Bath time

mini family photo shoot

Sorry I've been so bad about the blog lately. We've had VERY spotty internet access and the blog isn't top priority when we can barely check our e-mail! So here is a quick post with a few pics of our family taken on campus a few weeks ago.

The next (girl version of) Michael Phelps ...

Sadie started swimming lessons (or Water Babies as the class is called) a couple of weeks ago. We sing songs, practice "jumping" off of the side into the water, blow bubbles and each baby even gets dipped by the teacher each time. There are just a few other babies in our class (there is another little girl born on the same day as Sadie!) so it is nice and small. Sadie loves all of the songs, kicking in the water and watching all of the other babies and kids at the pool. She doesn't like getting dunked though at all and cries afterward. Most of the time the babies are supposed to get dipped twice but we usually just do once cause otherwise it's too traumatic. : ) Here are some pics from the first lesson . . .

a little back float before the dunk

after the dunk

7 months old!

Sadie turned 7 months old January 25th. We were actually here at home for once so I got to do her little photo shoot in our apartment with horrible lighting. : ) So I don't know any of Sadie's stats for this month but I'll try to do a rough measurement soon. She has transitioned into all 6-12 month/9 month clothes this past month and they fit quite well. Size 3 diapers are still fitting great and size 2 shoes are too.

We didn't have too many huge changes this month but Sadie is now a total pro at sitting and is able to stand holding on to the couch for a minute or so before losing her balance. She is not crawling at all yet or even getting on all fours, however, when she is on her tummy she will start pushing her bum up which I think is the beginnings of getting into crawling position. Sadie has started moving around more on her tummy - she mostly turns in a circle but once about a week ago she moved backwards two feet. It's fun to watch all of her changes but I'm honestly just fine with her not being mobile yet!

(future gymnast?)

Sadie is doing pretty well with solid food. I am in the process of introducing two meals per day and we've introduced her to a few new foods. More recently she has decided she doesn't like a few foods and has literally gagged and thrown up a few times. I feel really bad but it is also kind of hilarious. So far she hasn't liked butternut squash (which I don't get because to me it tastes almost the same as sweet potatoes which she loves), avocado (which she used to love) and rice cereal that I made myself from ground up brown rice. She really must be my child! : )

(smiles for Dad!)

Sleeping has been pretty rough this month. She started waking up at night and wasn't really taking naps so we had to start sleep training. Which has meant I've had to listen to lots of crying which is just sad and quite frankly gets on my nerves after a while. One day it was driving me crazy so I made cookie dough so that the mixer would drown out the sounds of her crying (oh and I figured after listening to all that crying I deserved a little cookie dough!). I think finally after nearly 3 weeks of this sleep training stuff it is paying off. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8pm, sleeps until 5 or 6am, eats and then goes back to sleep until 8 or 9am. She is down to two naps per day now, one in the morning for about an hour and one in the afternoon that lasts usually about 2 hours. So I think we are finally on a good schedule and she can put her self to sleep - yay! It's been rough but I feel it was what we needed to do for her to be able to get the sleep she needs.

A few other developments to note for this month: she stopped using her pacifier completely, is smiling so much more, loves playing in the jumperoo, is practicing giving high fives and clapping, went to her first story time at the library and loves that as well, really loves attention from anyone (this could be a problem some day!) and when she gets excited she pumps her arms and turns her wrists - it's so cute! Miss Sadie Maren is such a delight and we feel so blessed!

6 months old on Christmas Day!

Sadie turned 6 months on Christmas Day. We were in Spokane the 21^st through Christmas Eve and then we flew back to Portland on Christmas morning. So far only one of Sadie’s monthly pictures have been taken at our apartment in Corvallis! I think that means we travel a lot. She really is a great little traveler, she sleeps in the car and seems to fly just fine (not like her Mom!).

