Holiday fun

We have been doing a pretty good job of celebrating the "Christmas season" (as Sadie says) on a daily basis. Most of our activities center around either Christmas lights or food. Go figure. This weekend we visited the Marble Falls Walkway of lights (see pic above) and it was much better than the Austin Trail of Lights for a toddler. It was easily walkable because it was so compact. There was plenty to see and Sadie loved it.

We have made peppermint cocoa, spiced apple cider, peppermint fudge and enjoyed some holiday candy. We still plan to decorate a gingerbread house and make gingerbread cookies with Bebe.

This pic is from the Capitol Tree Lighting and Congress Stroll, where Matt had a Shop787 retail space set up for holiday shopping. It was a cold night, but festive. Dana arrives on Saturday for 11 days! So, we are really looking forward to continuing our festivities while she is home.

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a fun and busy weekend over Thanksgiving. It started with a Wednesday matinee performance of 101 Dalmations at the Long Center. We were shocked that Sadie sat through the whole thing with her eyes glued to the stage. Then, we had a relaxing Thanksgiving Day with Bebe, Papa and Nana.

I got inspired by one of the other mom blogs that I read to try to do something in the Christmas spirit every day from Thanksgiving to Christmas morning. I don't know if we'll make it, but we're off to a pretty good start. Friday, after her Daddy painted her big girl room "Ballerina Pink" in preparation for her move out of the nursery, Sadie helped set up the nativity scene.

Saturday, we went to the Chuy's parade downtown and got to hear several of our favorite Biscuit Brothers Christmas tunes. This is the Children Giving to Children parade, where everyone brings a toy to donate. This year, Sadie is starting to understand the concept of giving to other boys and girls who are less fortunate.

Finally, on Sunday we went to cut down our Christmas tree in Elgin. We went to a different farm this year, Evergreen Tree Farm, because the Elgin Tree Farm didn't open until noon. It was a lot smaller and it felt more intimate, but we had a harder time finding a tree that would work in our space. Sadie saw the nativity scene at the farm and said, "there's baby Jesus and his mommy and daddy!" She loved the donkey and goats, as usual, but also really got into the games (tether ball, bean bag toss) and thoroughly enjoyed her marshmallow that they had set out for roasting over a campfire. After her nap, she helped decorate the tree and got a kick out of turning on the lights.

Singing

I love these moments when Sadie is busy doing something and she thinks nobody is listening.

Our little veggie lover

Amazingly, some of Sadie's favorite foods are vegetables. She loves steamed broccoli, edamame, raw baby carrots, fresh tomatoes and black beans. I would love to take credit for her food preferences, but I have to say that I have offered her any number of foods with lesser nutritional value and she chooses the veggies. Sometimes the junk food seems so much easier, but I am glad that she challenges me to have fresh vegetables in the house for her. But, I know she is my child because of her love of cheese!

Daddy Day

Sadie and her Daddy had a special day today. Since Matt had to work all weekend to put on his Shop787 event, he took today off to spend with her. They grabbed a "chocolate muffin" and headed to the Austin Zoo (yes, those two LOVE a zoo.) That left me with a glorious morning of rest, garage sale preparation and errands. Thank goodness she was tuckered out and took a 2+ hour nap (sorry Bebe, no nap when you were on duty yesterday.) So, I am going to cap off this lovely day by heading to Bess Bistro for Flavors of Austin (another of Matt's projects) with girlfriends from church.

Hey Cupcake

Sadie did such a good job at the pediatrician's office this afternoon when she had to get a couple of shots that we headed to Hey Cupcake afterwards. Sadie and I enjoyed this enormous red velvet one with cream cheese frosting and whipped cream. Yum!

Naming baby brother

Now don't get too excited. We won't even share our names with Sadie because she can't keep a secret, so you'll have to wait another 3 months until he arrives. But, Daddy did ask her last night what she thought he should be named. Her answer..."mosquito bite."

