Goats

While Grammy was in we decided to go to a petting zoo. Sadie loves animals and we thought it would be a hoot for her to pet some besides our mangy old pets and the insane neighbor puppy. The coolest place ever was just too far to drive on a hot day with a cranky baby so we did the next best thing and went to a farm/fruit stand type place that boasted a petting barn.
Well, the petting barn was nonexistent but there were a bunch of goats to see, feed and pet.

Here's Sadie when she first saw the goats and realized we were going to get to pet them:

I guess it's good we didn't drive all the way to the safari, huh?

She warmed up a little after Dada showed her how to feed them:


Then she did a little feeding:


And have you noticed that this is the strangest looking goat? It had no ears. It looked like some crazy alien-goat hybrid. But they were the smallest goats and therefore the least scary ones too.

Here Sadie is looking distastefully at the goat pellet crumbs that remain on her hand after the goat ate the pellets:

She is beginning to really hate messy hands. Not while she's playing but when she's finished the dirt/marker/sand/goat crumbs must be removed immediately. It has a little ring of OCD to it. But, Grammy told me that I was the same way and we all know I am sorely lacking in the OCD area. In fact, I could use a little Obsession or Compulsion to get me going in the morning.

And here she is, driving the tractor. They make you work if you want to pet their goats.



Thanks for visiting us, Grammy. We had a great time!

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly

We've been out and about riding in the car and goofing around.
A new post is coming tomorrow!

So...

sorry about my outburst last time. But, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease and all.
Thank you for commenting.
And now I won't bother you for a few weeks. Until those "0 comments" messages at the bottom of each post start mocking me again.

Here is the sand and water table Grammy and Grandpops got Sadie:

Hmmm, look at that bummy (tummy) sticking out. I wonder what it would feel like to pour sand on it?

OK, got a couple of grains on it and it's pretty cool so far.


Oh, this is great. I'm gonna have to remember this!

Hey, it's been a while

Well, really, it hasn't.
But since I've been trying to post daily I now feel as if I am shirking my responsibilities or something. Did you miss me? Were you checking and rechecking feverishly?

Maybe, if the 4 friends & family members who read this blog EVER LEFT A COMMENT I would feel obligated to post. But you don't, so I don't. Na na.

Anyway, Grammy is here. So we've been busy. But Grammy has also been hogging the computer all day. I'm not complaining, though. She was hogging the computer in order to make plans for us to go here in December. So, I was gonna let Grammy move the computer into her room in order to make that happen.

But anyway, that's the scoop.
And, for your viewing enjoyment, a few pics of Sadie from the other day when she wouldn't leave my lap.

What's with this kid and the tongue?

Baxter was over visiting with Laddie the other day. They were romping and playing and carrying on for a while.
Then Laddie did his usual Off with you, Baxter, I am sitting here chewing on something and have grown tired of you act.
I can't say as I blame him. Baxter is an 8 month old lunatic puppy and Laddie is almost 9 years old. That's what, retirement age in dog years?
So Baxter decided to see what we were up to on the deck.
What we were up to was hanging out and eating a graham cracker with cream cheese on it.

One day this child will learn that licking dogs (or trying to) is gross, right?

Cakes

Pound Cake:


Sadie Cakes:

Both taken by us to a party tonight. Where a good time was had by all. Well, maybe not the pound cake. But you never know.

French Kissin'

Well, she is 1/8 French, you know.

Night weaning: Night 2

So once again I am surprised and pleased.

Sadie nursed to sleep, woke up 8 minutes later and nursed again.
Well, that doesn't sound pleasing, does it? But since it was still light out and she woke from a seemingly deep sleep screaming I nursed her back to sleep.
After all, here I am putting on this whole song and dance about nursing when it's light but not dark, blah blah blah. I couldn't start reminding her about the dark and light thing because she would have been like- Um, dude? It's light out.
Yes, I know she's 18 months and doesn't talk like that. But she'd definitely be thinking it.

