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

stuck in a laundry basket

okay okay okay i lied when i said the next post would be after her first birthday. today was a funny day and i thought i would write about it. so our laundry area is downstairs and there's a kitty door at the bottom of the door so when i go downstairs to get laundry and other stuff sadie usually follows me but can peek through the door to see where i'm going. usually when she sees me she backs away from the door so i can get out but today as i was trying to open the door with a huge basket of laundry she would kick the door shut with her feet then peek through the kitty door to see if i was still there, then i would tell her to move a little so i could get through, opening the door a tad, then the whole game would start over again. i could hear her laughing and babbling as this went on about two minutes. i didn't want to knock her over so i didn't push very hard. it was pretty cute though. she figured out that i couldn't get out until she moved so she was messing with me. stinker :)

i also uploaded some pictures of her doing her thang lately- pulling as much stuff as she can off of any sort of table or counter. from one of the pictures, you can see her path of destruction, books, dvd's, nothing is safe. she loves exploring, opening drawers and cabinets. there was even a time last week she got stuck in the laundry basket. i'm not sure what she was going for but she leaned over too far and couldn't get herself out of it. my first reaction was to take pictures, not get her out of the predicament she was in.

one more thing she does that i'm trying to capture on tape is to furrow her eyebrows, it started out as a joke that one of the youth ministry kids taught her but i think now she does it because it makes us all crack up laughing. she gives us this look that can only be described as "whatc-you-talkin-bout-willis" it's almost give, seriously mom is that was you are going to wear look, "oh no you didn't" i have yet to get it, but i'm still trying. sadie and i have also been having lots of dance parties, one of these days i will get her shakin' it. happy thanksgiving everyone :) love and peace!

The Boogie Monster

Well our miss Sadie has a case of the boogie monster, the last few days, almost a week she's been waking up covered in boogers, all over. it got so bad one morning that josh had to cut some boogers out of her hair (i of course wouldn't have gone that route, however he was home i wasn't) i don't have any pictures of our little booger face, i didn't figure that most people would want to see what we see in the morning. usually sadie is standing up in her crib with the hair mashed and sticking to her face, up her nose, all over her cheeks, etc.
one thing we've noticed is that sadie LOVES pens, no matter where we hide them, sadie will find them. she loves to carry them around in her hand, while we are trying to take them from her of course. she also loves batteries, again we aren't sure where she's even finding them, and as closely as we watch her she seems to end up holding onto them while she's crawling.
sade climbs stairs like a pro, one minutes she's sitting (probably holding her batteries or pens) the next she's halfway up the stairs to her room or the bathroom. she loves to empty cabinets, drawers, and any sort of counter or table space. we've learned what we need to to clear out of the room so she won't throw it on the floor. gone are the days we could have a drink on the table near the couch, gone are the days books or writing utensils could lay idle on the floor. we have one busy bumble bee in our house now :)
we've tried really hard to keep up with healthy eating habits, we've noticed that sade will eat just about everything but she doesn't really like corn. today for lunch i strained homeade chicken noodle soup for lunch and she managed to pick out all the other vegetables, meat, and noodle from around the corn. she even started to create a pile. just about everything else she will eat.
one other lesson sade is quickly learning is that she needs to be quicker than the dog. if sadie's holding a piece of food willie will quickly be her best friend, until he gets the food then he goes back to being very wary of her. it's pretty cute.
probably the next time i will write will be for her birthday. wow. it's unbelieveable to think it's already been a year. how blessed we are.

halloween/election night and beyond

well my friends we witness history this last week. and no matter where you stand on the political spectrum it was absolutely fascinating to watch. i can say i definately got choked up listening to tom brokaw's voice crack as he talked about it. all i kept thinking is that my daughter, whether she knows it or not will be growing up in a world that is completely different than the one i grew up in. i was disappointed to hear stereotypical or racist comments the next day about our president elect. i just wish people could for a moment consider the momentous occasion we find ourselves on right now. i pray that our leadership will take all people into consideration from the unborn to those at the end of life.

this next two weekends are the biggest for our youth ministry group that we have all year, i ask for prayers that the holy spirit pulls everything together, as it always does. somewhere along the line i sort of forget that it's not my doing, but God's, please pray that i remember to keep it all focused above.

sadie is continuing to grow and change and be such a joy in our lives. it's really amazing to look back and think where we were a year ago this week. the confirmation retreat was over with, i was gearing up for the end of the pregnancy when on november 8, 2007 i got a call around noon that my grandma had passed away. for those of you who don't remember, picture me supposed to be on bedrest, having major contractions, not supposed to leave the county let alone the state and you find out your grandma has just died. i remember feeling so helpless because i wasn't sure if i was going to be able to go to the funeral, and the whole time being completely wrapped in love by those around me. one of my best friends heather, offering to come and stay and be a birthing couch for me in case i went into labor. (oh did i mention that josh was also out of town during this entire time for work? good timing huh :) friends calling me to come and stay at the house with me, a nurse just calling to see if i was okay. it was amazing to feel so completely wrapped in love during a time of such grief. i was able to go to the funeral, god knew i needed to be there. and little do poeple know but i recieved several signs from god during that trip that everything would be okay. it's still hard because i really miss my grandma and there was a long time that i was even a little disgruntled that she didn't get to meet miss sassy but i know she's definately with us during those moments of laughter.

speaking of which. here are some pictures of sade from the past few weeks. the first is a picture of sadie chewing on a doggie bone. i know you are probably thinking why in the heck didn't you take that out of her mouth, let me just say that it's not that i didn't try and she seems to find these no matter where i put them. i guess this happens when you love the dog more than anyone else. she watches him like a hawk. sadie decided to go trick or treating over at her friend hannah's house (well more of mommy's friend than sadie's) she also got to see her friend hallie. we love hallie a lot, she comes to visit at the office all the time, hallie was one of the names we considered for sadie, and it's because of this sweet little girl. we also went to see grandpa wilson, as well as great grandma and grandpa wilson :) so fun! sade continues to say momma when i ask where willie is (grrr) and is pretty much done with her bottle now. when we try to give her one, she'll drink a few ounces then throw it, which also happened to be the case in the picture below. man that girl's got an arm :)

another picture of her and that darn bone....