Thursday, December 31, 2009

Doctor's Visit #2- 12 Weeks Along

Woooooohoooooo! Running around to go into town for my #2 doctor's checkup today! Yay!!!!!!! I'm pretty sure we get to hear a heartbeat! Hopefully this time Sadie doesn't think that she's the one going to the doctor. She'll be sitting in the waiting room with Nani...

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A Little Parable for Mothers

My Mom just found a pile of papers that belonged to my great grandmother and brought one of them too me. And I just had to share it with all of you:
A Little Parable for Mothers
by Temple Bailey

The Young Mother set her foot on the path of life.

"Is the way long?" she asked.

And her Guide said: "Yes. And the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning."

But the young Mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed with them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them, and life was good, and the young Mother cried, "Nothing will ever be lovelier than this."

Then night came, and storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the Mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said "Oh Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come," and the Mother said, "This is better than the brightness of day, for I have taught my children courage."

And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the Mother was weary, but at all times she said to the children, "A little patience, and we are there." So the children climbed, and when they reached the top, they said, "We could not have done it without you, Mother." And the Mother, when she lay down that night, looked up at the stars, and said: "This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength."

And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth-- clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the Mother said: "Look up. Lift your eyes to the Light." And the children looked and saw above the clouds an Everlasting Glory, and it guided them and brought them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said, "This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God."

And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years and the Mother grew old and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. And when the way was hard, they helped their Mother; and when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide.

And the Mother said: "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them"

And the children said, "You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates."

And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said: "We can not see her, but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a Living Presence."

Daily Dose of Cuteness: Taking Sadie to Mass

Paul is back to working nights (most of the time.... they still switch him back and forth some weeks) so I took Sadie to morning Mass yesterday on my own. I was a little nervous. She's been a bit of a monster lately (in Church) and I wasn't looking forward to continue her thirty plus pounds of energy by myself.

I was running a few minutes behind and walked through the doors seconds before Mass was about to start. Sadie was already slipping off my hip and I struggled with her up to the front of the Church where everyone sits during daily Mass ( we were about six pews back).

Sadie noticed right away that the priest that had baptized her was saying the Mass and her tiny little face lit up. When we sat down for the readings she twisted around on my lap and sat forward, quietly peering up at the front.

As Mass progressed she continued to allow me to hold her quietly (I have to say that I was shocked, sitting with her at Mass for the last few months has been similar to wrestling with a baby octopus). Then I noticed that she had started to blow kisses up at the priest and would gasp and cover her mouth in amazement as Mass went on. She was absolutely transfixed by what was going on.

When Mass was almost over, just before the blessing, she started to giggle and sing softly to herself, the first noise she'd made the entire time!

More Games and Dancing!

Sadie came up with a new game last night. She wanted Mommy to sit in the middle of the kitchen floor so that she could race around me in circles. Then she would stop behind me, giggle, wait until I said “oh no, where’s the baby,” giggle a little more and run back around so that I could see her. I would catch her as she raced by and tickle her and then let her go so that she could make another round.

We also had a little dance class yesterday. We went upstairs and put on classical music and then danced around in front of the mirror. Sadie liked pretending to be a tree and a bird and skipped around bringing one knee up high when she pretended that she was a horse. After pretending to be an animal she would run over and throw her arms around my neck and hug me and then start dancing again. When I told her we were going to dance like a bear she ran over to the mirror and made a “roaring” face with her hands up like claws!

I can’t believe how fast she’s growing!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Sadie's New Game

Sadie has a new game. There are no windows in the downstairs bathroom at Nani and Grumpa's house and the only light that comes in as a small strip of light along the bottom of the door. Sadie, however, is totally fearless.

She goes into the bathroom, closes the door, sits down on the floor mat in front of the sink, and giggles.

Last night the game had a twist. She would grab Nani's hand and bring her into the bathroom and shut the door, then she would open the door and run out and look around to see if anyone was watching her. Finally I got the message and decided to play along. I snuck over and sat outside the door and when Sadie opened it I said "booo." I heard hysterical laughter as the door slammed shut. Then a tiny crack opened and I saw a tiny eye peering out giggling. After about fifty rounds of this game (quite literally) Sadie was laughing so hard that she couldn't open the door. She would run out and hug me race around and see Daddy and then run back to the bathroom giggling.