Halloween

Sadie was a "bumble bee princess" (her words) because she has a wand. She still has some funny substitutions for pronouncing some sounds, like "fr" for "tr", so she had fun "frick or freating." She was much more into it this year and especially liked the lollipops she received from our neighbors.

We enjoyed seeing our neighbors at the block party before trick-or-treating. It is so cool to live in a neighborhood with so many young kids. Here is Sadie with her friend Davis, the train engineer.

Missouri

It was great to visit Stacy, Greg, Katelyn, Mason and Gracie in Smithville with Nana last weekend. Sadie and Gracie are 2 peas in a pod. They had so much fun together, which was also a nice break for us. They played Polly Pocket, colored and watched Dora or Snow White most of the time. Gracie was so attentive and patient. She would do anything Sadie wanted to do and for how ever long she wanted to do it. We threatened to bring her home with us since she would be such a good babysitter.

We went to the Smithville High School football game on Friday, where Greg is head coach, Katelyn is a freshman and Mason will play football next year. It was cold, but an exciting game. Sadie and I stayed for the first 45 minutes or so before she needed to go to bed, but she clapped and cheered when the rest of the crowd did. She was really paying attention, because once she even said, "He caught the ball!"

On Saturday, we visited a pumpkin patch in a nearby town. There was a petting zoo and playgrounds for the kids (and some questionable singing talent). We had a grandfather driving our hay ride out to the pumpkins, who was a little crazy and I was sure we would end up covered in the mud that he splashed through. Sadie can't wait to see her cousins again!

Port Aransas

We had a great trip to the beach with a whole crew of friends from Austin (mostly Trinity folks.) Except for the ER trip to diagnose Sadie's ear infection, we enjoyed a relaxed weekend in the Tangerine Dreamhouse.

The weather was great and the house was perfect for the 13 adults and 3 kids that stayed in it.

I have decided that October is the perfect time to visit a Texas beach...cooler temperatures, no crowds and off-season rates.

Unfortunately, these were the only pics I took of the weekend because a wave jumped up and splashed the camera (and Sadie) shortly after this shot was taken. She was happy to play in the sand after that. Her daddy even dug a hole deep enough for her to sit in, which she thought was funny.

We even had a shrimp boil the last night, which was a perfect ending to the weekend.

Dana's visit

Sadie loves her Aunt Dana. We had a quiet few days hanging out at Bebe and Papa's house, shopping a little and eating Mexican food before Dana had to go home to NYC on Monday. We missed "Eeeeeen" this trip, but hopefully we'll get to see him soon. Looking forward to Christmas when she comes home again!

Gramps and Mimi

We had a great visit with Gramps and Mimi, who came all the way from London a few weeks ago. We Skype with them some and talk about them often, but it was so nice for Sadie to get to spend some quality time with them and make her own memories.

Waco Zoo

Weeks ago we woke up on a Saturday morning and were watching Jack Hanna when Sadie said she wanted to go to the zoo. I had heard that the Waco Zoo was great, so we packed up and headed out. It more than lived up to our expectations. It was lush and green and the animals were active and accessible. The picture above is Sadie sliding down the otter slide. She hesitated as she slid down and it looked like she was going to get wet.

This was the closest to a giraffe I have ever gotten. So cool!

There were lots of little play areas for the kids (and kids at heart).

The orangutan was part of a new exhibit that had just opened. I wish I had been quicker with the video camera because when we walked up he raised his arms to stretch and Sadie mimicked him. So cute. We will definitely go back.

Pavlov

One of my favorite new sayings that Sadie has is when she wants to ring the doorbell. She says, "I need to bark the dogs." Sure enough, Molly obliges every time. Good watchdog.

Breakfast with Daddy

Fairytales

Bebe is enjoying shopping for dress-up clothes for Sadie. This one was a winner with the wings, even though we had lingering glitter in her room for days. As soon as she put it on she said, "I'm in a fairytale!" Then, "I need a wand and a crown." Her teachers at school keep marveling at how verbal she is (and polite, always saying "thank you".) It surprises me what comes out of her mouth almost everyday. Smarty pants.

