9 and 8 things

1. When I said "We went to Maui for a week. Sadie stayed behind with M+ P and G+ G. We stayed at The Ritz, it was amazing in so many ways I can't tell you yet."
What i meant to say was I'm pregnant!
2. I'm due November 15. Sadie is very excited. She tells everyone "my mommy has a baby in her belly, she ate it, and we're gonna share it when it comes out."
3. The first trimester was fairly ugly, morning sickness, afternoon sickness, migraines. If I ever see another Saltine again, it will be too soon.
4. working in a salon while pregnant is NO FUN.
5. I am not really craving anything weird per se, but sweets make sick, I've eaten my weight in steak and I'll put hot sauce on just about anything. those are all weird things for me to do.
6. Just like last time, we will not find out the sex. Place your bets.
7. Anyone who says Amniocenteses don't hurt, is a LIAR.
8. I'm walking in the AIDS Walk this year with my salon. It's only 6.2 miles.
9. Please donate if you can. $25 is all I'm asking. click here to be directed to my website.


1. Sadie poops in every restaurant toilet we go to.
2. She has finally taken notice of our tattoos. She calls them "tatchoos"
3. Sadie believes all pigeons eat Matzo Balls
4. She Listens to Michael Jackson every night at bedtime.
5. Once at the dinner table while the 3 of us were talking about something Sadie said "I don't know many things." I think both Peter and I had tears in our eyes.
6. Sadie is very concerned about "sharing" the baby when it's born. She wants it to sleep in her room so she can take care of it.
7. On my birthday, Sadie was so excited that she told everyone we saw "today is my mommy's birthday, she's 47."
8. We recently went to see Cars 2. Sadie asked to go home in the middle of the movie. She said "I like the movie, but I'm tired and want to relax at home."

enjoy!
xoxo

may/june 2011

Let's catch up

Sadie's 3rd birthday is coming up. She's cracking us up constantly. She must think we are total geeks because sometimes she comes up with things and we just look at her like "holy crap! that's OUR kid!"

While eating dinner the other night, Sadie points to Peter and says "daddy you have stripes and mommy doesn't." It took us awhile to figure out what she meant, neither one of us had stripes on that day. When asked to explain, Sadie points to Peter's forehead and says "daddy has stripes and mommy doesn't." ooooooooops!

Mookie and Pop-pop came for a visit and when asked what the name of her giraffe was Sadie replied "shaki-pani-poo."
On another night at dinner we happened to be listening to Bruce Springsteen. Peter says, "Sades, do you know who this is? This is The Boss, he's from NJ." So naturally she replied "the boss? do you work with him?"

My cousin got married in September in AZ. Sadie was so excited to go because she got to wear a pretty dress and mommy and daddy dressed up too. She thought the bride was going to be Cinderella. She still talks about it.

Originally for Halloween, Sadie wanted to be Glinda from Wizard of OZ because she had a big dress, sparkly crown and over sized wand. Then she found a dress at the store and insisted on having that. I was all set to make her costume but came to my senses and realized buying one was probably faster and more economical. She Sadie dressed up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
We had purchased a crown and wand for her to carry too but on Halloween day she said she only wanted her sunglasses because "real princesses wear sunglasses and not crowns."

Our kid is REALLY girlie. She only wears dresses, preferably tutus. Everything is either "beautiful" or "wonderful" or "gorgeous." All women are princesses. If Sadie sees a woman on the street in high heels she just about jumps on top of her to let her know that she loves them.

It's really fun to watch the evolution of drawing skills too. Things are becoming more obvious and the stories that go with the drawings are becoming more complex. Our walls are filled with paintings and drawings. I can't wait to see what happens when Sadie finally goes to school!

If you haven't heard yet, we are moving. AGAIN. 5 times in 7 years. Pretty funny, right?
Sadie's gonna be a city kid!

enjoy!
xoxo

OMG-a recipe!!!!! Oh and of course, Sadie.

I made this up one day. It's a little weird but I really liked it, maybe you will too.
Spaghetti Squash Casserole
There are a few steps to this dish but each one only takes a short amount of time and the casserole is good reheated or frozen

1 large spaghetti squash (approx 2lbs)
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 bag or bunch of fresh spinach
1 onion (I use yellows but you can use reds if you like), small diced
2-3 Tablespoons of Cashew Butter (can be found in the nut butter aisle)
water for mixing into the Cashew Butter
Bread Crumbs
Oil for cooking and coating the dish
1 clove garlic minced
2 boca burger vegan griller patties or 1/2 lb ground meat
small casserole dish or whatever dish you have that can go in the oven

Preheat oven to 350*F
generously poke holes in the squash with a knife
microwave on high for 15 mins (if you don't have a turntable in your microwave, rotate it after 7 mins)
check to see if it's soft and done with a skewer (it should poke through easily)
cook more if needed

while the squash is cooking
make the cashew cream (cashew is cream is made by whisking water into the cashew butter until it comes to a heavy cream consistency)
heat some oil in a pan and cook the bocas, once done mash them up and add the pasta sauce
if you are using real meat cook the meat and then add the sauce, or drain the oil and then add the sauce, whatever you do with meat.
remove from heat and add the cashew cream, stir well

in a separate skillet heat some oil and saute the onions until translucent
add the garlic until fragrant
add the spinach and cook until wilted
drain any liquid

once the squash is done
slice it in half and remove the seeds
gently scrape it into a bowl with a fork and toss to separate
add the spinach and bit of sauce, toss to distribute

coat your baking dish with a bit of oil and spread some sauce on the bottom
put the squash mixture in
top with remaining sauce (use a spoon to separate the squash so the sauce falls down in side a bit)
top with bread crumbs
bake for 20 minutes uncovered

enjoy!
xoxo


The other day at Berkeley Bowl I found this on the shelf.

The list of ingredients was about 20 long and includes MSG! BARF
I love BB because you can find funny things like this mixed in with top shelf international ingredients and awesome produce that you just can't find in most places.


We joined the Oakland Zoo recently and have gone several times to visit the animals. Well, we've gone several times. We haven't really seen the animals much since the first time we went. Sadie is really only concerned with riding the cars and carousel there. In fact, it's kind of ALL she talks about. Driving the cars.
We went to the member's only night a few weeks ago which was really cool.  Except for the two skinned knees Sadie got from running down a hill. Yes, I said "running down a hill." We're not total idiot parents, just as we were about to say "Sades, don't run down hills you can get......" she bit the dust so hard not only did she skin both knees but she slid down the hill a bit on her face too.
I think all three of us may have cried a little. Sadie cried more than a little. But then she was fine and up and running around again in no time.

