embarassinly long since i last posted :)

all i have to say is wow.

i'm so embarassed that it's been SO long since the last time i have written on this. i've really been neglecting writing in the kids' journals and on here.

back to the old grind i guess.
what an amazing, hectic, crazy, eye opening, blessed (almost) year it's been. we are so lucky and happy to have our sweet baby reid(er) to make us laugh, keep us on our toes and complete our family.

reid. where do i even begin. reider is the SPITTING image of my father. everyone who knows the flaherty side calls him "little dan".

when you first meet him he doesn't seem like he has much personality. we know now that he's taking everything in. he watches and stares really intently trying to figure out what's going on. he loves to have his belly zer-berted (when you blow on someone's belly and it makes a loud noise? yup that one).

you really have to work for those laughs, he's alike his mother in the sense that if something isn't funny he ain't laughing. it had better be really funny. he loves little games of peek-a-boo. reider loves to eat, get into things he's not supposed to and chase the dog. he remembers a lot of things, espeically where cords are that he isn't supposed to touch. he is starting to imitate noises and looks surprised when you make a noise that he has just made. when he starts moving around i just know that we are all in for it. those beautiful blue eyes get me every time <3>

for now reid is having trouble sitting up and crawling regularly. we start therapy on tuesday. we are hopeful that it will make a difference and that maybe i won't worry so much :) it's almost as if his mind says let's giddy up and his body can figure out how to do it. he isn't much of a napper, in fact he usually only takes about a (45 minutes during the day, (as in uno, one. single.)UGH. But come 7:55pm and he's ready for bed. he isn't a paci lover like sis but loves him some bottle. it's been a challenge to ween him and begin using the sippy cup. he is happy as a clam laying on the floor next to the dog, with his hand on the fur, watching deadliest catch or cash cab with grandpa, and a bottle in his mouth. oh the life.

one of the best part of the addition to having reider in the family is watching how sadie and reid interact with each other. it's so fun and so sweet seeing her give him kisses, having sadie help with diapers, getting a oneise, or a favorite book to read to him. just in the last month or so they have really began to interact more and more. sadie's not as jealous as she was but i can certainly tell if she thinks reid has been getting more attention. that's no more evident than when we go to church. she can be SO naughty sometimes. i'm so thankful that the other members don't give me glares when she's screaming down the aisle or asking where jesus is at the top of her lungs. tee hee hee. oops!

sadie and reider are two peas in a pod.

in fact when i put her in the car and not him she demands to know where he is and why he's not with us. last weekend sadie stayed at grandma and grandpa's house without reid, who came with me home. it was weird only having one child to get ready in the morning. i had forgotten what it was like to only have to get myself and one child ready. wow. i had so much extra time :) anywho- grandma called me about an hour after we had left saying that sadie wanted to come home to be with mommmy and reider. :) i wish she would do that forever.


i promise to write more later. there's so much to tell

i haven't even gotten to sadie really, although i probably only need to say a few things

-her boyfriend

-wizard of oz

-the black one (her favorite skirt)

-the fact that she calls me katie and my mom diane

-play doh.

-the trains/garbage trucks/john deere

-pinkalicious

yup that pretty much sums up life right now.

where go the guy?

Sadie saying "cheese!"

well our little tootsie pop is in sight of being 2 years old. she's 22 months now and it's so hard to believe how much time passes in between each posting. just reading what she was doing in august made me realize how much she has changed from almost 2 months ago. it's hard to even capture how different she is.
sadie still loves books, we have begun to cycle books and toys because she has so many of each. it's funny to see which ones she chooses. right now it's goodnight moon, a book about ducks that if you push a button it makes quacking noises, 10 little ducks by eric carle, and the runaway bunny. these are all books she has had since she was a newborn but is just now starting to rediscover them.
sadie LOVES the moon. she wakes up asking about it and goes to sleep wanting to see it. we have told her time and time again that the moon is night night but she insists on going to see where it is.
on our way home everyday there's an 8 ft. blow up "guy" that moves from a fan underneath it, that probalby doens't make any sense at all. one of these days i will go take a picture of it. she calls it "guy" and i always have to explain that the guy is either outside where he's supposed to be or he's inside or night night. she doens't understand that when it's raining or really windy the guy won't be outside.
sadie always wants to know where everyone is. everyday we go through the list of grandma, grandpa, daddy, josh, matthew, and kevin. all of them are at work. this is a typical conversation we have a breakfast
sadie: daddy?
mom: where's daddy?
sadie: at work
mom: what does daddy do for work?
sadie: 'puters.

