Sunday, September 27, 2009

Simple stuff

My parents took Sadie for the night last night so that Andrew and I could attend a high school friend of mine's wedding. (I'm sure that sentence is a grammatical nightmare, but I'm moving on.)
It was awesome to get dressed up, go out with my honey,


see old friends,


share the special joy that is in the air at a wedding, and dance until my knees and toes were throbbing.

Even though Sadie is totally content with Grandma & Grandpa, I still always feel the tiniest bit guilty when we go out and have fun without her. She's usually the source of my daily smiles and laughter, but it's good to reconnect with Andrew and have adult conversations for several hours!

We picked her up this morning and she was an absolute ray of sunshine. She had greetings, hugs and kisses for both me and Andrew (she needed a little prompting to give Daddy some love - she's in a bit of a mama's girl phase) and showered us with tons of happy-to-see-you energy.

My dad was watching football and told us that Sadie watched with him for a little bit and then turned to him with a confused look and said, "What are those purple guys doing? They just run and then they fall down!"

I wonder what she'll think when we start her in soccer?

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Counting

"One, two, free, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 'leven, twelve, firteen, sixteen, nineteen!"

for some reason that really cracked me up just now.

:)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Just Keep Swimming


We've entered a new phase. Sadie turned 2 and she's changing quite a bit.

She is hung up in this contrary thing where pretty much no matter what we say to her, she insists it's the opposite. I'm talking really mundane things like,
"Mommy, this lion's tail is fluffy."
"Oh, that lion's tail is fluffy? Wow, you're right - it is."
"No, Mommy, it's not."
"It's not? Okay."
"Mommy, it is. It is fluffy."
You get the idea. It's not bratty or sassy - that's the funny part. She's totally sincere and matter-of-fact about whatever it is. Silly. It's taking me too long to learn not to take the bait. Sometimes I can't resist because I just like talking to her, no matter what the exchange is about.

She's getting more and more independent. I admit it kind of blows my mind how independent a 2 year old can be. She wants to climb into her carseat by herself, she loves to open and close doors, she brushes her teeth (even though we still do a follow up), she likes to put the straw into her juice box, etc. This morning she apparently wanted to get out of her crib, so Andrew and I were woken by the sound of a thud followed by crying. She's never done anything like this; she usually wakes peacefully and we'll hear her playing and talking to her "friends" for at least 10 or 15 minutes before she makes any indication of wanting to get out. Even though we asked her what happened and whether she tried to get out of her crib & fell, she wasn't talking. Time for a big girl bed, apparently.

Her attention span has grown - and before you muse at how observant I must be, allow me to fess up - the reason I know this is because all of a sudden she can easily sit through a 2 hour movie. At some point over the last 2 months or so, we put on Finding Nemo for her at Grandma & Grandpa's house and she's hooked. Our neighbors let us borrow one of their daughter's favorites, Madagascar, and she's equally smitten with it as well. I am not surprised; I know plenty of young families whose little ones love animated films. I just want to avoid the pitfall of it becoming a total crutch to put her in front of the TV.
I also am sticking to my guns and avoiding the Disney Princess phenomenon as long as possible. My time may be running out, though. Just last week she was delighted to find that cousin Lucy had left 6 Barbie dolls at Grandma & Grandpa's. When I explained that they were Lucy's and that she'd had to give them back, she balked. I told her we could get a doll like that if she really wanted one because she has some birthday money from GG which was specifically earmarked for such an occasion. I won't deny her if she brings it up again, but I'm also not going to remind her.

Our nighttime ritual of rocking her to Brahm's Lullaby might have numbered days. A couple of times she's opted to stand by herself and rock one of her stuffed animals instead of being in our arms. Ouch.
And today in music class, she was the only kid who didn't get into mommy's lap for the lullaby song. She wanted to stand, listen and look around the room at all of the others. Interesting.

It's amazing to watch her begin her transformation into a little girl. I know there is so much more to come, but I'm happy to take it all in bit by bit and learn how to stand back and let her develop, even if it does tug on the heartstrings a little. Like Dory in Finding Nemo says, I'll "just keep swimming."

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Bye Bye Aunt Joanne




Ugh.

My baby sister's flight just left for New Zealand. She's headed to Auckland indefinitely. I'm seriously in denial that I don't know when I'll see her again. I'm excited for her, obviously, but it is really hard for me to not have a solid return date. She's my girl. She's my sister who hugs me and will talk to me about anything and everything. She amuses the hell out of me, she inspires me, she's interesting and complicated and well, just cool.

Bon voyage, JoJo. I know you're going to have a great adventure.

I miss you already.