Anyway, she woke up and nursed. Then slept. Then woke up at around 11:30 and I reminded her that we weren't nursing at night anymore. She asked for some water and snuggled into me and went to sleep. (!!!)

Again, at 3:30, had some water, went back to sleep. (!!!!!!!!)

At 5:30, it was light out, so she nursed and we all slept until 7:30.
I honestly thought last night would be worse than the first.
Holy cow, I can't believe we are doing it!

Here are some pictures from today:

Nightweaning: A Report from the Front

We started night weaning Sadie last night. I was completely dreading it, but I just couldn't nurse every 45 minutes anymore, especially with the blisters I've had for 3 months. Something had to give.

We started out by telling her that she would nurse to sleep but once asleep and it was dark she wouldn't nurse until it was light. We did this for a few days leading up to last night.
I wasn't sure how much she understood but at one point she looked at us and said "No boo-boo," so it seemed like it was making some sense.

Then I nursed her to sleep. She slept for about 2 hours (long for her!) and then woke up. I went in and we talked and snuggled and she cried for a little bit, but nowhere near what I thought she would do. This child can cry, but she didn't!
It took about 1-1/2 hours but she finally fell asleep with me, without nursing! It was hard for her, I could see how she was trying to sleep but it's hard to drift off when your sleep ritual has been disrupted.

She woke up again at 3:30am and tried to get some boo-boo but I just said no and reminded her about waiting for daylight. She fussed a bit but got over it quickly and we went back to sleep. Then she woke up between 5:30-6am, and it was light out, so she nursed.

So I am surprised and pleased and shocked at how it's going. I have heard that the second night can be worse because they know what's coming.
I could see that happening with Sadie, so cross your fingers.

And we went on a hike today. Where Sadie said "tall trees" and yelled "Wawa!" 3,692 times at the river we were hiking along. After the hike she sat in the hatch area of the car and drank her first juice box. She even shared some with her duck:

The Talented Mrs. Maddy

Sadie's Auntie M designs textiles. Yeah, I know, it's a totally impressive career, no? She pretends it isn't, though. Her company makes housewares: tablecloths, napkins, placemats, etc.
Anyway, they recently branched out into some kid's stuff. So of course Auntie M sent Sadie some of her new designs. When they arrived today we opened the box and oohed and aahed.
There were the cutest aprons I've ever seen. But not only that, they had matching chef's hats.
Really, they do. I almost died.

First we tried on the frog outfit:

Then Sadie saw the ears of the next hat and started yelling "Bummy! Bummy!" She was right, it was a bummy. And that one she didn't want to take off. She loved it:

I mean, c'mon, look at it. It has bunny ears on the hat. Can you stand it? Are you in love? I am.

Here she is in the yard. Can you see what she's holding? No?
It's the head of a stuffed duck that was torn to shreds courtesy of Baxter and Laddie. If you don't know our neighbor dog Baxter, read this.
At least it was Baxter's and not Sadie's duck.

And then later this afternoon Sadie got one of the aprons out and ran over to me so I would put it on her again.
And there's more styles than just these two. And the cutest placemats ever. Wait until you see the Santa apron set. I'm dying over here!

Yay danny!

That's what Sadie was saying earlier.
After over an hour of trying to get her to sleep ended up in major tears we took a break and she played with Dada while I watched a bit of my recorded episodes of So You Think You Can Dance. Yes, I watch SYTYCD. And I'm proud of it.

Anyway, when she sees someone dancing she yells "Danny, danny!" And when everyone claps when the dance is finished she'll hear it and yell "Yay, danny!" and start clapping.

Speaking of danny, here is the latest installment of Sadie this afternoon on the deck. We were listening to a little Marvin and Sadie just had to grab her bear and get her danny on.
Enjoy.

Happy Father's Day

Strawberries and Cream

We rode our bikes to the farmer's market today and got some delicious strawberries. These are the kind of berries that are so sweet they taste like you've dipped them in sugar.
Honestly, I don't know how the supermarkets are allowed to sell those red things they call strawberries that are hard and tasteless. It's terrible. Terrible, I say.
Sorry about the not great picture, but I had to share.

