurant.  Sometimes it happens during Mass.  Sadie will be sitting quietly, behaving like a little princess and then she'll see one.  A grandpa.  It doesn't have to be one of her own grandpa's.  It can be anyone's grandpa.

Actually, it doesn't even have to be an actual grandpa.  The elderly gentleman just has to look like a grandpa.  That means he needs a kindly smile, a smattering of grey hair and maybe even a pair of glasses.  

When Sadie sees a grandpa-looking-fellow, she goes crazy.  She starts by cooing sweetly and then lets out a squeal of glee.  She smiles her best little baby smile and leans in their direction.  If she's having an especially coordinated day she will even wave her little hand.  She may even lean towards them and try for a kiss.  

It happened tonight at dinner at the restaurant at the golf course (she nearly fell out of her high chair leaning towards the man at the table next to us... although she also lavished her little baby attentions on Gigi, her actual great grandpa).  She also chatted away with a grey haired man holding a carrot cake in the line in Costco yesterday (moments later she leaned over backwards and tried to kiss the young man who was getting the food ready to be scanned, on the cheek).  It's hilarious to watch.  

When Sadie was very very little, Paul used to say that he thought she was a little shy...  I think we have all been disabused of that notion.  It turned out to be just wishful thinking.  

Sadie is a social butterfly.  And a flirt!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Garlic Cheese and Go-gurt

Sadie had another play date today!  She met her friend Fin at Turtle Bay (along with his Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa) and had a great time.  She still isn't really big enough to play, but she has a lot of fun watching other kids play and she liked watching Fin play in the gravel and on the playground toys.  

She has also mastered the fine art of picking up finger foods from the tray on her high chair and putting them into her mouth, usually on the first try.  It took about a week of practice to really get the hand-eye coordination that is required down, but tonight at dinner she put her first three yogurt drops in her mouth on her first try.

Sadie has also developed a go-gurt addiction (go-gurt are the yogurt tubes that you can eat by squeezing, without a spoon).  We went to Costco this afternoon and Nani picked up a Go-gurt sample and let Sadie try it to see if she liked it.  After a tiny taste she became a little hysterical.  She wanted more and she wanted more now.  She ate the entire sample go-gurt in the store and then she ate another half go-gurt in the car (we are now the proud go-gurt of an entire carton of go-gurt).  I believe that she would have eaten the entire go-gurt, but after half she became so hysterical (she wanted the yogurt to come out faster) that I pretended that it was empty, handed her Binkie and hid the rest of the go-gurt until she fell asleep.  

The one other food that could probably give the go-gurt a run for it's money is cheese.  Particularly, garlic cheese.  If the garlic cheese wasn't popped into Sadie's mouth quickly enough she would burst into tears and sob for more.  She hasn't had much cheese, but it is a fan favorite.  

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Cat Hunting

Sadie is taking her afternoon nap so I am taking this opportunity to write a quick blog.  Our internet connection has been having a few problems lately, although it should be better tomorrow afternoon (with satellite internet you can only download so much and my computer just needed an update, so it slows the entire houses internet down for 24 hours...).  

The Cat Hunt has begun and no cat within the walls of this house can really feel safe any longer.  Sadie can crawl and she is constantly on the look out for cats.  She still practices wrestling her stuffed cat, Kitty, every chance she gets, but over the course of the last few days she's also been after the real thing.  Sammy let her get too close yesterday (she under estimates the baby's speed) and lost a baby sized handful of fur (apparently I also underestimated her speed when intervening).  

Paul kept trying to get a picture of the Sadie-Sammy encounter, but by then Sammy had learned that Sadie's crawling is improving exponentially and she wasn't about to let Sadie get within arms reach of her tail (or whiskers).  

We are still working on the concept of gentle (I'm wondering how many months we have before she's old enough to understand that concept).  Until she does understand, the cats are going to have to stay on there toes and I'll have to keep protecting Sammy and Sadie from each other (I am a little worried that Sammy is going to snap one of these days...).  

Tomorrow if the internet is back up and running I'll have pictures!

Friday, March 27, 2009

"Hi Dada!"

When we were sitting at lunch today Daddy looked at Sadie and said "Hi!"  He was shocked when she responded by saying "Hi Dada!" and since then has become a little bit vain about what he is claiming is her first sentence (I am still maintaining that her first sentence is "Mama a bah!" which clearly meant, Mama a book!"  She was holding a book in her hand and showing it to me at the time.).    

Earlier this week Sadie started eating solid foods.  We picked up some yogurt drops and banana puffs that dissolve in your mouth pretty easily and she absolutely loves them.  She can eat them easily if we pop them into her mouth, but when she's in a good mood and she's not tired she likes to work on picking them up herself (if she's a little tired she gets too frustrated with them!).  She usually eats them after she has had her meal, when everyone else is at the table eating, which makes her very happy.  

In the beginning, when she was first trying to eat the puffs she would struggle to pick them up in her tiny hand.  When she finally got one into her mouth on her own everyone at the table would cheer and tell her what a good job she had done.  After a few successful tries she started raising her arms up in the air after she got one into her mouth and smiling.  

She's gotten much better at picking the banana puffs up on her own over the course of the last few days and she's still celebrating every time she does it by herself (and sometimes when she gets help).  Today we went out to lunch and Sadie was in a very social mood.  She had turned around to greet every single person who came into the room, with a happy little smile and soft babbling, but when we started to eat and I put a banana puff on her tray, things got a little bit wild.  

