Mom's Sick...

...so we're living off of olives. Please send help!

The Problem With Posting Everyday...

...is that you run out of things to say even about your kids. Actually, in my case, I ran out of new pictures. Today I took a few so if you see Eli and Sadie in the same outfit over the next few days it's because I'm getting lazy.

Looking Out the Window

The kids can waste a lot of time looking out the window. And what do they see? Squirrels, garbage trucks, kitty cats, kids playing, daddy going bye-bye, and all sorts of really exciting things.

Flashback

Me and my brother, Darren, in the 1978 Thompson Kiddie Parade. I want Eli and Sadie to have those shoes, and pants and hats and bikes. My brother and I were sooooooo cool.

Sadie's New Bed?

Sadie's babydoll got a new wooden cradle. However, Sadie's in the cradle more than her baby.

Sadie's A Girly-Girl?

As it turns out, I'm loving having a girl for all of the girly-girl stuff. I love the dolls, the pretty flowers on dresses, cute purses, ruffly skirts everything that a little girl is supposedly supposed to love. I'm not sure if Sadie buys into it all or not but until she tells me otherwise, I will continue to encourage the girly-girl persona.

I got her this purse for her birthday. It's orange, it has a flower, it's handmade and I got it from Etsy. I love it. I think Sadie wishes it were a bit bigger because her doll doesn't fit into it! Look at her posing.


But, it would be great if she asked me "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?" as I hope she loves hiking and camping as much as Dennis and I do. I mean, even girly-girls can be eco-friendly, love the great outdoors and get their nails dirty.

Fall Leaves

How many pictures can one take of leaves? Apparently a lot, because I seem to have a ton. We kept raking them into a huge pile and then this big machine would come by and suck them all up. Now, our tree is all out of leaves, so we're all out of fun (and we don't get to see the big machine anymore).

Eli dancing in the leaves.

Yet another brother and sister moment.

A sort of artsy shot of Sadie. I really like this picture.

I just had to fit these guys in here somewhere. This is Olive and Archie. Olive and Archie are dolls that I made for Sadie for Christmas. (Don't worry. She doesn't read the blog and she's already played with them for a minute anyways.) I worked very hard on them and am very proud of them. The problem is that now I don't know if I actually want Sadie to play with them. I think they would look very nice sitting on a high shelf, don't you? I guess I have 2 months to get over it.

Eli had a fun time thinking of fun places for Olive and Archie to go. I got pictures of them in a tree, going down the slide, playing hide and seek and this lovely one:

PS If you want to make Olive and Archie you can get the pattern and find out more about their creator here.

Boo! At the Zoo

When Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, Grandpa and Dad took the kids to Boo! at the zoo.

Does this shot look familiar??

Remember Eli from last year? Same goats, same pumpkin sweatshirt...

Eli and Sadie sharing a moment.

Sadie's One Year Check-Up

My big girl has become average. She's just over 21 pounds and is 29 1/2" tall which are both in the fiftieth percentile, which is down from the seventy-fifth percentile that she's been at all of her previous check-ups. I guess all of that walking can slim a girl down pretty quick even when you're still eating like a heavyweight. Eli weighed 1/2 pound less and was the same height at his one year appt. Sadie's hair is becoming long and it's starting to curl up a bit. I have a feeling her hair is going to stay dark like her daddy's. Sadie and Eli are starting to look more and more like each other.


Other new Sadie milestones:
*Can climb up the ladder on the slide, sit down and slide down the slide all by herself!


*Says: mommy, daddy, up, peek-a-boo, puppy, thank you, balloon, pumpkin, baby, shoes, grandpa/grandma and done


*can walk up and down hill (but only if it's a gradual slope)


*can fit about 15 Goldfish crackers in her mouth at one time


*can drink 4oz. of milk in about 30 seconds

Grandma and Grandpa took us to Schmidt's Sausage Haus in German Village while they were here visiting. Sadie decided to hang out while we were there. By the way, Sadie LOVES sausage. I asked Eli what he wanted to eat. He told me he wanted ice and that's exactly what he ate mixed in with some raisins.

