Oh right, I have a blog!

So as you can tell, I kind of forgot I started this project. I guess I have some catching up to do!

As most of you now know, Andrew and I are expecting our second daughter, due in mid-January 2010. Very exciting news! Here are some pictures of her:

And here she is, from a different view:

Sadie is thrilled and looking forward to being a big sister:

Hahaha, as if she has any idea what this means : ) She's in for a big surprise!

Speaking of the big sister, she turned one on July 24th! Here are some shots from her birthday party:

We also made our annual family pilgrimage to Ogontz for Choir Camp. Here's what Sadie looked like last year at Choir Camp:

And here she is this year:

She fully enjoyed the attention of 80+ people all week:

We also finally had Sadie baptized while we were up at Choir Camp. It was such a beautiful baptism: Lake Ogontz, friends & family, Sicut Cervus: perfection.

After a busy Summer, we're now entering a busy Fall. Andrew is back to all of his jobs soon, I'm possibly back to school, we're possibly buying a house, and what else? Oh right, we have a one-year-old and I'm pregnant. Never a dull moment here, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Happy Easter

Well, as with most of our holidays, Easter was quite a busy day (not to mention week) for the Howell family. We started the day with me getting up at 5am to be at choir rehearsal by 6am. Traditionally, the choir sings all three services on Easter morning: 7, 9, & 11am. It's a long day after a long week, but it's fun for the choir to sing all the services (not to mention we get breakfast) and it's great that all three services have music.

Sadie was dropped off at the end of the 7am service by Andrew, who was on his way to his choir rehearsal in New London. Andrew and Sadie had slept in (later than me, anyway) and then dressed in their Easter best before arriving at church. Sadie had not one but two Easter outfits this year!

Sadie then spent some time with me, and then headed to the nursery for the 9am service. She spent some quality time with Great Aunt Wendy, and a special visitor: Grandma Alice, who came just to visit with Sadie. Then Sadie spent the 11am service strapped to Mommy in the Moby wrap, avoiding and then finally giving in to sleep. Mommy sang most of the final service, but not all of it: Sadie loves to sing along very audibly these days, and she still needs a few voice lessons before she can, ahem, sing with the choir.

So by the time we left church around 12:30, we had already had quite a long day. Sadie was running on a mini-nap, and we still had two more important stops to make. We met up with Andrew and headed over to Great Grammy's house for a visit with her, Grampa Stu, Uncle Dan, & Uncle Harry. Sadie showed her tiredness by being cranky and dramatic (no one but Mommy could hold her, the usual toys were not entertaining anymore, etc.). We left after a quick meal because we needed to get to our next stop.

Sadie didn't fall asleep in the car until we were turning onto the Dunhams' street, so we knew we would need to give her a real nap. We arrived at the Dunhams:

greeted everyone, and then promptly put Sadie upstairs for a nap. Much to our surprise, she took at least an hour-long nap, while Andrew and I had a wonderful time socializing downstairs. We enjoyed the usual fabulous Easter fare: grilled lamb, cheesy potatoes, and asparagus with hollandaise, plus a room full of drinks and desserts.

Eventually, Sadie woke up from her slumbers, and joined the party. However, she remained Mrs. Crankypants for the rest of the afternoon--very unlike her usual party-loving self. Everyone has their off days I guess. She did cheer up long enough to enjoy her first taste of asparagus (of course). We persevered until about 5pm when we decided it was time to head home and have a quiet end to our day. We changed Sadie into her final Easter outfit, wished everyone a happy Easter, and headed home.

Sadie had a nice big meal when we arrived home, followed by a quick visit from Grandma Alice (complete with some new toys and clothes!) and a nice relaxing bath. Then it was off to bed for Sadie, who slept very well that night.

The End.

I'm a slacker

I know I haven't posted in a while--I kind of forgot I had a blog. Oops. Anyways, tonight I remembered, so lucky for you!

