Immediately after the close of last month, I was thrilled to embark on my fall break from work! My work decided to take off the week of Thanksgiving, so I was definitely looking forward to a whole week off with my girls. We were all planned to have a Thanksgiving party at our house for a few friends and family members for the holiday, so Steve and I spent a fair amount of time preparing to host the holiday at our house again. Unfortunately, fate did not have the same plans in mind.
The day before Thanksgiving, Stella gave us the scare of our lives. She took a fall while playing that clearly shook her up pretty badly. After watching her seemingly struggle to stay awake, I decided it was time to head down to the emergency room.
The rest of the day was a series of firsts for Stella that we never wanted her to ever have to experience: Stella's 1st trip to the emergency room; Stella's 1st CAT scan; Stella's 1st IV; Stella's 1st ambulance ride; Stella's 1st overnight stay in a hospital. Stella was amazing throughout the entire event, and she really made it seem like she wasn't even hurt. The whole event is still a complete blur, but thankfully, Steve and I are the only ones who remember much and seem bothered. All that Stella remembers is that she had a nurse named Barbara Ann (her favorite song) and that she met a basketball team (the Cal Bears were visiting the hospital while in town for a tournament). If only our memories were so kind!
We were discharged with a clean bill of health for Stella mid-way through Thanksgiving day, so needless to say, we cancelled the party at our house. Even though Stella was cleared to go home, we were told to watch her and keep her quiet for a few days. She didn't get much sleep in the hospital, so it seemed that she was looking forward to being home and in her own bed. Thanksgiving wasn't going to go as planned, but thankfully for us, my dad had been staying at our house with Sadie, so he decided to prepare the meal anyway. This was Sadie's 1st Thanksgiving, and Stella had walked away from a pretty scary event, so we had a lot to be thankful for.
Life doesn't stop when things happen, so we did have other appointments and activities planned over the week that I was off from work. One small and yet important activity we had planned was Sadie's latest photo shoot. After a notoriously horrible first photo shoot with Kendall, we always hold our breaths when Sadie has to cooperate for pictures. Lord bless her, this was her best photo shoot yet! She was an absolute angel, and Kendall got some adorable pictures of her and Stella.
After trying a few foods at the Thanksgiving table, Sadie started a new trend- finger foods! Yes, I had been making a range of purees in my Baby Bullet as I did with Stella, and Sadie was eating them up.
But, after Thanksgiving, she started yelling at us when we would eat food around her. We gave her Cheerios on her tray to see if she could feed herself, and we created a monster! She would refuse to eat anything that was pureed and only wanted finger foods. Since she was able to feed herself, we thought we would give it a try. She will pick up anything off her tray, and she even is very good about pacing and feeding herself. She wants to eat anything that Stella does (in true little sister fashion) and now Stella wants to eat everything that we make for Sadie. So, our house is all about bland and boring food for our little ladies. It's too funny because Stella has always like spicy and flavorful foods, but now she wants to eat all the plain things that her sister gets. Oh well, at least I'm no longer cooking individual meals for everyone! 
Now that we were officially in December, it was time to start preparing for Christmas! During nap time, I took the free hour or so to decorate the house and start getting into the season. Sadie didn't seem to notice much of a difference, but Stella definitely took notice when she woke up from her nap. We had another big snow headed our way, so Steve even went out and got a tree so that we could finish our decorating efforts. Stella has started to show the tree and the presents to Sadie, so now Sadie too has a bit of an interest in what is going on around our house.
Sadie also had a big month in her movement around the house. She started out by continuing to work on her crawling. She really is motivated more than anything by her want to be included. If she can't be in the thick of things, she will do just about anything to get herself closer. She isn't traditionally crawling yet, but she crawls 360 degrees! It's hilarious because she'll get where she wants to, but she may have to make a few passes to get there. This spurred even more ideas for moving places, and before we knew it, she was pulling herself up on things and trying to stand! She can now stand by herself for a few seconds, so between that and all her practice walking with us, her mobility will only continue to grow by leaps and bounds.
As this month ends, we are literally days away from Sadie's 1st Christmas! I'm sure that this one won't mean much to her, but I am excited to see her take in all the sounds, smells, and sights of the holiday. I'm also thrilled for her to see her Auntie Mantha again! To cap the year off/start the new one off right, we also will be taking a trip to Hawaii as a family, so we have A LOT in this little lady's future! Here is our expressive little Sadie Lady:
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| December 23, 2013 |