At the end of August we drove down to Santa Cruz for a few days and stayed at the Dream Inn, played on the beach, cruised The Boardwalk and visited the Roaring Camp Railroads. Of course, Sadie loved the beach and the Boardwalk. The trains were cool for her for about 20 minutes. She laid down on my lap and looked up at the trees while we chugged about but then she fell asleep!
While in Santa Cruz we discovered Saturn Cafe, a veg restaurant with Vegan options. That place rocks, seriously. There's one in Berkeley that just opened up not too long ago. Can I tell you how exciting it was to be able to order a chocolate shake with vegan ice cream?????? I haven't had a shake in a restaurant in YEARS. YEARS I say!!!!!

Oh, yeah? did I tell you I'm working again? Check me out at Atelier Emmanuel. Bringing a little rock and roll to the Frenchies of Downtown SF. It feels really good to be back in the salon. Working 3 days a week is perfect too. Sadie loves sleeping over at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Thursday and we love having a date night every Thursday after work!

Enjoy!
xoxo

july/august 2010

9/20/2010- 10pm
I totally forgot to add earlier:
Sadie is POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!
How could I forget something so HUGE??????????????
oy vey.

It's hard out there for a shrimp

On Wednesdays, Sadie and I go to Barnes and Noble for storytime.
We ride the escalator up to the second floor. At the top is the cookbook section.

That's right, Coolio's got his own cookbook. Food actually looks pretty good too, except for the animal bits.

It's been so long, I don't even know where to start!
Is anybody even reading this blog anymore???????
Sadie is almost 2 1/2 and potty trained. Well, okay, she's closer to 2 1/2 than she is to being potty trained but that's just because I'm lazy.
As you will see from the pictures, our kid is quite the character. "Just like her mother" my family says. But I think she's got a lot of her dad in her too. She is a total performer. If anyone gives her the time of day she'll do a little dance and sing. When we go to dinner at the thai restaurant down the street they fall all over her. When she arrives they say "oh are you hungry how about some tofu and rice?" To this Sadie replies "I'm a little hungry I think I need some tofu and rice 'kay?"

We've reached a point in Sadie's life where she's really turning into a person. She speaks in almost complete sentences, is a total drama queen and actually has an opinion on most things.
She wears her "glass slippers" around the house all day, every day and everyone in a dress is a princess. Whenever she can she will put on her princess costume and cruise around. A lot of times she can be found in my heels.
She is OBSESSED with Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.
At night when Peter comes home from work she will ask him to dance with her and she'll sing a song from either movie. It's the cutest thing I have ever seen.

When getting dressed each day Sadie will only wear a "pretty dress." If we are going somewhere where sneakers or pants are neccessary it takes forever to convince her that she will be able to wear a dress again in the near future.

The other night I found an old Barbie of mine from way back when. She had corn rows and a hoochie dress on. I gave her to Sadie because when we were in Toys R Us the other day buying a gift for someone she asked me to take her to the Barbie section.
HOW DOES SHE EVEN KNOW ABOUT BARBIE??????????
Anyway, I gave my old one and she went crazy over it. Hugging and kissing and calling her "my best friend, she's a princess" and all that.
We took her home and combed out her hair and gave her a bath and Sadie hasn't let her go since.
So I know some people are all against Barbie, saying that the doll makes little girls have poor body image issues and what not, but I played with her A LOT and I'm okay. Right?
I mean, it's not a big deal that Sadie keeps asking me to "stop combing Barbie's hair mommy" and "mommy I want to play with Barbie now" right??????

enjoy!
xoxo

November/December

Sadie is almost a month away from her second birthday. I can't believe it!
I keep saying she's almost two going on 20. Girl has attitude and quite the personality.
She talks and sings nonstop. When we're out in public people always stop and comment on how happy and outgoing she is. I mean, she's crazy, I bet to a stranger it looks like we've spiked her water with something.
Her favorite song to sing is the Sesame Street theme song, but for some reason when we're in the grocery store all she says is "I'm so happy I could siiiiiiiiing!" She says "hi" to everyone still. It's quite embarrassing and we're always having to tell her to use her inside voice.
In Trader Joe's she'll always blurt out "I love wines!" when we enter the wine area.
Just the other day she told me her Kid Kraft kitchen has a "wine fountain" where she makes "cakees (coffees) and wines."
She also sings the Itsy Bitsy Spider song but it goes like this "the itchy itchy fider, up the wawa fout, down rain, fider out. Up sun dry rain, itchy itchy fider up fout again."
Thanksgiving was a blast, we shared the day with my parents, Gary, Dwain, Addison and Avery. Giggles and screams were had by all!
Hanukkah and Christmas were mellow. Sadie got a kitchen and a bunch of blocks and other fun toys. Her favorite things to do are drink wine and play with mommy's hair. She told me the other day her kitchen has a wine fountain and it makes perfect pretty cupcakes. hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Because I do hair at home, she has learned a thing or two and wants to do them to my hair. This can be very relaxing or very painful.
We bought her a little backpack filled with Princess gear as well. The day she opened it she put it all on with the tool belt and tools we got her also and pranced around the house in her track suit. We dubbed her "Boca Raton Bubbie" she just looked crazy!

We moved apartments again in November. Sadie was a big help, riding around the building on the hand truck, packing and unpacking boxes, even when she wasn't supposed to........

I'm always surprised by how much Sadie knows and remembers. For instance, when we go to Berkeley Bowl for groceries, she always says "oooo cheese, yay yay yay!" Because there are cheese samples in the front of the store. When we got to Trader Joe's she knows she can ask at the check out counter for a balloon and she must say "thank you" when she gets it. If we stop at Starbucks for coffee she'll say "I want a treat too."
The other day she looked at my mom and said "your name is Ronna, daddy's name is Peter."

Our tree this year was pink and decorated with homemade ornaments, sparkly things and candy canes. Sadie loved to look at "christmastime." In fact she loved it so much all she could say when I packed everything up to put it away for next year was "Christmastime over, put on my costume and trick or teet?"
She hasn't grasped the concept that Halloween or any holiday for that matter comes only once-a-year.


enjoy!
xoxo

ooh-ooh

Just as our nightly bed time routine was settling into a holding pattern, Sadie decided to go and mix it up.
One night, after reading, or trying to read about a half dozen books or so, I started to rock Sadie to sleep like I usually do.
Normally, I sit and rock her for about 3 songs on the ipod and then put her in her crib. If she cries, she cries, if not, I consider my self lucky. After about 20 seconds of the first song she leans forward, points toward her crib and says "yeah, yeah, yeah."
I ask her if she wants to lay down and she says "yeah, yeah, yeah" again.
My little girl is all growns up! She doesn't even need mommy to rock her to sleep anymore.
It was kind of sad in a way. Even though I have a few extra minutes now at night where I don't have to rock her I kind of feel sad that she doesn't want to sit with me.
It's gotten to the point now where she just sits in the rocker with me long enough for me to get a kiss and then points to her crib and says "yeah, yeah, yeah" or "nigh, nigh."
Once she's in the crib, she gathers all her dolls and shoves them under her like a hen sitting on her eggs and reaches for her blankets.
I tuck her in and leave.
Later, before we go to bed, Peter will check on her. She's usually facing the opposite direction bum in the air, deep in sleep mode.

