Dear Sadie,
Every single day (and sometimes every hour) you do or learn or say something new. You are changing so quickly that it is hard to take it all in. You are constantly talking and singing and dancing. You will repeat almost any word, sometimes with startlingly perfect pronunciation and inflection. It is the funniest when we aren't exactly talking to you, but you are listening and trying out what you hear. Like saying "delicious" after you heard Ruthie say it. I'm pretty sure you don't know what it means, but you got the three syllables exactly right. Or you pipe up with things that I say all the time before I get a chance to say them. When we get home from being out in the world, you run through the house announcing "Larry, we're home!" to our deaf little dog. Or adding "time" to the activities you like to do. "Bubble Time" is when we go in the yard and blow soap bubbles. There are a million examples.
You are constantly saying "Hi!" and "G'bye" to everything. "Hi ocean! Hi couch! Hi apple juice! Hi Mama's car! Hi train! Hi train! Hi train! G'bye train." We walk into a dark room and you say, "Hi dark!" We drive past things you recognize and you say hello from the back seat. That is when you aren't singing. Suddenly you can sing the words to the CDs we've been listening to for months. It is all I can do to keep my eyes on the road when you are being extra cute singing along.
You have the ABCs down pat and you also sing "You Are My Sunshine," "Rock a bye Baby," "Ring Around the Rosie" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on your own. Here is a video of you singing to yourself in the mirror:
You are counting as well. You skip a few numbers here and there, but you always do a wiggly dance when you get to 20.
You have gotten a lot more demanding. You know how to ask for what you want but you have no patience for waiting or for explanations of why you can't have something. We try to distract you with another activity, but occasionally you get very upset and cry. I don't think you are having full-on tantrums yet, but I can see how this sort of behavior progresses.
You are always excited to play with your daddy. He's had a lot of travel for work in the last month and we miss him and talk about him every day. He can't stand to be away from you and plans to be home with us for the rest of the summer. In this picture, Cookie Monster is sitting on the cat which is all very funny.
You love going over to Nana and Grandpa's house. You have a whole routine over there and you tell me "bye-bye" pretty much as soon as we get in the door, letting me know that I can leave to go run errands or go to the gym and will not be missed. It is nice that you like it so much over there. And what's not to like! They give you their rapt attention and you get to do all the things you love to do. Recently they bought you a fish tank and some goldfish.
Ruthie and Stevie came out and stayed with us a whole week. We had a wonderful time doing all the normal, day-to-day activities around here. You call them "Rutie" and "Stebie".
Here you are helping me dust before they arrived:
You settled in with them right away.
You liked to sit with Stevie and read books.
Ruthie taught you some new games. One called "Traffic Jam" was a particular hit. It involved driving your cars around on the stripes in the new quilt she made for you.
Here's some Bubble Time in the back yard:
Ruthie also procured the favorite toys of the week. She bought you some little finger puppet monsters that fit perfectly into your pockets, and on a trip to Home Depot, she handed you some Mickey Mouse shaped paint color cards when you were getting bored and fussy and you played with them for days. Here you are with both toys: monsters in your pockets and cards in your hands:
Stevie made you a fabulous play kitchen. It couldn't have turned out any cuter.
We got very used to having them around and we miss them very much.
Finally some pictures from Easter. We dressed you up and went to an Easter egg hunt for your playgroup. All the kids caught on right away and ran around collecting the plastic eggs and putting them into their baskets.
The group photo of just the kids didn't go very well:
And here's a group picture of all of us. They are all amazing mamas and we are lucky to belong to such a great playgroup. It is such fun watching the kids leave their babyhood behind and become full-fledged toddlers together.
And to end this post, here's some photos from a sandbox session the other day. You love the sandbox your Grandpa made for you and are always asking to go out there, even at night. "Sand box? Sand box? Sand box!!!"
All of this talking and learning and growing at lighting speed is breathtaking.
We love you so much.
Love, Mama
