Christmas so far

We started the holidays by making our cookies.  We always make just one gingerbread man per person, and this year Sadie put on her own sugar.

On Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's in the evening.  Sadie got a lot of toys and books.  She helped open her presents a little, but she was just more interested in playing with them once they were open.

Christmas Day we went to Frank's.  He got Sadie a table for her room.  She just needs to grow a few more inches...

As long as we were opening boxes, I decided to take out Sadie's potty so she could start getting comfortable with it.  She had no problems at all.  Hopefully that means potty training will be easy!

Yes, that's a nuk in her mouth.  She hasn't really been interested in them before, but lately she's been sucking so hard on her hand with her teeth coming in, I figured the nuk was a better option.  Hopefully she will give it up easily once she stops teething.  She is just now getting her fourth molar, so she just has her canines and back molars left to go.

On the 26th, we went to the Packers/Giants game.  Kevin and I had tickets from work, so we had great seats.  Stefanie and Meghan went to the game too but they had different seats.  We got to see Rich and Jodi for just a little bit after the game was done.

 Today she finally started playing with her vacuum!

Miller Time

Sadie just loves Miller, and he is such a good dog with her.  He lets her do pretty much anything to him and doesn't get upset. 

She likes to feed Miller now.  I still put his food in his bowl, then she picks the pieces up one by one and hands them to him.

If he tries to bypass her and go straight for the bowl, she pushes him away.

She has also started giving him her toys.  He just sits there, I don't think he knows what she's doing.  She sets them down right in front of him if he's laying, and if he's sitting up, she puts them right under his belly.  At least she's sharing! :)

Tis the Season

Sadie tried on her Christmas outfit the other day, and I tried to take her picture for our Christmas cards.  She wasn't really happy about it.  She was more interested in looking at the tree than anything else.

So then I figured I'd try it in her Christmas pajamas and sitting in her chair.  She didn't really cooperate there either.

Oh well, we will do our best with what we got I guess!

Sadie has a beautiful wooden advent calendar in her room that her Grandma bought in Door County.  Instead of filling each day with candy, I put a coin behind each door.  Each night before we go to bed, she gets to open the door and take out the coin, then she puts it in her piggy bank without any help!

We got our first blizzard last night.  We only had a dusting of snow on the ground previously, then it dumped about a foot last night.  What ever happened to the snow building up slowly over the winter?  We decided to try playing outside anyway, even though the snow in spots was up to Sadie's waist and Miller's belly.

This was her first time wearing her snow pants.  Not a fan.

Once she had everything on, she was the spitting image of Ralphie's little brother... it was either standing or laying, no in between!

"OK, Mom, I'm ready."

As I suspected, she didn't really know what to do once we got out there.  She pretty much just stood wherever I placed her.

Oh well, maybe next year!

Growing Up

Sadie is really growing up to be a big girl!  For her Christmas present, we decided to get her a chair for the living room that is just her size.  We took advantage of a black Friday sale, so she got to have it a little early.

She has already gotten bored with coloring, and now she likes to just pick through the crayons in the box and gather up the ones that don't have labels on them.  She puts them all in one hand and keeps cramming them in there until she can't hold anymore.

She's also starting to get pretty good at making her puzzles.  The ones that have interlocking pieces are a little tougher, but she does well with the ones that just have single pieces that fit into holes.  She can do the vehicles puzzle all by herself.

She used to be so good at getting her picture taken, but now she's too busy to sit still for the camera.  It's a two person job- one getting and keeping her attention for a few seconds while one takes the picture.  This is the best we could get for Thanksgiving, she didn't want anything to do with that turkey-

NEW Zoo

On Sunday, we took Sadie to the NEW Zoo in Suamico for her first time.  It has actually been a really long time since I've been there, too, so we both got to discover the zoo.  It was kind of cold, in the lower 40s, so we wore our winter jackets and mittens.  It drizzled a little bit while we were there, but not intolerable.  A lot of the animals were already inside for the winter, but we still were able to spend a couple hours there.  Sadie was very well behaved, and liked to look at the animals, but got bored with each one pretty quickly.  Here we are by the otter.

The newest exhibit is the giraffes, they have one male and one female.  They were actually pretty cool.  They have a building for them so you can see them inside, which was nice to warm up a bit. 

Sadie got to feed one of them a cracker, and she giggled when he took it out of her hand.  They have really long, black tongues, so he was licking her hand too.  Here's her face when she first saw them...

I can't wait to go back with her when it's a little nicer and spend more time with the animals!

Artist

Sadie is working on learning how to color.  In her room, she has a stack of coloring books and the box of crayons that we had when we were little at my Grandma and Grandpa's house.  She likes to take them out and play with them.

She usually just likes to play with the crayons, but occasionally will scribble on the paper too.

I've noticed that she has a preference for green and yellow crayons.  She will sit and dig through the box, and toss aside the other colors.  She generally holds the yellow ones in her hand and colors with the green ones.  She is definitely right-handed, and she even holds the crayon correctly sometimes!

Here is her first masterpiece:

October

We started the month with the open house at my new store.  The 6th was family night, so Kevin and Sadie joined me.  Sadie tested out the registers for us.

It's hard to see in the picture, but she is "Vanna-ing" the sign that says "Warning- Keep fingers, arms, and children away from this belt area."  Everybody thought she was so cute in her yellow festival t-shirt!  I work with our uniform company, so they made it special just for her.

Sadie also started to learn how to eat with a spoon...

Eh, screw that, I'm using my hands!

Forget that!  Why bother using anything when you can just eat straight from the container?!

After more than a year, her hair is finally getting long enough to be crazy-

Then of course we had Halloween.  Sadie dressed up on Saturday, then Dad took her to Boo Fest at his store, and then stopped by mine with her.  Then Grandma brought her back to my store to trick-or-treat.