National Blogging Month and Too Many Animals

I just found out that November is National Blogging Month. In honor of NBM, bloggers are encouraged to post everyday for the month of November. Well, I guess I'm a few days behind, but, I'm going to attempt this. I'll post a new post everyday until Dec. 1. You might get some lame posts over the next few weeks. Hopefully, you won't grow tired of seeing my cutie pies!

Grandma and Grandpa were here to visit for Sadie's birthday.

Grandpa was disappointed in his grandchildren's lack of stuffed animals so he went out and bought them each a couple of new ones either to please them or to drive me crazy. Either way, Eli's bedtime routine includes a rounding up of the animals to put them to sleep.

Happy Halloween!

This picture is a victory on many levels. First, we got Eli to wear his Halloween costume. We did this by convincing him that he was the daddy monkey to the stuffed monkey you see here. He thought that being a daddy monkey was a very good idea. But, he really wanted whiskers. I don't know of any monkeys that have whiskers, but I did give him a nose and some dots on his cheeks, which he must of thought was an ok substitute. Second, Sadie is wearing her ENTIRE costume, ears and all. (Not that they lasted longer than the picture.) Third, both kids are smiling AND looking at the camera. The stars aligned last night, but only for the picture as the night sort of went downhill from here. I won't go into it, but I will say that Dennis ended the night by saying, "I hate Halloween!". However, Sadie did win a prize for her cute kitty costume in the costume contest. Yea!!

Happy Birthday, Sadie!!

Sweet Sadie turned one on Sunday. She had a great and exhausting day. Grandma and Grandpa Zeman even made it from Dakota to help celebrate. Here are a few highlights:

Happy Birthday pancakes! I think she's still waking up.


Opening a few gifts before the party! It actually took Sadie a while to realize that there was actually a gift. She thought it was fun to play with the newspaper that came in the boxes. Then, she would put the wrapped gifts back in the box, then take them out, then put them in. We could hardly stand it (by "we" I mean "I", I hate not knowing what's inside a wrapped present. )we just had to show her how it was done. Thanks for the Wedgits Alexey, Gabriella, Robert and Michelle! They taste delicious.


Auntie Mia sent shoes. Sadie loves shoes, not necessarily to wear, but she carries them around the house and chews on them like a puppy. Don't worry. I put these in a safe place so she couldn't eat them.


We had a big birthday/Halloween party in Sadie's honor at our neighborhood Community Center. I guess being born three days before Halloween means that every single party from now on will be Halloween themed. I really like that idea. It makes things much easier for me. Sadie went as a black cat which was also the theme of the party. I can't wait until the princess themed party comes around. (short daydream about glitter and tiaras...)


Dennis and I went as Peace Corps Volunteers and Eli went as a first grader! (He refused to wear his monkey costume and I was too tired to argue.)


I take almost no credit for the cake. Grandma did most of it.


According to Sadie, it was delicious.






There was even a black cat pinata filled with lots of Halloween loot.


Eli with The Man With the Yellow Hat (who just happened to win "Best Halloween Costume")


The day after: cake hangover! Sadie was so exhausted, but there were still lots of presents to open. Note to self: next time you invite 60 of your closest friends to your child's first birthday party and put "No Gifts, Please" in the invitation, highlight and bold the "No gifts" part and skip the please! Who was I kidding? Of course people are going to bring gifts to a little girls birthday party. And yes, she is wearing Santa pajamas.


If you want to see more pictures of the birthday party, check them out here.

A Boy and His Bike, A Farm, and Halloween Hints

We ride bike from dawn to dusk. How will we survive the winter???

By wearing big, fat, fluffy coats when we ride!


A Sunday spent at Circle S Farm was a great way to enjoy the warm weather and the fall colors. They have a "Fun Barn" complete with slides and soft cushy straw to soften the landing! Sadie went down too.

Farmer Sadie says, "This looks like a good one!"


Did I mention that Ky was there?? Eli was quite pleased.

A hayride pulled by a tractor. Too exciting.