Happy Birthday, Daddy

We had a great Labor Day weekend at the lake house and celebrated Daddy's birthday with chocolate cupcakes. "Happy Birthday" is Sadie's favorite song to sing and she doesn't reserve it just for birthdays, though it does come in handy when we are actually celebrating one. She often "bakes" cupcakes in her kitchen and asks us to blow out the candle after she sings to us.

Matt and I went to the first UT football game on Saturday, but Sadie donned her cheerleader outfit to get into the spirit, too. We saw several families with kids her age and younger at the game and couldn't help commenting that it did not seem fun to keep a toddler entertained at a game that she would tire of after 10 minutes, where she couldn't move around at all. I felt the most pregnant I have felt up to this point when we left at halftime. There is very little room in those seats. I may not be attending many games this season.

Good night, Sleep tight

Sadie says the most adorable thing at night when her Daddy and I are putting her to bed:
"The sun is going down and the moon is coming out and the stars.."

Rain, rain don't go away

We actually got a little rain shower last week and Sadie has been dying to use her umbrella and galoshes. Don't you just love her little big-girl undies? She doesn't even fill them out, but I just want to pinch her all the time (in a nice way.)

Dress-up

I have been wondering when Sadie will really start to get interested in playing dress-up and it seems now may be the time. Today she pulled out all of her pajamas and starting putting them on. She needed some help, but hey, why not work on dressing skills while we're playing? (My occupational therapist friends are giggling right now.)

Does anyone else think she looks like Joey from "Friends" when he puts on everything the Chandler owns? At least she's not going commando.

First day of Preschool

I just dropped Sadie off for her first day of preschool! She did pretty well considering she is not used to being dropped off anywhere other than Bebe's house on a regular basis. She only cried for a minute and then was off to explore the Magnadoodles. We got off to a little bit of a late start this morning, but we made it basically on time (9am). She was a champ and ate all of her breakfast quickly, which has never happened before. I got to use school as a good excuse to buy her this adorable tote bag with her name on it and these super cute bento boxes for her lunch. Packing her lunch has been the one thing I had been stressing about, but it was actually pretty fun when I put it together last night. We'll see how long that lasts. She went to school in her big girl underwear, not training pants, so that will be another adventure. So, hurray for Sadie starting school and hurray for me to get a little time to myself before baby #2 arrives (for those of you who don't know, we are expecting a new arrival around February 10, 2010!)

Pflugerville, yeah

I learned about this waterpark-style public pool in Pflugerville last summer from a friend at church and have been meaning to take Sadie there since then. Well, we finally ventured out to find it and it was totally worth it. Think of it as Schlitterbahn for toddlers, but it only costs about $5. Perfect for a morning outing, since she still sleeps that afternoon away (thank you, baby girl.) It has a beach entry, so the most shallow part is only a couple of inches deep, which is perfect for letting her splash around independently. She got up enough nerve to let me take her down the slide a few times, but didn't want to attempt it by herself yet. Maybe next summer. The only bummer is that next week will be the last week that it is open in the mornings, since school is starting. It will be open at noon on the weekends until Labor Day, so maybe we can take her out there again. It will certainly be hot enough.

Potty Time, Excellent!

So, it's official. Our baby is no longer a baby, but a certifiable big girl. (Or maybe I'm the one's that certifiable). I finally bit the bullet and started potty training boot camp on Tuesday and she has done great. This is a picture of the first day when we switched from diapers to training pants and she was teaching her doll how to use the potty. Of course, she really got into that part. She had a wonderfully nutritious day of juice, lollipops and cookies, but I have to say it was worth it. She has had only one minor accident yesterday and today, so far, and we even were out of the house all morning visiting Tracy and Owen. Yay!!! She usually runs to the potty screaming, "hurry, I've got to potty!" and even though we've had a bunch of false alarms (in search of more stickers and candy), I'd rather be safe than sorry. I know we have a long way to go before we are completely done with diapers at nap and bedtime, but I think we are on the right track. We'll see what happens when she starts preschool in another week.