She picked the banana puff up easily and popped it into her mouth on the first try.  Then she raised her arms in the air, smiled and gave an ear splitting squeal.  We had a brief, whispered discussion about indoor voices and I gave her another banana puff.  Seconds later the relative quiet in the restaurant was shattered by another triumphant scream.  Sadie is very proud of her new hand-eye coordination.  

I finally resorted to getting out her sippy cup, which usually gives us about ten minutes of relaxing eating time and today it didn't disappoint.  The sippy cup saved the meal!  

Now it's bed time!  I actually stayed up until 9 on a Friday night!  I don't think I can remember the last time that happened.  Good night!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Outsmarted (almost)


I've been feeling under the weather for the last couple of days (and nights) and today Sadie seems to have come down with whatever it is that I have.  I thought that she felt warm last night, but this morning she was so cheerful and playful that I didn't take her temperature because I was sure that I must have been mistaken.  We went on a two mile walk (I was able to go because of wonderful generic cold and flu medicine) and sat outside on a blanket and watched Grumpa ride one of the horses.  When she came back inside she took a little nap and then played in her playpen and when, after being paroled out of the playpen, she found herself back on the carpet, she started zooming around the room like a bird that has been let out of its cage.  

Despite the nap, at about five o'clock she started to get fussy and when I picked her up she was super cuddly (I am learning that this is a sure sign of illness) and now we're trying to keep her awake long enough to eat dinner (although I don't think she'll eat much).  

Before I go try and convince her to eat I do have one Sadie Story to end the day with.

Sadie understands the word "no."  She hears it when she tries to climb up on the hearth to get to the wood stove and when she tries to climb the TV stand to get to the TV (something we dealt with yesterday).  This morning she headed towards the TV, despite the fact that it was off.  I was sitting a few feet away at the base of the couch and I said, "Sadie, no.  No we don't touch the TV."  

Amazingly she stopped.  And turned.  I couldn't believe it.  She had listened to me.  She had understood.  Then a huge smile formed across her sweet little face.  She had figured out a solution.  We could both be happy.

Slowly, she began to back towards the TV.  She thought that if she was backing towards the TV I would be okay with it.

I wasn't.  

By this afternoon she had a new plan.  When she approached the TV and I said no, she would stop, turn, look, and smile and then sprint crawl as fast as she could to see if she could beat me to the TV stand.  So far, even sick, I can still beat her. 

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Weather Report and Wheel of Fortune

I was just attacked by Kitty (Sadie's giant, overstuffed, stuffed calico cat, from Old Navy).  I was just sitting on the floor in the living room, minding my own business and Kitty lunged at me and tackled me to the ground.  

Luckily Sadie wasn't about to let that slide and she hurried across the room, in tiny tornado mode, to "rescue" me.  Kitty may have tackled me because of Sadie's proximity to the television.  

I have a confession to make: Sadie is allowed in the room when the television is on.  Usually it's in the morning and at night, when everyone in the house watches the news.  This may explain her obsession with the weather portion of the news (she can hear the lead up to the weather from anywhere in the living room and focus in on what's going to be going on in the upcoming week).  She is particularly fond one of the local meteorologists, Cheeta Johnson, who is on most weekday mornings and who she seems to believe is a member of the family (Nani just pointed out that she also really likes Mike and Pete, the other two meteorologists).  

She is also occasionally in the room when Wheel of Fortune comes on, although usually she's upstairs getting ready for her bath, so it's relatively rare.  However when she is in the room it becomes clear that Wheel of Fortune is a close second the the daily weather report.  

Maybe it's the bright colors.  Whatever it is I don't really buy in to all the magazine articles that say that if a baby watches a minutes of TV each day they'll be somehow stunted.  I can see how spending the day sitting in front of the day could do that, but if a baby's up playing for the other eleven hours that they are awake, I think they'll be just fine.

There is one danger that may have had something to do with why Kitty attacked me.  Sadie has been trying to use her play farm to climb up onto the TV stand.  She seems to think that, if she could just get up onto the stand, she could climb into the screen and give everyone kisses.  And making sure that that doesn't happen takes a lot of energy!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Scary Sea Creatures

While we were in Crescent City this weekend we visited the local aquarium so that Sadie could look at the fish and the sharks.  

The tour started with a little show that was put on by a tour guide with two seals.  Since the seals were dark grey and the water was pretty dark, Sadie was having a hard time seeing them, so I brought her right up to the edge of the deck so that she could watch.  After a few seconds she noticed the seals swimming around and she started following them with her eyes.  She looked pretty happy watching them and we weren't really all that close because the deck is raised and set back a short distance.  

A few minutes into the "show" portion (when the two seals were doing tricks) one of the seals jumped out of the water to hit a white ball hanging from a rope with his nose.  

I expected Sadie to smile or laugh.

Instead the entire group heard a piercing scream of pure terror.  Sadie burst into tears and started to cry hysterically.  

It took about a minute to get Sadie calmed down and then she cuddled Nani and hung back at the very furthest edge of the crowd, where the seals looked smaller and much less frightening.  And then the seal trainer started to talk.  She was trying to convince the seals to come out of the water, but they didn't seem to think that this was a great idea (they finally did come out).  She explained that the seals, particularly Scully the seal that had jumped out of the water, were afraid of loud noises.  I suddenly felt like I'd brought a screaming baby in to church (a feeling that's not entirely unfamiliar).  

