Sadie at 19 & 20 Months

Again, I hope to start blogging on here more regularly. Time simply escapes me! Plus I have a new endeavor I'm trying to focus on - a new Etsy shop! Check out Sew Kooky. I'm hoping to get a lot of new, fun items sewn over the holidays to be listed soon.

In the meantime, Sadie continues to get bigger and bigger and oh so much fun! While her tantrums are definitely becoming more frequent, the time where she's happy and running around far outweighs the tantrums. She's so silly and loves singing and dancing. Plus, she still eats everything we give her (loves her veggies!) and sleeps 7pm-7am like always.

Nicknames: Say-Say, Say, Mooky, Bug, Buggy
Temperament: So happy and curious and polite (most of the time!). You always say "scuse me" when trying to walk past us (even if you're going somewhere I don't want you to go!), and you sign and dance like crazy.
Things I Could Do Without: Screaming and throwing tantrums. Please stop! It's so much more fun for all of us (you included!) without the screaming fits.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: The Swiffer. You love walking around with that thing "cleaning" the floors. We love it because you are cleaning the floors and engaged in an activity for longer than 3 minutes at a time.
Item/Toy You Love The Most: It depends on your mood - one day's favorite toy is not necessarily the next day's favorite. You like "making soup" with a  plastic spoon and bowl. You love your wooden cell phone. And you really enjoy coloring at your art easel.
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Watching you splash around and play in the bath. You like washing my hands and arms, practicing "blowing bubbles" like you do in swim class, and playing with all of your bath toys.
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: You definitely like to "help" us. When I'm making dinner, I have you go on errands to find me something I "need" - i.e. a blue spoon. It keeps you occupied and helps me get food prepped.
Sounds/Words: Everything you hear you repeat! We're never sure what is going to come out of your mouth, but it's so much fun hearing how you interpret certain words or phrases. But the best right now is "I love you" and "I miss you."
Foods You Like: Still everything we give you. You're great about eating your veggies before fruit at meal times. You're a little nervous about trying new foods at times, but we can usually win you over if we are eating it first; you always want to try what we have!

 

 

Sadie at 17 & 18 Months

I promise myself that I will start blogging on here more regularly beyond Sadie's monthly updates...but in the meantime at least I'm getting monthly updates posted here (somewhat consistently) which is much better than the job I'm doing (or rather, not doing) of keeping Sadie's baby book updated!

Sadie continues to be, as always, so much fun! She's singing the ABC's through the letter P and counted to three. Every day is a word explosion with her as she is always picking up new words. We're lucky she hasn't picked up any, umm, bad words, although I'm sure that's right around the corner. She has also gotten so fast! She's litterally running around the house doing laps, which also means she is pretty quick to fall asleep for her nap each afternoon (which is lucky for us, as she wears us out!).

We love our silly little bundle of energy so much, with her snuggles, hugs, and healthy big appetite! And that big appetite is definitely doing her good, as Sadie jumped up from the 25th to the 70th percentile for her weight!

Nicknames: Say-Say, Say
Temperament: Happy and upbeat, per usual. You love "calling" your friends and your phone, and are convinced that grandma and grandpa live in the iPad. You miss your nanny desperately when you're not with her and you love giving us all big hugs.
Things I Could Do Without: Dropping your sippy cup, especially from your high chair. It often hits our feet (ouch!) or the dog's head (ouch!). You often do it just to test us to see what we'll say or do, and we always promptly ask you to say sorry.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Right now you have a bunch of plastic spoons and forks that I gave you to play with. You love putting them in containers and into the back of your toy truck. When I'm cooking I'll often ask you to find me a "red spoon" or a "blue fork" and you set out on your quest, usually bringing back exactly what I've asked for. It's a fun distraction!
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Lovey. We started giving you a "lovey" at night around your first birthday. At the time you could have cared less if it was there. But over the past couple of months, you have become obsessed with Lovey. You love cuddling him and carrying him around and he's definitely your buddy at night!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Time with you and watching you play and playing games with you. You get so excited when you see and learn new things, and you love watching us in the kitchen while we're cooking. It's so much fun having you right by my side!
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: You are starting to walk down the stairs while holding our hands and using the wall for support. You are obsessed with this "big girl" activity! It's slow-going but fun to see you so proud of yourself when we make it to the bottom of the stairs.
Sounds/Words: You are talking non-stop! You've started saying full sentences ("Say Say goes night night too") and three-syllable words like "applesauce." The night you first said a sentence, I think my jaw dropped.
Foods You Like: Anything and everything. You have started to like salmon. You love veggie quesadillas (our "dillas" as you call them), French toast, pancakes, you recently had bacon for the first time (yum!), lots of fruit and veggies, and egg scrambles are an absolute favorite. I'm still so grateful you're such a good eater!