I'm not making this stuff up

Sadie says:
"Oh, Honey. Don't do that." (Picture her shaking her head looking down at the floor.)
"It's been a long day" (Big sigh)
"Bless you blanket" (What she named the tissue that she used as a blanket for her babies)

conversation with a toddler

Sadie: "Mommy, what kind of car is that?"
Mommy: "A red car."
S: "No, what kind of car?"
M: "A Ford Explorer."
S: "Like Dora?!?!?!"
M: "Uh...yeah, I guess so."
S: "Dora can't drive, she's too little."

Another funny moment

Sadie, her Daddy and I went to the lake house this weekend for some R & R. We had a great time swimming, playing and napping. She said the funniest thing on the way home this afternoon. We were talking about what to pick up for lunch on the way home and Daddy referenced Napoleon Dynamite with, "make yourself a quesadilla or something." Sadie's response..."a quesa-who?"

Red Carpet

I am so proud of Matt for what he accomplished in just a few short months. Austin Fashion Week was a huge success and the Austin Fashion Awards was the perfect way to conclude the week of events. And special thanks to Bebe and Papa, who made it possible for me to go to the event on Sunday. Sadie had been sick for several days and I was at the end of my rope. Thanks for taking such good care of our baby girl. (she is feeling much better now :)

Sadie's brush with high fashion

Even though Sadie has been feeling puny the last few days, she did have an Austin Fashion Week outing this evening (go Daddy!!) Corey Lynn Calter, a designer from LA, set up shop in the old Moxie space to sell her wares while in Austin for the Awards on Sunday. She was there this evening for her event and was so sweet to Sadie. You see, she has a Sadie back home, who is 5, as well as a 20-month-old. She could not have been nicer and even showed us pics of her girls on her camera. Darling with straight dark brown hair. Not only that, but she gave me a dress to wear for the Austin Fashion Awards! I love it and now I love her, too.

Carwash

I drove through the carwash at the gas station today and Sadie pipes up from the backseat, "Dibble dibble dopp dopp" (which is the sound the rain makes in "Mr. Brown Can Moo" by Dr. Suess, if you are not familiar.) It wasn't until we drove away that she started crying because she was scared by the loud noises that the powerful spray made. She was fine after we went to Walgreens and she got distracted by the aisle of cards.

Sadie and Owen Harp

Sadie loves Oween (as she calls him). She is so gentle with him and curious about what he is up to. The only thing she is not sure of is when her Daddy or I am holding Owen, she gets a little jealous. She'll say, "Mommy, I hold you" (meaning "you hold me") or "Back" (meaning "give him back to his mommy, Tracy.")

July 4th at the lake

We had a relaxing weekend at the lakehouse on July 4th, though Daddy had to stay back in Austin to prepare for Austin Fashion Week (going on now!) Sadie had fun in her baby pool, with Bebe playing Mr. Potato Head, with Papa playing ball and with cousin Richard building towers. We missed Aunt Martha that weekend, but were happy to be together.

matching colors

Sadie surprises me almost daily with something new. This morning she has starting matching colors. She has an obsession with her blue hair bow and doesn't want to wear anything else. Today she said, "Mommy it matches" and sure enough she was wearing her blue whale pajamas. Then she told me that the pink ball was the same as the pink on her baby's bottle.

One week to go

Sadie will be getting her cast off next Wednesday and I have to say that barring anything major happening in the next few days, this has been a breeze. She really couldn't care less that she has this rigid fiberglass protective gear on. She has said on two different mornings, very first thing while she is still in her crib, that "I like my boot." I am actually a little worried that she is going to be sad when they cut it off. The only thing we sometimes forget is to put on the cast shoe, but she quickly reminds us by saying, "slippy boot" when she tries to take a step on the hardwood floor. Such a good sport, this one.