The tour went on.  Sadie loved the sharks and gurgled at them and reached out her chubby little hands.  She thought the moray eels were great and the perch were hilarious in their little schools.  She even reached out her hand and grabbed the slimiest looking starfish in the entire place.  

Amazingly the fact that the seals had been startled came up two more times during our tour.  Yikes!  Way to make us feel welcome!

I would still like to take Sadie back when she's a bit older because there are so many fun things to see!

Monday, March 23, 2009

We are Not Ready to Walk! We are Not Ready to Walk!!!

It's already here.  Where did the time go and what the heck happened to crawling?!?!  You see, only a week ago Sadie could barely crawl.  Then a couple days ago she started zooming around the house like a mini, unstoppable tornado.  

This weekend we went to the ocean with Nani and Grumpa and Nini and Gigi (great grandma and great grandpa).  Daddy had school for the first two days, but he drove up late Saturday night so that he could be there on Sunday morning when Sadie woke up.  

One of the first things that Sadie did when we got to beach house was pull herself onto her feet and then she stood, wobbling and beaming with pride.  That was on Friday. 

She practiced her standing up and holding on to various objects all weekend.  This afternoon when we got home she was back to zooming around the house, checking to make sure that the toys that didn't accompany us on our trip to the ocean, hadn't been stolen while she was gone.  Then she made her way over to her Cruise and Crawl Gym.  

She pulled herself right up and spent a few minutes talking with the orange monkey that is on top of the gym.  Then I heard Nani, who was across the room, gasp.  Sadie was standing sideways with one hand resting lightly on the gym and the other held straight out to her side.  She gave the distinct impression that she was trying to balance. 

When she saw that I had noticed what she was doing she gave a huge smile and let go of the gym with her other hand.  She then tried to walk to me.  

I caught her.

Her balance was pretty good and she has tested it in several new and interesting ways since we got home.  She pulled up in front of the tv and stood for a while and she also pulled up on the front of the couch and then started jumping up and down, while lifting one leg to try to get it up over the cushion (this was in pursuit of Sammy the Cat).  And she hasn't given up on walking.  

She can't be one of those babies that walks at nine months... can she?  I thought I had a least two more months!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Falling in Love with Books

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for the ocean with Grumpa and Nani and Nini and Gigi.  Hopefully we will be able to find someplace with internet access near where we are staying, but my blog may be on hold for a little while until we get back (on Monday afternoon).  

Sadie has finally (and quite suddenly) fallen in love with reading.  She resisted for months, mostly because she couldn't turn the pages herself, even the big, thick, board book pages and so every time she even looked at a book she would get a furious little look on her face.  

A few weeks ago Nani found the Begin Smart books at Barnes and Nobles, which has specific age groups listed at the top of each book.  We picked out a couple of the 0-6 month books and a few 6-12 months books.  

It was love at first sight.  The books have really simple pictures and the books that are for babies that are under a year old also have very simple language (like on or two words on a page at a time.  Sadie's is coordinated enough now to turn the pages by herself when she looks at the pictures on her own, which is probably also part of the reason that she is less frustrated.  

She is still watching My Baby Can Read daily and she's big enough now that she sits up straight in the middle of the living room and watches the twenty minute program, which gives me a little bit of time to write.  It's hard to tell if it's working, but the program says not to worry if you don't see results before 18 months, so we may have another 9 months to wait and see.  Even if she isn't learning to words just yet, she certainly loves staring at the clips of animals and listening to the songs.  And I'm just happy that she finally sits on my lap and lets me read to her.  

She even smiles at the pictures now.  

Sadie's Favorite Books of the Day is


Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Where's The Coffee Table?

The coffee table has been banished from the living room and is now residing under a blanket in a storage locker in town.  Sadie had taken quite an interest in the table and one of her favorite activities was (unfortunately) crawling under the coffee table and then trying to sit up.  This never turned out well.  When she wasn't under the table she seemed determined to fall against it and bang her head in other ways and so Nani announced last night that it would be going away for a while.

Sadie is in love with the new open floor plan.  She spent a good portion of the afternoon crawling from one side of the room to the other, pulling out toys and then making her way over to the window to check for birds.  She's in love with the little yellow finches that eat thistle out of the thistle nets.  

The cats have also noticed her new mobility and with the exception of Pumpkin (who turned 18 today and is a little senile) they are steering clear of her little grabby hands.

Another upside of crawling is the exhaustion that goes along with zooming around the room for two hours.  Sadie hasn't been resisting nap time as much for the past two days and I think it's because she's using all of her energy moving around.  Nothing is left to resist sleeping.

Hopefully that will carry over at bedtime and she'll be out by 8 o'clock.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

She Can Crawl, She Can Crawl, She Can Crawl

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sadie and I have been reading a chapter of Peter Pan each day, which is why I have the You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly song going through my head (and the reason for the title of my blog).

The baby proofing of the house is gradually getting more aggressive each day as Sadie expands her territory in the living room.  I apparently never realized how interesting each and everything that I own is (infinitely more interesting then baby things), particularly my computer, which has the bad habit of making it's home wherever it is left, often on the ground next to the outlet (that changed yesterday, but I don't think it's new home, on the windowsill behind Grumpa's chair, is very safe either). 

