One Binkie, Two Binkie... Red Binkie, Blue Binkie...

Sadie is pretty good at picking up her Binkie, turning it the right direction and putting it in her mouth.  She even does it in her sleep.  The other night when I checked on her she had a Binkie in her mouth and a Binkie in her left hand.  However, she ran in to a little bit of trouble at the dinner table the other night when she was sitting in her high chair.  

She already had a Binkie in her mouth and I picked up another Binkie that was on the dining room table and put it on her tray to see what she would do.  She instantly picked it up and turned it around in her hand and looked at it very carefully.  Then she brought it up to her mouth.  But there was a problem.  There was already a Binkie there.  

We now know that two Binkie's will not fit in Sadie's mouth.  I believe she was disappointed to learn this fact.  Sadie thought that if one Binkie was a good thing, two Binkie's would be a great thing.  We've also learned that a baby can not shove one Binkie through another Binkie, so that she can have them both in her mouth at the same time.  This was another disappointing moment for Sadie.  She ended up with a Binkie in either hand, trying to decide which one looked better.  It was a tough decision.  Finally the pink Binkie with the little silver hearts ended up getting thrown.  

She's getting better with words too.  Today was another fussy teething day (made worse by the fact that it was snowing and we couldn't go outside) and Sadie was kind of whiny.  She spent the afternoon saying "mama, mama, mamama, mam, mama" over and over again.  I really hope these first teeth make an appearance soon.

Learning to Wave and Truly Disgusting Baby Food...

We are currently between two storms with more storms lined up in the Pacific Ocean waiting to hit.  Two days ago we got about four inches of snow, today all of the snow melted and tonight the next storm is supposed to hit and we are in the pink section on the weather map and the map key says that that means that we are supposed to get two feet of snow.  I don't think it will be that much, but it looks like we will get a few more inches.  

Sadie is learning how to wave.  Her waving has a lot in common with her talking.  Most of the time when she sees people, or is saying goodbye to someone, she babbles and smiles and does baby things.  But once in a while now she'll say "Hi" in this little squeaky voice and wave her little hand.  Of course if I try to get her to say hi she'll just look at me like I'm totally crazy to even suggest that she can talk.  

However, when we were about to leave Marino's (a restaurant in town) the other day she started doing her wave and looked at and waved to each and every person in the restaurant.  She definitely isn't shy!

She's also on a napping strike.  She is adamant that she is too old for naps and that she will only take naps when we're walking (and she is being pushed in the stroller).  Unfortunately pushing the stroller is kind of difficult in four inches of snow.  It is a testament to the superior engineering of the BOB Stroller that we were able to walk three miles today, through the snow (I pushed the stroller for two miles and held the baby for one).  Despite only napping for about half an hour today, she is currently insisting that she is not tired and doesn't feel like going to sleep (it's 7:45 pm).  

Something kind of weird happened yesterday (and then again today).  We've been doing the one-new-food-every-five-days thing with Sadie to make sure that she isn't allergic to anything.  We've done most of the fruits and vegetables and rice and oats and now we're on to meats.  She's already tried chicken and turkey and this week she's been eating beef.  Yesterday I opened the beef (it's Gerber's First Foods) and scooped it into her little bowl with some squash.  After it was in the bowl I noticed that it was two different colors, light pink and dark brown.  It definitely didn't look "right."  I threw it out and opened another one today (I bought them together, so I imagine that they were shipped together and possibly manufactured together) and the same thing happened.  Only this time I looked at it before it was in the bowl.  The top half was dark brown and then the middle and bottom part was pink.  I tasted it and it was disgusting, but I'm not totally sure it wasn't just typical-baby-pureed-meat-disgusting.  I think I'll try a different brand, because with all the peanut stuff that's going on I don't want to chance it!

The Doll and the Conveyor Belt

Paul has been busy working on a big paper for his class so Sadie and I decided to tag along with Nani and Grumpa on a trip to Redding, so that we wouldn't be tempted to distract him.  We stopped at Target so that they could pick up a few things and Sadie and I walked around the baby section, determined not to buy anything.  

Now if I had truly been determined not to buy anything I should have stayed on the opposite side of the store from the baby section, where there are bound to be dozens of things that Sadie "needs."  Surprisingly, I was almost successful (if you ignore the little squirt toy that I found in the bath section).  Just as I was leaving the baby section I saw them.  Next to the tiny baby clothes there was a hanger of little baby dolls in pink and green Saint Patrick's Day dresses.  I picked up a blonde doll and a brown haired doll and showed them both to Sadie.  She lunged at the blonde haired doll and looked at her face for a moment before repeatedly "kissing" her face.  Then she hugged the doll to her chest and sat looking up at me.  

It was a done deal.  The doll was clearly coming home with us (besides, can you really put a doll back once its covered in baby slobber?).  

  

We were sharing a cart with Nani and Sadie was sitting in her floppy, cuddling her new doll as we headed towards the front of the store.  By the time we got to the register the doll, and the price tag on the doll, were both covered in baby slobber.  I managed to wrangle the doll out of Sadie's hands, while she tried to hang on to her doll and after a mini struggle I was finally able to hold it out so that the cashier could scan the soggy tag.  After she scanned it I pulled the tag off and handed the doll to Sadie.  What happened next surprised me.  