I'm not sure why this game is so fun, but Sadie thinks it's absolutely hilarious! The bathroom is her new favorite room in the house! It was not however, conductive to bedtime. It took her a little while to settle down, but then she passed out for the night!

An Even Less Popular Topic: Satan

While the reality of the existence of sin may not be popular today, the existence of Satan is even more unpopular. I've even seen Catholics scoff at the very idea of supernatural evil in the world. They doubt that Ouija boards could possibly be a doorway to anything and laugh at Christians who believe that Satanic and demonic influence plays a very real roll in this world. They can accept Jesus, but they just can't bring themselves to believe that there's a Devil in Hell. In fact, quite a few Christians can't seem to bring themselves to believe in Hell at all (I sincerely wish that they were right, but the teachings of our Lord clearly point in a different direction).

This actually goes hand in hand with the idea that sin does not exist. People are good (edit: I'd like to add here that I don't think that people are inherently evil. People are good. However, after the fall of man we have to deal with sin... the problem I have with the new trendy "spiritual" idea of goodness is the view that everything that people do is good and there is no such thing as sin.). They say that evil is simply a perversion or twisting of some natural good and not actually sin. And there are quite a few ideologies that offer to explain away all that is wrong in the world and mold it fit to their own needs (the socialist and the capitalist would explain all that is wrong in the world using very different words, none of which would involve "sin" as part of the explanation).

Yet this is not the picture of reality that Jesus leaves us with upon reading the Bible. Satan is very much a reality in this world, as is Hell. Peter Kreeft explains it well in How to Win the Culture War:
"Evil is not trivial, and therefore its first inventor cannot be trivial. Satan must be chuckling over the modern media stereotype of himself as a horned clown in a red tutu, or the alternative one- more abstract but just as toothless that sees him as mythic projection of human weaknesses. For no one really fears either a clown or an abstraction.

Christ took Satan very seriously (though not obsessively). If we do not, how can we say our minds are on line with the Lord? If we claim to have matured beyond belief in Satan, we claim to have matured beyond Christ. If we scorn the fear of Satan as foolish, we are calling Christ a fool, for he told us to fear him (Matthew 10:28). And if we think of Christ as in any way a fool, we are either denying the Incarnation, denying that Christ is God, or else saying that God is a fool. For if fear of Satan is foolish, and if Christ taught it, and if Christ is God, then God is foolish.

Christ commanded us to conclude the only prayer he ever gave us, the model prayer, with "Rescue us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13). The Greek word is a singular noun, not a plural or a participle, and it has a definite article. The proper translation is not just "evil" but "the evil one.""

(emphasis mine)
Peter Kreeft
How to Win the Culture War pg. 39-40
It's ridiculous to mock this sort of evil. Maybe that's why it's become so easy to let monstrous evil just slide by (i.e. the killing of unborn children).... because many people have simply decided not to believe in evil at all.

Just think of all the atrocities that occur when good people do nothing and let evil (which they can hardly believe really exists) simply slide by.

A Not so Popular Topic: Sin

We live in a fallen world. While that reality isn't pleasant it is very much a part of life (one that is completely impossible to ignore in this day and age). Yet that reality is pushed aside again and again and not just by new age spiritualists who would deny the existence of evil all together and claim that anything that comes from the spiritual realms must be good (just as many seem to delude themselves these days by saying that anything who comes from the natural world must be good, an argument I hear often in the legalization of marijuana debate).

A large number of Christians have even embraced this form of "spirituality" and constantly attempt to water down Christ's teachings so that all that remains is "judge not." Even Catholics spout this nonsense, ignoring completely the spiritual work of mercy to Admonish the Sinner (and how anyone could do this when nothing is a sin is beyond me).

Yes we've all sinned and could all probably use a good admonishing now and again (I know that when I need it the most I'm the most embarrassed to hear that I'm wrong!). But it also helps because that embarrassed reaction usually helps me come to terms with what I've done and send me quickly to a priest for the sacrament of reconciliation (I've even instant messaged our priest on facebook to set up a confession).