She leaves a path of destruction where ever she goes.  She is particularly fond of glossy magazines.  The pages seem to stick to her hands and she loves it when they crinkle.  I am pretty sure that her perfect afternoon would begin by shredding a dozen or so parenting magazines leading up to a nice long nap in her carriage (which I would be pushing around the property).  She also loves pressing the buttons on the remote controls, slamming her hands on the keyboard to the computer and her newest goal seems to be opening the drawers under the TV stand (there are DVDs inside).

Grumpa installed the cabinet locks earlier this week but they still haven't been pushed into the "lock position" (that will probably be tomorrow).  We have yet to determine how we're going to protect the hearth.  

Let the baby proofing begin!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Rain, Rain and more Rain

The weather in Redding was crazy today.  Earlier in the week they said that it might rain this weekend, but that they really couldn't tell from the forecast.  Apparently on Saturday the forecast changed and they said the storm wasn't going to hit until Sunday night, which it did, with rain.  The rain wasn't anything dramatic, it was just a regular rainy day all day yesterday and we headed into Redding this morning to stock up on baby food (we'd finally gotten through the huge stock of baby food that I picked up at Target when Sadie first started on solids).  

After lunch the rain started to get a little bit heavier.  I had Sadie in her cute purple rain jacket and when we ran from the Pizza Factory to the car Sadie squealed like it was the funniest thing in the world.  When we got on the freeway the rain really started to get heavy.  At first Paul thought that it was just because we were behind a big truck but when we took the exit we saw that the flat area at the side of the road was completely flooded.

About an hour later we were headed home and it was raining so hard that I could hardly see out the front window.  We started to head up a hill and there was a river of water running down one of the lanes (the one that we happened to be in), but we got over into the other lane and made it home safe and sound.

When the news came on tonight at five o'clock the main story was flooding in Redding.  By the time the 5:30 news came on there had been one fatality because of the flooding (someone was swept down a drainage thing), the care home next to the hospital had to be evacuated and there were giant rivers running down the streets (the one that felt so big to me when we were in it ended up being tiny compared to what happened later on and it showed Cal Trans workers in water that looked to be waist deep).  

We left town just in time.  The heavy rain only lasted for about three hours, but it was an insane amount of water.  On one side of town they only had light sporadic rain, while another part of town got nine inches in three hours.  Crazy.

Sadie is really crawling now.  When we got home from Redding she decided that it was the way to get around and after only crawling small amounts up until today she started heading around the living room like she'd been doing it all of her life.  She also crawled immediately over to the window and started trying to stand up by herself.

We can also see her top tooth clearly now (it's halfway through, and really seems to be bothering her).  And that is why I have to go right now.  The baby is feeling very small with her three very sharp teeth and needs Mommy to help her remember that it really is time to go to sleep.  Goodnight!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Binky Thief

Yesterday when Sadie was sitting on my lap I picked up one of her Binkies and stuck it in my mouth, just to see what she would do.  She stared at me for about thirty seconds, with a look that told me that she thought that I had gone completely insane.  Then she reached over and pulled the Binky out of my mouth.

I made a little face and pretended to cry.  

My fake tears were apparently the funniest thing that Sadie had ever seen in her entire life.  She laughed hysterically for a while and then reached up and shoved the Binky back into my mouth.  A few seconds later she grabbed it back again and laughed uncontrollably while I pretended to be heartbroken over my lost Binky.  This scene repeated itself several times over the course of the day and Sadie seemed to think that it was consistently funny.

This morning during Mass Sadie was pretty fussy.  Her top tooth was trying to come in (I think it broke through this afternoon) and she wasn't feeling great.  Suddenly she got very quiet.  She took her Binky out of her mouth and looked at Paul.  Then she leaned over and tried her very best to force her Binky into Paul's closed mouth.  I'm pretty sure she was trying to give him Binky so that she could see the look on his face when she took it away.  

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Adventures in Non-Stop Motion

Sadie is on the move.  Constantly.  She is an endless fountain of energy (that can be tricked into taking a nap twice a day... if I'm lucky).  Today I was lucky, mostly because taking long walks with Sadie in the stroller increases my chances of a successful nap.  That, along with a desire to lose the last 5 lbs of baby weight that remain, is the main reason that I walked a bit over seven miles today.  My legs are sore, I am exhausted, it's bedtime... and Sadie is still ready to play.  She's trying to climb over to me right now to take the computer out of my hands.

She still isn't really into crawling.  She can crawl, but she seems to have discovered more interesting and efficient ways of getting around.  There's the arm over arm military style crawl that can work in a pinch, the super speed roll that can take her across the room in the blink of an eye and the stick our butt straight up in the air and try to walk with our hands still touching the ground (we haven't quite got the kinks worked out of that one, but it's fun to try).  

She has also learned how to jump. 

Now I spent some time today trying to decipher out how a baby who cannot yet stand on her own could figure out how to jump and I still haven't figured it out.  The first time it happened was right before bath time.  I had left the room for a minute and Nani was holding on to her hands while she stood on the bed.  When I walked back into the room Nani was explaining to Sadie that Nani's bed is not a jumping bed.  She had been holding on to Nani's hands and she had suddenly started jumping up and down.  It happened again today when Sadie was in her exersaucer and I walked over and put my arms down and said "up."  She jumped up with her little arms waving in the air so that the seat of the exersaucer actually wasn't holding any of her weight.  

Other new ways of moving include: holding on to the couch to go from standing up to sitting down, trying to slide over the edge of the bed to get onto the floor (headfirst and feet-first) and trying to find a way to slide out of her high chair and get down on the ground.

