Saturday Cuteness

Daily Dose of Cuteness: Sadie Edition

Yesterday, while the snow was falling down, Sadie looked out the window and gasped dramatically.  This is roughly, the conversation that followed:

Sadie:  "Oh Mommy!  There's a bad man outside!  He's doing something bad!"
Me:  "What's he doing?"
Sadie:  "He has a shovel!"  At this point the horribleness of it all is too overwhelming and she can hardly go on.  "And he's... and he's... and he's..."
Me:  "Shoveling the sidewalk?"
Sadie:  "Yes!  He's taking the snow away!!!!"

Yup.  There are few things that she can imagine at the moment that are worse than "taking the snow away."

Cuddle Bug Cuteness

Mae Bae Being Mae Bae...

Sometimes Mae gets into these moods...

They're a little bit crazy.  They usually involve exhaustion (the girls got to stay up an half an hour past bed time to finish watching a princess movie they'd been eagerly anticipating all week).

It's pretty hilarious to watch.

Today I grabbed my camera and started snapping pictures.  Here's what I captured:

Finally she collapses.  It doesn't last long though...  All the princess excitement kept her running for another hour after this one was snapped!

Daily Dose of Cuteness: Baby Raccoon and Baby Skunk

Sadie: "Mommy, I want to be a raccoon for Halloween."

Me: "Okay."
Sadie: "And then Mae Bae can be a skunk!"
Paul: (from the other room): "No. Your sister is not going to be a skunk for Halloween."
Sadie: (after a pause): "Mommy, I want to be a princess."
So apparently being a raccoon is only appealing if it means that Mae is going to be a skunk?

For Something Light Hearted:

Mae Bae found Grumpa's boots after a hard day of work.

What surprised every one in the house was that she was actually capable of walking in them:

She wasn't feeling very hug-able:

The Crown

When you're the little sister you don't always end up wearing the crown (okay the truth is usually she won't hold still or keep anything on her head!)... but once in a while...

Big sister seemed to think it was a good idea:

And then they went for a ride together!

The perfect start to the day!

Story Time

As Mae has approached her second birthday she's been more and more able to play with her sister, and Sadie is loving it.  Last night I sat and knitted while they ran and waltzed around the living room, followed by a spirited game of chase, in which Mae chased Sadie around the house for quite a while.

This morning Sadie decided she was going to hold Mae while they read together. 

I just had to grab my camera.  Here are the results:

Sisters

While we were visiting Nani and Grumpa up in Orlando, Paul and I decided to steal away for an evening after the girls had gone to bed, to go out to dinner.  It was a special treat to go out, just the two of us.  I put Mae Bae down in our room in her crib, while Sadie was still up with Nani.  Mae usually goes to sleep by herself, so I didn't think there would be a problem.  

An hour later I got a picture text message from Nani.  It showed Sadie and Mae, passed out on a bed.

The story I heard a short while later, had me smiling.  

Mae Bae decided, sometime after we left, that it wasn't bedtime.  She climbed out of the hotel crib and started banging on the door to our bedroom (which connected through a living room to my parents' room).  When Nani opened the door Mae Bae was on the other side crying.  

She took Mae Bae into her room and Sadie saw her and said:  "Mae Bae are you sad because Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner?"  She then proceeded to hold Mae Bae's hand while Mae laid down, and sang a lullaby to her (Sadie sang:  "It's okay, it's okay, Nani's here, Nani's here, It's okay, It's okay, Nani's here..." to her sister).  

Sadie actually fell asleep before Mae and then it was Nani's job to keep Mae from poking Sadie to wake her up to play more.  But the disaster had been averted and both girls were fast asleep when I got home.  

I love how sweet they are together!

Mae Bae and Maximus

I'm pretty sure "Maximus," the horse that Sadie got for her birthday, has a 3+ age recommendation... Mae Bae, however, doesn't recognize that fact.  Mae Bae is our climber and is now big enough to climb up and go for a ride.  She first climbed up and sat behind Sadie looking the wrong way...

Sadie wasn't thrilled when I saw and told her to stop bouncing up and down like a crazy person with her sister sitting behind her...

But they kind of made it work... overall... although Mae does look a little squished..

Then she climbed up on her own (with Mommy saying:  "Mae Bae!!!  Sit down!!!!!")...

And finally:

Mae Bae Fights Evil...

This is what happens when a 18 month old gets ahold of a spool of thread... and decides to use it to fight evil...

"Mommy. I want to be a saint."

Sadie had been following from the bedroom to the office and back again while I switched Paul's books from the office to the bedroom, and my books made the move into the new sewing room.   Suddenly she stopped, and made an announcement.  I tried my best to remember every word as she was saying it, in a very serious, passionate voice:

Sadie:  "Mommy.  I want to be a saint."
Me:  "Oh Sadie!  That's a really good thing to want to be.  That's the most important thing to want.  I want to be a saint too!  And I want you and Daddy and Mae Bae to all be saints too!"
Sadie (with a very serious expression, in a surprisingly passionate tone):  "I want to be a saint so bad!"
Me (hugging her):  "You can be a saint!  God wants you do be a saint!  Do you know what you need to do?  You need to pray and love God with all your heart!  And you can ask him to help you be a saint."
Sadie:  "Why do I need to love God?"  She's had a serious case of the Why's lately.
Me:  "Because he made you to love him.  And he loves you!"
Sadie:  "Dear God.  I do love you.  Please help....  New baby..."(along with a mixture of words I couldn't understand).  In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen!"