Sadie looked at her new doll, the doll that she had clung to only moments before and flung it onto the conveyor belt.  Nani picked the doll back up, figuring that Sadie had accidently thrown it, and handed it back to her.  She looked at the doll and looked at the conveyor belt and then threw the doll back on to the conveyor belt a second time.  I've long suspected that when Sadie throws things it doesn't seem to be "accidental."  For over a month she's been doing a look-at-mommy-look-at-the-toy-throw-the-toy-look-at-mommy-to-pick-it-up thing.  

Throwing her new doll on the conveyor belt was entirely intentional.  

I think I've been conned.  Sadie wanted the doll until I paid for it and then she lost all interest.  I hope this isn't a preview of things to come!*  

*Grumpa and Nani indicated that that is exactly how I was when I was little and that apparently I've had this coming for my entire life!

Sadie and Strangers

When I was little I very carefully followed the "do not talk to strangers" rule.  Actually, I followed it so well, that when I was four years old, my Mom had to go back and re-explain the rule with a few exceptions.  

We were visiting my Aunt and cousins outside of Carson City, Nevada and we went to a hot spring to go swimming.  I was bouncing up and down with my cousin (who was a few months older than me) and I bounced my way to an area that was just a little bit too deep.  By the time I realized it was too deep I couldn't bounce back and when a man came over and asked if I needed help I shook my head no, before bobbing under the water again.  I was just barely able to get my mouth out of the water to take a breath, but I still insisted by shaking my head that I was okay.  Luckily, he decided that I definitely wasn't okay, and pulled me out of the water.  

After that Mom and I had a talk about how sometimes, when we're in trouble we might have to ask for help (wow, not talking to strangers is complicated!).  

Sadie is developing a very selective "fear" of strangers.  When she wants Mommy to hold her she can scream her head off to keep from going to anyone else.  However, it is a very selective fear.  Today just before the start of Mass, a man that we didn't know came and sat down next to us.  Sadie is definitely the "church baby" and is used to knowing everyone and being a little social butterfly (although there is another baby now, who is littler than she is, who was baptized today) at Mass.  

Sadie twisted around to study our neighbors face.  He had a full beard, which I thought might put her off a little.  It didn't.  After five minutes of smiling at him, while I jiggled her and tried to distract her, she started to reach out her arms to try to go to him.  When I thwarted that plan she went into a full fuss (just as the baptism started).  I ended up spending the next fifteen minutes standing in the entry way, swaying from side to side while Sadie came up with different excuses to "talk."  

She tried a similar stunt at Sweet Tomatoes in Santa Clara with a teenage girl who was sitting with her family.  Sadie decides she wants to go to somebody and it takes a lot of convincing to distract her and prevent a meltdown!

Sadie and Pumpkin: The Odd Couple- Part II

Sadie is having a difficult time with the concept of "gentle."  Everyday we say a poem from her Mother Goose Nursery Rhythm book.  It says-

I love little kitty

her fur is so warm

and if I don't hurt her

she'll do me no harm

so I'll not pull her tail

nor drive her away,

but kitty and I very gently will play

she'll sit by my side

and I'll give her some food

and kitty will love me,

because I am good.

Sadie and Pumpkin are completely in love.  Pumpkin has a bit of an attitude problem (to put it mildly), except when she's with Sadie.  Most of the time she's a seventeen year old, crotchety cat, looking for a warm place to sleep when she's tired, or someone to scratch when she's not.  When Sadie's in the room she's completely indulgent.  Each afternoon when she comes downstairs she walks straight over to Sadie and starts licking her hair.  Sadie has grabbed her tail, her armpit (try grabbing the armpit of a cat, it's not easy), and large handfuls of hair.  I monitor them very carefully (for both their sakes) but they're both quick.  

Because they're so attached to each other (and because this really seems to be a recipe for disaster, regardless of how vigilant I am when they're in the same room) Sadie and I have been talking about how important it is to be gentle with animals.  I know that she's only seven and a half months old, and is too young to understand "gentle," but I figure that we should probably start early.  Maybe that way the message will sink in.  

Yesterday Sadie had just finished dinner and the rest of the family was about to start eating.  Sadie has a little stack of toys that stay next to her high chair and I hand them to her one at a time.  One by one they hit the ground.  I picked up her bunny puppet, which actually looks a lot like a real bunny.  I made the bunny hop around the high chair, while Sadie squealed in delight.  We talked about being gentle with the bunny and then I handed him over.  

She petted the fur for a moment and I was impressed with how gentle she was being.  I actually thought to myself, "look, she's starting to get it.  This bunny is good practice."  As I said out loud "Good girl.  Gentle.  You're being gentle." she looked at me and then looked at the bunny.  With a huge smile she grabbed the bunny by the ears and started slamming it up and down on the table as hard as she could.  Her little arm went through an entire range of motion, up and down and when the bunny hit the table she looked delighted.

Yesterday when Pumpkin walked in the room she gave Sadie a wide berth and then carefully approached from her head, where Sadie's wild little arms are less likely to grab her.  As Sadie gets more mobile, Pumpkin becomes more cautious.  And I think for a while cautious is going to be just as important as gentle.  