Happy Father's Day

Sorry for the delay, but we had a great Father's Day over a week ago. I had a grand plan to take a picnic to the zoo, one of Sadie's and her daddy's favorite places. It was one of those 100+ degree days and I was melting, but they had a great time. We rode the train for the first time out there, which was fun. This high school kid was the "conductor" and said, "All Aboard" with about as much enthusiasm as you can imagine coming from a a teenage boy at his summer job. Then is was off to see the animals. Matt and I were impressed with the lions and tigers, but Sadie was more interested in the pigs and turtles (more her size, I guess). We were too hot to eat the lunch we had gotten at Central Market, so we had a cherry sno cone instead, a first for Sadie B. All in all, it was a fun morning and we enjoyed a dinner at Maudie's with Papa and Bebe for further celebration of the Dads we love!

Kids say the darndest things

We were driving downtown on the way to church when Sadie spotted the state Capitol building and said, "Mommy, a castle!" When I asked her who lived in the castle, she said "Dana and Ian."

The red balloon

http://studio563.com/eric/

Here is the blog that has Sadie's 2 year old photos. Enjoy!

The cast

As some of you know, Sadie broke the first distal metatarsal on her right foot after tripping on the rug at home on Wednesday. Even though neither of her parents has ever broken a bone, somehow our cautious little girl managed to break her foot making the trecherous trek across our living room. She stopped putting weight on her foot after that and wouldn't take any steps. So, we made a stop at the pediatrician's office, the x-ray place and the orthopedist over the next several days. She was pretty excited about her "purple boot" and doesn't seem to mind it at this point. She can even take a bath and go swimming because we opted for the gortex wrap that is waterproof. All in all, she is much happier now because she can get back to the business of playing. She will be in the cast for 3 1/2 weeks and then she should be fine.

Sadie is Two!

We had a really good day on Sadie's birthday. Her daddy took the day off and we went down to the 2nd street district to take some more photos with Eric at Studio 563. He did her one year old shots too and these may be even better, if that is possible. Dana gave us this enormous red balloon that we had filled up with helium and tied to Sadie's wrist with a ribbon. There was a moment we thought she might float away, but she is sturdier than she looks. We headed over to Delish cupcakes to shoot her eating a cupcake and it was absolutely adorable. I will post some pics as soon as we get them. After the cupcake appetizer, we went to La Condesa for a delicious lunch and then headed home for a well-deserved nap.

Saturday we had the tiny birthday party to celebrate (complete with a tiny doll dress to match her own, thanks Bebe.) I can't believe how big our baby is, even though she still only weighs 23 pounds (10th percentile for weight and 90th for height!) Sadie was equal opportunity with the "Happy Birthday" song and wanted to sing it to mommy, daddy, Bebe, Nana, etc. She even blew out her own candles! So big.

'stache

Gotta love Toy Joy.

The words her Daddy likes to teach her

Miss Hollywood

Long time, no blog

Sorry to be MIA for the last MONTH, but we are back in the swing of things following vacation and birthday celebration. We had a great time in the Shenandoah Valley/Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with Bebe, Papa, Dana and "Eeeen" (as Sadie likes to call Ian). We had beautiful weather, it rained on either side of the week that we were there, once we finally got to the condo. It was a little longer drive from Baltimore than we expected, but Sadie did great in her "new car, new carseat" that we rented for the week (brand-new Saturn Outlook). There were some firsts for Sadie on the trip, including getting to have her own seat on the airplane on the way there (there were no extra seats on the way back, and we just made it before she turned 2 and couldn't be a lap-child anymore...3 tickets from now on. Sigh.) She also got to face forward in her carseat for the first time, which opened up a whole world of seeing the sights as we drove through Maryland, West Virginia and finally Virginia (it was a long way, including crossing the Potomac River.) The Massanutten Resort near Harrisonburg, VA, was perfect for our large group. We had a 3 bedroom, 3 bath condo over 3 levels with 2 living rooms, 2 kitchens and several decks. There was the little challenge of keeping the unit at a comfortable temperature for all. There had to have been a 30 degree difference in temp from the top floor (so hot in the afternoon sun) to the basement bedroom that was as cold as a freezer, most of the time. Sadie slept in the closet again. We have found that she does better in her own space, and don't worry there were louvered doors for ventillation. The resort had lots of wildlife and plenty of activities with gorgeous scenery. Check out the geese and goslings that we found as soon as we got there.