She spent the next ten minutes asking questions about God and why he loves her and then said:  "Are nuns saints?"  I told her that some saints are nuns and priests and some are just people like us.  She thought about that for a while and when Paul came home and we were eating our split pea soup she seemed to be concentrating very hard.  I'd asked her if she wanted to tell Daddy what she'd been telling me about earlier and after about a minute she said:  "I want to be a nun!"

I have to say I'm a big fan of the Catholic Children's Treasure Box.  The stories about Saint Therese have made a huge impression on Sadie and I feel like the conversations and topics she's bringing up are pretty much exactly from the books!  But it still completely surprises me when we have conversations like this (I have to think really hard to answer all her questions because she really thinks about the answers I give her and then asks more questions!).

I'm going to have to keep learning about our faith if I'm going to keep up with her!  If that's not motivation I don't know what is!

Saint Therese and Saint Scholastica...

Sadie has a new saying that she says every night before she falls asleep.  After she says her prayers she whispers:  "Mommy.  I am Saint Therese of the Child Jesus.  And Mae Bae is Sister Scholastica!"  To which I whisper:  "Saint Scholastica... she was a saint!"  And then Sadie whispers back, "I am Saint Therese of the Child Jesus!  And Mae Bae is Saint Scholastica!" before falling asleep.

I have a feeling she's hoping for new habits for herself and Mae Bae...

But I can just imagine how that would unfold...  with Sadie trying to force Mae Bae to wear a veil.  And Mae Bae trying to put her veil on me.  Which would be followed by Sadie following me around her house saying:  "Mommy can you make Mae Bae wear her nun outfit?  Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..."

Sadie's Morning Prayer

"Dear God.  I love you.  Please help Mommy be good today.  Help me be good today.  Help Mae Bae be good today.  Help Daddy be good at school today.  Send us a new baby.  Two.  Send us two babies.  Amen."

Then she paused, looked at me and asked:  "Did he say yes?"

During her nighttime prayers she was a bit more detailed in her request.  She was adamant that Mae Bae needs a baby sister, and then announced that one of our good friends, who she's loves to play with, would be having a boy!  I have a feeling we'd both be pretty thrilled if she was right!  Only time will tell!

Mae Bae's Cabinet

I can now jokingly tell Mae Bae to go to her cabinet.  It's one of her favorite places in the house.  In reality, I was spending so much time dragging her out of it, that I finally gave up and let her make it into her own little fort.

Mae Bae... The Plato Reading Ninja Toddler...

I can now tell, quite easily, when Sadie is frustrated about something.  Because she now looks at me, through gritted teeth and says:  "I will never bite you again Momma.  I promise.  I will never bite you again." And then I know that she's thinking about biting me (and thankfully resisting the urge!)...

Mae Bae has had an interesting day.  The scariest part of the day was when she charged across the room and jumped up on the big red leather chair in our living room.  She was going so fast that it actually started to tilt backwards.  When it tilted she threw herself forward and somersaulted over the back, brushing her head against the table behind the chair as she continued to roll, while somehow managing to spin around and land, in a sitting position on the ground to the side of the table and the chair, completely uninjured.  She did look somewhat surprised.  I was so panicked (because I was thinking "how can she not be hurt?!?!?!) that when I raced over, my finger poked her eye as I scrambled to scoop her up... which did result in a few moments of tears.

This may be Mae Bae's first lesson that Mommy is clumsy, particularly when in a panicked is-the-baby-hurt??? mode.  I'm not sure where she inherited her toddler ninja skills, since Daddy shares the same clumsy gene.

Mae Bae has been doing something else that Paul and I both think is kind of funny.  There's a book of Plato over on one of the bookshelves that Mae Bae is in love with.  Some kids have blankies.  Some have stuffed animals.  Mae has Plato.  She carries it around the house with her.  There's an empty cupboard in the kitchen that she loves to climb into and she'll go in the cupboard, with the book, and close the door and sit in the closed cupboard with it.  Sometimes she pages through it.  Sometimes she just holds it or carries it around the house.  Today she cried hysterically when it was time to go on our walk, and she actually convinced Paul to let her take it with us.  She sat and looked at the pages for part of the walk, and then hugged it to her chest for the remainder.  It's the strangest "lovey" I've ever seen!

Daily Dose of Cuteness: Mae Bae's Smile!

"My Babies are Getting Away from Me!!!"

She came up with this... all on her own... this morning.  Then she started chasing three bouncy balls around the house while saying: "Oh no!  My babies are getting away from me!"

"To Love Him"

Me:  "Who made you?"

Sadie:  "God!  God made me!"

Me:  "Why did God make you?"

Sadie:  "To live...."

Me:  "And?"

Sadie:  "To love mmmm... and to live in a town!"

We've been reading here Catholic Children's Treasury and the answer we were going for was "to love him" from the little Therese story she wants to read constantly.  She loves reading those books!  And they're causing her to ask so many wonderful questions!

"Three Boys and Three Girls..."

Sadie Quote (while praying last night):  "God... Dear.. New Baby......   Three boy and three girls!.... Three boys and three GIRLS!!!!"

So she's becoming more ambitious by the week.  She also patted my stomach and announced that there was a new baby in there.  I think the child just assumes that I'm pregnant 365 days a year.  And apparently she's now wishing for sextuplets.

Well... at least she's not totally against brothers any more...  that's a relief.