Sadie is now 8 months old, and has quite the personality (no surprise there). She clearly communicates her likes (food) and dislikes (no more food) to us everyday in new ways. Most recently, she has started growling when she is getting upset or angry. Oh goody! She is also learning to stand while holding onto furniture.

She has a brand new big girl car seat now, which she seems to like slightly better than the old one. It sits her up higher, so she can see more out the windows now. It also has a wider seat, so it's not as restrictive as the old one.

Sadie still loves eating anything and everything. This month we've been venturing into the world of finger foods and self-feeding. Sadie has gotten quite good at the pincer grasp (using thumb and forefinger to pick up small items), and happily gobbles up food by herself. We still spoon-feed her purees, which she gobbles up as well.

She loves food so much that I've already started using it as a bribe, hahaha. For example, a couple of weeks ago I had to keep Sadie with me through an entire church service. To keep her quiet and busy, I brought along some Gerber sweet potato puffs with me to the choir gallery. When she started to get fussy toward the end of the service, I broke out the puffs, and she happily ate the little pieces I handed to her while I was trying to sing the anthem. She was great, as long as I kept the puffs coming.

She is willing to do just about anything for food, and gets very upset when we're eating without her. If we go to a restaurant, as soon as our food comes she begins shrieking until we fork over the food (literally). Not an annoying, whiny shriek; it's a very calculated, high-pitched, attention-drawing shriek: "Mom and Dad, either you hand over that food or I'll attract the attention of everyone in this restaurant!"

Just today, Andrew was simultaneously holding Sadie and eating Doritos. Sadie eagerly watched as Andrew grabbed chip after chip, placing them in his mouth and producing a fabulously loud crunching sound. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. As Andrew put a particularly large chip into his mouth, he left a corner of it sticking out between his lips as he chewed. Sadie took one look at that corner hanging out and LUNGED forward, mouth open wide, at Andrew's mouth. Andrew sucked the piece in just in time, and Sadie's mouth met Andrew's lip instead of the chip. She pulled back in confusion and disappointment, and Andrew and I burst out laughing.

Sadie eats

Sadie has tried so many new foods in the past few weeks. She loves most of them, and gobbles them right up. Here are some pictures from Sadie's food adventures:

Sadie eats sweet potato-cauliflower puree:

Sadie eats banana-prune mush:

Sadie eats pureed prunes:

Sadie eats mashed banana, her favorite:

Sadie eats a pizza crust:

Join us next month for our trials of beets, peas, blueberries, and more!

Getting teeth and trying to crawl

Sadie has had a busy week. She has been trying to crawl:

but she still hates being on her stomach, so progress is slow:

She also had her first real fever, but she pulled through : ) And mommy and daddy had the joy of taking their first rectal temperature. Poor Sadie! Here she is with her rosier than usual cheeks, uncharacteristically laying down:

Then Sadie wasn't sleeping well at night, which is so unlike her. I chalked it up to her not feeling well, but her fever was gone and she seemed better. Imagine my surprise when I looked in her mouth after church today and discovered that she is FINALLY getting a tooth! She's been teething since she was born, so it's about time!

You can see it in this picture--on the left, you can see the swollen spot where the tooth is starting to break through the gums. And the bottom right tooth isn't far behind.

Looks like we're in for more sleepless nights!
More pictures to come as the teeth poke through!

Time flies

Can you believe Sadie is six months old already? We certainly can't. And yet we are so excited for the next stages--she'll be crawling, walking, and talking soon!

Here she is, just a few days old:

One month:

Two months:

Three months:

Four months:

Five months:

And here she is now, six months old, sitting up, and as happy as can be!

First word?

So, I happened to be taking a video of Sadie when she said...

What do you think? First word, or fluke? Being her crazy, enamored parents, we'd like to think it's her first word.