We went to the Pediatrician on Jan 3 and Sadie weighed 16 pounds 7 ounces (55^th percentile) and is 26 and ¾ inches long (80^th percentile). Her head circumference is 16.3 inches (20^th percentile), poor girl definitely has my small head! She is getting to the end of her 3-6 month/6 month clothes and fits pretty well in a lot of her adorable 6-12 month clothes that she got for Christmas. That girl is seriously set for a while she got so much clothing! I love it! Sadie still fits into size 3 diapers just perfectly. And she is now wearing shoes more and size 2 fit her great.

We had two big changes this month developmentally! The first being that Sadie is now sitting up totally unsupported and she is so happy about it. Before when she was on her back it seemed like she was always trying to sit up because she wanted to see what was happening around her and now she can. She was sitting up pretty well the week before Christmas but really got the hang of it while we were in Spokane. Ahh she is getting so big!

The other exciting change this month was eating solid food. Sadie loves this too! She gets so excited when we put her in her highchair and put the bib on. She starts flapping her arms up and down which we have determined is her excited expression. So far she has had avocado, sweet potatoes, bananas and prunes. The prunes were not planned but apparently bananas cause constipation so prunes became her fourth new food! They have fortunately been working and I think we will try pears next.

Sleeping this month has definitely been a struggle. It’s always hard when travelling and we’ve really started to realize we need a schedule. So, Sadie had been going to bed between 8 and 8:30pm, waking up about 6 am to eat and then going right back to sleep until between 9 and 10am. Which is really great and we can’t say we’ve been too sleep deprived. However naps have been very sporadic and she gets pretty crabby especially toward the end of the day. So recently we’ve decided to make wake up time 8:30am, first nap time about 10:30 – noon, 2^nd nap time at 2pm and usually another short nap around 5:30pm. This has been going pretty well and Sadie’s naps have been much longer.

All in all, Sadie is a great tempered baby and we are having so much fun with her! She loves people and is willing to be held by just about anyone. Sadie is pretty chill and goes with the flow most of the time. It’s so wonderful to watch her grow and develop and we feel so blessed to be her parents!

Big Girl!

On Monday Sadie and I went to Albany and shopped at Costco, Target and Old Navy. The carts at Costco are pretty huge so I figured I would just put Sadie's car seat in the basket part. This worked for a while until she started getting fussy. I decided to try her in the front part and wouldn't you know she did really well. The front of the Costco carts can actually fit two children so Sadie was slumping a little bit down to the other side but she did great and she loved it! The next day all three of us went to Trader Joes together and we decided to show Daddy what a big girl she is. So cute!

Here are a few other pics from the past week:

One of the guys from the fraternity took us out for dinner on Thursday night to say Merry Christmas (how nice is that?) and Sadie sat in a high chair there for the first time. She did pretty well and was very fascinated with the ceiling fans as you can see in the pic above. : )

Sadie loves her Daddy!

Sadie is obsessed with this giraffe lovey/small blanket. It's really soft and she loves rubbing it all over her face while she falls asleep. I'm beginning to have a love/hate relationship with it. I love that it helps her fall asleep so well but I hate that it's on her face. It makes me so nervous that she won't be able to breathe. I end up going in there a million times to make sure she's still alive. I think we may have to try and wean her off of that thing soon . . .

Yummy food!

Sadie had her first taste of solid food yesterday. We decided on the "super food" avocado because it apparently has tons of good fats and nutrients. And I personally love it and I hope she does too! It was quite fun to watch her. As you can see from the video it is a little hard to tell if she actually liked it or not but she didn't really seem to dislike it. She was mostly excited about the spoon!

We tried avocado again today though and Sadie seemed to like it! She ate a whole tablespoon (which doesn't seem like a lot but for the beginning it is). So we will feed her avocado again for two more days just to make sure she doesn't have any adverse reactions to it and then we will try something else. I am making sweet potatoes with another mom on Friday so that will probably be it. So fun to see our girl growing up!