 

Sadie at 16 Months

I’m offically starting to understand why people love the toddler stage so much! It’s so much fun watching their little brains growing as they learn new words and actions. Sadie has been enjoying experimenting with walking sideways and backwards, “dancing,” and her walking is getting so fast she is practically running! She is also learning to sing her ABC’s – she’s up to “A-B-C-D” right now. She also can identify her colors – pink, blue, yellow, green, white, black, purple, and red. Her favorite color is blue, so she regularly requests a blue diaper! It’s so cute (but sad when all of the blue diapers are dirty and we have to settle for yellow or green). While she still wears us out quite a bit, we have a lot of fun with her while in the process of becoming exhausted!

This was one of our most fun photoshoots to date. Sadie actually sat still for multiple photos in front of the chair, and enjoyed posing for the camera and saying “cheese!”

Nicknames: Say-Say, Sade, Say, Mooky
Temperament: Happy and goofy. You love music and singing songs and are almost always singing in your stroller when we go for walks. People always smile at you! And you're always smiling at the people we pass and saying "hi." You definitely are firm, though, about what you like or don't like and are quick to say "no no" when given options, whether it be a shirt or a book.
Things I Could Do Without: If you don't get your way, you express your anger/frustration through throwing a toy, food, sippy cup...whatever you have in hand. It's so sad and I always feel bad when you're that upset.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: You have a little bee push toy that you love to push around the house, especially when daddy is swiffering the floors!
Item/Toy You Love The Most: You have a Mickey Mouse toy that grandma and grandpa bought you. We're not sure who taught you that his name was "Mickey" (it wasn't us!), but wheneve ryou see him you say his name and go "Oh Mickey" and give him a hug. He's your buddy.
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: You're fun to be around. You give lots of hugs and kisses. You know how to give Charlie "gentle pets" and sing "night night Charlie" to him when he's sleeping on the rug. It's just a lot of fun to sit back and watch you engage with the world around you!
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Walking everywhere! Up and down the street. You squirm out of our arms and say "walky" so that you can go a run ahead of us. You are loving this new freedom!
Sounds/Words: Anything and everything. Sometimes it amazes me the words that come out of your mouth. And again, all of the singing.
Foods You Like: Still a lot of fruits and veggies. We will be so sad when the farmer's market ends! Some new foods have been pasta with homemade pesto, a homemade (basic) pad thai, salmon cakes...all kinds of good stuff! But the continued favorite right now is definitely a scrambled egg with veggies.

Sadie at 15 Months

I promise one day (hopefully soon!) I will get back to blogging more than monthly updates! But in the meantime...

Sadie is all over the place these days and is so much fun to be around! She has a silly little personality that shows more and more each day, although she has also started developing some of the dreaded “toddler tantrums” – arching her back in frustration when she doesn’t get her way (or when she finishes her milk!). On the flip side, she loves say “hi” to everyone she sees on the street and “sings” silly little songs.