During nap time though, Sadie insists on sleeping in our bed. The only way she will fall asleep is if I lay there with her, listening to classical music and close my eyes. Sometimes we lay down together and I stroke her hair. Other times, I close my eyes, pretend to be sleeping while Sadie rolls around on the bed trying to fall asleep. Almost always I fall asleep for a while too. Almost always when I wake up Sadie is sleeping on me somehow. I love this and hope that it never changes.
Although, now that I have made it public knowledge, with my luck it will change.
I'm actually contemplating erasing this whole paragraph, but I guess I'll take my chances.

It's really exciting now that Sadie is starting to talk. She says things sometimes that completely catch us off guard, make us laugh and sometimes make us cry.
We were sitting in Zachary's the other day waiting for our pizza. Sadie was looking around at all the other tables yelling "pizza! pizza! pizza!" She just kept getting louder and louder until finally our pizza arrived and she was able to stuff her face with some deep dish spinach and mushroom pie.

Here's a little list of things she says:
oy you - I love you
peez - please
teeses - trees
teet teet - birds
sigh - sky
bot - belt
seet - sheet
tost- toast
oht - out
dada work - she says this a lot
hot
ding dong - belly button
eye bow - eye brow
neck, nose, eyes, ears, arm, knee, feet
moof - mouth
ahbow- elbow
shoe
tuck -truck
bus
pogo - pogo stick, sometimes comes out as "pogogogogo"
dude

It's always surprising how many words she has and how many things she knows the word for.
She mimics us all the time both verbally and physically.
When I put on my makeup, Sadie has her own makeup brushes that she uses to put on her makeup. When Peter does push ups at home, Sadie does them too. He always says to her "wanna get ripped?" Sadie points to his push up bar and says "wopped."
In the morning when we drive Peter to work we always say "shhhh" in the hallway so that Sadie doesn't scream her head off while running down the hall to garage.
Now when we go to drive Peter to work, she runs down the hall and stops every few feet and says "shhh, shhh" Then she squeals in delight and starts running again......

Something funny that we did one day was make fun of her for the way she would start backing up to sit down like a mile away from where she is about to sit.
We would say "beep, beep, beep." Like a truck backing up. What do you, a few days later, Sadie started copying us. Now every time she wants to sit in our laps, she says "beep, beep, beep" and backs up on us.

It makes me so happy when I see how much Sadie loves my old Cabbage Patch dolls. She drags them around, takes them for walks in her little stroller, feeds them and sleeps with them. "Seyee" is what she calls "Scotty" my original cabbie. I can still remember the day I got him. My mom, grandma and I went to Mervyn's to find him. There were 3 dolls left on the shelf. I had to have a boy doll, I remember this specifically and Mervyn's was the only one that had them.
The other day my mom came home from Salvation Army with a new Cabbage Patch kid for Sadie. Brand New with tags. $2.50 the price tag said. My mom even got a senior discount so the doll cost something like $1.25! Who would have thought!

On the hottest day of the summer so far, my mom and I took Sadie to the Alameda County Fair. It was $2 Tuesday and worth every penny. Except for the brutal heat, the fair was pretty cool. We went to the petting zoo, animal sale and barnyard play area where the kids could pretend they worked on a farm. Sadie wasn't real into the petting zoo. She didn't want to touch anything and when the misters came on to cool everything down, all she wanted to do was stand under them and get wet. My poor mom was almost soaked.
Sadie experienced her first ICEE and fell in love with a little courtyard full of flowers and low curbs for her to sit on. Girl loves to find things to sit on.
She struck up a conversation with an older lady sitting nearby and she was just happy as a clam.

About a week before we were to leave on a plane to Portland to see Mookie, Pop-Pop, Jif, Evan, Riley and Mallory, we started telling Sadie she was going to fly on a plane to see everyone.
One day, she pulled out a book that Mookie had made for her with everyone's pictures in it. She just started going through it and saying everyone's name. It was really cute to watch.
When we arrived in Portland on the way home from the airport she already had Mookie and Pop-pop's name's down "mook" and "pop-pop." She managed to get Mallory's "mayee" but didn't really show any signs of going for Jif, Evan or Riley. Next time, I guess.
We had a great time in Portland. It was really hot so we drove out to the beach and played in the sand. I was kind of worried about how Sadie would react to the beach since we hadn't been yet. She loved it, of course and now I can't wait until we hit up Bradley Beach, NJ next month!
On the way back from the beach we stopped off the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I love cheese, in case you didn't already know. :)
In fact, Tillamook is one of my faves. mmmmmm cheese!!! It was so cool to see all that cheese and eat some too!
What I really enjoyed was seeing that the cheese in Kosher and vegetarian!

I also got to visit Sweet Pea Baking Company for some vegan treats. I have to say, maybe I was just really excited about it because I have some of their recipes and really enjoy them, but it was just sort of "mehhh" for me. Nothing really jumped out and hit me like "wow this is good!" But, I'm glad I got to go because I've been obsessing over it for a long time.
After Sweet Pea we drove to The Enchanted Forest. If you have kids and are in the Portland area, YOU MUST GO HERE!!!! It was SO much fun. It put Fairyland here in Oaktown to shame a hundred and fifty times over. In fact I'm even embarrassed that Fairyland exists now. Sadie really enjoyed herself too. She ran around through tunnels, slid down some slides, rode on a train and ate some delicious amusement park french fries.