I would write more about Sadie's new ways of getting around, but I am currently being attacked by a tiny baby who has made her way over to me and is going after the computer.  Now it's time to convince her that it is actually time for bed.  

Thursday, March 12, 2009

"Dada"

Tonight will just be a short blog because Sadie is super fussy (and sleep deprivation is starting to get to me).  It may be teething, it may be a tummy ache (she's kind of acting like her stomach hurts) but she is definitely fussy (and by fussy I mean: I have not slept in three nights).  

This morning, when she was not fussy, Sadie was watching Signing Time (a sign language DVD) from her exersaucer.  The last signs are the signs for Mommy and Daddy.  The Mommy sign comes on first and Sadie watched it on TV and then looked at me.  I repeated the sign and said "mama."  Sadie got a funny little smile on her face and looked at me for a second while I repeated "mama."  She opened her mouth and took a breath and I waited to hear what she was going to say.  Out came-

"Dadadadada!"  Then she smiled a little smile and said it a second time.  

I think Paul enjoyed hearing this news even more then Sadie enjoyed the surprised expression on my face when she said it.  It is definitely her word of the week.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Things that Sadie Saw Today

Today Sadie and I walked five and a half miles.  We pushed her in her Bob Stroller for four and a half miles and I wore her in her baby bjorn during the rest of the hike.  It is amazing how much of a difference one pound makes.  Sadie was 18 lbs two months ago when I was carrying her around in the baby bjorn all the time.  Now she is 19 lbs 4 oz and felt so much heavier!  

The wildlife in Trinity County really seemed to be out and about today.  Here is a list of some of what we saw.  It was an eventful day.

We saw...
1. A bald eagle flying up  the river.
2. A baby deer in the orchard eating.
3. An otter swimming up the river.
4. A ground squirrel peering out of its hole in the ground.
5. A hummingbird drinking out of a half frozen feeder.
6. Ten bright yellow finches fighting over a feeder at Nani's house.
7. A group of about twenty five bright yellow finches fighting over a feeder at Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's house.
8. A formerly feral, now adorable cat chasing a mouse.
9. A formerly wild mustang putting on his very own rodeo.
10. And Sadie got to see Mommy riding an appaloosa/quarter horse that hasn't been ridden all winter (and I lived to blog about it!).

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Words We've Learned

The List of Words that Sadie Has Said

1. "Mamama"  This is usually said with a little bit of a whine in her tone.  
2. "Dadada"  Sadie just learned this one last Thursday.  When Paul went to work that night she watched him go and then spent the next hour saying "Dadada" over and over again.  
3. "Nanana"  Sadie usually says this one when she wants to tattle on me.  She says it when I'm trying to keep her from eating one of her books or when I'm trying to wash the animal cracker crumbs off of her face.  
4. "No!"  I would like to deny that "no" was Sadie's first word, but it is on a video and I have posted that video on this blog.  
5. "Ba."  Ba seems to mean Book or Binkie.  I first heard Sadie say it when she was grabbing a book that I was trying to read to her out of my hand.  She said "mama a ba!" which I took to mean "Mama, my book!" (but you would probably have to hear her tone to get that from what she'd said.  
6. "Hi!"  Actually this was Sadie's real first word.  I'm not sure she knew what it meant when she started saying it, but she definitely seemed to like the reaction that she would get when she said it.

The List of Words that Sadie Understands

1. "No."  She understands it, but she doesn't necessarily obey it.  The other day Sadie learned how to give high fives.  After learning how to slap someone's hand she seemed to think that it was hilarious to make a slapping sound by slapping whatever happened to be in reach (which more often then not is Mommy's nose, Mommy's shoulder, Mommy's chest, ect.).  The first time I said no when she did it she stopped, thought for a few minutes and then raised her hand up again.  When I said no again she stopped.  The next day the same scene played out only when I said no she did it really quick and then put her face against my chest and started giggling. 

2. "Bird."  If you say the word bird she looks out the window, first at the hummingbird feeder and then at the finch feeder.  

3. "Deer."  Taylor, our almost pet deer, is back on the lawn every morning and Sadie loves watching him.  I'm not sure who she'd rather stare at all morning, the deer or the birds (or the fish at the aquarium in Redding). 

Monday, March 9, 2009

Fish, Bunnies and Cats: Another Day with Sadie

Sadie went back to visit her fish today at Turtle Bay and she definitely wasn't shy when she saw them.  If you look at the glass on the aquarium now in the right light you can probably see little impressions of her mouth from where she tried to kiss them through the glass.  You would also see hundreds of her hand prints.  She had so much fun watching them swim!

While we were in Redding we went to Target to look at Easter Basket stuff and I asked Paul to pick out a stuffed bunny for Sadie's basket. Unfortunately the bunny will not fit in Sadie's Easter Basket. Paul's choice was the largest bunny in the entire store. When he put it on the passenger seat on the way home I'm surprised that the seat belt alarm didn't go off, telling him to belt the bunny in. On second thought it's probably because the passenger seat belt is permanently belted since I'm still sitting in the back with the baby and Paul's book bag sets of the alarm. The Bunny is giant.

Sadie is sound asleep on the bed next to me right now (hopefully for the night) and I have to say the Pumpkin did something tonight that truly shocked me. As I've mention before Pumpkin is seventeen years old (she will be eighteen years old this month) and there are very few things that she can do that will shock me. She's starting to get a little bit senile, but she still has one huge pet peeve.