Making Friends

Today was an eventful day.  We had a visitor in the yard this morning and I snapped a few pictures of him before he disappeared back into the forest.  I was fairly sure that I saw a coyote earlier this month at the top of our drive way, so it was probably this little guy.  He really wasn't scary at all (mountain lions freak me out though!).  

Paul took us to Redding today so we could run a few errands (and pick up a copy of turbo taxes so I can get that out of the way).  While we were standing in the checkout line at Walmart, Sadie made a friend.  She was in her little pink stroller and I turned her so she could look at the little boy who was standing next to his mom, in line behind us.  He was three or four and by the time we left he and Sadie were friends.  They had an entire conversation, and this was the part of it that I heard/understood:

Little Boy:  I have a jacket.  It has a zipper.  I can zip the zipper up and down.

Sadie: (smiles and watches him zip the zipper on his jacket up and down)

Little Boy: This is my jacket.  And these are my pants.  And I have shoes on.  I have tie shoes.  (At this point he bends down and starts pulling on his shoe laces) They have ties that tie.  I have tie shoes.  

Sadie: (continues to smile at the little boy)

There was actually quite a bit more to the conversation, but whenever the little boy realized that I was listening to what he was saying he would become very bashful and stop talking, or start talking to Sadie very quietly, so that was the main part that I heard.  After Paul paid it was time for us to leave, and Sadie was upset to say goodbye to her new friend, until we got to the end of the aisle and she made eye contact with a big girl (who was probably about one) and started to giggle.  She's quite a little social butterfly!

Sadie's Favorite Things

Making lists has always been a habit of mine.  In fact I think it would be fair to say that it's a bit of an obsession.  When we go into stores that carry notebooks, Paul has learned to steer me away from the aisles that actually stock notebooks and pens, and he usually succeeds, unless they've put up an end stand with school supplies ("look Honey, ten notebooks for a dollar!  That's ten cents for each notebook!").  Right now I'm looking at a pile of Sadie's toys in the middle of the living room (she's big enough now that she can roll over to the basket that her toys are in an pull them out herself) and I've started making a list of Sadie's favorite toys.  She's definitely latched on to a few favorites.  Here they are, in no particular order, because Sadie's favorite toy depends on her mood:

1. Kitty:  Kitty is already looking a little bit worse for wear.  Kitty made her first appearance in an earlier blog, when I took Sadie shopping the weekend before Christmas (Daddy dropped us off at the mall while he got the oil changed on the car and then it took a little bit longer then we expected because it ended up needing new tires).  After an hour and a half in the very crowded mall Sadie was starting to have a melt down and I picked up a fluffy, oversized, stuffed calico cat and started dancing it back and forth in front of Sadie.  It was love at first sight.  

Sadie and Kitty are now inseparable.  Every morning after we come downstairs, before breakfast, Sadie and Kitty wrestle in the middle of the living room floor.  Kitty usually wins (she is bigger then Sadie), but not before Sadie's given her a good thrashing.  Kitty is definitely at the top of the list.

2.  Mrs. Bunny:  Mrs. Bunny was Sadie's first friend.  She's the go to toy when Sadie's sleepy and wants a cuddle when we're in the car on a long drive.

3.  Fischer Price Crawl and Cruise Musical Jungle:  Sadie REALLY didn't want to practice sitting up before she got this toy.  In fact, I wasn't even sure she could sit up without support because whenever I tried to put her in a sitting position she would flip onto her stomach and try to attack my foot.  Then we put her in front of the Musical Jungle Gym and she saw the giant orange monkey sitting on top of it.  She grabbed him and the Jungle lights came on and the music started and she was entranced.  She spends ten to fifteen minutes at a time playing with the Jungle (sitting up all by herself) and trying to pull herself up on it and that for Sadie, is hours and hours in grown-up time.  

4.  The Exersaucer: Sadie's mind constantly writes checks that her body can't cash (to use a Grumpa-ism).  She sees other people doing things and she really wants to be able to do them herself.  She already gets frustrated because she doesn't want help.  She wants to do things on her own.  The Exersaucer gives her a little bit of independence and makes her feel like a big girl!

5.  Squeaky Tiger and Pooh:  Sadie has a little squeaky Tiger and a little squeaky Pooh.  The Pooh Bear has a Honey Bee between his paws that crinkles, while Tiger has a Dragon Fly between paws.  They're perfect for traveling because whenever Sadie sees (or hears) either or them she starts to smile.  

6.  Fischer Price Shapes and Bucket: Every once in a while Paul brings home a toy from Long's since he gets a super discount at work.  They're usually simply toys (today it was the Shape Blocks and Bucket with the little shape cutouts to fit the shapes through, a few weeks ago it was the large snap beads that snap together to make a chain) but Sadie loves them.  They're the kind of toys that leave room for a lot of imagination and it's entertaining to see Sadie play with them.  Earlier today she took the lid off of the bucket and stared at the shapes for a solid three minutes, thoroughly entertained the entire time.  

7.  Fischer Price Little People:  I definitely have a weakness for Fischer Price Toys (rereading this list I realized that this reads like a Fischer Price Advertisement) and I think my fondness for the toys is because of my love of their "Little People" line of toys.  Sadie likes the animals the best and thinks they make great teething toys, although there's still no sign of teeth!

