memories....

i have been a total slacker when it comes to blogging this month after tater's birthday. my apologies to all of you who have come her expecting brilliant humorous insights and got nada.
i sit here thinking about the whirlwind last few weeks it's been. it seems a common theme is that we are always on the go, always packing to go somewhere, always in a hurry.
i get a lot of crap for taking so many pictures. people get really sick of me pulling the camera out to snap every single minute of sadie's life and all her little movements. the fact of the matter is i take so many pictures to capture these fleeting moments known as sadie's childhood. i know there will be a moment that i will look back and wonder where all the time went, and with our busy life and crazy schedule anything i can do to help me capture all these little moments the better. i was just looking throug pictures the other day and realized that i had skippecd a few weeks last winter. it's hard for me to look back and remember what it was like when sadie was a tiny tiny baby. we spent today with my cousins the radosevich's, our favorites :) the last time they saw sadie she was 2 weeks old. they couldn't believe the changes in her and all that she could do compared to last time. i also looked through my phone the other day and remembered a picture i had taken of her pulling herself up for the first time. i'm so grateful for these special moments
sadie has been standing up more on her own lately.she's almost even standing up from the sitting position. i think if she wasn't so darn tall (wearing 18mos clothes) it would have happened a while ago. it started last weekend and has become more and more common. it's still very exciting to see her do it for a few short seconds until she falls to the ground. i still suck my breath in every time. those little moments that i don't want to miss. she loves to take fingers and walk around the room and the house. the minute you put her down she will scream and let you know she's not happy.
sade's more vocal now, she says mama all the time, dada occasionally, baba everytime you ask where willie is and lots of ga's, da's, ma's. she's starting to use her own sadie language, especially when she's very engaged in something she's never seen before or examining something in her hand. she's started to try to use a spoon on her own, she will take it throw the food off of it onto her tray then eat it from there or pick it off the spoon. she's trying to use the spoon occasionally, when she feels like it of course.
sade also makes the motions with her hands for bye-bye, gives high fives and when i give the sign for water and food she will grunt if she wants one.
she's still not a fan of bananas and has become more picky about her vegetables but she's still a good eater. right now she's going through the stage of not being very interested in eating a whole lot except breakfast if oatmeal is on the menu. she'll eat an entire bowl of oatmeal. ha!
sadie was so spoiled at christmas. many people were generous and bought her some really cool gifts. she's a big fan of anything with lights and noise. we try to keep those presents at both grandparents :) ha! we've noticed with all these gifts sade's becoming more apt with using buttons, remembering what to push and how to make the toys work. i'm still proud when she remembers what buttons to push even if it means i need to hear that "open and close, open and close" song one more time.

happy birthday sadie :)

well my friends, here's here and gone. sade's first birthday. so many changes have happened over the last year, it seems to have gone so fast and yet time still seems to stand still all at once. what a beautiful wonderful, tough, crazy, chaotic, joyful time to have a child. it's so amazing to be able to watch a tiny form come from nothing. to be able to witness life from the very beginning to now. i remember one day bringing baby sadie downstairs for a middle of the night bottle putting her on the couch and thinking one day she won't be able to just lay here. she seems to change daily, right before our very eyes. one seems like a very large accomplishment, it's a great big deal around here. working for a church i have been witness to some great tragedies in the last year involving children who have passed away, to be able to spend one more day, to have been given charge of this beautiful sweet baby is a true blessing and gift. i hope i always take the time to appreciate who sadie is and who she will be. her birthday didn't start out exactly the way i wanted it to, but it was great nonetheless. i had been so excited about her birthday, i had stayed up almost all night just waiting for her wake up, what a great wonderful day. my dad ended up needing to go the doctor so i helped him to go. josh dropped sadie off to me, what a way to spend her big day, but it was fun because she got to see her grandpa. we ate lunch with our friends annie and emily then came home to spend the rest of the day with josh and josh. grandma flaherty came over for a visit and we also went next door to see grandma wilson and uncle joe. grandma and grandpa wilson gave sadie a toy rider, one of those devices you can push or ride with lots of buttons and noise. from the minute it got opened and almost ever since she LOVES this toy. she's constantly pushing it, throwing it, examining the tiny figurines on the front, pushing the buttons, dancing and looking to see if we are too. we ended up not having a huge birthday bash for sadie with her birthday being right after thanksgiving but also i had to leave REALLY early the next morning for a youth ministers conference in cleveland. i really hated leaving my newly turned one year old, but i'm so glad i had the opportunity to go. it was so good to be reaffirmed in what i was doing, my eyes being opened to the direction i need to go and energized to get started again. when i came home sunday morning, exhausted, weary, tired, worn out, etc i went up to sadie's room she had been taking a nap. as i came up to her room she was awake standing up in her crib. i pulled her pacifier out and she said "mama" it just about tore my heart. she's such a sweet baby :)
sade had her 1 year appt today, she's 90% for her height (wearing 12-18month clothes) 95% for her head and 25% for her weight. we didn't realize she was such a skinny minnie. sadie eats like a horse, which is a good thing. we are starting her on whole milk now. we have gotten her off the bottle basically and are working on cutting out the pacifier. that seems to be really difficult. sadie has used a pacifier every night since the day she was born, so to listen to her cry at night when she never did that is hard. we are working on it though. here are some pictures of her birthday. enjoy!