We also live in an age of moral relativism where some would even call the existence of sin into question (much less seriously discuss something like the Devil... the subject of my next post). Many who say they believe in Christ believe only his warm and fuzzy words and ignore anything harsher (or reserve those judgements for the more traditional Christians that actually try to follow His teachings... because they're so "judgmental" about actions being "sinful..."). They'd like to forget the Jesus that overturned the money changers tables and edit out any part of scripture that doesn't fit the teddy bear image of a saviour.

And perhaps that's why the first part of this morning's reading at Mass stuck with me. It read:
1 My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He who saith that he knoweth him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But he that keepeth his word, in him in very deed the charity of God is perfected; and by this we know that we are in him.

1 John 2: 1-5 (1 John 2:3-11 was the actual reading today)
Christ's teachings are about more than just happy feelings. We're also to follow His commandments. And while this does most certainly involve loving one another it also clearly involves doing the right thing (which is also pretty clearly laid out in the Bible although it's not exactly trendy these days).

God does offer forgiveness. But we must accept that forgiveness. In order to accept that forgiveness, we must first admit that we've sinned. Which is why it's so important to recognize that sin exists. Without that realization (which is oh, so unpopular in the days of anything goes) we close the door on Christ's sacrifice and God's forgiveness. And that is a waste that we could spend eternity paying for...

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Sadie's Second Christmas! (pictures!)

Here are the Christmas pictures! Sadie had a lovely day!

Checking out the presents under the tree!

A Sesame Street coloring book?!?!?

What is THAT?!?!

Kitties!!! I love kitties!

Are there trucks in here?!?!

Look! I found a bow!

Giving her baby a bottle!

Sadie's new Red Sox hat! It's pink!

Christmas Pictures- Part 2- Christmas with Sadie

And here are the Christmas pictures! Sadie had a lovely day!

Checking out the presents under the tree!

A Sesame Street coloring book?!?!?

What is THAT?!?!

Kitties!!! I love kitties!

Are there trucks in here?!?!

Look! I found a bow!

Giving her baby a bottle!

Sadie's new Red Sox hat! It's pink!

Christmas Pictures- Part 2- Christmas Eve

Here we are getting ready to leave for Mass. We left out cookies for Santa and they were gone when we got back! Sadie really would have liked to help herself to the cookies before we left...


Christmas Pictures- Part 1

I finally uploaded my Christmas pictures (some of them anyways!). These were taken the Wednesday before Christmas after morning Mass. Since I had put Sadie in one of her Christmas dresses we decided to snap a few pictures (when we were in San Francisco after finding out I was having a girl Paul bought a bunch of clearance dresses at Macy's... two years worth!). Here they are:
St Patrick's

Sadie is ready to play!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Outfit of the Week

Today's Outfit of the Week is so comfortable (although we let Sadie wear her pajamas to the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass so she may have been a little more comfortable than I was!). It's pretty simple: my favorite red skirt, a turtle neck, a black sweater dress and a green scarf that we picked up when we were in Palestine. It was modest and toasty warm!

Sadie's Second Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Everyone here came down with the flu (all four generations!) but we still had a good time. Sadie was so delighted by every part of the day that it was impossible not to be happy (and we are all doing much better today!)! Why is it though that I always get the flu after I get a flu shot (I guess it never ends up being the right kind!)?!?!

Paul gave me thee books that I can't wait to read: Marriage by Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Children and Parents by Fulton Sheen, and How to Win the Culture Wars by Peter Kreeft. I've already started Marriage and I can tell it's going to inspire new blog posts! The first paragraph of the preface reads:
"Our epoch is characterized by a terrible anti-personalism, a progressive blindness toward the nature and dignity of the spiritual person. This anti-personalism expresses itself mainly in a radical collectivism and in the different kinds of materialism. Of these, biological materialism is perhaps the most dangerous, for it considers man as a more highly developed animal, his whole personality determined by mere physiological elements. Human life is considered exclusively from a biological point of view and biological principles are the measure by which all human activities are judged."
Looks like not much has changed in this regard the last eighty years since Von Hildebrand began writing Marriage. I think I may enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed Alice Von Hildebrand's The Privilege of Being a Woman (I've read it twice and will definitely read it again).