A Day at Turtle Bay

Suddenly, Sadie is fascinated with the world around her!  
She's always been interested, but now she's more interactive and so much fun!

Paul is working evenings for the most part right now, so he's getting used to being awake during the day again (it's tough for him to switch back and forth each day depending on his schedule).  We took advantage of the beautiful day and headed back to Turtle Bay to see the geckos and play on the playground.   

When we got to the park we started out by visiting the fish, for the second time in four days.  Sadie pointed out the trout and sturgeon, just in case anyone had missed the giant five foot fish swimming around in the tank (she's really in to pointing at things these days). 

After that we visited the geckos (Sadie watched for a while but then decided that she was going to stubbornly look in any direction in which there wasn't a gecko) and then headed over to look at the different animal pelts (Sadie's favorite were otter, mink and beaver).  From there we headed outside to play on the swings and slide, before heading out to the car before Sadie (and Daddy's) delicate skin got sunburnt. 

She is more determined than ever to resist nap time, even when we're just driving in the car and after a long day I am exhausted (and ready for bed at 8 o'clock).  With a little bit of will power I may make it through Chuck (in 3D).  

Matching with Mommy

Earlier this month I picked out a few dresses for Sadie at Macy's, using a gift certificate from Christmas.  It's a little bit risky buying dresses for Sadie in advance (these are summer dresses) because we really have no idea what size she's going to be in a few months.  Before she was born we saw an entire rack of dresses on sale (also at Macy's, only this time in Union Square) and went a little bit crazy (we had just found out that she was a girl!).  They were beautiful Christmas dresses and they were 75% off, so we bought some for this year and some for next year.  Or at least, that was what we thought at the time.  

The thing is, we figured out six month old baby would be wearing six month old dresses, rather than 18 month dresses and that next year she would probably be wearing 24 month dresses (just to be safe).  At 20 weeks along, we didn't suspect that our tiny princess baby might be rather large when she was born.  

As it turned out, Sadie wasn't a tiny baby and when she was born we had to squeeze her in to the "newborn" sized outfits.  When she was a month old she had grown out of most of the outfits that had 0-3 tags on them.  So these days I'm a little bit nervous about shopping in advance, even when there's a really great sale.  But I really loved these dresses and I knew that they would be gone by summer.  

I did something that I promised myself several months ago I wouldn't do any longer. I guessed what size Sadie would be this June.  

Here my guess:  2t.  I wouldn't have made this guess with anything involving feet or pants, because her length hasn't really slowed down much, but she's started to turn into a little string bean, and I think some of the smaller dresses might even fit again soon.  

So I bought three 2t dresses and I'm praying that they will still fit this summer.  

That brings us to this Friday.  While Grumpa was at Home Depot on Friday buying cabinet locks to keep Sadie out of the cabinets, Nani and I took Sadie to the mall to walk around.  We went upstairs to the baby section in Macy's and the dresses were marked down even lower.  A rack nearby in the girl's section caught my eye.  It was one of Sadie's dresses (navy blue with white and red flowers that I thought would be perfect for the Fourth of July) in "big girls" sizes (think for grade school ages).  

Now to understand why I would even think of trying on one of these dresses you have to go back to our trip to the bay area last week.  When Kehli, Michelle, Sadie and I were at Target we saw a rack of Christmas pajamas that were on super sale (think $4) and went over to check them out.  There They were.  The pajamas that I had desperately wanted for Christmas, but that were sold out because I waited too long for them to go on sale.  For only $4.  

I happily purchased them (they said they were 10/12, which is 2 sizes too big, but I figured that pajamas can be big!) and happily brought them home.  When I tried them on I found I was mistaken.  Someone had accidently put the girls pajamas in the women's section and while I could fit into them they were ridiculously short (and not exactly comfortable).  

The largest dress that matched Sadie's in Macy's was a girl's 16.  I figured if I could fit into a 10/12 in pajamas a size 16 might be just right.  So I slipped it in with a few other things and took it into the dressing room (I didn't intend to try on the other things, but I was a little embarrassed to be seen walking into a dressing room with a Girl's dress).  I tried it on and it was perfect!  Sadie and I would match!

I still really didn't want to walk back out of the dressing room and when I did the lady who was standing there looked at me like I was crazy and said in an incredulous tone "that worked out for you?!?!"  

Today Sadie and I wore our matching dresses to Mass and got lots of compliments.  And most people thought that I had made the matching dresses because they were so perfect!  And they were on sale!

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!

Ducks, Foxes and Porcupines: Adventures in Nor Cal

We had a breakthrough tonight at bath time.  I'd like to say that I knew that this day would come, but I have to admit that I was secretly afraid that Sadie's stubbornness would persist and that she would, after having decided that she hated books at the ripe old age of five months, go on hating books for the rest of her life (all because they aren't edible).  

Tonight all of the rubber ducks jumped into the tub with Sadie and I started to read Goodnight Boston to her.  She didn't look away!  After the first page she got a little smile on her face.  When we got to the part about the Make Way for Ducklings statue she started to get a little distracted, so I quacked like a duck.  Apparently this was the funniest thing that had happened all day (and we had a big day) and she looked at the book again.  