I'm working on Sadie's Halloween costume. Any guesses on what she'll be??

Coming next week-- pictures of Sadie's First Birthday Party. Really? Has it been a whole year already?

Fall Is Finally Here!

Last week was the week of falls in our family. On Thursday, Eli was being a monkey and jumped off the couch. He landed funny and instantly grabbed his foot and continued to cry for a good 45 minutes. Nothing could get him to settle down. I tried juice. I tried a lollipop. Finally, I had to get out the big guns--black olives-- to calm him down. It worked like a charm, but still his foot hurt. By the end of the day he was hobbling around, but did not want to go too far even after his friends came home from school and were running around and playing. I knew it must have hurt pretty bad. The next morning he refused to walk on it so we went to the Emergency Room. I highly recommend going to the emergency room at 8am as it is very peaceful and quiet and you can still smell the chemicals lingering from a good cleaning. We were seen right away and had a very quick visit. No bones were broken in the incident. But, even today he continues to limp and whimper whenever you touch that foot. So, it must be a pretty bad sprain. Poor guy.
On Saturday Sadie took her first really big tumble onto the cement. You know the kind, the tumble that you see but can't catch, then you hear the loud thunk that can only be made by a head hitting the cement, then you cringe and run as you hear the great big screams. I think it will probably be the first of many bruises for Sadie!
Here's a shot of her forehead.


Eli decided to take a picture of Sadie and me. I think we shall call it "Ode to knees". Isn't it artsy. I love the way the bottom of the picture is shaded. A technique called, "finger in front of the lens."

Apple Picking

We spent the day at Lynd Fruit Farm with our playgroup picking apples, buying loads of veggies, going for a hayride, and picnicing. It was an overcast ninety (yes, 9-0! Can anyone say global warming!?!) degrees so it was great weather for being outside with friends. We picked a very large bag full of apples and probably ate just as many.

Eli with today's first pick.

The first of many apples!

Sadie kept eating the apples off of the ground. She would take one bite and then move on to another apple and so on. Her favorite was the fermented mush that I had to drag her away from.

Walking around because she can. Her latest trick is acually being able to get herself up all by herself when she falls. She is a full-time walker now.

We can't seem to get rid of a certain French friend which keeps us all happy. Look at Eli. He's smitten.

The long waited for hayride.

Almost 1!

For those of you not keeping track, Sadie has less than a month to go before her first birthday. This constantly amazes me as she seems much older than her 11 months. She's walking almost full-time, not that she's good at it. Her balance is not good and she falls a lot, but she wants to walk all the time so she does. She walks about 20 steps now before she falls. She can't get herself back up without help from an object, so she crawls over to something, stands up, and tries again. She's so determined (with everything. I guess that's a good quality to have in life, but it can be very frustrating for me especially when she's refusing to take a nap)! She's also off of the bottle and only doing sippy cups which makes me very very happy. She gets table food except for breakfast and, if you haven't noticed by the size of her cheeks, loves to eat. She has yet to refuse any food. Well, she refused hard-boiled egg yolks once, but hasn't refused them since. Otherwise, you would think that every meal was her last meal because she eats a lot and enjoys every bite. She's practicing using the spoon and is so proud of herself when she actually gets the food to her mouth! Last night, we had couscous. She fed herself:

Eli had a class at the zoo. We met Ky there and Eli was just beside himself with excitement. Sadie went crazy over the tiger as the tiger was pacing right next to the glass. Everytime the tiger's face was right next to hers she screeched with delight. As the tiger walked away Sadie would sign more. Luckily, the tiger gave her more.

While at the zoo, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride the carousel:


Eli, Sadie and Sofia playing with their babies. Sadie looks less than thrilled:

Racing Eli down the slide. The girl has no fear. She went down all by herself and was signing more before she got to the bottom:

Crawling through the tunnel:


Buckeye Village had its annual picnic and carnival. There were lots of forbidden foods: cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones!! It was more than Sadie could handle. She was going nuts because everyone was eating except her. So, we gave her a snowcone without any syrup and she ate the ice! They had balloons, games, and face painting: