Sadie 9 month checkup

We took Sadie in for her nine-month checkup appointment today and she impressed the doc with her crawling and cruising skills. No shots today, but they did have to draw some blood for a lead test -- they really make you earn those stickers they give you. Actually, Jake got the stickers, so Sadie didn't even have that to show for her suffering. Anyway, here are the stats:

Weight: 18 pounds, 3 ounces (45th percentile)
Height: 29 1/2 inches (99th percentile)
Head: 17 inches (25th percentile)

Same story: average weight, long body and tiny head.

This post is about Sadie, but Ali took this shot the other day and I thought it was so cute, even though you can barely see Sadie's face.

How many Ali's does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Well, I thought I should contribute to the blog a little more. I do get a lot of laughs and sweet moments throughout the day that aren't usually captured on these vivid pages.

One of my tasks today was to go to Target to get last minute Christmas items, as well as, some long needed lightbulbs for the bathroom. Before Ryan left for work today, we had a serious conversation. "You need to get the small lightbulbs. They have a smaller base than the regular lightbulbs. Do you know what the regular lightbulbs look like?" Rolling my eyes, I said, "Yes, I know what regular lightbulbs look like. Jeez!" So, off we went, the kids and I and lollipops aplenty, to do our chores. We did great! Got the lightbulbs, got the plastic cups for next week, got the extra dishwasher detergent, etc. But sure enough, when Ryan got home tonight, and he went to screw in the lightbulbs, they were the wrong wattage. *Sigh* Oh well. In my defense, I did have a toddler and baby in tow as we raced through the store before any meltdowns occurred. Guess I will have to restock my bag with lollipops for my return trip to Target tomorrow.

I had sort of a rough day in the land of "Terrible-Two's" today. They sure gave it a cutesy name for a rotten stage. I got this face a lot today........

Followed by, "I not gonna hit Sadie anymore" Argh!

THOUGH, we did have a really nice time reading "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" together, while Sadie was napping (before Jake woke her up! Grr...). He definitely has his cute, snuggly moments and I will love them forever. We took turns reading, well, sort of. He did a great job playing the role of Santa, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas" and I read the rest of the story. It sort of reminded me of when my family used to sit down and read the play, "The Miracle Worker" for family bonding time. (Sidenote: Although, this probably contributed to my weirdness, I do have fond memories of this and plan to do it with my kids. Sorry Ry. Though, why was I always Helen Keller???)

Anyway, I'm sure there will be more cute and frustrating moments tomorrow, but now it is time to go watch the Wizards game. Woot!

The Three Amigos in..........the Botanic Gardens!

On Sunday we headed downtown to meet up with Jake's daycare buddies, Rachel and Jocelyn to check out the trains at the US Botanic Gardens. Well, the trains were mostly outside and it was a cold rainy day, so we just decided to head in and search the jungle for frogs. One of the kids noticed the "ribbit" sounds so we had them looking all over for the frogs. We finally found them, but for some reason they were hiding behind these big speakers.

Here's Jake and Rachel taking a break on a bench:
And here's Jocelyn pointing something out to Jake:

More photos (including some cute shots of Sadie) over here.

Feverish Conditions Lead to Behavioral Theorems

I was home sick a few days this week and I was determined to do everything I could to keep the germs to myself (I'm selfish that way). So, I washed my hands every 10 minutes and avoided my normal shenanigans with the kids. Jake was fine with it. He actually made some really cute comments in between going "kaboomy" with any number of his toys. But he was ok just kissing me on the elbow and with me not playing with him as much. Sadie seemed oblivious too, but she's a baby and she's a girl so all around she's harder to read. More complex, I should say.

Anyway, towards the end of the first day, Sadie started crawling over to where I was recuperating on the couch and climbing up the side to give me smiles. And then she just kind of hung out for a while. Looking at me with her happy little face. Like she knew something was up. She just doesn't do that with me. She'll use her on-board GPS system to locate Ali three rooms away, or climb up onto the first stair and patiently wait for Ali to come back downstairs, but I don't normally get that treatment.

So, I have two theories (comments welcomed):

Theorem 1: Sadie inherited Ali's CARE FOR ALL OTHERS FIRST gene, and she honed in on my discomfort, bypassing not one, but BOTH of Ali's pantlegs (her two favorite things in this whole wide world) to come and say "hi" to me with her smile.

Theorem 2: Sadie is exhibiting the (if I say "female" here, am I going to get in trouble?) tendency to inversely express interest in those that express interest in them. So, where she is normally nonchalant when I call her over to play, my hours of careful germ cloistering were interpreted as a signal of indifference, which in turn piqued her curiousity.

In any case, here's our subject enjoying a remarkably pleasant Friday afternoon in mid December (sorry about the middle-part, sweety. mommy was busy raking leaves):

Potatoes

We were driving around and we heard a blowing noise from the backseat. We looked back and Jake was blowing furiously at something on his finger. Ali asked if he was making a wish by blowing away an eyelash. "No," he said, "it's a potato". And on closer inspection, he had a little ball of earwax on his forefinger that wasn't exactly blowing away like an eyelash. Why does Jake think he has potatoes in his ears? Well, when we give him his bath, Ali tells him she's cleaning the potatoes out of his ears. Where did she come up with this? Apparently it's a family tradition that's been passed down through the generations. Although it's a cute saying, I am getting a little worried about the confusion that may arise now that Jake's helping out quite a bit in the kitchen.

Sick Day

Well, Ryan is home sick today. I am secretly happy because he is home with us, but mostly sad because he is sick. I was trying to explain to Jake that Daddy was sick this morning, so he walked over to Ry, and said, "I kiss your heart Daddy?" Ryan, laughing, said, "yes." Jake leaned over, kissed him and said, "I kiss your heart! You're all better Daddy!"

Crazy Mondays

Back when both Ali and I were working, and Jake was in daycare, I would take off every other Monday to do something fun with Jake. I told him these were "crazy Mondays." But now that Ali's at home, when I stay home every other Monday, it just feels like a longer weekend since we're all there. But today, Ali had to go in to Sunrise, where she's been doing some part-time work from home, and was at work all morning. I told Jake it was the Return of Crazy Monday! Sadie had no idea what I was talking about, but she smiled anyway.

I took the kids down to the National Building Museum where they have a really cool little kids' "Building Zone" set up with all kinds of activity stations. Of course, it was closed. It was closed because they were tearing down all the equipment from an event over the weekend in the main hall and they thought it would be too dangerous for the kids to be tucked away in this safe and quiet sideroom with all those toys, and instead ushered us out to one end of the main hall where they were working 20 feet away, with no barriers. That same woman who told us the playroom was closed came by later to tell us to be careful of the kids crawling on the carpet because she'd found several small metal objects and SHARDS OF GLASS! Thanks a lot, lady!

Jake and Sadie had a GREAT time anyway. Jake ran and ran and ran around the big space and Sadie practiced her standing and even pushed the stroller around. Jake made friends with all the kids we met and played really nicely - he's such a good boy (ok, I'm choosing to ignore the fact that he dumped out all the folded laundry tonight, and then knocked over the reindeer decorations just to get a reaction).

Here's a video of Jake playing "Ready-Set-Go" from one end of the hall to the other. Notice how long it takes him to get to the other side. He's running fast-- it's just a big building and he has little legs. On the way back he's trying to high-five me, but he misses and says so, and we try again, which apparently knocks him over.