Now that we're back from Portland, life is all about drinking smoothies, eating udon noodles and saying "no" way too much. Sadie says it all the time and well, we try not to but seriously, how else do you get your point across?

enjoy!
xoxo

july 2009

ABC Chicken

The fact that Sadie is walking is old news by now. The fact that she's talking is pretty old news too. Everyday she just gets funnier and funnier with the words she's saying. She has this word "day-soo," we have no idea what it means. I assume she uses it when she wants to know what something is, or she knows but can't say it. She says it a lot and we say it back to her sometimes which brings the giggles.
When I brush her teeth I always sing the ABCs just to sort of distract her while I'm poking around in her mouth. Now, because I have done it so many times, she starts singing the song when I say "do you want to brush your teeth?"
She also sings the ABCs pretty much any chance she gets. It's really quite funny because she's saying the letters but not in any particular order. Sometimes, if you don't sing along with her, she'll just sing louder and louder until you start to pay attention.
We've made some friends in our building and have gone to story time at Barnes and Noble, played at the park and been swimming a bunch. Sadie is really funny around other kids. She gets real quiet and just sort of stares. It's always confusing to me. She's crazy loud at home and when we're out together but once someone her own size comes near she freezes!
I recently upgraded some of the toys in the house. I could tell Sadie was getting a little bored because she kept getting into everything. The house was a crazy mess, I was starting to drown in my chores.
I bought a little basketball hoop and basketball for her to play with. Each time she slams the ball into the basket, she jumps and claps and turns around so that we can clap and cheer for her. Sometimes, she even does a little dance when she makes it in the basket.
I also bought a baby stroller so Sadie could push her baby around. She doesn't really push baby around though. Mostly, she stacks our shoes in it and pushes those around.
Another thing we got for Sadie is sidewalk chalk. Not only is it more fun for mommy to play with it, it is really, really messy. It always starts out under control and then before we know it, chalk EVERYWHERE!
I tried giving Sadie some crayons. She's slowly coming around to them. At first she just pounded on the paper and broke a lot of them, but now she's starting to become more aware of what they can do.
People laugh at me because I ask Sadie a lot of questions. She says "yeah" and "no" really well so I usually trust that she knows what she's talking about. For instance when getting dressed, I hold things up and she she says "yeah" or "no" to them. This makes for some pretty awesome outfits, I must say. Sadie likes to rock the dress over the jeans look. One of my favorites for years. It looks better on Sadie than it does on me, but I don't care!
My dad took us to a plant show in SF a few weekends ago so that we could buy some succulents. There were so many cool things there. I scored a bunch of new plants. Our patio is looking so good! Now that the weather is getting nice, we spend a bit of time out there on the weekend. Peter and Sadie like to enjoy their coffee out there. In the mornings, Sadie and I water the plants together. Well, I water, she tears the leaves off. :(
Not having cable or a tv for that matter really hasn't been a problem for us. Until recently, we didn't let Sadie watch much tv. Occasionally, we would show her some Pocoyo on Netflix. Once that started to really grate on the nerves, I found a few Yo Gabba Gabba! episodes online that we could watch for free. Those too started to grate so we finally broke down and downloaded season 1 from Itunes.
At first, Sadie didn't seem to be that into them. She kind of only liked the episode with Jack Black from season 2. Then all of a sudden, she started singing the songs and going crazy when DJ Lance would come on the screen. Now anytime we say the words "shake" "jump" "wiggle" or "dance" she goes nuts and dances around in circles.
The other day my mom and I were in Toys R Us with Sadie and she was going crazy over the Yo Gabba Gabba toys they had there. Every time we pushed Brobee's foot and he started singing, she danced in a circle.
We even have a Yo Gabba Gabba book we read at night. Sometimes Sadie is so crazy for DJ Lance she refuses to put the book down and ends up sleeping with it!
Now that we've been watching a bit of tv (can I call it tv if it's on a computer screen?) with her it's just amazing to see how much she's absorbed. She says so much now and does even more!
My birthday was last weekend and Peter taught Sadie to say "happy birthday." They both came into the bedroom to wake me up and Sadie said "hap-pee buduh" then the rest of the day she just kept saying "hap-pee, hap-pee!"
Most of her words end in "ck" whether they have that sound in them or not. At times it can get a little tricky when out in public. Especially with the word "fork." It always sounds like something else...........

enjoy!
xoxo

june 2009

Are you my chicken?

We went down to San Diego a couple of weeks ago to visit my family and to celebrate my granny's 80th birthday. Of course Sadie loved all the attention and was on her best behavior. She was also completely attached to my mom leaving Peter and I with a bit of time on our hands. We were able to go down the beach, walk around and have some lunch just like the old days. During that time Sadie really turned a corner in the walking department. She kept following my mom everywhere, walking behind her like a little duck.

Now that she's walking it seems like she's turned into a completely different person. She's talking a bit and mimicking what we say a lot which is just plain creepy. Over night, she went from starting to walk to going full speed ahead! We even had to buy the kid a pair of "real" shoes. Girl is into everything now, and I mean EVERYTHING.

The shoes that Sadie was wearing before she really started walking were this really cute pair of mary jane sneakers that I found at Target. Once she really started going we realized they were too small. We had two pairs of Vans waiting for her at home. One pair was a hand-me-down with pink flamingos on them. The other pair are black with red and white trim and a skull and crossbones on the ankle, they were a gift from Jana. Unfortunately, I think the poor kid has my skinny feet and the things wouldn't stay on. So we picked up a pair of red Converse with laces for her. My parents bought her a pair of light pink Salt Water Sandals. They are the cutest things ever. My mom still has my first pair. Sadie keeps pointing to her "soose" and saying "sigh". Which means "mom put on my damn shoes and take me outside!"

On Memorial Day we went to Children's Fairyland. I used to go there as a kid and have very fond memories of it. When Peter and I first lived together we lived on the other side of the lake from the park. I was very excited to take Sadie there. Sadie was really into the little plastic key they give you to put into the boxes. She wasn't that interested in the what came out of the box once the key was in, but she kept going up to each box and trying to put her key in. She was sort of overwhelmed by most of the things at the park and was too small for a lot of the rides. She did enjoy seeing the animals and didn't know what to do when the pony came over to her.
It was a nice day but Peter and I decided the park may have seen better days. The only way I could think to describe the place was like a drag queen the morning after. Once sparkling and beautiful now just tired, dirty and faded. The kids running around the place didn't seem to mind, so I guess that's all that matters.
That night we grilled some corn on the bbq. It was quite tasty. At least I think it was. Sadie ate my entire ear of corn and part of Peter's! She thought it was just the neatest thing.
BTW-if you want to know how fast your kid's digestive system works, let them eat corn-on-the-cob.

Sadie's started playing dress up with my clothes recently. While I'm in the shower I usually lay out some clothes for her to play with in the bathroom. This keeps her occupied and away from the toilet (which she can flush). She used to make a ton of noise in the bathroom, now she just babbles and tries to put all of the clothes on.
I never know what she's going to have on upside down and inside out when I step out from behind the steamy shower curtain.
The other day she had on my tank top. She even put it on correctly. Later, I gave her a belt, bracelet and purse. She thought this was just the funniest thing ever. Another time, she kept going into the closet to get my bra and put it around her neck.

Today, Sadie had her 15 month check-up. She is in the 75th percentile for both height and head circumferance, but only in the 15th percentile for weight. Skinny Minnie this kid is! What's funny about that is that she eats ALL THE TIME. When it's not mealtime, she's snacking on something. I don't know if it's because we don't feed her cow's milk or what. She definitely eats. During our visit to the doctor, Sadie was her usual self, flirty and giggly. She made everyone laugh and fawn all over her. Little ham.
The nurses kept saying, "oh I wish all the babies could be as happy as this one!" One of the nurses stood outside our door, while we were waiting for the doctor. She kept saying to any doctor or nurse passing by, "oh you gotta come in here and see this little girl, she's so happy!"

enjoy!
xoxo

may 2009

Walking Chicken

Here's some videos I uploaded to YouTube recently.
They aren't the best quality, but at least you can see Sadie in action.


Sadie is walking!
We saw her take a few steps here and there a couple of times while sitting in the living room. Then one morning Peter and I were talking in the bathroom and all of a sudden here comes Sadie walking down the hall!
She's still hanging on to crawling for dear life but she's walking more and more everyday. I kind of thought by the end of last week, she would have been over crawling and completely walking, but I was wrong.

Sadie is very cautious, which I have been told, so was Peter as a kid. She's constantly looking around to make sure someone is there to watch her or that it's safe to go forward with her plan.
When we were at the park the other day, Sadie finally got up the nerve to climb up the play structure so that we could slide down the slide.
She would only climb the steps if I was behind her and she didn't go to the top until I was there waiting for her.
We slid down the slide together a few time and then we started going side by side which was so much more fun!
I still can't get over how much she hates the swing. Cries and yells every time I put her in it!

I was always teased by my family for talking a lot when I was a kid and I think Sadie is going to have the same problem. It's so exciting when we hear a word we recognize.
Here are some of her words-
Mana = banana
Meenow = a cat meowing
Pop Pop = started out with Hop on Pop, when I would say "hop on pop" she repeated "pop pop pop" Now she points to her Pop Pop in a picture and says his name
Gassess = glasses, which she hates and rips off our faces any chance she gets.
zis = what is this?
Dayee = daddy
mama = duh!
sayee = Sadie
bah = ball
She repeats what we say and knows her body parts too. What a smart chicken! (I know, I know, all babies do this, but ours is better than yours, didn't you know?)

After I get Sadie off of crawling and on to walking I think we're going to go for potty training.
She's already sitting on her potty before a bath and some other times. Lately, though
she's been going over to her rocking chair and sitting in it when she has to poo.
This is funny and worth mentioning because, she will suddenly disappear and we can hear her grunting from the corner. It used to happen in the corner by the door to the patio. Then she discovered her chair.

When we were in Arizona, my great aunt and uncle gave Sadie a stuffed monkey. It has been by her side ever since. She added a giraffe into the mix and for a long time she had to have each one in her grip in order to go to sleep.
Until one morning. I went into get her and she was yelling at the giraffe. I don't mean talking loudly, I mean YELLING. She handed me the giraffe and said "no" while shaking her head and using hand gestures. I thought she was just talking crazy so I put the giraffe on her chair for later. Once out of the crib, she threw the giraffe off the chair, shook her and waved her hands while saying "no." And that, my friends was the end of that. Giraffe has not been allowed in the crib since.
We have no idea what happened. There were a series of replacements, most of them just rebounds. Baby joined the party about a week ago and looks to be holding strong. Monkey remains the steady, steady though. Sometimes we have Brown Bear, sometimes we have Pop. There have been times when I am trying to rock Sadie to sleep either for a nap or at night and there are so many dolls on top of us. To top it all off, we have to have her pink blanket somewhere there too.
In the morning, we can hear Sadie talking to her dolls. It's pretty much one of the only times where she will actually play alone for an extended period of time.

Both Peter and I read to Sadie all the time. She has books all over the apartment. At night we read together the three of us. Peter is way better at it than I am because he makes funny voices and ad-libs. I tend to read the stories as they are written and all my voices sound the same even if I'm trying to make them sound different.
We have several books in heavy rotation and let me tell, I think we can recite almost ALL of them with our eyes closed. Sometimes I start to fall asleep while reading to her. After the third time reading through a book in a row, it's sort of hard not to!
It's always amazing to me when Sadie remembers a sound or part of a book before we turn the page to that part.



enjoy!
xoxo

april/may 2009

Madge strikes again.

Where to begin?
I am totally slacking on recipe posting and life blogging. It's not that I don't have any delicious recipes to post or sweet stories about life with Sadie the chicken, it's just that I have been busy. WE, have been busy!

Ashley came to visit at the end of March. It was nice to see a sista, get a haircut and have some girl time. Naturally, what do you do when a friend is in town? Margaritas and nachos at Puerto Allegre followed by an attempt at shopping on my part and some major hanging out, of course!

My parents took Sadie and I on a day trip out to Livermore to do some wine tastingduring that first heat wave we had. Peter took that day off and enjoyed some "man" time.
We had so much fun. Some of the wineries are just so beautiful. Towards the end of our trip, Sadie and I met a really cute English Bulldog that further confirms our intense desire to have one of our own. They're just so damn cute!

We attended a birthday party for Peter's bosses daughter Maddie at their warehouse in SF. They had one of those inflatable jumpers in the driveway. I thought for sure Sadie was going to go nuts inside and bounce all over the place. But alas, she just sat there looking at us like "what the hell am I supposed to do with this?"
So I'll just put that in with the swings and slides at the park. Can you believe a kid doesn't like to swing????
After the party we hit up Lanesplitter Pizza for a few beers and some pizza.
Peter showed Sadie how to drink out of a straw (water of course). Later, Sadie got up on the table and danced on the pole. This is the only time dancing on the pole will be cute and funny.

This year we celebrated Passover with the Weintraubs and my parents. Sadie played with Lennon and Calla. Lennon was so sweet with Sadie. Of course this freaked Peter out. "No boys, ever." is all he kept saying. It's really quite funny. Naturally, Lennon is more like a cousin to Sadie since our families have been so close over the years. This makes it even more funny when Peter says "no boys, ever."
I was in charge of dessert and made a delicious trifle consisting of a lemon coconut bundt cake, vanilla pudding, fresh fruit and whipped cream. The entire thing was vegan and kosher for Passover. I need to post the recipe. I'll get to it, I swear I will.
I came up with the idea after flipping through my granny's old "Jewish Home Beautiful" cookbook that I took from her house after she died. It is from the 40's I think. I just love old cookbooks. The thing that I love most about this book is that my grandma made notes in the margins, marked recipes and had a bunch of newspaper and magazine clippings inside.

Shortly after Passover, Sadie and I both came down with colds. I don't usually get sick but since Sadie was clinging to me day in and day out, open mouth breathing on me and snotting all over me, it was bound to happen.
As painful as it was to see my baby feeling less than perfect, I sort of enjoyed the long cuddly naps we took during those two weeks of sickness. Poor Peter had to sleep on the couch a couple of times because Sadie just wouldn't sleep alone. She kept rolling all over me like a cat, falling asleep and rolling off. Then she would wake up, roll all over me again, fall asleep and roll off. My most favorite moment was one afternoon we laid down for a nap and she curled up in my neck. Later after she had rolled off and slept on her own, I turned over on my side so that my back was to her. As I was dozing off, Sadie crawls over to me curls up, puts her hand on my shoulder and her head into my back and goes back to sleep. Just melts my heart!

