Sadie's Steps

Sadie took her first steps yesterday.....well, about 4 steps to be exact! Chad stood, holding the cat, about 3 feet away from Sadie. She stood up by herself and inched 4 sweet little baby steps towards the kitty. Then she realized she'd get there quicker if she crawled, and dropped to her hands and knees. She is standing on her own and when I play music, she will stand there and be bop to the beat, but she hasn't made anymore steps since yesterday morning. She's getting more comfortable with walking along the furniture and standing up (not holding on to anything) seems to be effortless now. So it's only a matter of time before she really takes off for good! I have such mixed emotions....the majority of which are happy ( because this is a huge milestone and she seems to be tackling it early) and relieved (because I know that soon enough I won't have to lug a 22 pound turkey around on my hip 24/7 anymore). But there is some sadness too..because with the onset of walking comes the beginning of the end of babyhood!! Sadie's first year has just flown by me!!...Could be because I was in a cloudy haze for a third of it, still trying to balance everything while maintaining sanity.
Anyway, she is quite proud of herself ...and we all root her on and clap whenever she even looks like she might attempt a step. She's also saying "ki ki" for kitty...and I'm pretty sure "ba ba" for bottle.
We had a nice weekend. I took Hannah to the pool this afternoon....it wasn't really hot enough, but I had to make good on my promise. She's been wanting to go since last week when she picked out her new Dora bathing suit at Target. She had fun, but we only stayed about an hour..the water was freeeeezing!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Summer!

We had a really nice weekend visiting with Chad's parents and enjoying the beautiful weather. On Saturday, we went down to Old Town Winchester ...window shopped and ate some yummy hotdogs. The weather was lovely and I love that I don't have to bundle up the kids anymore! The girls had a really great time being spoiled by Mema and Mepa. Mepa and Hannah helped Chad plant some flowers out back. Chad found a wasp nest under one of the columns on the front porch and Hannah watched him wrap duc tape around the bottom opening to trap them. So, she thought the duc tape was some kind of wasp repellent and placed a small piece on each of the flower pots. She said "That will keep the wasps away from the flowers." So cute :)
Yesterday, we had a picnic in the park and let the girls play for a bit. Then, Hannah and Chad washed my van- inside and out! And of course it started raining around dinner time last night and hasn't let up since. Nice. I'm trying to map out a plan for this summer...I need to figure out how I"m going to keep the kids busy during the week. I'd like to enroll Hannah in some swim classes...The pool season is here, and she's still terrified of getting splashed in the face.

Schooooool's Out For Summer!!

Today was Hannah's last day of school! I can't believe she's done with her first year of preschool...I've loved watching her grow and seeing her confidence soar. She loved her teachers, classmates, and everything about going to school. We had a big end of the year party in her classroom this afternoon. One of her teachers, Julia does photography on the side and gave each parent a disc of all the photos she'd taken of their child all year long. This is the best gift EVER! There's about 150 pictures of Hannah on the CD and they are all great...I've uploaded them to my web album and will email the link. Here are some of my favorite ones.
Hangin' out on her soft reading spot. This is where I always put Sadie down when I dropped Hannah off in the mornings...until she became mobile and started charging for the toys.

On the playground..

And this one is adorable!!! Benjamin is her favorite friend in the class.....but I thought this was a Christian preschool!! :) LOL They are just too cute.

My Little Gamer

Hannah has recently learned how to use the computer!!!!! It's unbelievable to me that my 3 year old is playing games on the internet, but I guess this is her means of technology...and the games are appropriate for her age...but it still amazes me that I get kicked off Facebook so she can play "Diego on the c'puter". It took some practice, but she's got the mouse down and she uses the arrow keys and space bar to make the characters run and jump. I can pretty much leave her alone and she'll play an entire game by herself....she actually prefers to be left alone :) The game has Diego asking her to click on certain animals, shapes, or colors...and by gosh she does it ALL by herself! She listens and understands all the instructions...and only asks for help when she runs the mouse off the mouse pad and can't figure out how to click on what she needs.
Incredible!

Yard Sailing

Today we tried to sell some junk at our very first yard sale. It was supposed to be a community yard sale..but our community is pretty slack..and we were the only ones on our street to participate. It also rained on and off throughout the morning and that probably scared some people away. Hannah had so much fun helping me set up the table and lay out all the books. She tried so hard to sell her little stuffed animals..but after several hours of looking cute, she said "Well, I guess no one likes my animals". lol. We did sell a bunch of DVDs and books..and 1 picture frame. 35$ isn't too bad for our first, rainy yard sale....right? :) We didn't get rich, but it was actually a really fun thing to do together. Even Sadie got in on it...but maybe her grumpy expression scared some customers away?

Tunnel Vision :)

Today is the most gorgeous day- around 74 degrees..with a perfect warm breeze. Ahhhhhh :) As Hannah would say: "This is the life!" I'm having fun this week going through the house and collecting stuff for this weekend's community yard sale. So far, I've managed to part with a ton of DVDs (they've just been collecting dust in our basement), books (many of them are "how-to" books...what's with that?), some wall art that I've had since college, and some gently used clothing & toys. I'm not getting rid of any of the girls' baby clothes or favorite toys. I'm way too emotionally attached to that stuff...and not 100% sure we're done having children, anyway. Plus, it would be nice to keep that stuff around for Erin's future babies....I mean, if she has a girl, the kid would be set for life with clothing and blankets!
Sadie has become so independent over the past month or so. I'm having such a good time watching her explore and play. She desperately wants to play with Hannah, but right now she's just a nuisance to her big sister. That doesn't stop her from following Hannah all over the house and trying to grab whatever she's playing with. Sometimes Hannah will try to read a book to Sadie or get down on the floor to play with her. But if Hannah's really into an activity, God help whoever tries to interrupt...especially little Sadie. Sadie's getting so big though, and standing on her own..waving bye bye..and saying Dada. Still no Mama, though she will mouth it silently. She likes to be chased and tickled...she thinks it's hilarious. We also discovered that she's allergic to eggs. She had a skin reaction to some eggs at Cracker Barrel the other week, and it happened again yesterday when I gave her a tomato from my sandwich to eat....it had mayonnaise on it. I'm told she'll probably grow out of it....and I guess we are supposed to wait until she's a year to give her eggs, anyway. I felt bad ...but I guess I'm a little more liberal with her. With Hannah, I wouldn't let her have any real food or juice until after she was a year old...and even then, I was very careful with what I gave her.

The Big Picture

This is the Mother's Day gift that Hannah made for me at school. She painted the entire pot by herself and chose the koala bear stamp to decorate. Cute, huh? I can't believe Mother's Day is here already. Although this isn't my first one, it feels different this year because I'm now a Mother of TWO little blondes. Being a Mom is often a thankless job...but as Mom, I have so much to be thankFUL for! My children are strong, beautiful and brilliant...and I'm constantly aware of how lucky I am to be able to stay home with them. I wouldn't trade my day job for anything. My days (and nights) are often a blur of whining, stinky diapers, and mountains of laundry...but then I stop and think about the big picture. These are the days. The days that I will always remember with fondness...the days when my children were small and needed me more than anyone else. The days when our family was young and just beginning to figure things out. The dirty dishes and laundry..the peanut butter smudges on my carpet...the feeling of sometimes being overwhelmed and overloaded. Those are all things I know will fade away with time. The things that stick will be the look of total joy and excitement on Hannah's face during her first circus show, or the time the girls were taking a bath together and Sadie ripped one...and we all died laughing. Of course, Sadie might not think it's too funny when she's an adult and we bring that one up...but nonetheless!
Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms in my life! I'm so glad I get to spend Sunday with my own Mom, too!! I love family brunches :)
I've been trying to get a good shot of Sadie's 4 top teeth...this one kind of shows the top front and bottom front. She's so gorgeous.

Two Ring Circus

Ladieeeesssss and Gentlemeeeeennnnn, Hannah and Sadie saw their first circus show today! Hannah has been so excited about it all weekend...she was practically quivering when we pulled into the parking lot and she got her first view of the big top tent. It was raining and muddy...Sadie was pretty fussy and tired..but man, the look on Hannah's face was so worth it! She sat on Chad's lap, eating her cotton candy and soaking in all the sights for the first half of the show. Sadie wanted so badly to yank everyone's hair who was sitting in the row in front of us, and crawl around on the floor..which was probably infested with the Swine Flu. At intermission, Chad took her back to the car, where she fell asleep instantly. I stayed and finished up the last 30 min of the show with Hannah. She got to ride a pony! She wanted to ride the elephant, too..but Mommy was out of money!
I was really impressed with the circus. I haven't been since I was a kid.... I tend to avoid them because I just don't really agree the animals performing and being forced to do tricks. I'd rather go to the zoo and see them in their natural habitat than watch them be prodded into a circus ring to stand on one leg, while an audience cheers. However, the only time I saw a whip come out was when the camels did their little show. All they did was some synchronized running around in circles...and the trainer was just using the whip to guide them. Pretty harmless, I suppose. The acrobats and other 'human' performers were amazing...I could totally work for a traveling circus show. I think I'd make an excellent clumsy clown! There were these great Arabian Butterfly Dancers...I think those were Hannah's favorite. Tonight at bedtime, she made up her own dance.



We'll definitely do it again next year...any volunteers to babysit Sadie next time?!