I knew what I had to do.  Whenever she got bored with a story, I would quack and she would look at the book and start to smile.  Any book with quacking in it has to be funny!

We made it through two entire stories!  That's a record!

Before we had tons of fun with the ducks in the tub, we went to Redding this morning for my doctor's appointment.  It was a beautiful day and the car thermometer said that it was seventy-five degrees when we headed home.  Nani came along since Paul is back at school, and sat with Sadie in the waiting room.  She was shocked when, after about fifteen minutes, I was ready to go.  The reason for the quick turn around time?  

When the nurse took me back into the exam room and took my blood pressure it was 90 over 58.  Apparently she thought that I was about to keel over, right there in the exam room, although I told her I was fine.  Within two minutes the doctor was in the room, listening to my heart (she agreed that nothing was wrong.  I just have very low blood pressure) and ten minutes later we were ready to go.  I've never been in and out of any doctor's office that fast.  

After finishing up all of our chores in Redding we stopped by Turtle Bay to play in the park before we started the long trek home.  Sadie saw a fox (you can barely see him in the first picture because of the glare on the glass... I think that she thought he was a cat.), an owl, a porcupine (he actually seemed to be her favorite) and a magpie.  

We went from the animals, to the playground where Sadie got to go on the swings (it was her first time on real swings!).  She insisted on sitting all the way forward, so that she was almost tipping over.  When we tried to show her how to sit back and hold on to the swing, she would glare and throw her weight forward again so that she could watch the ground.  

Swinging was fun, but I think that she had more fun watching Mommy and Grumpa swing, while she sat in her swing with Nani.  

From the playground we went back inside and looked at the fish.  You walk through a little tunnel that's dimly lit to get to the aquarium and Sadie's eyes were like saucers by the time we were through it.  She loved watching the fish and while I held her she pointed her little finger to make sure that we saw them too.  

To top off our big day Sadie started chicken today!  I can't say that it was a hit, although she ate every bite.  After each bite she would make a disgusted face and gag, before opening her mouth for more.  

Now it's time to call Daddy and go to bed.  We've gotten used to Daddy being home on weekends, after his long winter break.  I can't wait until summer break!  

Sadie's Stubborn Streak

Sadie is stubborn on most days and today was, for some reason unbeknownst to the rest of us, a particularly stubborn day.  It was also a fussy day, but I don't think these two facts were unrelated.  

The day started out with Sadie refusing to take her nap.  She does this periodically, usually after deciding that everything that is going on around her is more interesting than falling asleep on Mommy's chest and having sweet little bunny dreams.  At eleven o'clock I loaded her up in her stroller and started to walk.  She fell asleep by the end of the first mile.  An hour an a half later I decided that she had slept long enough and went back inside, hoping that her mood would have improved (by the way, I walked over six miles today, so Sadie's fussiness is helping me along with my new years resolution).  

After the walk Sadie was her usual cheerful self, smiling and giggling and wrestling with Kitty (the stuffed cat).  There was also an incident where Sammy (the tortoise shell cat) got a little bit too close to the baby and Sadie almost taught herself how to crawl so that she could chase after Sammy when the cat corrected her mistake and inched farther and farther away.  It started with Sadie grabbing her tail (which Sammy tolerated remarkably well) and ended with Sadie grabbing a giant handful of fur and Sammy twisting around and running out of the room.  

Before long it was time for Sadie's afternoon nap, but for a second time in twenty-four hours she just wasn't interested in going to sleep.  After about an hour and a half of "singing" (the little baby whining sound that she makes when she's tired), she finally passed out and slept for a little over an hour.  Even after the nap and dinner she was still fussy until bath time.  

Bath time was the second time that we had an example of Sadie's stubborn streak.  When Sadie got in her tub she reached up and picked out her favorite rubber duck out of a line of rubber duck.  It never ceases to amaze me that she can tell them apart and repeatedly picks her duck out, whether they're in the water or on the wall.  Lately we've added a bath time story as a part of the routine, because Sadie gets so frustrated when I read to her.  I thought she might be less likely to try to grab the book and try to shove it in her mouth when she was surrounded by her precious ducks.  

While we have made some progress (she didn't try to rip the book out of my hands and deconstruct it), we still have a ways to go.  Our nightly reading routine goes something like this:  Sadie looks up, sees the book and then, very pointedly, looks away.  While I'm reading she will look at her ducks, or at the side of the bath tub, or down at the water, but she absolutely refuses to look at the book (or the reader of the book!).  As soon as I stop reading, she looks up and smiles.  Apparently this is hilarious.  Today I did extra crazy voices and she actually glanced at the page three or four times.  Baby steps!

My New Years Resolution

Here is a pregnancy picture.

Later this week I have my six-month post baby check up.  This knowledge has renewed my already fading New Years Resolution to lose the baby weight.  Part of this motivation comes from the fact that I don't actually know what I weigh right now, because the scale upstairs is evil.  It's a digital scale that's supposed to be accurate (as if there are scales that are supposed to be inaccurate), and last month when I stepped on it, it jumped to 194 lbs.  I knew that the scale was wrong (really, really wrong...  After gaining forty-two pounds with Sadie I topped out at 168 lbs) but it still isn't what I wanted to see!  That isn't the worst of it though.  The other day when I climbed on it to check my weight it said 129 (3 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight) and I almost started jumping up and down.  