She hates it when people stay downstairs after nine o'clock at night.  She has an internal cat clock, that's surprisingly precise and at nine she wakes up from her bed next to the fire place and looks around.  If she sees humans she becomes angry.  The downstairs portion of the house belongs to her at night.  We don't belong.  

If she sees someone downstairs, for example, if I am sitting on the couch holding a sleeping Sadie in my arms, she will walk directly over and start yowling at the top of her tiny cat lungs. If she's really irritated (in other words, if she's already been yowling for a few minutes and we're still there) she will actually jump up on the arm of the couch and yowl while staring at the baby.  It's amazing how much sound she can generate with her little cat vocal cords.  

Well tonight I am already upstairs and I've already gotten Sadie to drift off to sleep.  I was quite surprised to hear the pitter patter of little cat feet coming up behind me and I was even more surprised when I heard yowling.  It was her gravelly little yowl (imagine a cat with a gruff, old lady smokers voice and you have Pumpkins cat voice) right next to the bed.  When we didn't get up and acknowledge her presence she jumped up on the stand next to the bed and started to yowl.  Sadie was moments away from waking up.  I had to act quickly.

 I moved Pumpkin to a room with a space heater and set her right in front of it.  She is blissfully happy and toasty warm.  And Sadie is still sound asleep.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

The Princess and the Cowboy Boots

Sadie has learned that her cowboy boots aren't all that bad.  They have hard bottoms that make it easy for her to balance when she practices standing.  

Lately we have bundled up before going to church, but now that the heater in the church is working reliably (it has been for a while), I decided to pull out one of Sadie's princess dresses and see how she did.  

Dressing a baby who can't walk in a princess dress can be kind of tricky.  If you are going to be holding her while standing for long periods of time (like during a religious service), you need to make sure that the dress material isn't slippery.  Sadie has some very pretty dresses that we have learned not to put her in, at least until she can walk, because it's impossible to hold on to her when she was wearing them.  It might be different if she was smaller, but at a shade under twenty lbs, heavy and slippery is not a good combination.  
Sadie still isn't feeling great.  The ear infections seem to be going away, but her top teeth look like they are coming in (theyseem to be a lot more painful than the bottom teeth).  This has made nights a bit longer because she's been waking up crying every half hour during the past three nights.  Today the upside of being up during the nights meant that she was so exhausted during Mass that she hardly made a peep.  

This evening (through the miracle of Tylenol) she was feeling much better and ate her first big meal of the day (I had to bribe her with bananas to get her to eat at lunch time and she hardly toucher her breakfast.  For dinner it was Turkey with vegetables and sweet potatoes and bananas for dessert).  

She even felt well enough to eat a cheerio! It was her first cheerio and it was quite an ordeal.  Sadie has gotten very adept at picking cheerios up between her thumb and index finger, studying them closely, making little gagging faces without actually putting them in her mouth and then dramatically flicking them off the high chair and onto the ground.  It's very silly to watch.  Especially the dramatic faces.  The cheerios would stick to her lips and chin and she would gag.  I think that the cheerio going in to her mouth may have been an accident, but she chewed it and swallowed it.  With the exception of the teething biscuits they are her first real solid food!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

These Boots Are Made For Walking

Before Sadie was born Grumpa bought her a pair of beautiful pink cowboy boots.  He asked the lady in the store what size she would probably be wearing when she was first walking around and she picked out a pair of size sixes.  

Fast forward to now.  I was about to walk down the stairs today and I saw the yellow box that held the boots in them.  A while ago Nani held them against the bottoms of her feet to make sure that she wasn't growing out of them and she still had a ways to go.  I wanted to make sure though.  

I brought the box downstairs and took the boots out of the box.  They looked giant next to Sadie.  I held them up to her feet.  

I think that it is fair to say that Sadie has proportions similar to a german shepherd puppy.  (A quick note: While I'm sitting next to Sadie typing my blog she just pushed herself up and crawled all the way across the living room.  And it was a real crawl, not an on her tummy military style crawl.  It was all in a quest for a container from Target that has caramel popcorn in it.  She can't open it, but she holds it over her head and opens her mouth and shakes it.) 

Anyways, getting back to the topic of this blog, Sadie has pretty big feet and pretty big hands when compared with her body.  While she has started to grow in to them, she's definitely still a ways off.  

To make a long story short (I know, I know.  Too late.) the beautiful pink cowboy boots that Grumpa and Nani bought for her before she was born, fit perfectly today.  On her feet anyways.  Once I wrangled her in to them they came up to a spot just below her knees.  

I put her down on the floor, cute as a button in her overalls and boots and held her hands as she tried to convince me that there was no way that she could even stand with those things on her feet.  Once she realized that they weren't going to come off she seemed dazzled by their beauty and spent another good portion of the time she spent wearing them, staring at them.  It was a little bit difficult to get a picture of her in her boots looking up at the camera.  

I've said it once and I'll say it again:  I can't believe how fast she's growing!

Friday, March 6, 2009

A "Willful" Baby

The antibiotics are already kicking in and Sadie seems to be feeling much better (although she has three more days of medicine just to make sure she's kicked the ear infections).  We drove in to Redding today with Daddy (who was on his way to school in San Francisco) and then visited Hoho with Nani and Grumpa.  It was quite a busy day.  

While we were at Target, waiting for Nani and Grumpa to drive in to town, Paul realized that Sadie didn't have a pop-up toy.  I'm not entirely sure what they are actually called (so I've posted a little picture).  It was one of my favorite toys growing up and Paul was also adamant that it's one of those toys that every kid should have.  So it went into the basket (actually it went into my arms because we didn't have a basket because we weren't supposed to be shopping.  We were "just looking around").  