There were also groundhogs, or woodchucks, which we found out are same thing...who knew? We went to the Shenandoah National Park on the coldest day, not too smart. But, the views of the mountains and valley were beautiful.

We visited Charlottesville and went to Monticello and UVA. Matt and I had done this part of the trip years ago when we went to DC to visit Lane, and it was just as fun the second time getting to share it with Sadie and the fam. I love the gardens at Monticello. They are gorgeous. Sadie was running around pretending to take pictures with Bebe's camera...monkey see, monkey do.

All in all, we had a nice, relaxing time. Including the amazing chocolate peanut butter pie at Jess' Quick Lunch, which we had twice.

Sadie-isms

Some funny things that Sadie has been saying lately:

• When asked if she wants something to eat, she replies, "I really do." (As in the Mo Willems book, "Pigeon wants a puppy...'I really do.'")
• "Neck-ick" means "I want to be naked."
• "Scu mees" means "Excuse me" (Often used when trying to get around the dogs.)
• "Supa Why?" means "Can I watch my new favorite show, Super Why?"
• "I like ick" (said while scrunching up her face and shaking her head) means "I don't like it."

She is so expressive and funny right now. Things come out of her mouth that I am totally amazed by on a daily basis. I sneezed earlier and she said, "Bless you, Mommy." So sweet.

Bubblegum medicine

Sadie has her first ear infection and so it is time for antibiotics. She said that the medicine was "tasty" and is able to drink it out of the little cup all by herself. It just goes to show how grown up she is now. Especially since this was the first pediatrician's appointment that she didn't cry in since before she realized she should be upset about it.

Counting

Sadie is now counting to 14 without skipping any numbers! She skipped 4 and 5 for a long time, but seems to have gotten that down this week. It seems like she has really grown up since she spent the weekend with friends last weekend.

Future Trinity Tigers

From left to right: Matt, Sadie, Kara, Ben, Phoebe, Brad, Amy, Dathan, Jessica, Barrett, Emma, Kevin, Kyle, Julie, Leah, Ainsley, Scott, and Cole.
We had a great weekend catching up with the Busieks, Weems, Weavers and Olivers at the lake house (Wells family, we missed you tons). We have never had that many kids stay out there and it worked out great!! I honestly was surprised at how smoothly everything went. We had a lot of rain at the beginning of the weekend, but things cleared up late Friday and we had a gorgeous Saturday. The kids played great together and we had plenty of food. I hope we will start a tradition and make it happen again.

Sadie and Phoebe Busiek were born weeks apart, so it was fun to see them play side by side and be interested in the same things. Sadie is really into names right now, so it was a great weekend for her to meet new friends.

Easter

Good Friday was a gorgeous day. We spent the morning at Maria and Jamin's house visiting with their boys, Aidan and Owen, and some of our therapist-mom playgroup friends. You might recognize these eggs from last year's Easter photos. I think they are so cute and this year was fun to watch Sadie carry them around (as opposed to last year when she was absolutely adorable, but I sat her in one spot and she stared up at me like, "What are we doing?"

Saturday morning was a little chillier, but we headed to the Capitol grounds for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt put on by our church. Papa gave her some pointers on how to navigate the crowd.

Sadie and her girls...Nana, Mommy and Bebe

The cutest dress that was hidden under a coat most of the day.

Daddy and Sadie

Easter morning we made it to the 9am service and avoided any real downpours. Sadie came to "big church" with us for the first part of the service so that she could enjoy the music. When she started asking if ducky could sing too, it was time for Daddy to take her up to the cry room. Then we headed to Papa and Bebe's house for lunch. The sun came out and it was gorgeous.

Finally, we had another little easter egg hunt, where she ate all the jelly beans she found inside of her eggs on the spot. And she opened her easter basket, which was full of books and toys. No chocolate bunnies this year, maybe next year.