her answers are teacher (grandma) tractor (grandpa) 'puters (daddy) football (josh) lawn mowers (matthew) bones (kevin)
we recently went to a birthday party for one of our friends' daughter named payton, who turned 4. ever since then sadie always wants to konw where payton is. when i ask well where is she, sadie responds "at work" and for work "she's a mama" where she got that i have no idea. what a character!
sadie has started to act out a little. she's frustrated when we don't understand what she wants or when she doesn't get what she wants. she's been hitting lately, especially when she is tired. we have a naughty chair and for the most part it's working right now. when she hits we tell her to go to the naughty chair and she goes right now and sits until we tell her to get up. i am hoping this won't last long (yeah right huh!)
sadie gives kisses to my belly and tries to hug it but i still don't think she has any idea what she's in for. she always points out babies she sees but never really wants to get close to them. i know that it will be ab adjustment for all of us, i do worry about her. i just hope it's not too hard.

the marker job sadie did on her car

she also got her pajamas

sadie and grandpa

she loves being like grandpa

sadie and my cousin michael in michael's dads car

sadie and grandpa at niabi zoo, one of my favorite places growing up

mommy and sadie on the train

sadie learned elephant that day and says it constantly now. it's one of her favorite animals

she loves the elehpants

no she's not a bob the builder fan, she just loves sitting in the rides at malls

every morning sadie gets her hair done, this day was special because she insisted on me putting in every hair tie on her brush, her hair is sticking straight up in a ponytail

she loves her pumpkins

sadie sitting on the naughty seat; sadie showing grandma a picture she colored at daycare

yee-haw! sadie's horsie

she loves to sit by her pumpkins

yoga?

trying to run away from mommy

our sadie the little painter

sadie has been growing and changing so much lately. it seems that's an obvious statement given her age.

changes every single day and seems to know new words and sometimes even phrases. we seem also to be reading the same books over and over again. i wondered when this stage would start. the other day as we were reading polar bear polar bear sadie flipped through the pages and started naming off animals like flamingo, leopard, hippotamus, etc. obviously the words didn't sound exactly like that but it was close enough for me to be able to understand it. i was very impressed. it really did show me that she pays attention to everything that we do and say. we were reading another book called gossie and sometimes when i read the book i make sound effects. yesterday as i was reading it to her sadie made the same sound effects that i sometimes make. it was so cute.

one area that we are trying to improve on is when sadie gets ahold of markers. the last two days have been disasterous. i came home yesterday from work to discover sadie's dora car and her pajama's decorated with red sharpie marker. it turns out daddy hadn't been paying too close attention to her and she had also had red marker all over herself as well. at least that got cleaned up. today little miss who decided to color herself, the window, and the couch with a blue marker. i think we need to be more vigilant about our little picasso.

summer time with grandma is the best!

she somehow got in and couldn't get out

yelling for more milk

dancing at irish fest

with her favorite mah-moo

with mommy at irish fest

great grandma flaherty

blowing bubbles with stuart

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earning to drive a little early

can't quite reach the peddles

"are my lights on?"

she LOVES corn on the cob
she loved the bouncy house but couldn't stand up

so she just sat there and watched the other kids

her favorite mah-moo

grandma and sadie at the benefit

begging for ice cream at uncle sam's birthday