Once we got home from out trip to Redding I untangled the toy from the box and set it up on the floor.  The cute little animals peered at Sadie and she peered back.
And then she set to work.  What were the toys doing out of their boxes?  She hadn't taken them out of the boxes.  Mommy had.  I had visions of the incident a few months ago with the little book on her exersaucer repeating itself, when Sadie decided that no one else should be allowed to touch her toys.  If I tried to open the book to encourage her to look at the pictures she would slam it shut with an annoyed look.
It wasn't easy for Sadie to slam the animals back into their boxes.  Some of them resisted (okay, it was really just her fingers getting caught when she tried to shut the lid).  For the record, it currently takes Sadie about five minutes to corral all the animals back into their boxes.  

Once they are in the box we have another problem.  She only knows how to work the blue switch and she can't quite get the blue switch to work consistently.  That means that once the animals are in their boxes they are stuck in there boxes.  Despite this obstacle to playing with the toy she still didn't want help.  Sadie is a little... willful... and when she has decided that she is going to do something her way, she refuses all help.  She hit the toy.  She shook it upside down.  She wrestled it to the floor.  She crawled around (and she is really starting to get the idea of crawling) and hauled it around the room with her.  She even put it in front of her when she was playing with the Cruise and Crawl.  

Every once in a while I would sneak over when she wasn't paying attention and press the buttons and all the animals would pop out.  And she would immediately close all the little flaps again.  While she still hasn't gotten the buttons down to work the toy, she's really getting good at closing the lids!

One Sick Baby

Last night was the first time I had written a blog in a long time.  The reason?  Sadie was wild.  She has apparently decided that her bedtime of 7:30 just isn't working out and that she should be allowed to stay up until 9:30 (the time when I finally convinced her to close her little eyes and get some sleep).  

Yesterday was a busy day.  Sadie has been acting a little bit fussy lately (bursting in to tears for no apparent reason) and because she really isn't a fussy baby, and she usually doesn't cry at all, I called the doctor's office yesterday morning and made an appointment.  I felt a little bit silly taking her in, because there really wasn't anything obviously wrong (she was pulling on her ears, but she always pulls on her ears, particularly since she's been teething or when she's sleepy).  

Before the doctor came in we found out her new measurements.  She is thirty inches tall, which puts her above the 100th percentile for her age group and puts her in the ninety-ninth percentile for a ten month old.  We also found out that she now weighs 19lbs 4 oz, which pretty much confirms what we were beginning to think (it also means that while she has grown three inches in the last few months she has only gained one pound).  She is really starting to get tall and lean.  This is especially amazing because she eats and eats and eat as much as she wants, whenever she wants.  She's just so active!  She always wants to be up and exploring.

When the doctor came in a while later he found that she had a double ear infection and a sore throat.  No wonder she's been fussy.  So she is now back on antibiotics (this is her third ear infection in the last ten weeks).  By last night (with the help of baby tylenol) she was pretty much back to her normal personality and during the two hours that I was trying to convince her to go to bed, she was giggling and smiling and trying to push herself up to crawl around the room.  She is much too busy to waste time sleeping!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Where to Shop for Inexpensive (and totally cute) Baby Clothes

I don't have very much time tonight (I have to finish writing a synopsis of my novel because an agent agreed to look at it!  Very exciting!  I've been bouncing off the walls all day long!) so I'm going to indulge in one more list. 

It is a very important list.  Especially these days.

Sadie's Costco Pajamas

Where to Shop for Inexpensive (and totally cute) Baby Clothes

1) Costco-  Most people probably don't connect Costco with shopping for clothing.  I know I didn't before Nani stumbled across the baby clothes table in the clothing section.  They don't have a huge selection, but the selection rotates frequently.  Sometimes there are adorable dresses, sometimes there are soft cotton pajamas and sometimes there are cuddly sleepers with feet.  They are usually around six dollars an outfit.  And there usually brand names (like Carters) at a fraction of the price you'd see the same outfit for in department stores.

2) Kohl's-  I don't advise buying anything at full price at Kohl's.  If you shop when they have sales (and they have some pretty big holiday sales) you can find cute baby stuff (and cute grown up stuff) for huge discounts.  We went one weekend (I think it might have been Columbus Day) and most of the stuff was eighty percent off.  This Christmas a lot of the adorable Christmas dresses were really expensive at the end of November, but a couple of weeks before Christmas they were already marked way down.  If you shop the sales you can find really great deals here.

3) Macy's-  Macy's is a lot like Kohl's.  Don't shop at Macy's unless there's a good sale.  Our Macy's doesn't seem to have good sales.  But when we went down to the Bay Area we went to the one in Union Square right after Christmas and there were super expensive (I mean ridiculously expensive) baby dresses that were seventy percent off.  The ridiculous thing was that we saw the exact same dresses that were seventy percent off last year being sold full price this year.

4. Target-  I admit that I have bought baby stuff and paid full price at Target.  However, after shopping at Costco, even Target starts to feel a little bit expensive.  They have those giant clearance racks that they cleverly hide in the very middle of the toddler clothes section (because they figure you'll probably find something that you want at full price on your way there).  The Hanes Toddler outfits (sweats and sweatshirts) are also a great deal, even when they aren't on sale.