I also have a few new headcoverings (yay!) thanks to Paul! He had actually forgotten about them, but luckily I had stumbled across them in November and was able to remind him. After seeing the knit hats that are out there he's convinced that I should open my own knitting business. I'm working on learning how to felt hats right now and if that works out the way I think it will I might just give it a try.

I better run, nap time is over and Paul is wearing a tiny pink Red Sox hat while he and Sadie play Wonder Pets! I don't want to miss out on all the fun!

I think the writer's block (or maybe it's Bloggers Block in this case) that I've had for the last week is coming to an end! And I'll upload pictures soon too!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, blessed Christmas!


Painted by William Bouguereau in the late 19th century

The Manager's Amendment

I would like to write a happier post on Christmas Eve, but the Senate, with their 4 am vote, changed the tone of today's post. While there are certain spineless Senator's out there who would like us all to believe that the "Manager's Amendment" limits abortion and abortion funding, the reality is something much darker (perhaps why their vote was made in the middle of the night). Here's what the Catholic Bishops have to say:
“The abortion provisions in the Manager’s Amendment to the Senate bill do not maintain this commitment to the legal status quo on abortion funding. Federal funds will help subsidize, and in some cases a federal agency will facilitate and promote, health plans that cover elective abortions. All purchasers of such plans will be required to pay for other people’s abortions in a very direct and explicit way, through a separate premium payment designed solely to pay for abortion. There is no provision for individuals to opt out of this abortion payment in federally subsidized plans, so people will be required by law to pay for other people’s abortions. States may opt out of this system only by passing legislation to prohibit abortion coverage. In this way the longstanding and current federal policy universally reflected in all federal health programs, including the program for providing health coverage to Senators and other federal employees, will be reversed. That policy will only prevail in states that take the initiative of passing their own legislation to maintain it.”
Read the entire Catholic Online story here.
I know quite a few people have been willfully blind to the abortion funding that is proposed in this bill. They are the same people who voted for Obama and shook their heads whenever his views on abortion were brought up. They are often Catholics who try to pretend that the horrors of abortion do not exist and hide behind the term "social justice."

Social justice is incredibly important. Yet we can't consider any bill that funds the murder of innocent children to be a step in the direction of "social justice."

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Baby Names!

I love baby names! I could sit for hours and flip through baby name books (it's funny that we don't actually own any!) and I couldn't help but click when I saw this article on the Yahoo homepage this morning. Next I followed the link over to the 100 most popular baby names of 2009 and scrolled down the list. When I started out I was a little smug (as in "oh I'm so original!" although maybe it just means I have bad taste!)... I like old fashioned names and while a few of my favorites have become very popular lately, most of them still weren't on the list. Or so I thought. And then I saw it. #91. Sadie! It was on the list. So I started reading more carefully, comparing my "list" to the top 100. Here's my list and here's what I found (you may notice these are all girl names... Paul and I made a deal long ago and I came up with a girl's name list and Paul came up with the boy's name list. We both have veto rights, one of the names below was vetoed, but we agreed pretty quickly and pretty much have the names of any children we may have picked out already):

(in no particular order...)

1. Margaret ("Maggie" for short)
2. Charlotte (#58)
3. Mary (Maria is #80)
4. Isabelle (#36. Isabella is #1)
5. Alice (Allison is #45)
6. Abigail (#11)
7. Jane
8. Lucy (#70)
9. Anna (#34. Although I think I've let Paul convince me to change this one to Anastasia.)
10. Sophia (#2)

I guess you can't really be all that original when you like traditional names! Only 2 of my names didn't make the Top 100 List!

Getting Ready for Christmas!

There are no Christmas presents under the Christmas tree. They are all in hiding. They will appear on Christmas Eve night so we only have to wrangle Sadie for a short time before bedtime (and protect the presents from being promptly opened by cute little baby hands). I think that she's definitely ready this year to open her own packages.