Nicknames: Say-Say, Sade, Say, Boo, Mooky, Bubba Boo
Temperament: So silly and happy! You still love singing songs and learning new words. You are super chatty and will just entertain yourself playing with your toys or following us around the house while we do housework. You're almost always happy and upbeat (unless you're not getting your way!).
Things I Could Do Without: You hitting me in the face! You have recently learned the word "ouch" and know that when you hit me or pull my hair I will say "ouch." You love the reaction so I have to ignore the fact that you're hitting me. Please stop doing this, it's no fun!
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Books. You love sitting and reading books with us and now you are very opinionated about which books you read, especially before bed. Sometimes I have to hold up 5 different books before I find the one that you want.
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Stacking bowls - you loving pushing them togehter to make a ball, putting them on your head to make a "hat," and stacking them. They provide hours of entertainment!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: How much easier your schedule has gotten. You now take one long nap in the middle of the day, so we actually have time to go out and do fun stuff in the morning and afternoon. It is amazing!
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: I think it's a tie between walking and talking. You love running around everywhere and have started walking sideways and backwards. You also love dancing and it's the cutest thing ever. But you also love talking and picking up new words every day!
Sounds/Words: Before your 15 month doctor's appointment I figured out that you had about 40 words you regularly say and a few two-word phrases. That's a lot! You say "big girl," "let's go," "I know," "go baby," "here go," along with a lot of other words in our daily life. It's so much fun listening to you talk!
Foods You Like: Everything still. Fruits and veggies of course! You love eggs and now when we get the frying pan out you run around the kitchen saying "eggy!" It's so cute. We joke that you eat better than us with your organic diet full of fruits and veggies from the farmer's market!

Sadie at 13 & 14 Months

We officially have a walker on our hands! At about 12.5 months Sadie took her first independent steps and she's been "go go go" ever since! Which means we've been "go go go" right along with her. It has been especially exciting to see her become more sure of herself. At first she was very hesitant to walk in public (on the sidewalk, at the park) - she always wanted to hold our hands. After about a month of walking she has gotten more and more confident in herself and now refuses to hold our hands when we're outside!

 

She's such a big girl with an infectious smile and loves saying "hi" to everyone she sees outside (although her timing is often off and she'll say "hi" after they've passed us by).

 

Nicknames: Say-Say, Sade, Say, Boo
Temperament: Still very happy and smiley, but very determined to have things go your way. If we pick you up without asking you "up" first, you are not a happy camper! You're listening to us and watching us very closely, especially when you go near something you're not supposed to (and say "no no" to yourself as you do it!).

Things I Could Do Without: The occasional epic meltdowns where you arch your back and try and wriggle out my arms. It's not fun for either one of us!

Item/Toy We Love The Most: Definitely your stroller. It's great that we can get out again with the nicer weather. You just kick back and relax in your stroller! And I love that we can give you snacks and a sippy cup while we go for walks.
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Your play pots and pans - you could play with those for hours. In truth, you are happy to play with the silliest things long periods of time - one day you played with your winter hat for an hour!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Sharing food with you! It's so great to be able to share a smoothie or pancakes or really anything with you. You're eager to try new foods and usually want what I have.
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Walking. Everywhere. And you're fast!! You love running away from us so that we have to chase you. You're also getting really good at climbing the stairs, which is exciting and scary (for me). Oh, and of course: lights! You love pointing out the lights in a room and switching them on and off.
Sounds/Words: All kinds of words. You repeat after us all day long. You are also getting really good at sign language, and say the words while you sing: please, more, water (waa waa), milk, all done. It is so cute and so much fun that you really communicate with us about what you want!
Foods You Like: You love absolutely everything, especially green veggies. You could eat broccoli all day long! You love fruits, fruit smoothies, beef stew, Indian lentil stew...pretty much anything we put in front of you is devoured in seconds!

 

Sadie's Rainbow First Birthday!

I'm so excited to share that Sadie is a one year old! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by, and I never stop thinking about how immensely lucky we are to have a happy, healthy, silly little daughter. Even if she overtired or sick with a cold, our little miss Sadie is so happy - I wish I could have her sunny outlook on life!

Ok, onward to Sadie's first birthday party! We chose a rainbow theme because Sadie is such a bright, sunny little girl so it only made sense to feature bright colors. And since I always love to know all kinds of details (where, what, how), I'm going to be incredibly thorough.