While writing this blog I realized what my shopping strategy is when it comes to baby clothes.  Don't pay full price for anything, unless it's at Costco.  And try to buy clothes for the next season when they first put it out because the store will probably mark it down before the season actually starts.  Now to write that synopsis... 

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Baby Things That Weren't So Useful

I have a weakness, an obsession really.  The first evidence of this obsession shows up on an ancient pad of art paper that I unearthed not that long ago.  It was dated in crayon.  1984.  Beneath it was a scrawled list:

Mommy
Bob
Jennie
Cammie

Apart from a few letters that were written backwards, it was pretty well done (particularly for someone born in 1982) (I should also explain that I wrote Bob, because it was around this time that I realized that it was easier to get Dad's attention if I said "Bob" instead of "Dad").  

So there you have it.  My obsession.  Listing.

You can find lists in notebooks around the house.  Old lists fill up trash cans in tightly balled wads (apparently once I've finished a list it is no longer relevant and I have no problem tossing it.  After all it probably needed to be redone anyway.).  

Lists were bound to make it into my blogs, although I try to keep them at a minimum.  Otherwise, every single blog would be a list.  And how many blogs can you read about Sadie's Favorite _________ (fill in the blank with everything from toys to foods).  Today's list is:

Things that We Didn't End Up Using
1. Most of Sadie's Shoes 
2. And while socks were important during winter... for Babies who, like Sadie are born in summer... 0-3 month Socks.
3. Hand Covers (while these may have been useful, the few times I put them on Sadie she was so sad... she loves using her hands).  
4. Any Outfit with the word "Newborn" on the tag (this one probably only applies to people who have a 9lb+ baby).  
5. Any Binkies that weren't the Mam Brand (because once Sadie had decided she liked this brand she would gag and make faces if we tried to substitute anything else).  
6. A Changing Table (I used the one on the bassinet about five times before I realized that it was just more trouble then it was worth).
7. Breast Pump (okay this is great later on when you need milk to mix with rice cereal, but I found that using it to make bottles was just way more work then it was worth.  And every time I used it for bottles Sadie was colicky for the next six to eight hours.  So after four months it became useful).
8. Lansinoh (I was a big fan in the beginning until I realized that nipple shields were way more effective... This stuff helps but the shields help a lot more).
9. Bottles (once in a while Sadie plays with a bottle now, but if we hadn't bought them we wouldn't have missed them.  She loves her sippy cups, so if she didn't play with the bottles we never would have gotten any use out of them).   

Monday, March 2, 2009

Only 10 inches to Go...

Nani and Grumpa were going through some boxes in the garage and found an old workbook I had used when I was a Camp Fire Kid (kind of like Girl Scouts/ Boy Scouts).  I flipped it open and came to the introduction page.  It said : My name is Cammie.  I am 7 years old.  I have blonde hair (it was back then!).  I have blue eyes.  I am 40 inches tall.  I am 47 lbs.  

Hmmm.... So, when I was seven years old I was forty inches tall... And Sadie is eight months old and she is already a strapping thirty inches tall.  I'm really starting to believe that she will pass me before she starts kindergarden.  She's already only an inch away from being half of Nani's height!

Thirty inches may still be small (at least when compared with the general population), but she has a powerful pair of lungs.  She is usually pretty good when we are in restaurants, but today when we were in Red Lobster she let at a squeal/scream that was absolutely ear splitting.  I'm surprised that the glasses in the bar, on the other side of the room, didn't break.  It wasn't an upset scream.  It was a happy-cheerful-I'm-so-silly-my-tiny-body-can't-contain-the-happiness type of scream, which is probably why so many people turned around and smiled.  It followed some uncontrollable giggling, only a few minutes after I was silly enough to do "round and round the mountain, the little mousy goes" on her hand.  She needed to remind me that I can't play that game with her and then expect her to use her indoor voice.  Just like Pop Goes the Weasel, it's just too much fun.  

Sunday, March 1, 2009

A Bored Teething Baby

The rain started up again today.  It's rain that we need, but it also meant no walks outside and Sadie needs her walks.  Being inside is only entertaining for so long and she's gotten used to taking two walks a day and looking at the birds and the trees (we saw two bald eagles yesterday).  I have the BOB Stroller Rain Cover, but when I started reading the instructions to put it on a few weeks ago I found the constant warnings of a Suffocation Hazard to be a deterrent to actually using it.  It was very clear that this Hazard was only a danger if it was installed incorrectly (or over 70 degrees), but I couldn't get over the full page of instructions for what seemed to be a straight forward installation.  I got the feeling I was missing something (I don't think I was) and haven't touched the thing since...which is probably silly.

Sadie was quiet during Mass today, which pretty much confirms my suspicion that she has only been fussing the last two weeks because there were other babies being baptized.  There are two ways to look at the fussing.  She was either fussing because she wasn't the only baby at church (in other words getting a lot of attention) or she was fussing because she was trying to "talk" to the other babies.  Having heard the tone of her whines, there really isn't any doubt in my mind.  Maybe I will just blame it on her new teeth...

Speaking of teeth, Sadie's new teeth have been keeping us up at night.  Her two bottom teeth are through now and don't seem to be bothering her, but she has been waking up every half hour fussing, so I think we might have a top tooth coming in.  

Maybe tonight will be the night when she finally sleeps through.  I have been telling myself that for the last eight and a half months, but one of these days it's actually going to be true!  I just hope it's sooner rather then later...