We did put the boxes that arrived, still packed up from the post office, under the tree to see what Sadie would do. She dragged them out, pushed them around the living room and tried to avoid Nani when she said that Sadie could not stand on them to reach things that had been raised up above "baby level."

Last night I asked Sadie to show Daddy where the baby is. She leaned over and rested her head against my stomach and then lay that way for about five minutes with a little smile. She looked like she was listening. I wonder what she'll think in a few months when she can feel little kicks!

Sadie and Daddy also watched the Church get decorated for Christmas today. She would have liked to help, but the jobs were all just a little too big for her little hands. She did get to ring the bell up in the choir loft though. So far I think that was the high point of her day! Now it's nap time!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Dreaming of the Perfect Holiday Dress

I started browsing dresses during nap time today and I found that (unsurprisingly) not much has changed in the last season. Most of the dresses that are long enough to be modest are low cut or strapless. And if a dress has a modest neckline it's pretty much guaranteed that it's going to be attached to a mini skirt. There are slips and camisoles that can help with these problems, but clothes shopping can still be a trial. However there are modest dresses out there. You just have to dig around a little (or a lot!).

I did a little searching and found a few of my favorites for the season. The downside is that several of them are most definitely in the "dream" price range... but if you can afford them they're great because they are hand made and their sellers usually offer to customize the dresses (so if you want to ask for a longer hem, they'll be happy to do it!).

I picked out the name for this one (it has it's own long name if you follow the link) because this one is absolutely my favorite dress for this year's holiday season. I guess I'm just a fool for lace. Now when my expanding figure will be able to fit back into a sheath dress (modestly! without looking like a stuffed sausage!) is another question altogether.

G Cooper at Shabby Apple
Another beautiful Shabby Apple dress!

I can just imagine wearing this to a Christmas party!

My favorite part of this one is the built in headcovering, but I would definitely ask for a few inches length in the hem... in my dream shopping world!

This was the first dress I saw by Daniela Besso and I was so excited! She has a beautiful collection of dresses!

More Teething Troubles

I am sitting with one very uncomfortable sleeping baby. Her nose started running yesterday and she spent a miserable night tossing and turning. We think it could be the five teeth that are coming in (two of them are molars way in the back, all by themselves). I just hope she's feeling better by Christmas Eve. She curled up and sat on my lap all morning and cried when I tried to read her penguin book, which is usually a favorite (to be honest we usually read the penguin book, on demand, somewhere around a dozen times a day, so Sadie's insistence that I put it down came as a surprise).

Hopefully this will be a good nap and she'll wake up feeling a bit better. After last night she needs the sleep!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Puddle Stomping: Your Daily Dose of Sadie Cuteness!

18 months ago, at this very moment, our doctor was about to decide to deliver Sadie via emergency c-section. Of course Sadie wasn't born for a couple more hours because it took quite a while for them to find an anesthesiologist and to get everything ready for surgery (if only that nurse had forgotten to turn of the pitocin those hours wouldn't have been quite so bad...okay it probably would have still been pretty awful...). I can't believe she's a year and a half old! Here are some Puddle Stomping pictures to commemorate her year and a half birthday! We may have more puddle stomping today. It's been raining again!

"I see a puddle!"

"I'm going to stomp it!"


"Uh-Oh!"

"With this diaper I can't even feel the water!"

Let's find more puddles!"

Daddy!

There was one part of Sadie's disaster prone day this weekend that I forgot to write about. This one ended up much better though:

After we decorated the Christmas tree Sadie was racing around the house in giggle mode. She ran right past where Daddy was sitting on the couch and stumbled over his feet. His right hand shot out and he managed to catch her back just as she was about to fall into the chair next to the couch. And what did she do? She looked up at him and said, in a very exasperated tone, "Daddy!" as if he'd ruined some fun thing that she'd been trying to do by being over protective. It was a tone that I can imagine little Sadie using as a teenager when Daddy says you have to be "____ (30?) before you can date!"