For Easter we had planned to go on a picnic but ended up staying home because we were still feeling pretty bad. Instead, I planted some veggies, put together some planter boxes and cleaned the apartment. It may not have made me feel better physically but it sure did wonders mentally.
Just as we were really starting to feel better, another heat wave hit and we have been on a roll ever since.
The pool is heated to a wonderful 80 degrees, it sparkles and shimmies as the sun shines and the breeze blows. Over the weekend, we made some friends at the pool. Sadie scored a super cool floating chair from a lady we met. I've never seen her so content. She just sits in the water, legs crossed holding her toys and giggling. This is really the first time she's been swimming or out in the sun. Last year she was so little she just sort of sat there like a lump in the water.
Sadie is quite the sunbather too. The first day we were out at the pool, Peter and I were laying on lounge chairs and Sadie was right there with us, reclining and relaxing, just soaking up the suns rays.
Madge is back too!
You all remember Madge from last year, don't you?

From sadie week 17

She was with us Sunday. Sunglasses and sun hat on full display for all to enjoy.
It's nice to see you again Madgey!

Still no walking but getting close!

enjoy!
xoxo

march/april 2009

read this.......

Jana just posted a blog about her trip out to see us. She takes nice photos you should have a looky look.

enjoy!
xoxo

Standing Chicken

Jana came to visit a few weeks ago. We had so much fun. We hadn't seen Jana since we moved to CA so it was really great to see her.
Whenever someone comes to visit I always have so many places I want to show them. Most of them of course involve food or wine.
The first thing we did after picking Jana up at the airport was head straight to La Note for some creme fraiche pancakes.
They are pretty much my favorite pancakes in the east bay. I've tried a few other things on the menu there but always go right back to the pancakes.
Next, we hit up Trader Joe's to buy some ingredients so that we could make the Vegan Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bottoms from Sweet Pea Bakery in Portland, OR. My MIL and FIL brought some Portland magazines for me to read the last time they came to visit. One of the articles was about vegan baking in Portland.
The recipe was really easy and really good!
Jana brought some Palm Sugar to try as a substitution for regular sugar. It comes in these cute little pucks.
Having never tried Palm Sugar before I didn't really know what to do with the pucks.
Jana grated one of them into a bowl while I broke my food processor trying to grind it up. The processor was already on the fritz, so don't cry for me just yet.
We figured out that if you warm the pucks up you can mash the pucks with a fork or potato masher until it resembles granulated sugar. Probably would have been better to figure that out in the beginning.....
The result, in the end yielded a mildly sweet, moist pumpkin bottom that we all enjoyed.

On Saturday, we went into the SF to shop at the Ferry Building and Farmer's Market. I have to be honest, I wasn't ALL that impressed with the Farmer's Market. I think the we usually go to by Lake Merritt on Saturdays has a lot more variety.
We did score some delicious Olallieberry jam and some really beautiful tulips there though. Inside the Ferry Building we walked around, tasted the samples and tried some of Miette's french macaroons. I think they were rosewater geranium??? They were "different" I didn't really love or hate them. I found the macaroon part to be too doughy which is not how a traditional french macaroon should be.
For lunch we had planned to eat in the Ferry building but so did everyone else so we took a walk down to The Fog City Diner.
I have to say, I remember that place being really good. My dad used to take me there as a kid and my mom and I ate there not too long ago and it was pretty good. This time around it was just "eh." Though, I must admit the bloody marys were quite good.
Jana and I shared a crab salad and an ahi sandwich. Of course we ate the whole thing, so it couldn't have been THAT bad, really.

The weather was so nice that day we took another walk down to Blue Bottle Coffee Cafe. The roastery is near our house in Emeryville and they sell beans on Monday and Friday but of course I never get over there to buy them. Jana mentioned before she came out that she wanted to go there and buy some coffee. I have only had one cup of coffee that Peter brewed since we bought the beans. It was good, but I'm not really a coffee connoisseur so I can't really tell you if it was good or not.

We stopped on the way home and picked up some wine and cheese and bread and had us a little party that night. Oh, how I heart cheese!!!!
Sadie and Jana had a little photo workshop on the floor. Jana taught Sadie how to take a picture and look at it afterwards. Today, I caught her fooling around with my camera, pushing the buttons and aiming it at things. It wasn't turned on of course, but now I sort of wish it had been.

Sunday morning we went over to Chester's Bayview Cafe in Berkeley. Peter and I had been wanting to try it for a long time and we are so glad we did! The rooftop deck, bloody marys (can you tell I like marys?) "no huevos" rancheros, all of it was so good!
Jana's friend Donna met us there. She has a love for cupcakes that just might rival my own.
Sadie and I were playing on top of a table during brunch, she was looking at the flowers and lights hanging on the railing when lo and behold what do I see? CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There, right before my eyes, two girls eating what appeared to be 4 cupcakes.

Determined to find out where these treats came from, Sadie and I went downstairs to poke around.
Love At First Bite Bakery is a little bakeshop tucked away between a photography studio and letter press shop.
The place was filled with cupcakes, sweet gift items and the-what-seems-to-be-mandatory punk rock girl selling cupcakes in the front of the shop.
We of course, could not decide what to try so we tried a bunch. Red velvet, Strawberry, Vegan gingerbread, green tea, coconut, and one other one I can't remember the name of.
The strawberry one was made with real strawberries and sort of tasted like Cap'n'Crunch berries. I kind of enjoyed that.
The others fell a bit short for me. Green tea was a pleasant surprise, even though Donna and Jana said it was too sweet. The coconut could have been so much better and the vegan cream cheese frosting didn't taste like anything to me.
The cupcakes were cute, but not that cute. And pricey for what they were.
Still, I will probably go back for another round the next time we eat at Chester's.

The weekend flew by and before we knew it, it was time for Jana to go home. We were sad to see her go. After she left, Peter and I were a little down. Seeing her, talking about NJ made us miss the east coast. For like a split second we contemplated how we could move back.

In other news Sadie is standing up on her own for minutes at a time now. I caught her walking along the wall today while pushing herself off to stand alone from time to time.
I'm excited to see her walk but at the same time I'm not really looking forward to her growing up!
She says "uh oh" "cheese" and "whoa" now. In addition to saying "woof woof" like a dog, she knows that snakes say "sssssss," bears say "grrrr" and lions say "rawr." It's real cute.
Sadie is climbing up and down on the couch which is funny and scary all at the same time. I keep thinking she's going to fall off backwards. It hasn't happened yet, thankfully.