Then I remembered.  The scale is evil.  

So I checked again and the scale, while chuckling to itself, gave me what I think is my real weight.  We'll know for sure on Friday though, when I wear the lightest outfit I can find, despite the cold weather and get my Official Weight from the Doctor's scale.  

Sadie Update:  Sadie had a big day.  We walked five and a half miles, looked for bald eagles (there have been three bald eagle sightings here in the past two days), worked on crawling (or on finding ways to move without crawling) and went to Round Table for pizza.  Nothing could compare to what happened at Round Table.  One of the ladies that works there saw Sadie and brought her a big red balloon.  Sadie was ecstatic.  It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen (even the cathedral this weekend with it's domed ceiling couldn't compete).  She sat and stared at the balloon at the restaurant, in the car on the way home and then in the kitchen once we got in the house.  I finally had to hide the balloon in the dining room to get her to go to sleep.  After a solid half hour of playing with her rubber ducks in the bath tub she was exhausted and with the red balloon safely out of sight she is finally asleep, resting up for another exciting day.  

A Few of My Favorite Things: Part 1

We spent our second night since Sadie was born in the cabin last night and it stayed warm, despite the fact that it got down to 18 degrees outside.  I feel that staying in the cabin can be described as "roughing it" because there's no running water, but Paul says that nothing that involves sleeping in a king sized bed can really be called roughing it.  When we woke up and ran up to the house the ground was frozen solid and the dirt crunched loudly under my sneakers as Sadie did her best to throw her flannel bunny blanket off of her arms.  

On a completely different topic... A few of my friends are having babies right now and today I started thinking about the things that we ended up trying that really helped out after Sadie was born.  Most pregnant moms have probably seen those lists that they have in magazines and books that tell them what they need to get before they bring their little bundle of joy home from the hospital, and this isn't that kind of a list.  This is a List of My Favorite Baby Things (in no particular order, I wrote them down as they popped into my head):

-Halo Sleep Sacks- Halo Sleep Sacks are pajamas that are aptly described by their name.  They are basically a sack with no sleeves and a zipper that zips down so that the baby can't mess with it (and says Back is Best just in case you forget... if that's even possible with all the press about back sleeping reducing SIDS).  I still worried in the beginning that Sadie would somehow pull the sleep sack over her face (remember I'm a Worrier) but finally realized that they really are designed well and that it wasn't going to happen.   

-The Floppy-  If you don't know what a Floppy is, it's the liner that goes inside a shopping cart/high chair and keeps the baby from licking/tasting/touching the shopping cart/high chair and being exposed to salmonella/ecoli.  It also had a little strap that wraps around the cart/high chair and keeps the baby from falling out and a little strip of material that the babies toys can be attached to (unless your baby, like Sadie, becomes obsessed with removing her toys from the strap so that she can throw them on the floor and watch Mommy bend over to pick them up).  

-Brilliant Bows- http://www.brilliantbows.com -The Bows from Brilliant Bows aren't just cute, they actually stay on your babies head.  Even when the baby hardly has any hair to speak of.  Sadie started out with "quite a bit of hair", which turned into "some hair", which was rubbed off until she looked like a little old man with a mohawk on top and a horseshoe of dark hair around the back of her head.  Even when she was wearing a dress, people would ask if she was a boy ("no, she's a baby and babies don't have a lot of hair!").  These bows help with that and look super cute!  And there are different bows for different occasions (you may even be able to convince your husband that buying bows are a good idea if you show him the sports bows, complete with your teams colors and a little baseball or football).  

-Burt's Bees Buttermilk Baby Lotion- Sadie has super sensitive baby skin.  If I knit with wool and pick the baby up without washing my hands she breaks out in hives.  When I tried the typical baby lotions (petroleum based) her skin would get rough and dry.  Even if I put the lotion on ten times a day with every single diaper change.  The Buttermilk Baby Lotion was a lifesaver because after about a month of using it her skin stopped feeling rough and started feeling soft.  Although I have to be careful because it smells so good that Sadie does her best to get the lotion into her mouth when I'm putting it on her face.  

-Nuby Sippie Cups- The tops of Nuby Sippie Cups are soft, more like a bottle than a sippie cup, but they still don't spill, even if the baby repeatedly turns the cup upside down and shakes it to see if she can get any of the juice out.  

-The Fischer Price Little People Barn- Because watching Sadie try to get inside of it so she can play with her little people figurines is absolutely priceless!

How to Avoid Crawling...

Sadie was so excited to be home yesterday.  While she had lots of play time on the motel bed (with blankets spread out all over the place so that she didn't touch the comforter) it wasn't quite the same as being on her special quilts on the floor below the wood stove with all of her toys.  When we got home and placed her on her blankets she seemed shocked to see her toys and rolled around, checking out each on and making sure that they were all still there.  

Today as I watched her playing I realized the extraordinary lengths that she is going to, to keep from having to crawl.  Because she is so proficient at rolling and changing directions while rolling, she doesn't really need to crawl to get around.  She can get from on side of the room to the other by rolling and she's pretty good at rolling over any obstacles that stand in her way.  For about two weeks she has been able to push herself up off the ground and slide backwards but she really doesn't seem to be all that motivated to actually learn how to crawl.  