Sadie's first Twelfth Night

I'm proud to say that Sadie participated in her very first Twelfth Night this past weekend. She had the esteemed role of "baby crying", and her pre-recorded cry was heard at every show. She also made it on stage for not one, but three different Boar's Head curtain calls.

No, I did not pinch her to get her to cry for the recording. I simply laid her on her tummy (which she usually dislikes), and voila! She cried. A perfect recording on her first attempt.

Here are some pictures of Sadie enjoying Twelfth Night weekend, where we basically lived at the Performance Hall.

Napping under a desk in the office (the only quiet place in the building):

Relaxing with Daddy after a hard day's work:

Backstage with Nana, just before going on stage for the Boar's Head:

And here she is on stage, a natural star:

Treaty the Hairdresser

When I was a little girl, I was willing to sit still long enough for my mother to do my hair. She would weave intricate braids into my hair, and I would sit and let her tug and pull so that I could have the prettiest hairstyle at preschool. One day, I named her Treaty the Hairdresser. Don't ask me why; this bizarre naming talent was passed on to me from my father.

Anyway, it seems as though I've now become Treaty the Hairdresser. Today, all of the wispy would-be bangs on Sadie's head were sticking straight up. So, I just couldn't resist. She was sitting on the floor playing, and I just came over and twirled them into a tuft. The poor girl didn't know what I had done, and continued to play happily with her hair looking completely ridiculous. Needless to say, I had to take pictures.

(She's such a ham--she now makes silly faces for the camera!)

And look how well she's sitting up now! She gets better at it every day.

Sittin' pretty

Okay, so I finally remembered to take pictures of her sitting up. Here she is!

She's doing such a good job, and you can tell she's so proud of herself!

Her biggest problem right now is that she loses her balance every time she looks up. So when I was standing up trying to take her picture, she kept looking up at me and then falling over backwards. Oh well, it's a work in progress!

I must admit, I got all teary-eyed in the car today. She was napping, and I was marvelling at her new talent of sitting up, and then I started to realize that soon she'll be crawling, then walking and running. It's already happening too fast, but I am so excited to be witnessing it all, every day.

Rolling over, sitting up, what next?

Yesterday, Sadie FINALLY rolled over for the first time. She was practicing sitting up, and had fallen over on to her stomach. She hates being on her stomach, so she was immediately frustrated. She pushed hard enough to roll herself from front to back! I was so proud of her. She had quite the night of trying to sit up by herself, rolling over, and just practicing gross motor skills all around. Here she is that same night, doing push-ups : )




So imagine my surprise when tonight, she decided she could sit up all by herself. Mommy, Daddy, and Sadie were sharing some rare family time on the floor mat in Sadie's room. Sadie was in a good mood, so we decided to practice sitting up again. Here she is, trying to sit up yesterday:

I placed her on the floor in a sitting position, and it all just clicked. She stayed sitting up, alternating between using her arms for support and waving them out to the sides for balance. Just when I thought she was about to tip over, she would straighten herself up. She did it!

Better watch out, she'll be walking before we know it!

Let's start at the very beginning

A very good place to start, says Maria from the Sound of Music. This post begins my possible blogging career. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with a blog. I don't know if anyone will read this blog. But here I am, starting one anyway.
I'm doing this mostly so I can post about Sadie. My Facebook page is getting a little crazy with all my albums full of Sadie pictures, and I always want to narrate the pictures, so I might as well go all out and create a blog. This also seems to be a great way for family and friends to keep up with Sadie's (and Andrew's and my) life. So here I go.

Today we had lunch with Sadie's grandparents Pete and Michelle, who are visiting from Hawaii. They're heading back home tomorrow, so it was nice to see them one last time today. The next time they see Sadie in person, she'll likely be walking and talking--that's crazy to think about!
Sadie was in a great mood all day today, probably due in part to the TWO-hour nap she took with me this afternoon. After our nap, Sadie happily played in her walker, one of her favorite toys right now. Here's a glimpse of the fun she has, moving around the kitchen: