Christmas

It's been almost two months since my last post. We've been very busy, and when that happens, blogging is one of the first things to go. I'm sorry mom. I will try to do better.

Anyway, Sadie just keeps getting bigger and more fun. She will be 18 months old tomorrow. So far, this is my favorite age by far. She is just a delight to be around. She is learning so fast. She doesn't talk, but she knows a lot of words. When we read, I'll ask her to point to different things in her book, and she knows almost all of them.

She's becoming more social and loves to play. When she gets really excited, she shakes her head from side to side, pumps her legs up and down, and lets out a high-pitched squeal. It is impossibly cute. She also likes to help out around the house. She helps me put laundry into the dryer (on the rare occassion when I do laundry), and I've even taught her to throw away her poopy diapers.

We've got lots of pictures from Christmas, and I don't have time to post them all now. (Mom, I promise I will post more within the next week.) I'm going to start with some pictures from when Jill took Sadie to play in the snow that somehow miraculously fell in San Diego.

Hey, what's all this white stuff?

I don't know, but I think I like it.

She definitely liked it.

Sadie's bull face

I taught Sadie to crunch up her face and blow out of her nose like a bull. It is hilarious. I thought I had some video, but I can't find it. These pics will have to do for now.

Halloween pics

Sadie still might be a little young to really enjoy Halloween, but I think overall she had a lot of fun. One thing's for sure. She sure was one cute fairy

Playing Around

Sadie's at a fun age right now. She's steady on her feet and loves to play. Here are some videos of her playing with Jill and me. As you might notice, she really likes her little slide.



Sadie has very subtle ways of letting you know when she wants to go outside.



She's so proud of herself.



The high five is something she seems to have only learned for a few weeks. She doesn't really do it anymore. But I've got this feeling she still knows how, but she's just being stubborn.



I love the way she runs. You can't really tell from the end of this video, but her whole body sort of shakes when she runs. It's sort of an up-and-down run instead of a just-move-forward run.





Spinning is a relatively new trick for Sadie baby.



A few months ago, I posted a video of Sadie dancing. She's learned some new moves since then.



When Sadie and I play, it consists of her chasing me, or climbing on me.

Finally, a new post

I can't believe it's been more than two months since my last post. Those of you who are reading this probably already know that it's been a hectic couple of months for us. The main reason we've been so busy is that we bought a house! We loved our condo and would have been happy there for another year or so, but when we found a house in the neighborhood where we wanted to live long term, we decided to make an offer. Since then, everything's been a whirlwind. There was a ton of paper work. Moving was a much bigger chore than I imagined. I had no idea how much stuff we had. You wouldn't think a 2 BR, 900 square foot condo could hold so much. Now we've been here for a month, are pretty much settled in and couldn't be happier with our home. And Sadie loves having a backyard. (She also loves having a grandma close by who stocks the backyard full of toys. Thanks Ann.)

Speaking of Sadie, she just keeps growing into a little girl. She'll hit her sweet 16 month-old. birthday next week. At her 15 month dr.'s appointment, she was 32 inches tall (95%) and 26 lbs (90%). No shrinking violet, our Sadie. She's also got a lot of personality, by which I mean, she's pretty stubborn. I'm convinced she gets that from Jill, since I'm just about the easiest-going guy I know. Sadie definitely prefers her mother to me. For a while there, I kind of struggled with that. But now Sadie gives me kisses. She doesn't really give Jill kisses, so I've got that on you Jill. Ha!

Well, I'm done feeling so chatty. Here are some random, cute pictures of the kiddo.

The girls at the fall festival. Jill, you don't look so festive!

The fire station open house. Sadie loved the hat.

Sadie has figured out how to turn off the cable box.

For some reason, she always shuts it off when I'm watching a game. You little stinker!

Our back patio--a.k.a., Sadie's Play Place (not pictured, Sadie's arts and craft table)

She climbs up her slide all by herself...

and slides down by herself too.

She's also an avid reader...er, page-flipperer.

Texting. "OMG, my dad's phone is soo lame."

This one's a couple months old. I just love this pic, though. Steph, do you recognize the toys?

I'll post some other random pics later this week. Promise.

I thought this was hilarious. The resemblance is eerie.

Laguna

This past month has been very hectic, which is why I haven't posted anything in a while. Last week, however, we finally got away for a few days. Every year, Jill's dad, his brothers and their families get together in Laguna Beach for a family vacation/reunion. It was definitely nice to relax for a few days. Here are a few pics. Video to come later.

We found out that Sadie likes having her legs buried in the sand.

She also likes to pour sand on her head.

Fun in the pool.

Our deck had a pretty nice view. Sadie doesn't seem too impressed with daddy's haircut.

All tuckered out. She slept better at Laguna than she does at home. I guess the beach is a good way to wear the little ones out.

Lots o' Videos

As you may have noticed from some of these posts, Sadie is a messy eater. She always leaves us plenty to clean up. Tonight, she had just gotten out of her bath and was chewing on a beanie that she'd grabbed, when she saw me wiping up the floor. She came over, and started wiping in the same spot with her beanie.

She's been doing lots of little random, cute things like that lately. We've gotten some of them (ok, a lot of them) on video, but I just hadn't gotten around to downloading and editing them. I finally did that yesterday. Here they are.



This is probably my favorite thing she started doing in the past couple of weeks. She charges blankets like a bull charging a matador's cape. It's hilarious.



She also likes to stick the blankets on her head. We don't let her do this anymore. She's had a couple of hard falls. She bit her tongue when I was watching her alone one night. Kind of freaked me out to see blood coming out of her mouth. I think it also freaked Jill out when I called with Sadie screaming in the background and told her that she was bleeding. Luckily, the bleeding stopped within a couple of minutes. But the second time it happened, we stopped letting her do this.



The doctor told us to give Sadie whole milk instead of formula. Sadie--she's got other ideas.



She did this for about 20 minutes one night.



It's fun letting her chase you.



It's also a lot of fun to take her to the beach. She loves getting in the water.



Bath time is always fun.



Sadie is her own biggest fan.



She'll dance to anything--even the washing machine.



Mom, she really likes her puppy. She dances to him to, but everytime we try to get it on video, she stops. We'll get her eventually.



And of course, eating.



The cake never stood a chance.

4th of July and some cute pictures

We stayed pretty close to home for the 4th. In the morning, we went to our church breakfast and then watched the Coronado parade. After that, we spent the rest of the day relaxing at Jill's parents' house.

4th of July baby

No, she's not pooping. It's just one of the funny little things she does these days.

Watching the parade

We found out Sadie likes blueberries...

a lot.

Birthday

Sadie turned one on Monday. It's pretty wild to think back on the past year and how much our lives have changed and especially how much she has grown and developed. The first year is really incredible. Those first few months, she couldn't really do anything. She just ate, pooped and slept. We were so excited when she rolled over. Then she sat up, and it was the coolest thing anyone had ever done. Pretty soon, she was crawling, and I couldn't figure out how it didn't hurt her knees to crawl around on our hard floors. But it clearly didn't, because she crawled all over the place. When she started walking a couple months earlier than baby-centersaid she would, we were convinced our daughter was a prodigy. While we now know that its not that unusual for a baby to walk at nine months, we still think our Sadie is pretty special. One things for certain--she is a cutie-pie. Here's the proof:

She didn't know what to make of her cake at first

but she quickly decided

that she really, really liked it.

"I really, really like this cake!"

"See, I told you it was really good."

Time for presents!

Here's the kitchen set that she loves...

and here's her singing puppy. She wasn't sure what to make of him at first either,

but she quickly decided he was pretty cool. That's her, "he's pretty cool" face. Promise.