My mom and I went to the The De Young Museum in Golden Gate park to see the Andy Warhol exhibit. It was pretty cool. The exhibit is all about Warhol's involvement with and love of music. There were a lot of photographs, movies, paintings and LP covers to look at.
Sadie particularly liked the psychedelic room with the flashing lights and big pillows to crawl all over. She was dancing and rolling around while giggling and hugging on my mom.

Our recent visit to the pediatrician was a riot. Since our insurance changed we were able to go back to the doctor we had when Sadie was first born.
This is cool because 1) she's a total hippie 2) she hasn't seen Sadie since she was 5 days old 3) they're real organized and nice there, not like Kaiser.
Sadie is 29 inches long, and 19 1/2 pounds. She is totally thin for her age range and I am keeping my fingers crossed she is thin her entire life.
I was worried at first when I saw the chart and it said she was in the 20th percentile for weight. I mean, kid eats, and eats, and eats. The doctor said she was perfect (which we knew) so I'm not too concerned.
Now if only we can get her hair to grow!!!

enjoy!
xoxo

jana's march visit

Birthday Chicken

Sadie's first birthday party/baby naming party on Sunday was a success!
My cousin, Jonathon was nice enough to take pictures for us with my camera.
My parents hosted the party at their house. It was a real nice day.
The rabbi came and gave Sadie her Hebrew name and she ate her first cupcake.
Because Sadie is named after my great grandmother, we had planned to use her Hebrew name, but no one could remember what it was so we chose another.
Naturally, Amelia (Sadie's middle name) isn't a Jewish name really so we picked a first and middle name that started with the same letters.
Shira Ahava
Shira = song
Ahava = love
Cute, right?
I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting, chocolate cupcakes with fudge frosting and vanilla cupcakes with raspberry coconut frosting. I made a little vanilla cupcake for Sadie with a pink candle on top. She tried to blow it out but couldn't really figure out how to blow so I sort of helped her.
I think she surprised everyone when she ate the cupcake in 4 bites and didn't even make a mess allover herself. (she actually did make a mess all over my jeans and underneath the table)
Technically, that was her first "sugar." We have been real good about keeping sugar to a minimum in the foods we serve Sadie.
I couldn't tell if she liked it. Eating it in 4 bites doesn't really mean she liked the cupcake. She shovels everything into her mouth as I mentioned last time. So who knows.

Peter's parents came down from Portland to help us celebrate. They brought Sadie a whole bag full of musical instruments. Peter's mom even made a bag to hold everything in out of an old Lifetime shirt!
Sadie enjoyed the maracas and the drum most of all I think. I was pretty into making some noise with Peter's old fife. That thing is hard to play!

We've been having band practice ever since Mookie and Pop Pop left. Sadie plays the Xylophone and Drums at the same time now. It's real cute.
Awhile ago, I wrote about Jimmy and Pat being in a band with Sadie. Jimmy seems to have left the band and I wasn't sure about Pat until the other day Sadie started shaking her shoulder just like she used to when Pat was around. So I took this to mean that Pat was back.

I was sort of hoping that Sadie would be walking by now just because I want her to be better than all the other kids. :)
But I'm pretty sure we're a ways off from that and I'm okay with it. I'm already having a hard enough time keeping up with her crawling from room to room I can't imagine what it's going to be like when she starts walking!

On Peter's bedside table there is a clock radio. I was brushing my teeth and couldn't see what Sadie was doing. Suddenly I heard music in the bedroom! Sadie figured out how to turn the radio on and off.
I turned around to look at her and she was totally dancing and smiling. Hilarious.
The next day, she was napping in our bed, I was out in the living room when I heard her giggle.
Apparently while learning to turn on the radio, she set the alarm to go off at 12noon. When it went off it startled her and she woke up! There she was just sitting in the bed shaking dancing.

Now whenever she can she goes over to the radio and turns it on and off. Each time she dances and says "da da da" and giggles.

The story gets better.....
Again, Sadie was napping in our bed. I was in the living room when I heard a 'thump.' Not a loud sound but enough to make me stop and wonder what it was.
The next thing I see, the bedroom door swings open and there's Sadie crawling out with a smile!

I am trying really hard to lose weight. It's turning out to be harder than I thought. Especially because I just can't seem to get on a schedule with going to the gym. I have to do it at night after Peter gets home and sometimes I either don't feel like it or he gets home late and then I just don't go.
The other night I knew he was going to be late so I thought I would try one of those "watch instantly" videos from Netflix. I chose a silly cardio kickbox video and set the laptop up on the couch.
Sadie was playing by herself on one side of the couch so I figured I'd be safe to kick and hop around.
Once she saw what I was doing she started giggling and crawled over to where I was. Every time I lifted my leg she would try to catch it. A couple of times she pulled herself up on my pants thus pulling them down.
When she finally realized that I was copying the lady on the computer screen she went over to it pointed at it then back and me and laughed. This continued until I finished.
The workout was good, but watching Sadie was more fun and totally made the time go by faster.
If only I could get off my butt more and continue doing the video!

After all the time we spend trying to find toys for Sadie to play with all the girl wants is either a tube of lip balm or a shampoo bottle.
She loves them! When I dry her hair after the bath she points to the shampoo bottle on the counter. She just holds it while I dry her hair all the while looking at herself in the mirror.
On the changing table she either wants to hold her lotion or vitamin bottle. She always hands it to me as if I'm going to open it and then hand it back to her.
With the lip balm, usually she wants a little on her lips first then she holds it.
This was my first mistake. I put some on her and then let her play with the tube. I forgot to watch her and the tube went missing.
No more Philosophy lip balms for mommy! Burt's Bees will be just fine from now on. Not to mention I can buy 4 Burt's Bees lip balms for the price of one Philosophy balm.

In addition to pointing to herself when you ask "Where's Sadie?" Sadie makes dog and cat noises. She talks to the dogs in her fire engine book and tries to meow like a cat when I read "Brown Bear what do you see?" to her.
Tonite, she made hissing sounds like the Boa Constrictor. She looks at me to make the noise then tries to imitate. Way too cute for words, man.