Party Timeline
The party was scheduled from 11am-1pm. If I could go back and change it, I would shift it to a little bit later to fit better with nap schedules - Sadie barely napped that morning, and the other kids at the party didn't either! Here's a rough timeline of how things worked out that day:

11am: Everything for the party was set and guests started arriving
11am-11:15am: I got Miss H up from her short nap, gave her a bottle, changed her outfit, and brought her up to a room full of people (she loved it!)
11:15am-11:45am: guests mingled, kids played
11:45am: We dressed Miss H in her Korean hanbok (traditional dress) and did the doljabi ceremony
12pm: We gave Miss H her smash cake and then cut the big cake for the guests
12:20pm: We helped Miss H open up her birthday gifts
1:15pm: The last guest left and it was time to clean up!

Food
Since the party was over the lunch hour, I wanted to make sure we had somewhat substantial food. But I also wanted to make sure everything we made wasn't temperature specific (i.e. didn't need to be served hot) and that everything was easy for us to prepare ourselves. To top it all off, we had one guest who is gluten free and one who is vegan and gluten free. We served:

• Egg salad finger sandwiches
• Cucumber finger sandwiches
• Black olive tapenade crostinis
• Mediterranean quinoa salad
• Chips and guacamole (which many of the babies enjoyed too!)
• Skewers of fresh fruit (rainbow colors, of course!)
• Cake pops
• Cake
• Izze sparkling drinks
• Bottled water
• Applesauce pouches for the LOs

There was more than enough food for our (roughly) 15 guests and everything was budget friendly!

Details
The details of the day are what I'm most proud of! I spent a lot of time gathering items, making various pieces of decor, and just trying to create a rainbow theme that was fun and bright. And I'm proud to say that I did all of my planning, crafting and baking when Sadie was sleeping - I never prioritized anything over her.

I've been blogging Sadie's week-by-week photos we've taken, so of course I wanted to share these photos at the party! These are 5x5 prints that we hung on twine and attached with mini clothespins. We hung these low enough on the wall (the top row is about 6 feet high) so that our guests would easily be able to look at all of them. It was fun hearing people comment on what their favorite photos were and how much Sadie has changed!



I made cake pops the Monday before the party. These are great treats that can keep for a week, so they're easy to make in advance! I'd found this little planter with a chalkboard on the front from an Etsy seller (their shop is currently unavailable) and I thought it would be so much fun to have "cake pop flowers" in it!



The "Happy Birthday" banner on the wall was by the talented Chelsey Emery, who also did the party invitations. It was a perfect addition to the room and I love that we can easily save it and use it year after year! We hung it with the same twine we used for the weekly photos.



As mentioned above, we prepared all of our food ourselves for the day. I decorated the table with scalloped paper circles punched out of cardstock in all colors of the rainbow!



I ordered spoons and forks from Sucre Shop, napkins with rainbow dots from Target, and plates in rainbow stripes and solids from Oriental Trading.



As mentioned above, we served Izze drinks (in all of the flavors they have for great color variety!), and bottles of water (which I may or may not have wrapped in washi tape purchased from In The Clear), and applesauce pouches for the kiddos.



Favors were copies of the book Planting a Rainbow and little individual pots and seeds (found in Target's dollar aisle!) for growing their own flower. Since we only had 3 children as guests at the party, I could afford to gift books.



I fell in love with the look of paper rosettes! I used this tutorial for them (there are many tutorials for rosettes if you look; it's a pretty simple concept), found cardstock in solids and patterns, and afixed them to the wall with removable mounting tape. I was worried about them not staying on the wall, but I hung them 2 days before the party and only one had fallen off the wall a day after the party, so we did really well! It was an inexpensive piece of decor that added a lot of fun to the room.



I found these fabulous rainbow colored bottles/vases on Etsy (also from the shop where I got the cake pop box, shop currently unavailable). They were incredibly affordable and so much fun! I plan on keeping them up year round in our dining room. The day before the party I bought white spider chrysanthemums for each vase.



Korean Doljabi Ceremony
After all of our guests had arrived, Steve's mother and grandmother helped me dress Sadie in her traditional hanbok that they had gifted her. It was a bit large on her but we were able to tuck the sleeves under. She did amazingly well in the dress!



For the doljabi, you set items out in front of the baby and the item they choose indicates something about his or her future. The items we opted to use were: a pencil (scholarly), a tennis ball (athletic), a paintbrush (artistic), money (good fortune), and string (long life). She hadn't seen any of these items before so we knew she wouldn't be playing favorites!