Sadie and I are both doing great this morning! I was a little sore for the last couple days and Sadie had a bruise on her poor little leg from the fall, but I think we're both recovered (and I'm being much more careful AND wearing flat shoes...). Now to go weigh in at the health department. I wonder if I'll hear "you've gained a lot of weight for this early in pregnancy!" Is that a sign that this is going to be another almost 10 pounder?

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Head Covering of the Week

Today's Head Covering of the Week isn't a covering that I would wear to Mass, because it doesn't really cover very much. It's really a result of my experimentation with day to day headcovering while I'm at home being a mom. I'm big on practicality and I've been experimenting with different ways to keep my head covered. Someone suggested Tznius.com which sells "Modest Clothing, Headscarf and Jewish Clothing." My favorite part so far (since my headcovering budget is currently exhausted) is the Head Scarf tying instructions section.

I started by trying "The Bun" wrap. The scarf that I was using was ridiculously slick and slippery and just wasn't working for me. I pinned it on both sides in an attempt to make it stay (because the wrap really was cute!) but the scarf even managed to slip out of the pins. I'm going to have to try it again with a different, less shiny scarf. However, when I tried to pull the covering off my head later in the day I discovered something. It was stuck in place around my bun. I glanced in the mirror and liked what I saw. Actually what I really liked was how well it kept my hair up and back.

Baby steps! I'm still discerning when and where to cover and how much of my head is going to be covered on days when I'm home, when I'm out and when I'm at Mass (okay the Mass part I already know, it's the other parts I'm figuring out!). If I could remember to cover my head every time I prayed I probably wouldn't be giving as much thought to covering full time. But since I hardly ever remember as I go about my day, if I don't do it at the start, it makes me consider covering each morning after I get! I guess we'll see where it goes...

Outfit of the Week

Here's my Outfit of the Week! And it's still in one piece! Sadie and I were headed down the stairs yesterday when we took a rather dramatic fall... and while I'm a little bruised and sore today, we're both okay (and hoping that today will be filled with fewer disasters...).

I think this may become one of my favorite outfits (although the shirt isn't going to last for much longer as my waistline continues to expand. I'll have to drag it back out next year when my waist is hopefully, shrinking again.). I'm just about ready to go dig through the garage to find my maternity clothes from last time around.

The skirt was a one dollar garage sale find (with the tags still on it!) that is definitely a favorite. The sweater is probably the most expensive part of my wardrobe and was a gift from my maid-of-honor before we got married (I can't believe it's 4 years old). It's from Express (which was one of my favorite stores in college, although it's way outside my price range these days). And the shirt was from one of those cheap, trashy mall stores (also during college) and it most definitely needs a tank top under it (the camisole is one of the ones that came in a package from Costco).

And of course, since Paul has banned my brown high heeled boots for the rest of this pregnancy as a result of the fall I switched them out for the gold princess ballet flats. A new favorite: this weeks Outfit of the Week!

A Day of Disasters! (And one fun Christmas Tree)

Sadie had a dramatic day yesterday and was surprisingly cheerful after the crying stopped from each mini disaster. We were alright up until nap time ended and we were about to head into town to do a little food shopping. I'd run over to see everyone at Nini and Gigi's house and was coming back down the stairs holding Sadie, thinking to myself, "don't fall, don't fall, don't fall" as I came down the stairs because I had stumbled on them on my way up.

And then it happened. I have no idea how. The next thing I knew we were falling through the air and I was trying to figure out a way, in the split second between take off and impact, to keep Sadie from hitting the ground. My shoulder hit the ground first, which slowed us down a bit, but Sadie did end up in the mud too, terrified, but mostly unhurt (she did bite her tongue, but that seemed to be her only injury... we had EMT Grumpa check her out to be sure though...). After deciding that my arm was not broken (just very swollen) along with my hip and a gash on my hand we headed back over to Nani and Grumpa's (I did manage not to hit my stomach though! Yay!). Sadie was up and running around within ten minutes and we were back on schedule to go to the store. While I blame pregnancy clumsiness which already seems to be setting in, Paul blames the heels on my brown boots, which are now in a closet and have been banned for the duration of the pregnancy.

Later in the day she reached up on the counter for the big beautiful red globe that she saw. It had a picture of a polar bear on it and Sadie had been eyeing it all day. Nani and I were chasing an amazingly huge hairy brown spider around the kitchen and didn't turn to see the disaster until it was too late. Sadie pulled the special holiday coke bottle down on her head and it splattered everywhere (it was plastic... but it was open). She fell to the ground covered in Coke (and hysterical). It was everywhere. And that led to the third disaster of the day.

Bath Time. While Sadie loves her baths she does not love washing her hair (anymore... this is a fairly new fear). But with a head full of Coca-Cola we had no choice... the poor little bunny was definitely having a tough time.

Then we went back down stairs and Sadie saw the beautiful Christmas lights again, on the Christmas tree, and everything was better. She smelled the pine when we came in the house after Nani and Grumpa put up the tree and decided that the lights must make the pine smell, so she went from light to light smelling them. Then she helped Nani carry the ornaments one by one from the kitchen into the living room, where she would hand them to Mommy to put on the tree. While a few bells were yanked down at the start, she seems to understand that the ornaments are supposed to be on the tree (and when she'd pull one of she'd try to rehang it herself). And she "waters" the tree (this must be from watching Nani garden this summer). She gets out her little toy milk carton from her shopping cart and brings it over to the tree and "waters" the branches with milk. Christmas is so much fun with a little bunny running around!

Friday, December 18, 2009

The Present Finder

Sadie found her Christmas Present. I really hadn't thought much about really hiding them and her main present (the Wonder Pets School House) ended up in Nani and Grumpa's room on it's side. You can hardly see it with the bottom facing out and the bookcase on one side. It really is barely noticeable. Unless you are a tiny Wonder Pet seeking Bunny.

Sadie, who apparently only talks when it's convenient (and she has something VERY important to say) walked over to the box before bath time a couple of days ago and gave it a once over. Then she half turned looked up at Nani, pointed at the box and said "What's that?" Nani was so surprised she wasn't sure she'd heard her correctly at first. I do wonder if she'll open Christmas presents herself this year or if she'll be too distracted by everything that's going on... she does seem to love tearing up bits of paper.

"Where's the Baby?"

When I was pregnant with Sadie I bought every pregnancy book I could get my hands on and poured over them for hours at a time. This time it's a little different. Since I read and reread every section of every book I could get my hands on, I've found that I have the information more or less memorized. I was actually hoping I'd forgotten a little bit, and cracked the ones I own open to read about what's going on at this point, but that two year gap just must not be enough and all the information still seems to be in my head. So I guess I'll just be content with the little ticker on the side of my blog to watch the baby develop day by day.

Sadie, however, discovered one of the books (I'd shoved it under her play pen after flipping through it trying to find ANY chapter that I'd left unread) and pulled it out a few days ago. She brought it over to me and started flipping through looking for pictures. Out of all of my pregnancy books, it's the one that most definitely wouldn't disappoint. It has tons of 3D sonogram pictures and actual snap shots of babies in-utero.

As we flipped through I stopped at a great full page picture of a 14 week old. I asked Sadie where the baby was. She immediately pointed to the picture (usually if you ask Sadie where the baby is she'll point to a picture on the wall that was taken at the hospital the day after she was born and we were sitting directly below that picture). I asked her where the baby's eyes were and she pointed at them and then I followed it up by asking her where the baby's nose, ears and mouth were. She got each question right.

She kept flipping through the book and seemed startled to see all the pictures of pregnant tummies. "See, that's where the baby is while it's growing," I explained, not sure she'd understood. However, after flipping back and forth between the baby picture and the tummy pictures and talking about it she seems to be getting it. She runs over several times a day now and kisses my stomach and insists on kissing it before we go to bed.

Now back to Sadie's identification of the 14 week old as a baby: in reality it's not really a complicated idea. My seventeen month old can look at a picture of a baby at 14 weeks and identify it as a baby. It amazes me that my tiny daughter can be so much more perceptive than many adults these days. Or maybe it's just that she's not in denial, trying to adhere to our nations secular ideal that everything is okay and we can all do whatever we want, even if it means someone else is going to die.