This is probably TMI but I have finished nursing!
Almost exactly 1 year to the day too!
Peter's mom (or the baby whisperer as we call her) was actually a big help in this department. While she was here she took charge during nap time and got Sadie to sleep without nursing. (even if she did have to sit in a chair or lie in bed while Sadie slept on her!)
I was starting to have a lot of trouble with this. I had weaned her off nursing at night and in the morning without a lot of difficulty but since nap time was already an issue with us it was proving to be really hard for me to get the situation under control.
When Monday rolled around and Peter's parents were leaving to go back home I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to get Sadie to nap without nursing.
I was so nervous that I made sure I was in the car during nap time so she would fall asleep on her own.
Yesterday, I was able to get her to sleep on me after dancing around the room with the Bee Gees blasting (just like old times!).
Today was easier, she just put her head down when she was tired. While she was asleep on me, I watched a some TV online so I really can't complain about the forced down time :)

The list of music that Sadie likes is getting longer and longer by the day. The Bee Gees are my go to band though. I guess because I used them as my secret weapon back when Sadie was small to get her to relax and go to sleep she must be conditioned now to hear them and start to fall asleep.
It only seems to work when I'm holding her and dancing around the room though. As soon as I sit down, her head pops up and she shakes it back and forth as if she's saying "no."

One of our new favorite bands is Priestess. Maybe you think I'm a dork for liking them but I do. So does Sadie. Every time they come on the ipod she stops what she's doing and starts dancing. Then she looks at me and smiles.
Sometimes we dance together either while I'm holding her and twirling around the room or when we're both on the floor.
A lot of times we do acrobatics when bands come on that Sadie likes.
I swing her around, or flip her upside down. She likes to jump on the couch or bed too.
She really gets going when I flip her over and hang her down my back. Some times I hold her ankles and raise her up and down to get in a quick arm workout!

As I mentioned before this is most likely (I say most likely because it IS sort of fun writing about my kid, you know!) my last weekly post about Sadie.
Our little Princessgruntingchickendonkeycry, madge, moose, boogs, bubby, birdie, sweet baby, Sadie, Sades made it through her first year of life and there really isn't much else to tell. At least on a weekly basis that is.

enjoy!
xoxo

happy first birthday sadie!

The race to the finish

Sadie's 1st birthday is Sunday, can you believe it??????
It's been raining like crazy here. Every time I look out the window and see the rain and dark skies I flash back to last year when I went into labor and this same storm that is over us now was over us then. I get a little choked up when I think that I have been basically blogging her progress for a year give or take a few weeks here and there.

When Sadie was about 2 weeks old, Octavio came to visit us. We ate pizza from Zachary's and I hadn't quite figured out the whole breastfeeding thing so I was hiding under a blanket trying not to flash Roc while feeding Sadie. It was really funny.
He asked me if I was going to keep a journal of Sadie's first year. At the time I laughed and thought that was a ridiculous idea. I was tired and could barely sit down without wincing. Nicole Richie had just given an interview about how she was keeping a daily journal on her daughter with 40 names, it just seemed silly. I had no intention of being a crazy parent who talked about their kids all the time. I still hadn't even come to terms with the fact that when Sadie cried it was because she needed me. ME! What a thought.

As you well know, I did keep the journal. It was actually quite easy and sort of fun to do. At first, I started posting while Sadie was sleeping on me. Later on, I found myself keeping notes on my Blackberry each week so that I could remember what to write when I got the chance. I might even put all my posts together to show Sadie one day. I certainly have enough photos to save of her.

The year flew by and I haven't quite wrapped my head around the fact that Peter and I have a daughter that's a year old. I still remember the first time we talked about whether or not each of us wanted to have kids.......

Before I got pregnant I made a lot of declarations about things I would or wouldn't do as a parent.
I think I did almost everything I said I wouldn't do and didn't do almost everything I said I would. Funny how that works isn't it?
I've heard some of our friends talk about how after having the first child they'd do things differently with the second. I'm always confused and surprised by this. Except for a few minor things like remembering to request a vegetarian meal in the hospital, I don't think there's much I would change for the next one. For the most part, everything went real smooth for us. I mean, Sadie still doesn't nap in her own bed but she sleeps in her bed at night and sleeps through the night until 7:30am so I can't really complain.
She's mellow, happy and a good eater what more could a parent ask for?

Speaking of eating, our kid is what the "experts" call a "big eater." Girl shovels it in. On Valentine's Day, Peter took us out for sushi. Sadie ate all the edamame a bunch of rice and some tofu. She was totally eyeing our sushi and I'm sure if I had given her some she would have scarfed it.
We're thinking of changing her name from chicken to moose.
Set a bowl of peas out in front of her and be sure not to blink or you'll miss her eating them. She's quick but delicate. Her pinkie is always raised and she plucks the food up off the tray ever so gently.
There isn't much she won't eat, so far it seems to be nectarines are the only things she's not so into. She loves her Goldfish and insists on having at least one in each hand and 10 in her mouth. Strawberries are her new favorite fruit. I said "new" because that banana is still holding the top spot and doesn't seem to be coming down anytime soon.
She's even started to feed herself with a spoon. She dips it into her yogurt and puts into her mouth without waving it all over the floor now.

It's taken us a while to get Sadie into brushing her teeth. At first when she was teething it wasn't a problem, she liked chewing on the bristles. But after awhile she got smart and realized what she was doing was not a game and didn't want to do it anymore.
I even tried putting her on the counter while I brushed my teeth. She held her toothbrush and brushed like I did twice.
Now, she has two toothbrushes. She uses them both at the same time. She brushes with one, smiles and then sticks the other one in and brushes some more.
Whatever it takes, man. Whatever it takes

When you say "Where's Sadie" she points to herself.
When you say "Where's mommy?" She points to her food. She'll shake her head and say "mo" if you've said "no" to her. But then she smiles coyly and does what you've just said "no" to anyway.
But, she remembers what you said "no" to. For instance. I have a cup in the bath tub that I use to pour water over Sadie when she's in the bath. She tried to drink from it once and I said "no, no don't drink." Every time she's in the bath now, she raises the cup to her lips, shakes her head and says "mo," then looks at me.

I'm totally enjoying all the hugging and kissing she's been doing. Sometimes she'll come up behind me if I'm sitting on the floor and hug me and climb around and plant one on me. It's cute and I keep telling myself to soak it in, because some day she's going to be a teenager and she's going to hate my guts for a few years.
At night before going to bed, she gives Peter 3 kisses sometimes 4 then we go off in to her bedroom to read 2 stories and rock in the chair for 3 songs, no more, no less. Trust me, she knows how many books and how many songs are going on. One of the stories is always "Where The Wild Things Are." Sadie loves her Wild Things.

Peter and I keep wondering when Sadie is going to have some hair. She has a little and you can tell it's growing but there really isn't much. It's blond and curly. When I blow dry it after her bath it smooths out a little. The next day it's a big fluffy mess no matter what. It's not long enough to clip yet. You'd think, being a hairstylist I'd know what to do about this dilemma, but I don't.

I'm pretty sure this is the second to last weekly update (the last being the one I intend to post about her party next week) I will be making about Sadie.
I bet you're happy. I'm going to try real hard to write about food. If I could post as regularly about that as I did about my kid that would be nice, wouldn't it?

enjoy!
xoxo

sadie 52 weeks