I predicted she would choose the paintbrush and Steve  thought the tennis ball. I was right! After some pondering, she touched the paintbrush, then took her hand back. And then she went for the paintbrush again. It looks like we have a budding artist on our hands!



Cake!
The cakes were a labor of love, as I made both of them. I like the idea of making her birthday cake every year as something special that I do. I made banners for the cakes using washi tape, baker's twine, and paper straws. The big cake said "Sadie!" and the small cake said "One." (They're hard to read because I used metallic pens and it was really sunny). I'm going to do a follow up post and share the recipes I used and the decorating tutorials that I referenced.





We put Sadie in her high chair (in her "Rainbows Make Me Smile" t-shirt, naturally) and the smash cake right in front of her. She eventually decided she would touch the cake...



...and even sample some of the buttercream...before she picked the whole thing up and tossed it on the floor! I had been borderline worried about her shoveling a lot of cake her mouth and then choking on it (morbid, I know), so part of me was relieved that she wasn't that into it. She was definitely fun to watch!



After Sadie had her cake, it was time to cut the guest cake! I always enjoy the "big reveal" when a cake is fun on the inside.



I was incredibly pleased with how vibrant my rainbow colored layers turned out, and how neatly they were stacked!



I had been planning this cake in my head since January, so it was incredibly rewarding seeing it come to life, and it was even more rewarding sampling the delicious cake!



We almost forgot a family picture! So here we are at the very end of the day!



And that, in a nutshell, was Sadie's rainbow first birthday party! It was such a wonderful day and it was worth all of the prep and hard work! Keep your eyes out for a more detailed post on the cakes, including the recipes and tutorials I used for inspirationg, baking, and decorating.

Happy birthday to our little "Say Say!"

Sadie at 11 Months

Our little girl is growing up! I wanted to get this 11 month post down before her big "12 month omg she's a year old" post, as she turns 1 in just a few days. Parenting over this past year has been absolutely amazing and so much fun. I can't believe how much she has grown and how awesome her personality is. We've been so blessed!

Nicknames: Say-Say (given to her by her nanny), Sade, Boo-ba
Temperament: Happy as always but definitely starting to show us when you don't want something (like, you know, batting a full spoon out of our hands when you're done!)
Things I Could Do Without: See above! We've had a whole lot of food landing on the kitchen floor (and us!) lately.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Your balerina doll. I love how you give her hugs and kisses and roll around on the floor with her.
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Your stacking rings. You could be entertained for hours with those rings - clapping them together, crawling with them all over the house, giving them to us. You even tried to give them to grandma and grandpa over Skype!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: You play with us so much more - you've played peek-a-boo for quite some time, but now you get great enjoyment out of "hiding" behind your eyes.
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Pulling up on all of the furniture! You love standing.
Sounds/Words: Still a lot of "dadda." We've been working on "go" and "Google." You still mostly use "momma" when you are upset!
Foods You Like: Lately there has been a lot of food on the floor as we transition from purees to more finger foods. But one thing you will never ever turn down is toast!

Sadie at 9 & 10 Months

And here we are again, I'm terribly behind on updates! And I cannot believe how big Sadie had grown. She's on the move so much - the day before she turned 9 months she started crawling forward! It was so much fun to see her figure it out (I, miraculously, was home for the first crawl!). She started out slow but now she's speeding all over the house! Which, of course, means we have started babyproofing. It's amazing how quickly she became obsessed with outlets!

Nicknames: Boo-ba-loo, Baby,
Temperament: Happy! So very, very happy. If you're extra tired from skipping a nap you will definitely show your fussy side, but otherwise you are so happy and excited about the world around you.
Things I Could Do Without: Skipping your second nap! You're a little too young to be only taking 1 nap a day, but you are definitely giving it a try lately. You will usually take the afternoon nap for your daddy, but almost never for your nanny and only occasionally for me. Sadie, you need those naps!
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Your play phone. When I say "ring ring" you go and pick up the phone. It's such a fun game!
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Still your jump-a-roo. You could spend hours bouncing around in that thing!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Your vocabulary is expanding even more and you are quick to learn new words/motions (giving a "high five," clapping on cue, waving at "hi" and "bye).
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Crawling. You love moving around on your own and chasing the dog - you want to steal all of his toys!
Sounds/Words: Lots of "dadda." I'm pretty sure it is now your favorite word and you say it nonstop! Your daddy loves it!
Foods You Like: You are still a fantastic easter! I don't think there is anything we have given you that you haven't loved. Veggies, fruit, toast, oatmeal, lentils, yogurt, tofu, you will eat anything!