There was a bit of whipping cream in the fridge so I whipped it up and we all had some whipped cream and strawberries for dessert.
Sadie loves strawberries and believe me when I tell you that she took to whipped cream like she'd known it for years. The progression of her introduction to whipped cream went something like this:
At first she would dip a strawberry in the cream and eat it. Then she started dipping in a strawberry, licking the whipped cream off, dipping again, and then eating the strawberry.
Then she finally wised up and started dipping her entire hand in the whipped cream and licking that off.
I've been there, with my hand or a spoon in the bowl of whipped cream, or my mouth attached to the end of a Reddy Whip can (and not for its illegal purpose either). Haven't we all?
No? Me neither.

Look at her go! I've never been prouder!

Pollen, aaaa-choooo

If you go to www.pollen.com you can see that the worst city in the USA to live in today in terms of pollen is Eugene. I'm not kidding. It's terrible!
I've sneezed so much recently Sadie has learned to say a-choo. And she came up with that sound completely on her own. I thought that was amusing.

But still we had a gorgeous day and went to the park and met some friends.

Sadie's friend Aiden brought his wagon. It was a big hit. Here she is with Aiden and Elias. They are cool kids with cool moms, to boot.


We made Danielle drag them all to the farmer's market. She was probably wondering why with her luck she had to end up in our mom's group. I mean, sheesh, that's an extra 50 pounds to pull around! And those two are just pushing their empty (empty!) strollers while I lug around their kids!!!
Danielle would never think that. That's why I like her.

Here they are at the farmer's market. They all look a bit dazed, no? Yet none of them wanted to leave the wagon to get in their nap-friendly strollers. That wagon rocks!

Next time I'm gonna see if Danielle will notice if I hop in there too.

Bubbles Again

I find the advancements we've made in the area of bubbles and bubble-related accessories really exciting these days. I do.
When I was a kid you had bubbles. They came in a small or big bottle that had a wand in it. Or you could get one of those giant wands that you dipped in the tray and spun around to make a bubble. These didn't always work, though. The end.
Sadie has a bubble machine, bought for $9.99, that makes a gazillion bubbles with a couple of batteries. When I was in third grade we put on a production of The Music Machine. The most exciting thing about the whole putting-on-a-play-excitement was that our teachers rented a bubble machine for the show.
We were so excited! Bubbles!? Unlimited bubbles!? We don't have to blow them and end up with the no oxygen head rush every manic bubble blower has experienced?
I can still remember the discussion of how expensive they were and how lucky we were to be able to rent it. Really, I kid you not. Now they're a dime a dozen.

She even has a wand thingy with a little foam fan that takes an AA battery. You dip it in bubble solution and press the button and you get a trillion bubbles without even trying! Here she is yesterday with it, her new best friend:


And this is my new best friend. It should be on the top of the list of every parent of a bubble-obsessed child: the non-spill bubble container.
She wanders around with it, blowing bubbles at will. This relieves me of bubble solution container holding, which gets kind of tedious after the 65th dip:
Did you notice that she's multitasking by placing her bread in her mouth so she can blow bubbles and point without setting down her food? That's my girl!

And here she is catching a bubble. Pop! Or as she says, PUP!

And here she is looking pretty. Actually she's looking down at Poopoo, but you don't know that:

Doppelganger

Look at this picture of my dad and my aunt Lorraine below. First off, aren't they cute? And look, they're holding hands. Awwww...
Second, have you noticed that my child looks just like my aunt? And like my dad too.
I know all of you point out how much she looks like us. But seriously, look at that picture! Do you see why I just nod my head and try to explain how much she looks like a McGann when you tell me that?
Do you see it?
OK, now I've made it black and white. See it now?
OK, here, I've given her dark hair for those of you who have no vision. Yes, it's kind of creepy. But I'm helping you out so don't complain.
And my aunt Lorraine was a real looker, so it's a good thing!