trying to give some to daddy

hi mama

yes she's actually giving some to willie

want some?

i think i'll pick up the biggest piece....

this is so fun!

where do i go from here

yumm

look at all this frosting

yes, this is the best day ever

i love all this frosting

oh sugary goodness... come to me

yummm

she doesn't seem to understand why we are holding her hands, what with the open flame and all..

the birthday cupcake

messing with daddy

so happy with her presents

a present from grandma

she loves the rings

more interested in the paper than presents

the birthday girl

a very typical scene in sadie's room

she loves walking with her grandma :)

she can't decide what to open first...

walking with grandma

it's a big ole present

so excited

she was "yelling" for us to get it out.

she loves to push all the buttons and watch the figurines

getting help from daddy

some of the pictures are recently added from a birthday party we threw to raise items for birthrite, an organization here in cedar falls that helps unwed or disadvantaged women/couples who are pregnant. the teens from the parish brought items to donate, they are awesome :)

testing video

this is my first attempt at posting a video. i'm checking to see if it worked :)

take your time

tonight i was reflecting on the fact that our tater is almost one years old. it seems in so many ways it's gone so incredibly fast but in other ways i feel as if we are always waiting with bated breath for the next big milestone or change in sadie's life. one lesson i have had to teach myself is to just wait for it, sadie will do what sadie does when sadie wants to. no matter how many times i ask her for kissies, or wave bye bye if she doesn't want to, she won't. she's a little like her father like that. it's been frustrating in some ways knowing that a lot of babies her age are walking or even using more language than she is right now. i need to constantly remind myself she'll do everything her way when she wants to. somehow along the way i've gotten caught up in what sadie's is not doing, comparing her to other babies her age. that's not right and certainly not fair to her. there's a very fine line between being viligant on their developmental needs to make sure they are meeting milesones, and being a freak-a-zoid mom who worries about everything. i'm working on taking each day as a gift to see what sadie will be that day. i'm sure not many babies her age can make the "grumpy pants face" on command the way she can, or pick up a stuffed animal and hug it like she can. or how we play little games and she follows along really well. she yells for me when i'm not in the room "ma ma ma ma". the thing about sade is she's so incredibly laid back, she always goes with the flow. breaking her from the bottle wasn't hard at all. she sleeps like a champ and eats like she's in those state fair eating contests. not many babies can be in a room full of adults like sadie can and be okay with it. somehow she always gets passed from person to person and for the most part is really okay with it.

i ran into a friend from high school the other day who was telling me about her baby who is about a week older than sadie. i didn't realize it but they have really struggled with their child. you always hear about children who are mentally and physically handicapped but it almost seems unreal to know someone whose child is struggling. i was once again reminded by that chance encounter to be really thankful that sadie is crusing along the furniture, that she imitates people and observes EVERYTHINGs around her.
oh my gosh that girl loves turkey. and by love i mean she will actually start to cry when she sees it if it's not on her plate. i was reading another friend's blog last week about how their daughter loves cottage cheese and whined until she got some on her plate? that's sadie with turkey. it makes me laugh out loud. tonight i got it out of the fridge to get a little for myself. she was in the kitchen with me and cried the whole time she was crawling from the kitchen to the living room then climbed all over me to get to my hand to get the turkey. she laughs when she sees it. i'm going to try to get it on video if i can. but man that girl really loves her some poultry :) take care everyone and be thankful

she fell asleep with her coat on while i loaded the car

word up
man we both look rough
yes i actually walked in to find them sleeping in the couch like this both with pacifiers in their mouths

she just heard she's getting turkey

this is the famous grumpy pants look

car ride to thanksgiving

sadie and great grandma flaherty

sadie and uncle kevin

admiring cousin sophie's tights

she loves that american girl doll

she's sad sophie took her doll and left

she's back :)

trying taking all three of these in a picture

just michael and sade

now michael has the camera