Bib DIY: Fashion + Function!

I'm continuing my quest to get sewing projects both completed and blogged! It seems like I finish one thing and I'm right onto the next (with three more projects being planned in my head).

I had a lot of fun sharing our Christmas stockings and the super fun retro dolls I made. But I'm almost more excited to share the bibs I've been making, which are essential for anyone with a drooling, teething baby on their hands! (Sadie is 9 months old with 6 teeth and possibly another on the way, so the drooling never ends in our house.)

I've loved this waterproof bib tutorial from Our Little Beehive. The pattern is great and the instructions are very clear and concise (because who likes cutting out their pattern pieces and then realizing they have no clue how to sew everything together?).

Now, what makes these bibs extra special is the fact that they have three layers: cotton fabric on top, absorbent flannel in the middle and a waterproof fabric on the back. This works so well for us because the absorbent bibs would always leak right through onto Sadie's shirt and the waterproof bibs tends to just be one layer of waterproof material, so drool/water/milk ends up running all over. Fail. This combination of materials means Sadie can drool all she wants but her shirt stays dry.

The materials are simple and inexpensive. I had fun using bright, colorful cotton fabric for the top layer - I had plenty of options in my stash of fabric so I didn't have to buy a thing. For the middle layer I used a cheap white flannel. The back layer is a waterproof PUL fabric (I got mine from Fabrics.com), which is fairly inexpensive.

It can be time consuming to cut the pieces out as you need to cut 3 pieces for each bib, but once that's done they can be sewn together in minutes (perfect for naptime sewing project). 

The size is great for the under 12 month crowd - if the bib is too small it won't cover her shirt and if it's too big she tries to eat it. This bib is just right. And, obviously she's super excited to now have fashionable, functional bibs! Priorities.

Sadie at 7 & 8 Months

I am so behind the times! Being a working mom definitely puts blogging on the back burner, and it's hard to get these month posts up. So, here we are at the 7 and 8 month updates. Wow! Sadie is growing like a weed, getting taller and taller and less "babyish" looking. She's crawling backward and sideways (no forward movement yet), eating lots of food, clapping, giggling, sitting in a high chair when we go out to eat, pulling herself up in her crib. I could go on and on! I feel like we've finally started to hit on more of the "joys of parenting" and getting to enjoy Sadie more, whereas when she was smaller we were most focused on eating, sleeping and diapers.

Nicknames: Sadie Boo, Boo-ba-loo, Sadie Girl, Sadie Baby, Stinker, Little Bun (what her nanny calls her)
Temperament: Still so happy, but also very "talkative" and you easily convey if you are happy with us or not!
Things I Could Do Without: More consistency with naps, although you are getting much, much better about taking longer (60-90 minute) naps! Those are blessings.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Your big play area in the basement - we put out a couple of quilts and you can sit there and play. Your play mat went away because you are too big and don't need it anymore!
Item/Toy You Love The Most: We bought you a shape sorter and you're obsessed with the lid!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Watching you learn what words mean. You understand: momma, dadda, puppy, clap, dance, milk (along with the sign for milk).
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: FOOD! Anything and everything we give you. You also will not let us feed you finger foods - if I try and put any food near your mouth, you immediately close it so that I put the food down for you to crab and feed yourself. So independent!
Sounds/Words: Lots of babbling - mamma, baba, etc. Still no clear "dadda" although we hope that will happen soon!
Foods You Like: Some new foods have been: yellow lentils and rice, quinoa, beets, blueberries, puffs, oat cereal, yogurt. Again, you love EVERYTHING!