While she was playing this morning, Kitty, the giant stuffed cat from Old Navy, was just out of her reach.  She would have had to turn ninety degrees in the middle of a bunch of toys to roll over to Kitty and so she tried to scoot on her stomach to grab him.  Unfortunately when Sadie is really intent on something and tries to get to it she usually starts out by acting like a baby seal and raising her little arms and legs off of the ground like an airplane.  This is usually accompanied by her little staccato cry (which was formerly the "hungry" cry but that now just means "I want it. Now.").  Amazingly, Kitty didn't jump up and run over to cuddle with Sadie.  I watched to see what she would do.

Instead of pushing herself up or trying to roll, she extended her little arms all the way in front of her and grabbed the edge of the blanket that Kitty was sitting on (which she could just barely reach).  In a huge effort she pulled the blanket towards herself, which caused Kitty to tip over backwards.  That nearly caused a meltdown (I was waiting to see if she would crawl to get Kitty, but Nani rescued Kitty and pushed him closer to Sadie, narrowly averting disaster).  However she learned an important lesson.  If she pulls the blankets around she doesn't have to move at all.  The toys come to her.  

Sadie spent the rest of playtime tugging at her blankets and squealing in delight when a toy would slowly make it's way across the floor until she could reach it.  It actually looks like a lot of work just to avoid learning to crawl!

Home Sweet Home

We are finally home!  Today was a long day of traveling and an hour and a half after we made it home Paul had to turn around and drive back into town to work.  At least in another hour he will be home!  

Sadie almost slept through the night last night (and by almost I mean she fell asleep at 8 and only woke up once!).  I still woke up three or four times to check on her and to make sure that we hadn't overslept.  

We went to Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St Joseph in San Jose before heading home.  It felt like one of the longest hours of my life because Sadie, who is normally very good in church turned into a tiny octopus who was desperate to escape.  It began when the baby, who had hardly coughed in two days, heard me cough twice just before we walked into the church.  She laughed and copied me.  
The moment we sat down in the very quiet cathedral, she started to cough.  What started out as a little fake cough turned into a real cough when she swallowed wrong, because of the fake coughing.  After about a minute of coughing the little old man who was sitting a few rows in front of us turned around and glared.  I started to imagine that the people around us were asking themselves "what kind of mother would bring her sick baby to church?"  I suggested to Paul we that we move to the very back row and tried to jiggle Sadie even more so that coughing didn't seem like quite as much fun.

After we moved she stopped coughing and put her hands on either side of my face.  For a few seconds she stared very intently and was very still.  Then she pulled on my nose.  It was all downhill from there.  She spent several minutes trying to yank on my nose and ears while I tried to discourage her without causing a tantrum.  

Paul tried to take her several times and while she was more serious while she was sitting with Daddy, after about five minutes she would start reaching for me and the second she was back on my lap the raspberries and "cuddles" would begin.  It was like being mugged.

After Mass we met Kehli in Sunnyvale for breakfast at Denny's (the waitress recognized Sadie from yesterday and called her "my baby") which is now Sadie's favorite restaurant, probably because it always seems to be full of babies and people who are fun to watch.  Then we said a very sad goodbye to Kehli who is moving back to Montana (that's the picture at the top of the page) and headed North.  

It was another big day.  She should sleep well tonight!

A Big Day in the City

Today was a busy day but it started out with a few technical difficulties.  Daddy left for school bright and early and while Sadie played on the bed I checked a few things on the computer.  I minimized my internet window to check something and stared at the screen.  I have an Apple and when I minimized the Safari window the bottom part of the screen was blank.  Now for all you PC users the bottom of the screen on an Apple is where all the programs are, in a neat little bar.  

I tried not to panic and restarted the computer.  It had to be some little mistake and I was sure that it would be fixed when the computer came back on.  No such luck.  I opened up the help window and found out that the bottom section is called the dock.  I searched through the Help section for anything with the word "dock" in it and couldn't find anything that seemed particularly helpful.  

So I called Paul.  I blurted out that my computer was broken and he said he'd call me back when he got to school.  That call revealed some interesting facts that had previously gone unmentioned.  Apparently while I was in the shower Paul had been on the computer with the baby in his lap.  She had sat nicely for a while but then she had suddenly started banging on the keys.  Paul said something came up on the screen for a second, but then everything looked fine (except the dock was gone, but I guess he didn't notice) so he didn't think to tell me (he was in a hurry to get to school).  Tonight I finally figured out how to fix it.  So complete catastrophe has been averted.  I can breath again.  

After finding out about the computer Sadie and I headed over to Denny's, mostly because I didn't want to have to deal with feeding her without a high chair.  Feeding her at Denny's may have been more difficult than the chair-less option.  First she spotted a four year old boy who was picking up breakfast-to-go with his grandmother.  After obsessively watching him (and hardly opening her mouth to eat she was so distracted) for about ten minutes, two men in army fatigues walked by.  She practically turned in her chair to watch them go from one side of the room to the other.  Next a construction worked came in.  She stared at him for a solid fifteen minutes, ignoring my best efforts to distract (and feed) her.  I think it was his yellow vest with the shiny reflective tape on the back.  

That, however, really can't compare with her escapades at dinner tonight (where the picture at the top of the page was taken).  Paul, Kehli, Michelle, Sadie and I went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner.  The table next to ours was very close (so close that Sadie could swivel around and touch it, even belted into the high chair) so when a family was seated at it just before we were about to leave, I scooped Sadie up so she wouldn't grab their food.  She started to talk to and then squeal at the teenage girl who was sitting right next to me.  The girl smiled at her and Sadie thought that was encouraging and started to giggle and lift her little arms up for the girl to pick her up.  She certainly is funny about strangers these days.  One minute she's shy when she sees someone she doesn't know and the next she's ready to be handed over to them!

Tomorrow we'll go to Mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral in San Jose and then we'll head North so Paul can be at work at 6pm.  It's going to be a long day.  I hope Sadie sleeps through tonight!

Day One in the Bay

We had a busy day today.  I woke up early, proofread Paul's paper, packed my bag, Sadie's clothes bag, Sadie's food bag and Sadie's medicine bag and then woke up Paul.  We were on the road by 10ish (only an hour late) and made it all the way to Sunnyvale by 3:30, making only one stop on the way.  Sadie must be feeling better (although her nose is still super stuffy) because she was cheerful the entire time, which is why we made fairly good time (for traveling with a baby anyways).  

While Sadie was a good sport about the long car ride she was glad when we finally got here and the two pictures of her with her fish pillow were taken about five minutes after we walked into the room.  She was all smiles and kept trying to convince me to hand over my camera so that she could get a closer look at it.  

Our motel is only a few blocks from Kehli's (Sadie's godmother) apartment and so after Paul took his nap (he has a hard time switching from nights to days each week) she came over and we went out to dinner.  Kehli brought Sadie a present in a princess castle bag and Sadie really seems to be getting the idea of presents.  When Kehli handed it to her she reached for it and when I held up the cute little lady bug outfit so that she could see it she grabbed it and hugged it against her chest.  She's going to be Auntie Kehli's good little shopper.

After that we headed over to Old Spaghetti Factory (the one restaurant that I really really really crave now that we live 250 miles away from the closest one) for dinner.  Sadie spent most of the time trying to maneuver so that her face was close enough to the table so that she could lick it.  I tried to keep her distracted with her sippy cup/ rice cereal/ mashed bananas/ toy keys, but when she sets her mind to something she doesn't give up easily.  At least this particular restaurant has tables that look clean.  You don't realize how many restaurants don't do a great job keeping their tables clean until you have a baby who feels that her main purpose in life is licking everything that she can get her hands on. 

Sadie and Paul are both already asleep so I guess I will turn in too.  Goodnight!  

Still Sick

I called the doctor's office this morning and Sadie now has an appointment at 4:15 in Redding.  She did sleep from 11 to 4 last night, but her cough sounds worse and I want to make sure she doesn't have another ear infection.  Since she has discovered her ears and thinks it's funny to pull on them it's really hard to tell if they hurt.  

When she woke up at 4 am her nose was stuffy but she wasn't fussy.  Instead she rolled to the far side of the bed and stared up at the little green light on the fire alarm.  She rolled around trying to look at it from different angles, including upside down.  Then she started talking to the fire alarm.  I started to worry.  I was still really sleepy.  Was she really breathing "alright" or was I just telling myself that so that I didn't have to get up?  I woke up a little bit more.  I wondered if her little developing brain was getting enough oxygen.  She started to cough.  

Five minutes later we were downstairs on the couch trying to maneuver the nasal aspirator past her freakishly strong little arms.  Paul was back from work and was up working on a paper.  By five she was asleep again, although her breathing was loud and rattled.  At six I had to keep myself from throwing Pumpkin across the room because she  walked around us yowling and trying to get past my outstretched hand to rub her face against the baby.

Now we just have to wait to drive in to town (1.5 hours) to see the doctor.  

Seven Months Ago

Sadie is seven months old today!

I can't actually remember what was happening seven months ago at this time.  I think it was the little morphine button that they told me to push every 15 minutes.  I remember everything up until they started that IV, but afterwards everything is a fuzzy until they moved us down to pediatrics (because the maternity was overflowing and they needed our room).  

Sadie is still sick today.  She didn't have a fever yesterday, but she woke me up at midnight when she couldn't breath through her nose because she was so stuffed up.  I took her down stairs and sat up with her on the couch, dozing off and on until 4:30.  At 4:30 she was breathing more easily and I took her back upstairs to bed.  She was so exhausted from being up so late that she slept all the way to 7:40, which is the latest that I have slept in the last seven months.  

She was miserable all day, although she didn't have a fever (actually her temperature has stayed at around 97.5 degrees because of the baby tylenol).  The nasal aspirator doesn't seem to help much and has only proved that Sadie is remarkable strong (she can grab my arm and almost keep it away from her little nose when she really tries).  The steam vaporizer Penguin is definitely the high point of the day and Sadie puts her hands up to go over and see it and then tries to kiss it's nose, so that she's getting the full benefit of the steam.  She does have a fever again, so I guess it was to early to stop taking the tylenol.

These last few days have been long for everybody and have sapped my creativity!  I feel like I have a newborn again.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  Goodnight!